Today, my wife and I officially took the jump on to the housing market and agreed a deal with the existing owners of a nice little space in Rodeløkka, in central Oslo.
I’m so excited about the purchase and proud to have saved up the money for the apartment myself. Now it’s a case of counting down the days until the Vestengen-Cox family move in to our new 2-bedroom 100m2 home.
After living in Oslo for many years and relying on the city bike scheme to get me from A to Å (or not, as there would often be a shortage of available bikes), I took the plunge and bought myself a bike.
But that’s old news. The new news is all the new parts I’ve gotten for it recently. A big cat bell, and bike rack and wooden crate for the rear.
The bell that came with the bike was a flimsy black dome with a spring-loaded plastic ‘flicker’. It seems like these are some sort of standard now. The sound it made was an annoying one and after a few flicks, the spring had started to weaken.
During a trip to a local toy store, I spotted this classic style bike bell with a study metal ring mechanism and a friendly lion face on the top of the dome. The sound is more like that of an ice cream van on a whimsical summers day. A polite “Excuse me, I’m letting you know I’m here!” as opposed to an aggressive “Get out of my way!”. I just had to buy it.
Last week, as my bike was in for a service, I got them to install a bike rack on the rear. A small cost for a very useful addition.
There had been a few times this summer where I struggled to carry groceries home from the supermarket. I wished I had a crate like a Dickensian delivery boy, carting a morning bread and milk delivery down a cobble street.
And, boy, let me tell you… when you dream big… great things can happen!
I managed to get myself a wooden crate, secured it to the bike rack, and bought some red bungie cords to strap down whatever is in there. Job’s a good’un!
The question is; do I paint the wooden crate black to match the rest of the bike? Let me know in the comments.
Spring has sprung and the coldest days are behind us. At least, I hope so. It was chilly but sunny over the weekend and I relished the chance to get out the house after spending way too much time indoors, due to the combination of being in the middle of a pandemic and having a newborn.
The wife and I stopped by the local hot dog stand and had a walk along the river. It was a nice Saturday stroll. One of the other sausage-customers informed us that it was a national hot dog day in Sweden. Whether there’s any truth in that statement or not remains to be discovered.
The following day, I met up with a friend and colleague and we took a walk around his neighbourhood and the west-side of town. It was a really nice day weather-wise and the first day of the year I used my bike! I don’t have winter tyres, so it spent all winter in the basement and had to wait until all the snow and ice had cleared before seeing the streets again.
We headed down to the waterside, passing by the marina and on towards the peninsula of Bygdøy. It looked a lot like this:
As an aside; I found some photos on my camera from last week… or the week before… where I wore this outfit. Those shorts from Zara are perfect. I love them.
Today, 14th July 2020, is the one year anniversary of the Vestengen-Cox wedding.
Looking back through the photos from the day brings back memories of how perfect the day was and how beautiful my wife looked.
A traditional gift for the first year is something cotton or paper. I’m looking forward to the day we get a gift in blue sapphire to mark our 65th anniversary or platinum for 70th.