‘I’ll be away’ is starting to be a pain.  I’m organising a festival at the moment and to make a festival happen you need people, lots of people.  However, this time of year is the ‘I’ll be away’ season.  Spain, Brazil, Thailand, Africa, Sweden and France are just some of the places my friends, family and acquaintances are travelling to in these next few weeks.

The ‘I’ll be away’ season is always about two months after Christmas when the Winter is getting a little boring and the sun isn’t warm enough.  People feel the pang to get out of the cold and into a plane for a warmer destination.  They call it ‘Winter Holiday’ but only the schools (not universities) have a week off.  This is like a mini-holiday before the Easter Holidays – a holiday to go find some warm sun to put some spring back into your walk to last the rest of the cold.  I often feel the ‘call to sun’ but have never really done anything about it, just suffered through.  I think next year I will join the Norwegians in their sunshine getaway.  I’m thinking Rome.

Living a Norwegian life is also about holidaying other countries.