FLYING WITHOUT WINGS

Just starting off at the end of February

Old houses pulled down, time for the trees now. The trees on top of the hill are preserved.

Our flat top left. There will be three more floors over it.

We have been told that our new flat will be ready on September 1st 2014. We bought it one year ago, and just thinking back to that decision and how quickly this year has passed makes the mind boggle. I have a feeling this next year will pass twice as quickly, with all the pressure of clearing out stuff, chucking things away, painting and decorating the old house a little to make it presentable for a sale, then SELLING it! After all we've lived in the same house for thirty years, and it will be very strange to downsize and move.

The area where our building is being erected is where Oslo's old airport used to be. It was closed down in 1998, and since then the old runways have disappeared and the terminals have been removed -replaced by giant office buildings and blocks of flats, and there's continuous construction going on everywhere. But at the same time they've been careful to plan parks and outdoor areas for bikers and walkers, and because it's all very close to the sea and beaches, it makes wonderful recreational grounds for all the new inhabitants.

They've also preserved the heritage of the old airport and made two very interesting restaurants in the neighbourhood - one is the old Sea plane harbour, and one is in the old control tower - well, not in the tower as such, but in the "retro" ground floor part. I had lunch at this restaurant yesterday - Odonata - where the interior is totally intact, except that the walls have been painted.

The linoleum floors are exactly like the ones we had in our hall in the flat where I lived the first half of the sixties. A lot of the furniture is also very retro, reminding me of my childhood. I was absolutely fascinated by it all, also by the art exhibition on show there - photos and paintings by the two artists Teppo Valkama and Arne Samuelsen.

Of course - being a frequent flyer I'm excited by the fact that this old airport with its outdated buildings is being turned into a new district so close to the city centre (Oslo Fornebu Airport used to be one of the most central airports in the world). It's also appropriate, I think, that I - whose motto is "Leaving on a Jet Plane" - should make my home at the site of a former airport. The flatness of the land makes me want to buy a bicycle! I want to fly without wings across the old runways! So maybe a bike will be a housewarming gift to myself when we move next year.

During the last few days there's been a smell of autumn in the air. I don't like it! For the first time this evening I noticed that there were leaves in my garden that bore another colour than green - and I wanted to scream NOOOOO! As I said in an earlier blog post - the charm of the changing seasons is for others to enjoy. The funniest thing - just after I'd written that previous blog post I took two of my daughters to my friend Tove's for dinner, and her two children were there. We were all in agreement - we want summer all year long. So it's not only me!

Beyonce the Cat suddenly prefers indoor life too - cuddling the Mac or trying to attract attention?