there is too much, better sum up. nah, type it all...

[kareina]

Medeltidsdagar

As with all the other camping events this summer it was necessary to load a trailer to get the encampment there (since we learned with Double Wars packing that my little ford station wagon could fit the stuff, with careful packing, but it couldn't carry it, dragging its mud flaps on the ground in protest). Because we also had to pack for the Lofoten trip we didn't reach site till late on Wednesday (others were there from 09:00). After we'd carried everything over the footbridge to the island and set up camp we chatted very briefly with others, then did our yoga and managed to get to bed before 02:30. Then we got up at 06:30 because we needed to take the trailer to his brother, who is clearing out his old property in prep for selling it, and we needed to get back to site before we opened to the public.

As we started driving there was an unpleasant metal-on-metal sound, which increased when he touched the breaks, and he said "we need to fix the breaks before we drive to Norway", to which I replied "today is Thursday, can we just go buy a car instead?". The concept of impulse buying a car made him twitch, but the other option was missing part of the event to replace the breaks, so he agreed to go look.

I have wanted a decent tourney vehicle for a long time, and had even looked a couple of times on FB market place and Blocket (the Swedish second-hand web page for everything), but hadn't seen any that weren't in really bad shape. Given that we were facing a deadline, I suggested that we try going to a car dealership, and see if they had anything suitable in their second-hand options. Since the ONLY thing either of us would miss in the stationwagon is the electric heating of the front windscreen for extra fast defrost, a feature that only Ford offers, Keldor drove us to the local Ford dealership. We did a quick drive around the lot before going in, during which I eyed a pretty black van.

Inside we explained to the salesman what I wanted, and what my budget was, and he suggested either the black van I had already admired, or a similar black van which was in the building, being polished. I looked inside the one being polished first, since it was right there, and I didn't like the way the floor in the back had two different heights, with low bits by the door, which would complicate loading chests full of stuff. In addition, the inside van was the more expensive of the two, so we went out and looked at the outside one. It's cargo floor was all one level, and I liked the way it look. We gave it a test drive, and liked it, so, without checking out any of the other dealerships, I agreed to buy this one:



It had winter tires on it, so we agreed to come back the next day to pick it up, after they had changed the tires and done a few other tasks that needed to happen before sale.

Then we returned to site, arriving just on time to start doing our crafts for the day (he as a smith, me as a stone carver) for the public. It was a fun day, and after the visitors went home, we enjoyed the SCA event, did our yoga and went to bed around 01:30.

We did, in fact pick up the Toyota van the next morning, dropped off the eight winter tires that came with it (like we need more tires after the 35 that came with the house I bought in December) and my old car (which was too old/too many miles driven for the dealership to consider offering me anything in trade for it) off at his dad’s place for storage till we can sell it, after the Norway trip.

The rest of the event zipped happily along, with plenty of crafts and chatting with the public during the day, and SCA event, with plenty of sewing and singing, and even some dancing, in the evenings.

Saturday, as soon as the public went home, we broke camp and loaded up the van, which held everything, with room to spare:




Then we said our goodbyes to everyone who was about to enjoy one more night of SCA event before they broke camp on Sunday, went home, put the slightly damp tent and sunshades into the attic to hang and finish drying while we were gone (luckily Saturday’s rain was only early morning, and didn’t start again till after we’d gotten camp down). Then we both worked on unloading and putting away everything else, and built a bed for the van (added tall legs to the single bed that came with the house, and screwed them to the floor of the van. Then it was packing for Norway. He gave up and went to bed around 01:30, and I worked on till 03:40.

Then we got up at just after 08:00 and loaded the car and packed the last-minute things, finishing up and getting on the road just before 12:30. First stop was his dad’s place, where we dropped off the old car’s back seat (it had been taken out for easier packing of stuff to the event, since not everything fit in the trailer) with the car, and picked up a couple more things we wanted.

The next stop was Arvidsjaur, where I bought a lightweight wool dress in a soft, lovely 3 twills in one weave, from a friend who’d made it intending to wear it to Visby Medieval Week in 2020, and decided to just sell it on, since she’d never used it. I am taller than she is, but she’d made the dress to drag on the ground, so it fit me perfectly, and the arms are exactly the correct length. She also gave me all the fabric scraps. The dress is a very pale green, but we are having a dying workshop at the Viking Museum this summer, and the person doing the dying says that I can overdye the dress in indigo. We may leave some of the scrap undyed for use for trim on something for Keldor, who loves green.

Norway

Then we drove on to Norway, stopping several times for adventures along the way, including a place with some Stone Age rock carvings of reindeer:



(I often forgot to take photos at all, but we did take a bunch, none of which have been uploaded yet, and it isn’t going to happen today, either.)

We got to the ferry terminal at Bognas just after 01:00 on Monday 18 July, after having driven since noon on Sunday. We didn't know one could pay just before boarding, and so tried to order tickets for the next departing ferry from the web page. However, due to being tired I had some serious problems with accomplishing correctly what should have been a simple task.

My first attempt resulted in a purchase for just me and the car, but not for Keldor, but for the wrong day (the 19th), and wrong time (0:15). When I looked at the pdf, directly after purchase, I saw that the time was wrong, but didn't notice the wrong date, and thought I had just bought a ticket for the ferry that had departed an hour previously. As the ferry was already pulling in at that point, and we didn't wish to be refused entry, I quickly went through the web page again, this time successfully adding Keldor as a passenger (no change to the cost for that) and choosing the correct time. However, I again failed to notice that the web page was giving me a booking for the next day, until I looked at the resulting pdf.

By that time the person checking in the cars arrived, and we explained the problem, and he explained that we could have waited to buy the ticket from him. He found our registration in the system, let us on board, and told us that he would try to cancel the extra booking for us.

I don't know if he succeeded in that cancellation or not, since both charges are still showing on my debit card. I have no idea if it is possible to get a refund for a lack-of-sleep induced operator error, but I have emailed them. Hopefully that will help.

The ferry ride was short, and pretty. I took exactly one photo, which, since it has been uploaded, I can share here as well:




We slept 3.5 hours that night, on that bed in the back of the van, on the side of the road, not so far from the ferry terminal in Lofoten, and woke up early enough to drive to the Viking Museum, arriving on time to meet our boss and start the first day of work.

He was taken away to the smithy, and I up to the Longhouse (a replica of the largest one ever discovered, the foundations of which are located just to the side replica), where I spend my days carving soapstone and chatting to tourists about it.

We worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and soon learned that he is able to go to the little café near the smithy (which is located down by the lake where the Viking boat sails from) any time he wants to get pancake to eat, and I can go into the other room in the long house and get a bowl of lamb-barley-root veg soup plus or minus bread whenever I want. A nice perk to the job, as it means carrying less food with me to work.

The house we live in is an old farm house located a 5-minute walk downhill from the Longhouse, and about 20 minutes’ walk uphill from the smithy. It has a reputation for being haunted because it is kinda creaky. Just now there are three other museum employees living there. One, who turned 22 the day we arrived, and shared her birthday cake with us, works at the activity area, supervising the guests with archery, axe throwing, games, etc. That station is near the smithy, and she has the same time schedule (11:00-18:00) as the smiths, so she and Keldor often walk to or from work together. Another who works as a guide, giving tours in three languages (German, English, and Norwegian/Swedish). Her schedule varies greatly, depending on when tour boats or busses will be arriving, and she finds sometimes having to work late one night and early the next morning rather difficult. The third alternates between a variety of different museum jobs. All three were very glad that the fourth person who had been in this house just moved to the other museum employee house—they felt that his standards for cleanliness were not on par with theirs. After he left, they celebrated by taking all of the couch cushions off the couch and washing the covers, as well as doing a deep cleaning of the entire living room. I think I will get along with my housemates beautifully!

Thursday we had off so that we could go to the tax office and do the paperwork to get a D-nummer, so that we could get paid, after which we visited a couple of cheese farms and then drove the hour north to visit my friend Þhora for a bit, after which we checked out a couple of museums and an aquarium in Kabelvåg before heading back to our own museum, so Keldor could see our gift shop and the museum itself (he didn’t get to see it at all before starting work in the smithy; I spent a bit of time there before I started carving—different people doing the orientation).

Rebusløp party
On Friday we worked, and Friday night was a party for all the museum employees. It had been scheduled to take place down on the dock near the ships, but since it was cool and rainy and lots of wind all day (way better than the heat wave that is brutalizing much of Europe), it was relocated to the other house that employees live in, which is adjacent to the museum parking lot, right on the main road.

That other house is much larger than ours, with a nice spacious living room with a comfy sofa set. Upon arrival we sat on the couch and I pulled out my sewing project, and we chatted with a few people. After a bit the conversation patterns drifted away from where I was sitting, and then Keldor got up to get something, and got into a conversation and didn’t come back. Since the party didn’t start till 21:00 I started feeling a bit tired, and rather out of touch with the folk at the party, the majority of whom are young enough that they are likely Millennials (not that I feel much older than they are, yet somehow, I was aware that we hadn’t been born in the same century). The others were all drinking beer, or the homemade strawberry wine provided, and as a water-drinker I felt rather out of place.

Then the party organizers announced that it was time for games, and that they had divided everyone into teams (we’d all pre-registered, so they knew who would be there, to make it easy to set up teams in advance). They explained that the teams would get points for completing tasks, plus points for enthusiasm, teamwork, and “sucking up” to the people keeping score. Then they had everyone in the room supply a word, which they wrote down, and saved for later.

Before telling us which teams we would be on they described an additional, non-team game that would be running in tandem with the team activities. The extra game involved a rather long phallus shaped chunk of wood (proportioned rather like some of the margin art in the Bayeux tapestry), which was to be in circulation over the course of the evening, until the random alarm went off to signify the end of the contest. Whomever had possession of the “Dick” at that point would win a prize. The way to gain possession of the Dick was to approach the current holder and offer them a dare. If the holder did the dare, they kept the Dick. If not, but the challenger did the dare, then the Dick passed to a new holder (hint: don’t dare someone to do something you aren’t willing to do).

They handed the Dick off at random to someone and we were divided up into teams of four people each. I was in team four. Then we were all told to choose a team name and a team yell. Since I was working on Keldor’s wool bag with his coat of arms on it, which features a Lynx head, I suggested to the others that if we choose the team name Lynx then we had a ready-made mascot (never mind that Keldor was in another team). They liked this idea, and it was so. We then agreed that our “yell” was to say “meow”, and do a little claw motion in the air.

Then someone called everyone’s attention that there was a Dick challenge—one of the young men from my team dared the current holder of the Dick to go out on the side of the road, wearing only underwear, and hitchhike. The current holder refused, so my teammate stripped down, and went out into the rain and danced on the side of the road, wearing nothing but a pair of underpants, stopping his dance and calisthenics (necessary to keep warm) only when a car approached, so he could stick out his thumb. No one stopped. Since this lad is beautiful, extremely fit and has long hair I, for one, appreciated the view. When he came back in, and had dressed and claimed possession of the Dick, I told him that I would have stopped for him, had I been driving past. Keldor said he would have too—not because he appreciated the beauty, but because he would be curious as to the story behind nearly naked hitchhiking in the rain on a cold day.

Then we were sent for the first of the team tasks. We started with the station out in the parking lot. Our task: to cross a stretch of parking lot, all four of us, using the three chairs provided, without touching our feet to the ground. So we lined up the three chairs, I walked out to the one furthest out, the cute boy joined me on my chair, holding on to one another for balance/support, then the other two (one of whom is the girlfriend of the cute boy) climbed up to the second chair. The guy at the end passed up the third chair, and I put it in front, we climbed on to it, the others followed, we passed up the last chair, and repeated till we were close enough to just jump over the finish line. Our time was recorded, and we went into the house.

I loved this game—climbing, and balancing, and holding on to other people. All my cup of tea.

Our next task was to design an appropriate team photo. I suggested acroyoga, and after a short bit of experimenting we hit on a pose that involved all four of us, plus the mascot and the Dick.



Our third task saw us in the garage, where we were told to make a line of clothing across the garage, and back again, as many times as was possible using the clothing we had on us (as much as we were comfortable taking off), placed such that it all touched. I was wearing two layers of trousers and my Viking coat as well as Keldor’s bag, two shirts, socks, undies, and a pair of hearing aids, so I was able to contribute quite a bit to our line. Since my teammate had already displayed willingness to strip down in the rain outside, we all got to undressing, and, before we had done our line back and fourth four times, three of us were completely nude, and the one who had been almost nude for hitchhiking had stripped down to the same underwear he wore for that. We figured that if our line wasn’t long enough to win with what we’d already put in it that single addition would matter, and thus he didn’t bother stripping down further, and we all got dressed again.

Our final task of the night was to write a song using as many words as we wanted from the list of words collected at the beginning of the evening. One of those words was “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, so I suggested we use that tune, and we came up with this, using ALL of the words on the list (the words which didn’t appear on the list are in italics):

A sledgehammer of love

Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious
cunt shenanigans are really quite precocious
earth balls, dog balls, mosegrod rope
a mountain full of zest
so fill your lil'pants a sledgehammer of love

um didididdel, um diddili,
um didididdel, um diddili

Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious
a green tullball, ever bolds will keep us always ish
a can of pølse for Sindre
rebusløp, juice, no jåssfetta
supercalifragilisticexpialadocious

meow?!


While no where near the best song I have ever been involved in writing, it was fun to find places in the tune for all the words (with as few extra words as possible). I didn’t follow the full rhyme scheme of the original, as we didn’t have that much time between getting the assignment and time to perform it, but the audience appreciated our performance, and, at the end of the evening, this was the category in which our team won, so I was happy.

After the prizes were given out Keldor and I went home (just after 01:00), as did a number of other folk (presumably the ones who were scheduled to work today), but having had so much fun during the games, I went home with way more energy than I had had when we arrived at the party, and that energy stayed with me through to today. We both had today off, but it was still rainy, so we spent the day at home. We did a load of laundry, cooked some yummy food*, worked on sewing, and I updated my financial records from all of the shopping (including the car!) and typed this up.

*today’s yummy food:

A blended soup containing fresh carrot, broccoli and snowpeas with almond meal, butter, garlic and onion powder, pepper, basil, nettle, and coriander leaves.

A fruit crumble with fresh pears, plumbs, and re-hydrated mango, covered with a blend of grated carrots, grated Norwegian brown cheese (which tastes exactly like caramel candy, only better), oats, butter, and cinnamon, which we served with whipped cream, which I had to whip by hand with a whisk, as this kitchen comes with several sets of beaters for an electric mixer, but no mixer.

Now I am up to date. Tomorrow we work again, but work here is fun!