Oh bummer. I was hoping to make it to the Norwegian Folk Museum today, but look at that weather!
The Norwegian Folk Museum has large outdoor areas, and a couple of traditional museum buildings. The fun part about this museum is exploring the homes the way they would have looked like hundreds of years ago (key words: log cabins), and duck your head into the ones with an open door. Often, once your eyes adjust to the dim light inside, you’ll notice a man or woman dressed in traditional clothing, either baking bread, churning butter or making waffles. Whenever they’re making something, there will be samples for the visitors!
The museum is one of my absolute favourite places in Oslo, and I have fond childhood memories of walking around there. But it’s no fun in the rain, and the grounds get really muddy. The stave church and the large house (where we found a fiddler inside last time) are both on top of a steep hill, and climbing that in this weather would not be fun. Also, petting the grazing animals and watching the old style “farmers” plough their fields are activities that are enjoyed so much more in dry and preferably sunny weather!
I’ve brought the girls there before, but Maylin was way too young to remember, and Téa remembers only fragments. I tried to get there last Saturday, with Pille-Riin and Rauno, but it was also too wet. If we don’t get there today, can we get there tomorrow?
My mom and I drive down for one last trip to the grocery store, she’s got an impressive menu planned for this evening, and we have to make sure we have everything we need for the next two days as well. This is Whit Weekend, the stores will be closed tomorrow (Whit Sunday) and the next day (Whit Monday). Remember when I told you hospitality workers in Norway get rich on statutory holidays? It’s because there are so many of them! But it also means that all grocery stores are closed, so if you miss something vital, you’ll be paying triple the price (if you can even find it) at either a gas station or a convenience store. Oh, and liquor stores close early the day before the holidays, and all beer sales close earlier than the rest of the grocery store. Shopping in Norway takes a lot of planning sometimes, and if you’re not paying close attention to the red days on your calendar, you can really get stuck!
When we get home with the rest of the stuff I need to pack (did somebody say chocolate?), I return to packing. It’s not fun, and today I am riddled with guilt. So much guilt. Guilt about the people I didn’t have time to see this time. Guilt about the stuff I should have done while I was home. Guilt about not being able to bring as many gifts for as many people as I feel I should. Guilt about stuff other people feel I should do while I’m home, guilt about things that haven’t happened, guilt about things that may never happen, and due to the rain outside, I get really stuck.
Luckily, Joe had a task for this afternoon, and that was to make some mango sticky rice. He’s made it a couple of times before, in Canada, and after finding the coconut sweet sauce for this dessert at the Asian grocery store, I got inspired. Yes, I got inspired, and I asked him to make it. After all, there’s a whole bag full of sticky rice in my mom’s cupboard now, and we need to try to use as much as possible of it.
I had bought a baking mix for yeasted sweet buns when I arrived, and haven’t had time to make them yet, so that’s this afternoon as well. I set the dough, leave it to rise, and then come back to shape them. I am so impatient with commercial yeast, and I find sourdough so forgiving, so these buns should have been allowed to rise for longer. I brush them with an egg wash for shiny surfaces, and into the oven they go. They come out looking and smelling the part, even though I wish they were fluffier.
The girls are trying their hardest to empty out all the treats and snacks and things we brought into Mormor’s house as well. One of the things we bought in Hong Kong that we brought here, is a Popin’ Cookin’ kit. It’s a Japanese “let’s get kids pretend cooking” kit, with powders to mix with room temperature water, measuring “cups” (really just an indented corner of the plastic container) and moulds for shaping the “food” into whatever it’s trying to resemble.
Today, the girls are making ice cream looking desserts. There’s vanilla powder and pink frosting, and I think the wafers and ice cream cones came ready to eat. There are also sprinkles and a powder to mid into a chocolate sauce. Téa of course loves all things tiny, and it’s her desire to make these that’s the reason we have them in the house. They’ve made so many back in Canada, and just did two in Hong Kong, and then we brought the third one to Norway. The only thing I don’t like about their kits and the experience, is truly the flavour. It does NOT taste good. Maybe because there’s nothing “real” about it? I mean, it is mostly just powder and water, after all.
I head back in the bedroom to see if there’s anything else I can pack into hand luggage, and shake my head. We don’t have enough space. How will we ever get it all home? There’s also laundry and whatever we’re wearing, and our outfits are laid out for Sunday and Monday. Instead of finding a solution, I take a nap. A much needed nap.
I feel better when I wake up, in part because the house smells AMAZING! My mom’s made a lamb roast, and the scent of garlic and herbs and lamb and potato gratin fills the house. We sit down to eat, and it’s just as delicious as it smells! We eat long and well, and there is no possible way to fit dessert into us, even with dedicated dessert stomachs. We tidy up first, and then Joe and I make time for a walk.
Dessert is had, coffee/tea is enjoyed, and the sunset is marveled at. When we go to bed, we know we will be waking up to our very last full day in Oslo, and that the end is coming way too soon.
I envy your ability to just nap. If I had that much spinning around in my head I wouldn’t even be sleeping at night.
I luckily sleep just fine (most of the time), it’s the only way to escape the stress sometimes!