[samthedog]

Hello chaps, just saying a warm hello from frosty Norway. I moved here from Australia and am starting my business and want the "good oil" on my areas of business. I will be a ghost member for a while until I feel qualified enough to provide useful posts but don't be shocked if I ask a load of questions. Thanks in advance and keep up the great posts.

samthedog.

 

[[email protected]]

Welcome aboard!

Man.. I am jealous... A good part of my family is Norwegian. I have never been there and would like to some day. Friends tease me when I grow my beard out. They say I look like a viking. Not that vikings are Norwegian... I am not for sure...

Good to have you among us. :thumbsup:

J

 

[timhag]

Hello don't be shocked if I ask a load of questions. samthedog.

Welcome to the site, don't 4 get to do a search b 4 asking :thumbsup:

 

[samthedog]

Welcome to the site, don't 4 get to do a search b 4 asking :thumbsup:

Cheers for the advice. I am a bit of a forum ***** so I'll stay low until I work out who is who in the community and just ask questions when I can't find the answers using the search function.

Jason: you should take a holiday. Summer in Norway is simply breathtaking. I live 150 yards from a massive lake and am surrounded by snow capped mountains. A big change from dusty Queensland in Australia I can tell you. With that big beard of yours you'll fit in with all the mountain men lurking around here and in the woods

 

[Rich]

welcome!

 

[slickshift]

Hello Norway

 

[samthedog]

Cheers for the warm welcomes!! God knows I need them (-7 celcius here)

 

[timhag]

. I live 150 yards from a massive lake and am surrounded by snow capped mountains.

Would love to see the sites. Got any pics that you can post?

 

[samthedog]

I sure do Tim. I'll post some tomorrow. I have just come back from a barn fire (ex full time fire fighter, now a volunteer ff) and havn't set up for a job tomorrow. 1.25am, man I'll be tired, especially with a 7am start

 

[EricTheHandyman]

welcome Sam!!

 

[[email protected]]

Jason: you should take a holiday. Summer in Norway is simply breathtaking. I live 150 yards from a massive lake and am surrounded by snow capped mountains. A big change from dusty Queensland in Australia I can tell you. With that big beard of yours you'll fit in with all the mountain men lurking around here and in the woods

A holiday only sounds like a great Idea.. haha.. Now, If I didn't have 5 children to hall around I would book up a flight. My wifes grandfather is Norwegian as well... I had forgotten that the blood flows on both sides...:thumbup:.. anyways... I have only seen breath taking pictures from stores ect... who knows how many of those were manipulated or real.. but none the less I get the essence of your surroundings and just drool..... :thumbsup:

Looking forward to them Pics. :yes:

Here's that o'l beard....

J

 

[samthedog]

Photos!!!

Right, here are some pictures, enjoy!!!

The one below is a view on the way to my wifes work.

Next is the village I live in. My house is in the bottom third, slightly left of the middle (the red house with a black roof for you eagle eyes).

Not sure what the max file size for photos is, if it needs shrinking let me know, although it would be a shame to lose the detail...:whistling2:

 

[timhag]

My house is in the bottom third,

I think all the houses are in the bottom third:blink: .........Great pics. Must be nice to live around such beauty. What kind of wild life do you have around the village?

 

[samthedog]

We have deer, moose, plenty of wild ducks and swan. Hundreds of little birds that I don't know the name of. We have a resident fox that visits us most afternoons and a deer that comes and eats my rhubarb. Thats pretty much it. Less individual species than I'm used to in Oz, but no snakes or spiders!! How weird is that?

Unless you mean drunken women looking for flesh....

 

[timhag]

No mountains lion or big ass grizzly bears? What are the summer temps?

 

[samthedog]

No we have a cat similar to the lynx here called a gouper. As far as the bears go, I haven't had one go through my trash yet so I wouldn't know. Oh, and there are loads of trout in the river 600yards away from our place. Oh to have the time to fish. Summer temps can reach 35 c but it's not hot as the air is so dry. So dry in fact that I have removed nails from barns that have been there for 75 years and are still shiny. I have never seen that before on an un-galvanized nail.

 

[Purdygirl]

Wow what a beautiful place to live!!! I've never been to Norway, I grew up right outside of Zurich in Switzerland, it is really green and lush there too, lots of rivers and lakes. Now I live in Northern California, about an hour and a half north of San Francisco in the Wine Country. Not bad either..
It is quite an adventure to move from one country to another and start up a business. I had all the Swiss diplomas and licenses and experience, but once I got here I had to start all over again, none of the Swiss stuff counted! I did manage to get some papers translated and that counted for some of the 5 years experience I had to prove I had, but couldn't get my contractor's license for another couple of years.

Welcome to a great painter's site! (from what I can tell so far, I'm pretty new too..)

Diana

 

[samthedog]

Hello Purdygirl, I feel your pain regarding starting again. We moved here due to illness in the family and I have been struggling a bit. I have a university degree (science and human movements/sport teacher) and was a professional firefighter prior to moving here and it all counts for naught. Just as well I have a good amount of building/painting experience to fall back on also.

I must say it is very humbling competing with 16 year olds simply because your from another country and your qualifications are not recognized!!! Add the language barrier (I have just completed 6 months of language courses while working) and things get a little crazy. The craziest thing though is stuff that you always assumed was common sense is completely cultural??? For example, a hardware store in Australia has everything from plumbing to electrical. Here everything is bought from a specialty store, and most times they haven't even heard of the item you are looking for and when they find it through a supplier you need to wait while it is delivered.

What did you do to keep your sanity and avoid packing it all in and moving back home?

 

[Purdygirl]

Well... I had to re-learn a lot of things. In Switzerland I had never heard of Joint Compound and here they use it for everything. One of the reasons I haven't moved back (yet) is because my family is here, kids in school and all that great stuff. I have a nice life here now after 15 years, I wouldn't want to uproot everything and move again. Not yet!!
Good luck to you in Norway. I can imagine moving from Oz to Norway would be quite a crazy change.. I would move to Australia in a heartbeat!! Norway? I dunno.. Diana

 

[poet-1]

Beautiful dreamy pics, indeed, Sam. Does the village need another 'master painter'? Or do you need any help?
Seriously, I'd be a very happy man, painting and living in such a place, and be friends with the deers and birds and trees and drunken naked women...