Over night there had been quite a lot of snow fell. Well quite a lot for somebody who comes from the Southwest of the UK. It was still snowing when I woke up. Hadn't slept particularly well during the night. New sofa bed not the most comfortable. It's also a bit too warm. Maybe I am dehydrating.
This morning I was supposed to meet Eileen at the station for 0900hrs. As I didn't have any food in either apartment I thought I'd set off reasonably early and find a McDonalds for a breakfast.
Didn't quite go to plan however because the lightweight berlingo van couldn't make it up the driveway. I tried going forwards but couldn't seem to get any further than 10-15feet before the tyres would slip and the engine rev up. I even tried going in reverse. The thinking was that reverse gear is the lowest ratio, and also the weight of the van would push down on the drive wheels, so might reduce the chance of spinning out.
This worked a bit better and I made it to the decking level, about 30feet up the drive. Then I tried going up the rest of the drive forwards. Didn't work. Got about 25ft further up, nearly at a level area where I should've been able to turn around and do the last section forwards. Just shy of my target it all stalled terribly.
While I was struggling, the landlord (Tommy) turned up. Apparently he'd been out running for two hours. It was still dark at 0900hrs. He had a large headlamp. I asked him what I doing wrong, but he said he didn't think I was doing anything wrong.
He brought up some gravel to put under the wheels and a shovel but this didn't help. Eventually I handed it over to Tommy, who was reluctant, but I have more mass for pushing. We eventually sorted it out and we got the van to the top. Tommy had had the window open and the still falling snow had built on the door to about 1inch. This put quite a bit of moisture into the cab.
I had to spend a bit of time demisting before I finally set off. Texted Eileen to say I'd be late.
I was nervous to say the least on the trip into Asker. Not only did I have to cope with the snow, a two wheel drive van, driving on the wrong side of the road but also a difference in the way the Norwegians handle some junctions. In some areas you have to give way to traffic coming in from the right, even if it looks like you're on the main route! I guess this is because road markings just disappear under all the snow. The main worry was I wasn't sure where these junctions were. Some have to give way to the right and some don't. To play it safe I just took things very slowly. On the way in I decided to see if the car hire place had some chains available anyway. Bought a small aluminium shovel from the them just in case.
Took the wrong turn to the station and had to go round again. Eileen had texted me to say she'd be at the Rema1000, which I had to go past. Unfortunately I didn't get this til I'd got back to the station. I called her and mis-understood her question. She asked if I was at Ultra. I said yes as I thought she'd asked if I'd gone towards it. Got another call to ask where I was, as I wasn't at Ultra. No I said, I'm at the station as agreed. I went to pick her up from there. We had a chocolate bread product. Quite nice and I wolfed mine down as I hadn't had anything since a peanut butter sandwich yesterday evening.
I had thought Eileen might like to see my new apartment and also give me some hints about furnishings etc. I decided against this however because of the trouble I'd had getting out.
I set up the GPS to take us to IKEA. Eileen was quite shocked that it looked like the snow ploughs hadn't been out yet. I thought the traffic was going a little fast but I stayed about 20kph below the posted speed limit. Some drivers got a little close behind me, but we made it to Billingstad without incident. All the stores we were due to visit were around the one motorway exit. IKEA, Elkjop and SmartKlubb.
We started on the wrong side of the motorway at SmartKlubb. This was a big store, a cross between Tescos and Aldi. We bought quite a bit of stuff there. I spent about 1800 NOK on all sorts of stuff, but I couldn't give you a complete list.
By the time we'd finished there I was getting quite peckish so we decided to go to the other side of the motorway to IKEA for lunch as well as shopping. I also needed to get rid of the cardboard before we got too loaded up. I thought I'd seen a couple of large skips outside during one of my previous visits. This wasn't correct. Bugger.
We found a pallet in the underground car park. Unloaded the garbage and went to park up. Plenty of spaces left. The Norwegians had obviously been late in getting out this morning. My back was still giving me issues if I spent too long in one position but I wasn't as bad as Eileen. First thing we did was get lunch. I finally had the meatballs. 15 in a medium portion. With a couple of potatos this was more than enough.
Spent about 30mins wandering around the upper floor getting ideas and putting smaller items in the basket. Eileen had only come along to get some towels. We both left with a lot of stuff.
I bought another three bulb floor lamp, a couple more table lamps, a set of shelves, 3 sets of curtains, bedding for the sofa bed, bulbs, coat hangers to name just a few. I was a bit uncertain about whether the shelves were going to fit in the van at first. As it happens they fitted perfectly without having to rearrange anything.
After IKEA we went back to the other side of the motorway to Elkjop for the TV, SAD lamp(s) and microwave.
Starting to feel tired. I picked a Matsui mcrowave off the shelf for about 450NOK. The SAD lamps were expensive at over 1200 NOK. I'll order one from Amazon for about £40 and see about getting it here in my bags. Finally settled on a 42" LG smart TV for about 6000 NOK. I would have to pick it up from their collection depot down past IKEA. We crossed that motorway a lot during the day.
Couldn't actually believe the thinness of the TV box as it came out. Didn't take too much fiddling to get it in the van without it falling over. By this time it was about 1545hrs and getting dark. I was due to take Eileen and her shopping back to Drammen. The snow ploughs had been out by this time but it'd been snowing non-stop all day so there was plenty of slush about.
Snow was still falling. Again I was going slower than the majority of the traffic. Luckliy we had no incident on the motorway. My habit of not touching the brakes proved useful as I was always far enough behind the car in front, to deal with changes in speed witthout panicing.
As we got to Eileen's house we were on the wrong side of the road. I had to head further up to find somewhere to turn around. Eventually got back to Eileens but had to park on the pavement as the hill down to her drive looked too steep. Fortunately the house is right on the road so she had access through the front. The snow was very deep to her front door. Nearly twisted an ankle going down the steps.
Got back to Asker about 1700hrs. Spent a bit of time shovelling snow out the front of th apartment. Wasn't too hard as it was light and fluffy. Took me a while to get the van unloaded. I had a pizza for supper, after which I set up the TV. I plugged in a HDD and started 'Casino Royale'. While that was playing I put the shelving together.
After that I watched 'Where Eagles Dare' for the umpteenth time.Thought it appropriate what with all the snow we had today. Picture quality was pretty good, especially as the files were made for a laptop screen. Can't wait for my movie collection to arrive.
Still haven't got the digital TV or WiFi sorted out yet.
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