Welcome to Irina’s blog!

I think, it is good that we rented for the first three days an apartment in the outskirts of Las Vegas. There it was calm, empty of people, and there was a possibility to get a little used, to acclimatise. We were to move in three days to the centre of the city, to the hotel Venetia. I write frankly, I do not feel joy living in a hotel. Autonomous living in an apartment room suits me better. But my Norwegian husband holds to his rules when travelling, and that is — booking a hotel room, obligatory breakfast only in the hotel, lunch in a restaurant. Of course, he always, before ordering a hotel or any tickets, «consults» with me, but does not stress prices and does not talk about money or coming expenses. He proposes — I choose. ...

We got out of town by taxi quickly, in about 20 minutes. They drove us right to the gates, which were closed. They opened for us automatically, after we said that the places were booked. The girl at reception kindly explained on which side our room-apartment was, but did not accompany us. We went out into the darkness, but found it quickly. Identical two-storey buildings, in each building 4 apartments. ...

After the Irish breakfast (I ate only the scrambled eggs, a little piece of bread and butter, and the sausages fried to blackness and a piece of black pudding I gave to my husband). We returned to our hotel-apartment and I decided to go to the pool. If I get into a pool, I swim and try to swim at least some distance possible for my strength, i.e. I do not sit in the pool — I swam — I got out. Well then I swam and got out, I stand over the pool and think: «Well you, Ira, of course, are quite a piece of work»! An adventuress! Such pools in Europe are like puddles after a downpour! You had to fly by 3 planes, and back still 4 await the return, in order to swim in a pool. ...

Morning, 20 May, 2025. We gathered, went to the local airport in the city of Kristiansand, for the morning local flight at 8.30. The flight to Oslo — 1 hour. I like our local airport. Calm, without fuss, and on the airfield you can see only a couple of planes. I was surprised by one airport employee — a grandma, years toward 80, she came up to us, asked if help was needed with checking in baggage through the machine (we at that time were standing in the queue). And so quickly she helped us check in. I, of course, was very impressed by her age! I think I am the only such «observant» one. Well that is how in Norway they do not use the word «old». Instead of old there is the word «of age». ...

„It was in the evening ….” An ordinary family idyll — each looking into their iPad — wow…. and suddenly the husband spoke, naturally in Norwegian: «And shouldn’t we go, my soul, to Las Vegas?» (you understand yourselves, I make a free translation into my native language, adding tender words of which the Norwegian husband has no notion, because there are no such words in the Norwegian language). «A bit far,» I said, and in the brains «it started knocking Las Vegas = Casino». The husband continued voicing his thought: «Here I found inexpensive tickets, and it isn’t a long flight, shall I order?» I agree. (I have already written that in my soul I am a homebody.) You have to talk yourself into it approximately like this: «Little Red Riding Hood, agree, how old are you? And what have you got there, ahead?» And my husband knooows my homebody thoughts and pronounces: «Well, and when else, if not now, while there is strength?» ...

Oh no, pardon, the other way around, Vanya took me to the Canaries. Neither in dreams nor in thoughts did I have such a thing, to fly in there. 🙄 Honestly, I am not a tourist, not a traveller and not a cosmonaut. I confess, I feel fear and I myself fight it and calm myself. But there are also positive moments in this week-long trip — this is the sensation of «privileges» which I had not had before. I list them: the first privilege is amazingly–delightfully to fall from winter into summer! But gathering, which things to put in the suitcase — that is quite a puzzle! Ivan prepaid the baggage and I had to fit into 20 kg. ...

(My free retelling of a chapter from a book by the young Frenchwoman Lorelou Desjardins; the title of the book is en FROSK i FJORDEN (A Frog in the Fjord)) So there, I have lived 12 years here in Norway and did not guess how Norwegians have acquaintances, meetings, parties and further «deep» relations. In the Norwegian language seduction and corruption are one and the same meaning — forførelsens. The heroine and author of the book, Lorelou, working in a firm in Oslo, writes that her whole life consisted of short communication with colleagues during the lunch break and with shop staff whom she went in to after work. Before arriving in Norway she worked in Denmark and there she was left with a Danish boyfriend who married a Dane and was already raising a fair-haired baby. ...

«LIVE MORE WONDERFULLY — YOU WILL BECOME FAMOUS FASTER» part 2 «The aunt is no fool!» Yeees! That sounded so in our way, in Soviet-style, in a comment from one of my «nieces» …. So then, however hard it was for me with two teenagers in their house, I always remembered that I am after all an «aunt» from Kiev and that they did not come to me, but I to THEM, and with a prospect! The aunt had to rebuild herself. ...

Well now! «LIVE MORE WONDERFULLY — YOU WILL BECOME FAMOUS FASTER» Did you watch the interview on YouTube with the intriguing title «to Norway at 58» by the Ukrainian blogger Viktoria (the blog name is «Life with Pepper»)? Now you can read what I left unsaid. The interview lasted more than an hour, and in the rough version it was 3.5 hours. Yes! It came out optimistic–inspiring. Of course that is not bad! ...

«Do you love to travel?» Part 4 — the concluding and joyful one! Of course joyful for me; I always, very much, strive to get as quickly as possible to my permanent habitat, i.e. home, home to the «little burrow», to my little bed, to my «rags». All the same I am a dyed-in-the-wool homebody, and it is good that my Norwegian husband does not know this (or perhaps he does? 🧐). ...