Life in the Arctic
‘Life in the Arctic’ was the theme for October’s Open Evening which again brought along a number of guests from Asby parish and also Shap WI. The speaker, Vivienne Tregidga, dressed in regional Norwegian national dress (Bunad), described her experiences of living in Norway from November 1980 when she first set foot in the country to join her fiance 2 hours inland from Tromso and well north of the Arctic Circle. She thought she knew what she was coming to but was entirely unprepared to step out of a stuffy atmosphere in her plane onto an icy landing strip where the temperature was -42C, and then into an over-heated house all in a matter of an hour or so!
Her accounts of learning to ski, learning to speak Norwegian, cooking Norwegian dishes and coping with the November to February total darkness were both fascinating and at times hilarious. She coped with the dark days of winter by learning to crochet like all the other housewives and brought along some of her incredible work. She finished her talk by producing a traditional Norwegian cake for members to try: it was delicious and made a fitting end to a memorable evening.”
