There was a note waiting for me when I got home tonight.
“Neighbours!
Wednesday the 17th of May is the Norwegian Constitution Day. On that occasion, the boys in Number 5 are having a small party in their garden. The party will only be during the day, from about 2pm till about 10pm at the latest. At that time, the party will be moving on to The Outhouse in Broughton Street. Noise must be expected as there will probably be quite a lot of people here. We hope you will allow this as this is a very special day for us all, and it is celebrated to the fullest. You are of course all invited to join in on the fun as this is a party for everyone! We hope this celebration is of no inconvenience to any of you. See you there!
Kind regards,
The Norwegians in Number 5″
Which raised a few thoughts in my head.
A) If tomorrow is going to be a party, what have all of those other nights been?!?!
B) Is Moans Nogood in town? Sounds like his type of gig.
I had actually mentioned ‘the Norwegians next door’ to Mogens some time ago, with reference to the Oak Table. We have very open windows and no curtains and many is the night when I’ve got back to the house at 2 or 3am and they have all been sitting round their table (which may be Oak) tapping away on their laptops, some wearing headphones. Seriously, it’s like a geek’s convention! We think it’s a hacker’s gang!
Are all Scandinavians like this?
P.S. I know the answer already and some of my best friends have been Scandinavian.
P.P.S. My partner works strange shifts so tomorrow is the day when she catches up with her sleep 😉 Not.
P.P.P.S. I have a nice bottle of single malt which I’ll probably donate to the cause.
P.P.P.P.S. Happy Norwegian Constitution Day to any suitable qualified readers.
17th of May is usually celebrated as a day for children, with more ice cream than, say, beer, so you may want to save the malt to after 10pm. Before Norway got its constitution in 1814 we where in union with Denmark, so it would be funny if Mogens arranged this gig.
I am curious to know if they leave a window open and do not use keys?
Being exactly half Swedish, I know they love to party. One of my favourite parties is a crayfish party. We do it every year, but have to get everything from IKEA including the nail varnish remover. Apologies to the Scandinavians, I just don’t have a taste for it and tend to prefer the local water of life 🙂
some of my best friends have been Scandinavian
Intriguing. Did these friends finally see the light and seek Scottish citizenship ?
I wouldn’t call being Danish the same thing as ‘being Scandanavian’ at all, though I suppose it’s up to the Danes.
Calling it ‘Norwegian Day’ is a bit of a euphemism, though: as the ‘Important Dates’ item at the Dizwell Forum has it, it’s actually the day “Norway was ceded to Sweden by Dennmark, 1814”. Sounds more like pass-the-parcel than a day to celebrate a heroic liberation struggle!
I bet the Danes wish the music had stopped whilst they still had hold of the oil, though. Tsk.
Greetings to all your Scandanavian and Danish readers, anyway. I hope I haven’t upset too many of them.
“Greetings to all your Scandanavian and Danish readers, anyway. I hope I haven’t upset too many of them.”
Yes, if you don’t mind, I do the upsetting round here.
It seems to be that all Northern Europeans are just drunken geeks. Although that may be a bit of a generalisation 😉
Drunken? I beg your pardon… I’m sitting here by the oak table having a glass of quality rum after returning home from a couple of days on the Faroese Islands, which are still Danish, just like Greenland.
Norway we gave away. Too much oil anyway, which we don’t need. Sweden we gave away peacefully after having really, truly lost a war and having endured a heavy Swedish presence around Copenhagen for a while in 1652 or thereabout.
I still find it so much easier to understand the Norwegians than the Swedes, which is very embarrassing. Perhaps the Norwegians actually do belong to Denmark. We could use the mountains.
Here’s something really odd about us Danes: Every year on the Fourth of July we celebrate the American Fourth of July, complete with the presence of our queen and all, in a very nice place in Jutland called Rebild (sounds like re-build). Isn’t that both odd and wonderful?
1814 started with Norway still be in union with Denmark, then they managed to get a constitution, and later as a punishment for helping Napoleon Norway was ceded to Sweden in November same year.
The oil made us lazy, it shows that Swedish industry is better off, but the Danes are much happier though; they have probably the best beer in the world, “gammel dansk”, and a culture that looks like a merge of the Brazilian laid-back attitude and the Norwegian something-else attitude.
…”Yes, if you don’t mind, I do the upsetting round here.”
Hang on! don’t be selfish now, that’s what the comments bit of blogs is about!
Anyway, I don’t think that it’s called upsetting folk. It’s about having a good laugh at everyones (including or own) expense and some fokkers just can’t take a joke. Perhaps they should try leaving their keys at home and use a window instead 😉
Disclaimer – I accept no responsibility for the actions of this window suggestion as I understand that some people may have to climb three floors up a drain pipe and there are obvious risks if your drain pipe is old and rusty.