T minus 135

Its been a while since I've written anything on here but in my defence I've had a busy month which included a last minute trip to Norway on business.


The trip to Norway took me to Bardufoss which you might remember is on my list of places to visit because of my work interests there. All I can say is WOW....Norway is stunningly beautiful and was perhaps at its best in bright sunshine and covered snow. So by pure happenstance I've ticked off 2 things on my bucket list; go to Norway and go to the Arctic Circle. Going to the Arctic Circle was not as I had imagined, flying there you just don't get the same sense of occasion so I'm still looking
forward to actually crossing the line and standing on the Arctic Circle. The other thing I didn't get to see is the Northern Light, the first night was snowy and cloud covered, the second day was promising as the skies were clear and the forecast for the lights was good but I missed them. I waited for it to get properly dark (about 8:30pm) and drove out of town to remove light pollution effects but some cloud rolled in there was an orangey glow in the sky but nothing like I was expecting so packed up and went back to my lodgings. I tried again at about 3am, conditions were perfect but there was no show. My colleague who lives there said that the sky cleared and lights were good at about 10pm so I missed them by a couple of hours. The takeaway for me is that the lights aren't there all the time something I hadn't really considered properly .... but now I have an excuse for a return trip during the winter months.

There's a couple of things happening that may serve to derail or curtail my plans, the first is potential for a new job back in the UK. If I get it, I'll be moving house starting a new job in a different country in a part of the UK I have never been before about 3 weeks before I'm due to leave for Norway which is less than ideal. The second is that moving house and trying to pursue my Sealed Knot interests will leave me short of leave for the rest of the year, I can work around it but the reality is that 21 days may just be too long.

I've been thinking about a new bike as well. I chanced upon a review of the new Triumph Tiger 1200 and really like the look of it so have been wrestling with the idea of swapping my aging Pan European for a brand new Triumph. Its a classic head vs heart thing but with the potential for a house move August, maybe I should hold off on the decision, also attending the Pan Gathering kind of assumes you are going to turn up on a Pan European so changing the bike at the moment might not be the best idea.
 




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