Packing continues this morning. Gently, anyways. Organizing, doing laundry, trying to herd my family into placing the next four days of outfits aside, so that I can pack the rest. It rarely works. You’d think, after this many months of living more or less out of suitcases (even though we try to unpack everywhere we go), we’d be super packers by now. But we’re not. There are always trinkets and toys and memories we have to say goodbye to along the way, because there’s always something new being accumulated in every country. (I’m looking at you, Norwegian foods! Chinese teas! Souvenirs! Gifts!)
I truly cannot wait to unpack for real, empty all the suitcases, stow them and not worry about having to fit everything back into our bags. We’re not quite done yet though, when we get to Vancouver, we only have 5 days in an AirBnb, before we hope to be in some sort of long term rental apartment from June 1st. I have no idea what next week will be like, but in addition to running around “house hunting” and job searching, we also need to give the girls a good first impression of their new province and city.
Our plan for this afternoon is to stop by Siri on our way to visit Torunn. I know Siri through my high school friend Anita, and then Siri and I met up when I lived in Edinburgh and she came to town on business. She lives super conveniently about 20 minutes away from my childhood best friend Torunn, and we’re going to her house for dinner.
When I checked Google Maps yesterday, I was made to expect approximately 38 minutes to get from here to there. I figured we’d be in the car just before 2.30pm, to get to Siri’s house by 3pm. What I didn’t take into account, was that today is Friday. It’s also Whit Weekend, a long weekend with Monday being a holiday. The highway is backed up by 1.30pm. I don’t fully realize this until we are in the car, and the maps show that the drive is expected to take an hour. Siri (the human, not the iPhone persona) recommends we avoid the highway as much as we can, taking back roads all the way to her.
So we take the back roads. We drive through smaller cities and centres, and we see a lot of green. The landscape is hilly, and it makes me realize I grew up with “movement” in the landscape, not on a flat slab of rock (here’s looking at you, Windsor-Essex!).
Suddenly, my phone rings. Torunn is checking on us, relieved that we are not on the highway. There’s been a violent car crash, involving at least 5 cars, in the southbound lanes of the highway, that direction is completely blocked. But due to normal rubbernecking, the northbound lanes are at a standstill. We see the chaos both times that our backroads cross the highway, and we’re glad to be here, not there.
We finally arrive at Siri’s house, and receive a warm welcome. Siri has made waffles, and the girls dive right into the little heart segments, topping them with butter and jam. She even serves ice cream for dessert! Siri has two dogs, and I fall heads over heels in love with her smaller one. I start reconsidering my hand luggage space, and wonder if the beautiful dog would fit…
Siri takes a picture of us on her patio, and sends it to Anita across the world. Suddenly, we’re on FaceTime with Anita, who has just arrived at the office, looking radiant as ever! Anita and I promise to try to catch up, we’ll only be about a 10 hour drive apart, after years of at least double. I think this might be the closest we’ve ever lived since Oslo, and I haven’t seen her in person since I visited her and her young baby in 2009.
After a quick but lovely visit, we have to head out. Torunn knows we got delayed on our way up, and we get to hers just after 5pm. Torunn’s oldest daughter Embla is busy prepping small pizzas (outstretched hand size), and we each get to decorate our own pizzas. We all grab a dough each to decorate, and because there are 7 of us, we have time between decorating and eating, even though each pizza only takes two minutes in the oven. The decorating is inside, the oven is outside.
The pizzas are delicious (of course), and after the first ones are devoured, we restart the process with a second round. We eat and talk and laugh and catch up, in a much more relaxed environment than a restaurant on Norway Day. After dinner, when it’s all been tidied away, Téa is off with Torunn’s youngest, Aurora, playing “Vildkatten”, the same game they were playing at Kaia’s confirmation down south.
Inside, we brought our Switch so that Torunn and I can show off our Super Mario Brothers skills from the early 90’s. It doesn’t go very well, so the young ones (Embla, 23, and Maylin, 6) show off in Mario Kart racing instead. Joe joins in, and when Téa hears what’s going on, she wants in, too. Soon, we’re all involved, but after one disasterous round, I hand my controller over. Mario Kart is not my forte.
Desserts are served. Torunn is a cake wizard, she can make ANYTHING into cake. One part of our visits is always marvelling at her latest creations and wishing we could import her cakes for birthday parties. Torunn is a true artist, and if you know me, you know my silver necklace with our family initials. It’s made by Torunn. I’ve had my E since 1998 or so, and the J since Joe arrived into my life, the T since Téa was born and the M since Maylin was born. I never take it off, unless I’m having an x-ray or MRI, which luckily is not often!
While the “kids” (Joe included) are playing more Mario Kart, Maylin is outside testing out the swing.
But then, as 9pm comes around and we only have about an hour left of sun, we start packing up and heading home. We stop downstairs, when we spy Torunn’s coin game:
We get home just before 10pm, just in time for bed. It’s been a long and good day in so many ways, and with only two full days left, I go to bed with many thoughts tonight.
What a lovely visit you had with your good friend!
Yes, I did spot the male snake.
An evening at Torunn’s is always a good time. And this time we enjoyed stopping by Siri as well!