It is less than four hours on the train from Geilo back to Oslo and an almost cloudless sunny day for it. But let’s tear ourselves away from vistas of forest and lake.
Let’s talk of something practical, namely ‘fridge doors. They always have a lower shelf that looks specially made to take bottles of wine. It’s so convenient to have them upright and to hand when you open the door, isn’t it? The nearer they are to the door handle the more convenient; a bottle of Champagne on the go is always a welcome sight.
Well, what you see is a disaster waiting to happen. After a few years the pressure of the weight of bottles on the door hinges takes its toll and they break. The heavier the bottle (Champagne) and the further from the hinge the sooner this will happen. New hinges are not expensive but sourcing the right ones and getting them fitted is almost as expensive as buying a new ‘fridge. I know, I learnt the hard way.
So where to stash the booze? Easy-peasy, in the useless well that’s supposed to be for salad and veg. There is room for more bottles and they are stored upright. A cucumber is just the right shape, size and weight for the fridge door, on its way to be sliced for a summery gin and tonic.
Another Top Tip is to keep a Tupperware box filled up with ice in the ice box. The ice can be bought in a shop to save time fiddling round with ice trays and it is much cheaper than buying a huge ‘fridge with an ice maker.
Kingsley Amis advised having a ‘fridge specially devoted to the storage of drinks. I think this is unnecessary so long as you only store the minimum of food.
On the subject of food, I have with-held something from you and now feel that it should be picked up from the cutting room floor and screened. I mentioned our pleasure at seeing minke whales frolicking alongside our ship (Lazy Sunday). A similar whale, having handed in his dinner pail, re-appeared on my dinner plate in Bergen. Thinly sliced and described as being carpaccio of whale, it leads me to suppose that one quite tiny whale goes a long way in the Norwegian restaurant trade. It looked like a slice of well done beef – brown, not pink. It tasted much the same. For once I am not opinionated. I do not know the rights and wrongs of killing whales, except to say that it is probably more complicated than the Green Peace lobby make out.
Many years ago, out of ignorance, I instinctively opposed shooting stags and coursing hares. The former is legal in the UK and the latter illegal but both, as I now know, are justified. More than justifiable, they protect the species that you might think they are trying to destroy. I do not know if this is the case for hunting whales but I will not condemn it out of ignorance, nor will I show you another whale picture. Instead here is sunny Oslo.
