Baking.

Holiday time! I got up quite early this morning to bake some cakes to take with us to Norway. We're staying with A and L for the first two nights and I usually try to bake them a thank you. You can't buy self-raising flour in Norway so it's harder to bake cakes out there! I’d made 12 Guinness, chocolate and Kirsch-soaked-cherry cakes before M was even awake! We had some breakfast and finished off our packing, and then M’s Dad dropped us off at the airport.

Our flight to Stavanger was a bit delayed, but we only arrived 30 minutes late, and went to pick up our hire car. He’s a brand new Ford Focus, bright red and very shiny; we decided to call him Harrison (Ford). M drove us out to his colleague T’s house, who organised the renting of a cabin for us. In Norway, most employers have a couple of cabins in the countryside which they let out to employees for a nominal nightly fee which covers electricity and water. The cabins are usually quite basic but in a beautiful location, and it’s just one of the many perks that M and I are looking forward to when we move over there.

Since M and I aren’t working in Norway yet (although we’re getting there!), T took the cabin out in his name for us, which was really kind of him. We drank coffee with T, and his wife, son and daughter-in-law and had a long chat about mine and M’s move to Norway next year.

At dinner time, we left T and his family to drive to A and L’s house, where A made us a really tasty meal for us which we demolished with a bottle of wine. Baby A was feeling a bit under the weather with a fever, so he was put to bed early and the adults stayed up a while to catch up. I love being back in this country!