Norway

Before I bore you with holiday snaps, I have to first explain something.
I like trains.  Or, more accurately, I like train journeys. When I was 20 I did the obligatory inter-railing trip around Europe and since then I've been taking as many railway journeys as I can.  Like the Carlisle to Settle railway, the Duoro Valley line in Portugal, the amazing Indian Pacific in Australia and a few more. All very lovely but were not on my list for as long as the train journey between Oslo and Bergen.
So anyway, a friend wanted to go with me and so the two of us took an early morning flight to Oslo.  We were only there for a day and a half (been before) but took the opportunity to hop onto an Oslo fjiord cruise.  It was very cold... (I wasn't wearing a feather mask but I was wearing a fleece, waterproof and blanket)

 Happily, the sun came out as soon as we got back to the city.

This photo and the next were taken at 10.00 at night :-)

After a day and a half in Oslo, we took our sleep-deprived selves down to the station to catch the early train to Bergen.  My friend thought that perhaps we'd have some time to catch up on sleep or to do a little reading but in fact we spent the entire 7 hours glued to the window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that wasn't enough beauty, we had arrived in Bergen.  An UNESCO heritage site, which is ridiculously lovely, even in overcast weather.

 

 

  The next three photos were taken around midnight, thanks to the midnight sun

 

 

 

On our last full day in Bergen, we took a boat trip through Sognefjiord to Flam. Again, not the sunniest of days but it reminded me of the South Island of NZ...

 

    

  

 

And then from Flam we took the Flamsbana, to continue with the railway theme.

 

 

Norway is so beautiful I wish I knew more poetry!  I want to go back again and go further north, but that is a trip for another year.
I wasn't going to include any travel on my 12 for 2012 list as I do travel often.  But I have to put the Oslo to Bergen train on there because I have wanted to do that journey for 20 years.

this and that

I've been a bit slack at posting this month but a couple of things have happened.  In bullet points:

• I "passed" my archery course, got a certificate and everything!  It means that I can now shoot at any club in England, but I think I will go to the one run by the people who ran the course.  My next free Saturday, I'm going down to an archery shop to get myself a bow and some arrows :-)
• I got taken to watch England play Australia at Lord's yesterday. Wonderful seats in the covered part (kept dry), picnic lunch complete with champagne, England won.  Who could ask for anything more?!
• I went away for 6 days the week before last, to Norway.  This bullet point deserves a post to itself, and it's going to get one.
• I fell down the stairs a couple of weeks ago, somehow managing to do so on my bottom instead of on my head.  Apart from being a bit shaken, I was completely fine. One of the advantages of having an arse the size and texture of a sofa I guess. Anyway, I mention it because, as I was bouncing bottom-first down the stairs, it flitted through my mind that if I broke a leg during that little mishap, I would have to go and stay with my parents. One of those "you're single and you live alone" moments that come out of the blue and sucker-punch me, just as much as those "you're childless and always will be" do. Meh.

a safe place

I was pregnant three times but there is no evidence of that to the outside world. I saw Starchild’s heartbeat twice. I saw Tilly’s heart beating, saw her legs and arms, was starting to see evidence of her under my clothing and started to feel the fluttering which was her tiny movements.  I saw the Little Stars in a Petri dish and as tiny patches as they were put into their all too short-lived home inside me.  Their existence changed my life and I loved them, and I still do.  I would have done anything, anything for them because they were then and always will be, my babies. But I never met them or saw their faces or held them.  I could never present them as whole to other people.

Perhaps this is why, when I mentioned them in a conversation with a friend last week (part of a conversation which is a topic for another post), she told me that I was “over sentimentalising”. She didn’t expand, but then she didn’t have to.  I knew what she was thinking.

I make no apology for feeling as I do about Starchild, Tilly and the Little Stars.  But perhaps I shouldn’t expect to be able to talk about them outside of this community.

goodbyes

We said our final goodbyes to Songbird this week (there was a delay arranging her funeral for reasons too lengthy and distressing to explain).
Songbird was a woman of deep, but quiet, faith and the service was held in the church where she had been an active member for the past 40 years.  Her fellow choir members were there, the vicar had known her for 19 years, friends from her past and present jobs were in attendance and all in all, it was a wonderful and personal service.
Afterwards we gathered in the church hall for tea and sandwiches and I sat with Too and other friends; we've all known each other upwards of 20 years.  I am the youngest of the group by 7 years and even I had known Songbird half my life.  We shared stories and songs and tears and smiles, then raised a glass in salute and farewell.
Songbird's "work" friends found out about her church life - flower arranging, chief launderer of linens, shopper for the elderly or sick, first port of call for anyone needing a shoulder to cry on.  Her church friends learnt about her professionalism, her kindness and her calm, her insistence that nothing, but nothing, came before patient care (even, famously, a full bladder), and the gratitude of decades' worth of people whose often fraught and frightening wait for a diagnosis was slightly eased by Songbird's gentleness.

This week some of us from my current job (Songbird and I met while we worked together at a different hospital) also attended a memorial service for a former colleague who passed away last month.  This man died while working abroad, having spent 30 years dedicating his life to helping those who lived in unimaginable poverty or in the middle of war zones, or indeed both.  His life touched more people than anyone can count and it's not hyperbole to say that his loss is felt on an international level. 

Songbird was a part of my life; I only knew my former colleague briefly and not well.  But if I had even half the courage, vitality and gentleness of either, I would be lucky indeed.
And finally.  Neither one had children.

slings and arrows

Last week was mainly blue.  Apart from the death of Songbird (thank you all for your lovely comments), and the anniversary of losing Starchild something else happened about which I cannot blog.  (Readers who are my friends IRL may see some links to a page from my FB profile which would explain).

Anyway, before all that happened, I had already booked my next 12 for 2012 event, and last weekend Rock Chick, Goth Girl and I took ourselves off to south of the river (gasp! shock!! the horror!!!) to take a lesson in archery. I've wanted to try archery since I fell in love (aged 15) with this chap, on this show. (What?  I never pretended not to be shallow).  The 90 minutes hurtled by, it was such good fun.  It turns out that, unlike the circus skills, I don't suck at archery.  I mean, I'm no Katniss Everdeen, but I was the only one to never miss the target :-)

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I found a club in north London (phew!) and have signed up for a 12-week course.

losses

Last February a friend of mine, Songbird, had a massive coronary and lapsed into a coma.  She was on the high dependancy unit of a London hospital for months, and I would go and visit her a couple of times a week.  It's tough when you can't converse with someone, but sitting and silently holding her hand doesn't seem to be enough either.  I ended up reading bits of her favourite newspaper out to her, looking for the lighter stories and also segments about London 2012.
Last Saturday, she died.  It's so sad that I'll never see her again but in truth - for me anyway - she died 14 months ago; it was the outside shell of Songbird I was reading to.  The essence of her, her laugh, her melodic voice, her expressive eyes, the sheer force of her personality, was gone.  But it's still sad.
Also, 28th April 2008 - I lost Starchild.

a year in music

A year ago today A and I parted company.  A whole year!

When he first left I was all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY17nf6kvw4

Then, a few months later I went through a phase of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBR2G-iI3-I

And now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx2u5uUu3DE&ob=av2n