Part 2 “....AND FROM THIS MOMENT PLEASE, IN MORE DETAIL”

Part 2 “….AND FROM THIS MOMENT PLEASE, IN MORE DETAIL”. To write shortly and in detail, one has to think at leength and not be distracted, or even not react to the sun, which today is shining brightly “straight in the eye.” I decided to give it the subtitle “Everyday stuff.”

In stories from past years I have already written how wonderfully I spent those almost 3 tourist months. I had to go back to my homeland when the visa ended. People close to me asked whether I talked with Ivan’s daughters, and in what language.

Here I come out with such a long, thoughtful “well…” Both daughters at that time knew English, especially the elder. Already then she was studying at a “decent gymnasium,” studying well, but she showed no particular eagerness to speak English with a guest from Kiev. At best she might say “Good morning!”

She had her own room on the first floor, 10 m², unheated, that is, if it was cold, a portable oil-filled electric heater was on all the time. The way out of the room was into the living room, in Norwegian stue. There stood an old corner sofa, a coffee table, a TV, and in the living room there was a warm floor — parquet, varnished and covered with a large carpet.

A Norwegian stue is traditionally a large room in which, besides a sitting corner by the TV, a large dining table with chairs is usually placed by the window or the way out to the veranda. In our house the stue was about 20 sq. m., and a large oval wooden table fitted in the kitchen, at which we marked Christmas, gathered as a whole family. Note: once, all together.

In the following days the daughters carried food off to their rooms, and they handed over dirty dishes only after papa’s reminder, and papa Ivan had to remind me. (I was a guest, so I tried to behave decently.) The younger daughter’s room was on the second floor. There too was our bedroom, a bathroom with a toilet, where there was a warm floor. And on the second floor we also switched on electric heaters.

When I asked Ivan about the cost of electricity, he answered that in Norway electricity is not expensive and I need not worry about expenses for electricity and water. I cannot say that those expenses worried me then; I was more concerned about observing safety with electrical appliances left on, when Ivan suddenly — urgently, at the request of one or both daughters at once — “tore from the spot to the garage to the car,” putting on a jacket as he went and taking the phone (sometimes he forgot and came back) to drive them to friends or bring someone, meet them from the bus, and so on.

They would leave the wooden house with the dog and the cat, without switching off a single electrical appliance, and also the lights. They called me along too. To speak and warn about the danger of a short circuit was useless. Ivan showed me the fire alarm built into the ceiling.

Oh, with that alarm a “funny” incident happened much later. I think in 2015 Ivan was going to work in Oslo. That is 300 km from our house. He came only on weekends, and I stayed in the house alone with the dog and the cat. Our dog, a Border Collie, was very sensitive to firecrackers and sharp sounds.

And wouldn’t you know it: one of the sensors started beeping loudly in short bursts! It was winter, and I could not quickly run out into the street with the dog. The dog was in a panic, trembling, racing all over the house; I was trying to determine which sensor the sound was coming from, but I did not know how to switch it off. I ran out into the street to meet someone, anyone, to ask for help, but there was not a soul around.

I came back. I put a chair, stretched my arm to the ceiling, got the “little box” attached to the ceiling in the hall, pulled the battery out of the box. That was all. Silence fell. And the system was this: when the battery “ran down,” those sensors started signalling as in a fire.