The Nürnberg Christmas Market

The best star on the stand this year!

19th December, Nürnberg, 2008

My favourite day in the run-up to Christmas.

Six Sternstunden

It was lovely to have the Christmas market to look forward to on my return to Germany, and by selling handmade stars for charity I rediscovered my soul that I feared I had left behind in Norway.

I actually realised I had my soul back while I was walking the ten-minute walk from the market place to my flat, at midnight when the others had to get on to trams and into cars to drive home.
I think that it had actually been returning all evening with all the special experiences of meeting generous people and being with my colleagues for six hours. There had been children emptying their purses to the last Cent and adults to the last Euro. Teenagers giving all except the bus-fare home and one especially memorable young man who blessed us all and walked away as pleased with the experience and his star as we were.

I have mentioned the market and this stand in a previous posting, in November, the day that I work there being one of my favourite days in Advent. The stars are all made by children in kindergartens and schools, and are sold in Nürnberg. Throughout the Advent time the local TV station shows where the money is used, and advertise other Sternstunde fund-raising events.
Last year the charity that I do a lot of work with opened an integrated crèche and was given 2000 Euros from Sternstunde for equipment.

The star stand is actually one of very few stands on this Christmas market selling hand-crafted objects. Many of the others are offering glittery Christmas decorations, traditional wooden decorations (the more expensive ones are probably handmade), many food stalls with traditional fare such as fruit cake and painted gingerbread biscuits and hearts, boiled sweet corn and of course the usual sausages in rolls, and Gluhwein.

Zwetschgenmännle

There is an abundance of stands selling handmade Zwetschgenmännle. These colourful figures are made from dried fruits and nuts and are dressed in a range of uniforms or Trachten. These are completely edible but because they are so beautiful I doubt whether anyone ever eats them. I watched two very young boys discussing with their grandmother which one they would buy and which had the nicest face. Checking out the faces is the most important thing to consider when buying, as each hand-painted face has a very different expression, which is mainly in the eyes.

Transported back to Hamar

While wandering around the huge Nürnberg market I was transported back to Hamar, to its first Christmas market, that I visited for the opening. I was once more reminded of the very traditional Christmas that they were preparing for, and I was glad to be warmed by the alpaca shawl that I had bought there as a present to myself.

Nourishing the Seele with bits-in-between

Now I have to get dressed up in my bike gear go shopping and find a Christmas tree to carry back in the trailer.

Afterwards I need to make my Christmas cards and compose a Christmas letter. It is time for lots of bits-in-between to feed the conductive Seele and to regain some energy before the 26th December when I begin with conductive upbringing once more.

Notes

Christmas Market - http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/11/chocolate-box-city.html

Six Sternstunden – I mean “six star filled hours”

Sternstunde - a charity in Bavaria selling stars for donations on the Nürnberg christams market: http://www.bayernlb.de/internet/en/meta/BayernLB/gesell/sternstu/sternstu.html

Gluhwein – mulled wine

Zwetschgenmännle – small figures created from dried fruit and nuts, dressed in uniforms such as nurses and postmen, as footballers musicians, gnomes, and elderly couples on a bench.

Trachten – traditional German costume.

Seele - soul

Hamar to Oslo by train

Hamar, December 2008


I have decided to answer a comment thatI received to my last posting as a new post rather than as a further comment, because it tells the story of my last few hours in Norway.

I had a lie-in this morning and actually woke just as it was getting light. The colours in the sky were amazing, there was even a touch of ceruleum blue, maybe just about enough to make a sailor a pair of trousers,and there was a hint of sunshine, but for a few minutes.

A few hours of daylight at last for painting

I cleaned up and packed and then had a whole hour at the kitchen table, painting the view over the lake to the distant hills, with the branches of the silver birches in the foreground now black, and dark purplely/blue patches showing through the melting snow on the hills.

I actually painted the view six times so that I could give each of the "team" at the Centre a very small thank-you for their tremendous support over the past few weeks. I feel like I have been there for months, so I knew it was going to be a difficult "Aufwiedersehen".

Until we meet again

I went up to the centre to join the team for Christmas lunch and lots of laughs before Angel Lill took me to the train. While she was holding my arm, escorting me over the black ice I had to think of my mum who in the last few weeks of her life always hooked her hand into my brother-in-law's arm. I am not quite as old as my mum, but I found walking on the ice very difficult. I think that if you don't grow up with ice and snow you do not really get used to walking on it. My whole body tenses up, which is a real danger and an invitation for broken bones.

So this brings the story to the point when I said my goodbyes at the Centre and, as the comment on the last posting indicates, it wasn't easy. In fact, it would have been easier for me to turn right around and walk back in and actually miss the flight!

This made it even more special to find that comment on my blog as I got back into my cold flat! Thank you "Wenche the waffle-maker"!

Yes, it was very difficult to leave, luckily I had the most amazing train journey to Oslo to fill me with even more wonder and inspire more painting. The lake looked gorgeous, the sky was amazing, the birch and the spruce trees dark and imposing and the train was like something out of the Hamar train museum. It had old green checked-cloth seats and real wooden coat hangers to hang the long winter coats on. The journey was such a last-minute treat that it helped to stem the tears, with Angel Lill driving alongside over the bridge for the first few minutes, I don't think she could see me still standing waving like mad at the window!

Sir Alf and a dictionary

It is very nice, Wenche, that you noticed that I had not had time on Wednesday morning to search the Internet to fill in the notes section on the carolling posting. I doubt whether I would have found such a comprehensive biography of Sir Alf. I hadn't realised that it was he who wrote Mrs Pepperpot.

I had actually been searching for something about him at the airport bookshop but had no luck. I did however find a copy of the very good English-Norwegian dictionary that you have in your office. I bought it. Whatever could that mean?

I expect that it probably means that the next time I sit around a table with you all I would like to understand all the jokes and not just think I understand them. I want to be able to talk to the children about dinosaurs and not only teach them how to draw them, I would like to go to a Norwegian carolling concert and not just the English one, and I would like more than anythng to go to a Norwegian theatre!

Christmas Wishes

I wish you (the waffle-making mum) and the saxophinist, the boat-builder, the two NICE angels, Girl Friday, the voice of Stinky Stig and the rest of the team, a wonderful, relaxing holiday and a successful new year. I wish all of us another fun time around the lunchtime table, very, very soon!

Notes

Aufwiedersehen - until we next meet

Carolling in Hamar

"Two Norfolkmen meet", 16th December 2008

So much has been happening these past few days that I have had no time to write about it all.

Not just more bits in between, and lots of fun and joy in the group, but also the more serious stuff like writing reports, consultations with parents and lovely “mentoring” chats with Nice Angels Lill and Marthe. There have also been more “bits in between for conductors”, lots of invitations to meet people and get a taste of Norwegian life.

I have fallen more and more in love with the place each day I am here, the wonderful darkness that turns to wonderful colours, and a few hours of daylight each day. Rime frost and deep snow. I am very reluctant to leave, especially the more interesting my life here becomes.

Yesterday I was treated to a saxophone concert by 11-year-old boy and witnessed a paper-boat-making marathon by his younger brother, all this while eating waffles with the most peculiar-looking goats cheese and bringebaer syltetöy (raspberry jam). The goats cheese looks like Caramac chocolate and does actually taste a little bit like it. I have no idea how it is made but it is certainly an acquired taste that I seem to have acquired.

Here we go a-carolling

This evening was the absolute highlight of my short stay in Norway. I rushed off after work for a meal with another new Norwegian acquaintance and then collected from the restaurant by the waffle-making mum of yesterday's saxophonist and the boat-builder.. We set off to meet more acquaintances at the Storhamar kirke (church), to attend an English Carol concert. This concert is quite famous in Hamar and today was the 29th occasion that English teacher Ian Watering has organised pre-Christmas carolling in Hamar. What was especially surprising was that this English teacher actually comes from Norwich, my home town.

I was introduced to him by two of his students of 30 and 15 years ago and we immediately lapsed into Norfolk dialect, which was like a foreign language to the Norwegians! With this immediate rapport this very tall English gentleman asked me if I would take part in his carol service and read some verses of the Christmas story from the Bible. Of course I did it. It was such an honour for me and a great pleasure to stand in front of this friendly crowd of people and take part in traditional English Christmas celebrations for the first time in many years.

I spent a few minutes thinking about my mum who would have loved to have been standing there with me, singing at the top of her voice, and of my sister with whom, as a school girl, I had learnt all the words to the carols: no carol sheet for me!

Sneak advert!

Below I have reproduced part of an article in the local paper a few days before the concert. Words written by Ian Watering the English caroller to a melody written by Alf Pröysen.

“Yea, sure you’ve washed the floorboards and carried in the logs,
You’re feeling kinda cool, man, dressed in yer casual togs.
You’ve done the kitchen stuff, like
Bought in the Christmas hog,
It’s time to put your feet up ‘nd ‘ave a glas of glog.

But there’s still a naggin’ feelin’ that
Somefink’s not quite right.
There’s still a place you shoulda been on this cold Advent night.
You ponder an’ you wonder , yer mind begins to search,
“Eureka, now I’ve got it it’s carols in the church.

For those who been there earlier,
You know what it’s about,
You’ve sung with heart and soul
And might, of that there is no doubt,
But if you’ve never been before, just
Join the mighty queue,
You’re welcome to the motley gang,
The Christmas carol crew!

Alas the local papers won't admit
this ad for free,
They won’t give time or place or date
Without the usual fee.
So’s usual we’ll have to do it veree secret-lee,
And hope that all our carollers will dee-cipher the key.

The place, as always, is the great Big Hammer Church.
And if you know not where that is
Just ask or pray or search.
The hour again as always is the opposite of “hell”,
And if you don’t know what that is,
gGive Ian Watering a bell.

You’ve got the time, you’ve got the
place, but still don’t know the day.
It’s always on a Tuesday, and this
Year too, oh yea!
It’s twixt fifteen and seventeen my
Teacher used to say,
If you can find a rhyme for sixteen,
Please let me know, I pray.

Apologies to Sir Alf.”


Notes

Alf Pröysen - http://www.konduktorin.blogspot.com/

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7704425219270767105&postID=6097667742935892630&page=1

Newspaper

Hamar Arbeiderblad, 12 December 2008. http://www.h-a.no/

Caramac chocolate -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramac

Pink sky at night

15th December 2008, 01.30 am.

I woke in the night and just had to paint!

Only two days left in this land of darkness and there are many things that I shall miss, one of them being the amazing effects of the light and the snow and the cold, cold air as they play together.

Smiley bits in between the bits in between.

I saw these two scenes while walking home from town last night, both made me smile.

Minis and minus

Don't forget, the temperature is between minus 5 and minus 18 this week but, as in every town on a Saturday night two weeks before Christmas, dressing up comes first!

Snowed in

I cycle everywhere in Germany and last year I didn't miss one day because of the weather. I would love to have my mountain bike here and try it out on the snow just as I used to in my early years in Germany when we often had 30 centimetres or more.

Perhaps it would be safer for me to try the wonderful scooter sledges that I have seen in town where you scoot along with a child or your shopping on the seat in front.

“Bits in between” for conductors

Some of the bits in between, 13th December 2008

Conductors need their “bits in between” too, especially after working for two weeks, ten hours each day, including Sunday!

I think I can quite honestly say that I have never in my life so wished for Friday to come, so that I could have a break from work. As a self-employed conductor I often work at the weekends too and I feel very lucky that I can go to work each day wanting to walk through the door and get on with it,

But this weekend I was glad of a day off, as I really needed some “bits in between” for myself. I needed to get out in the fresh air, get to know my surroundings in the daylight, get my bearings, see what Hamar looks like, learn a little bit about Norwegian life and for a few hours forget about en, tu, tre, fire, fem!

Le Louvre in Hamar

On Friday evening, when I was walking in the cold wind beside the lake with the mum of one of the Nice angels, I saw the old ruins that are covered with a glass pyramid. I have seen photographs taken of these ruins before the beautiful glass structure was erected over them, when they looked like any ruins anywhere in the world. Now, looking very much like the central construction in the Louvre, they have been turned into a work of art!

In the evening darkness, with candles burning along the snow-covered pathways, the light was amazing, reflecting off the glass, off the snow and off the water that could be heard lapping against the shore. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing, which dropped the actual temperature by several degrees. The flag on the green beside the house where I am living has been flying in the wind for several days now, and this makes a less pleasant type of coldness. No good for English skin, turning it into sand paper if I forget the moisturiser! It is reminiscent of the lazy east wind at home on the Norfolk coast, which instead of going round you blows straight through you.

A peaceful Norwegian advent

I spent the rest of the evening walking through the fairy-tale streets of Hamar, enjoying the company of my new-found friend and learning a bit of Norwegian.

With the streets full of snow and dimly lit, my imagination was running wild. I expected to see Santa’s little helpers on their scooter-likesledges, hurrying about their business, rushing in and out of the narrow streets.

I think that this must be Christmas at its least commercial. In comparison to England and Germany, with all the hustle and bustle and crowded streets, Hamar was radiating the peace that Christmas is all about. Quiet streets, no bumping shoulders, lots of smiles and time for chatting on the corner.

Trains, train, trains

On Saturday came the “bits in between” that I have been looking forward too since my arrival, actually since I was told about it in Hungary at the beginning of November.

Hamar has a wonderful railway museum, the Jernbanemuseum, and this was my destination on Saturday morning. I was kindly collected from “home” by a colleague and dropped off at the door of the musuem. Being winter and snowy and cold, the outdoor exhibits are not open but there was enough to keep me busy for a couple of hours before the return of the same lady and her most charming boys, who had invited me to lunch.

TLC

The exhibits are lovingly put together and I was transported back to bygone times and away from work, exactly what the doctor ordered. All the aches and pains and tiredness disappeared as I looked longingly at the suitcases embroidered with locos, saw the station clocks and luxurious railway carriages. This all reminded me that one day I will make that journey on the Orient Express.

I am also determined to return to Hamar to work one day, if only to take the boys from work to the railway museum in the summer when we can walk around outside and picnic by the lake.

My Dad

While I waited for my lunch date, the other charming boys, to return from their Christmas shopping I had time to write a postcard to my Dad who is actually responsible for my fascination with trains. He was my childhood hero, as much for being a engine-driver as for being my dad. He drove steam, diesels and electrics, travelling for most of 49 years between Norwich and London.

I used to lovedbeing taken “down the loco”, to breath in the smells of trains, see the turntable and enjoy the general blackness and smokiness of the place. Dad’s old fireman’s uniform (cleaned of course) complete with flat cap with plastic cape at the back, was in our dressing up box. It was always a difficult choice for me, I could never decide between this and the 1920s velvet dresses that had belonged to my grandma and her sisters.

My sis usually went for Mum’s cream crepe wedding dress and I was more often than not to be seen as a British Rail fireman, with the dog dressed as a postman because he loved to wear the hat!

I could be describing our activities in the conductive group on Thursday, dressed up and singing carols!

My Christmas present

Back to today’s “bits in between”. After relaxing with the trains and learning about traditional Norwegian Christmas over lunch, I ventured alone to the Christmas market, following the St. Lucia procession along the high street. The market is not at all like the German ones that I am used to. It is sell nothing but homemade articles, both food and craft-work. I had decided that I would buy my Christmas present here if I found anything thatI liked and needed. I found a lovely cerise and black alpaca shawl which is the warmest article of clothing I now own, apart from perhaps my New Zealand possum socks.

For many years I have made all the Christmas presents that I give to other people and thenbuy something for myself. This year I have given myself something to remind me of this happy time in Hamar.

The angel in each of us

December the 13th is St. Lucia day. I have known the song about her for most of my life but I am ashamed to say that I had no idea who St. Lucia was, until this week when I learnt about it from Ellen the “lady Friday” at the centre. She told me about the light procession, the St. Lucia bread and the concert to be given at the opening of the market. The children braved the cold and sang beautifully looking just like the angels Petö is said to have believed each of us have inside us. I would like to believe it too.

Notes

En, tu, tre, fire, fem – one, two, three, four, five.

NICE angels – my nick-name for the conductors I am working with who were trained at the National Institute for Conductive Education, Birmingham, UK.

Church ruins under glass - Domkirkeodden http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domkirkeruinene_p%C3%A5_Hamar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Ruins_in_Hamar

Railway museum, Hamar - Jernbanemuseum

http://www.norsk-jernbanemuseum.no/index.htm

TLC - tender loving care

St. Lucia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lucy

Tusen takk!

"No knives and forks, angel Lill and snow angel " Hamar, 2008

Only minus eight today!

A big thank you to the Hamar parents for a wonderful, conductive upbringing, lunchtime grill out in the snow!

As promised, on Thursday lunchtime we got treated to lunch outside with both the starters and the dessert being lots of sledging and rolling around in the snow.

The snowsuit programme as part of the "daily routine"!

At eleven fifteen after a wonderful lying programme, a dinosaur lesson and drinks, we got mountains of thermal tights, snowsuits, socks, gloves, scarves and hats into the room and started on a massive dressing up programme.

It is really difficult to put boots on when you have already put on so many layers that you are starting to move like a penguin. When a child has spasticity in his arms or legs imagine the effort needed to get those last layers of clothes on when it is getting virtually impossible to bend any part of the body!

We had a couple of children who got their clothes on for the first time alone, much to the surprise of their parents who were around to take the insulated children outside while Lill and I could start our mammoth dressing routine. It takes ages, but well worth it to get out in the chill, clear air and the daylight, still no sunshine though.

Doing the penguin waddle

When Lill and I were finally ready and all bundled up it was onto the sledges or out with the walking sticks with spikes and down to the lakeside grill, those who were on foot waddling rather than walking!

I have never seen a child with snow spikes on his sticks before, a few of my stroke clients in Germany have them but the children there usually hop into a wheel chair and get someone to push them when it is very icy! The child who had the snow spikes on his sticks today also does cross country sking which he learns at school. Most children in Norway are born with skis on their feet and it seems that even those with a physical disability get the opportunity to learn!

We didn't have far to go for our lunch and rounding the bend there was a delightful cosy opening in the woods with two gapehytte (lean-tos) and a bål (bonfire), surrounded by slopes for sledging which were just steep enough to encourage screams, to overturn the sledges and get faces full of snow. Slippery enough to make scrambling up again very difficult especially for me with a child in tow.

Each and every one of us took a tumble, but there was not a tear in sight, just smiling, snowy faces and rosy cheeks, and huge appetites.

Pigs in blankets

The dads in charge got the fire glowing just right for grilling and gave the call to come to eat. All the children took a seat on the wooden benches and were given a sharpened stick to put their sausage on. All of them grilled their own sausages over the fire and I being vegetarian grilled my banana, we then wrapped them in traditional flat Pinnebrød (pancake-like bread) to eat them.

The scene reminded me of szalonnasütés in the summer in Hungary.

The children took themselves off into the lean-to to play while the adults ate their fill then it was off onto the slopes again. More sledging and walking through the forest until the light began to fade and a few of us (me included) began to freeze.

Snow Angels

I hope we are giving the boys lots of exciting experiences, encouraging parents to get them bundled up and outside. I am experiencing all sorts new things all made possible by the children's enthusiasm and my angel Lill. Lill got me on the front of her sledge and took me down to the bonfire for lunch, I screamed as loud as I could and didn't fall off. Later two of the boys, who had no wish to return indoors, helped Lill show me how to make snow angels (see photo).

Back inside for a sitting-come-standing programme, we creatively built a bonfire, stuck plasticine sausages onto a baton and proceeded to show Stinky Stig what he had missed. He had been sleeping in the warmth of the centre and had missed all the fun. Lill and I got the blame for forgetting to wake him , he had therefore not been with us in the snow.

Thank you mums and dads for making the fun possible, hopefully we will get one more chance next week to enjoy the clear, crisp outside before we all make our separate ways home for Christmas.

Notes

No knives and forks

We are teaching the children to eat with a knife and fork. n Tuesday they turned up with a demonstration placard with a drawing of a plate and a knife and fork with a big cross through the middle. No chance boys, unless we are having grilled sausages out in the snow!

tusan takk (Norwegian) - thank you very much/ a thousand thanks

szalonnasutesnasütés (Hungarian) - grilling pig fat over a fire with garlic and eating it with bread.

snow angels

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_angel

Stinky Stig

http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/11/name-that-dino-in-one-two-three-four.html

Angels in the snow

Hamar, 9th December 2008

Minus 18 - conductive upbringing with 14 rosy cheeks.

Shall we, shan't we?

Yesterday Angel Lill and I promised our six lovely boys an afternoon in the snow. Overnight the trees had turned fairytale-white, turning the world into a Christmas card (I was out with freezing fingers photographing them at 11.30 pm), and the temperature dropped to minus 18.

This morning Lill and I arrived at work prepared with all the gear, and at nine o’clock the parents came in looking very concerned, asking whether we were still planning to brave the elements. I had had a little experience of twenty degrees below zero in my first years in Germany but I have no idea how these temperatures affect these children. I told the parents that it was their decision and we could go out on another afternoon if necessary - after all, we are conductors, and therefore flexible!

We left it at that and after lunch all the children had decided for themselves, the temperature had risen to minus 9, which was warm enough for these hardened Vikings. All arrived warmed from their hot lunches, looking like teddy bears, wrapped up in so many layers that they were twice their normal size. Lill and I did the same, I donned in all her spare scarves and ear- warmers and it was out in the white wilderness.

Working together, out in the snow...

I have been sledging before, but only once in my life, at the age of 32 in Szentes, Hungary. I had been pulled along by the father of a fellow conductor and shown how to sledge downhill by my colleague János. I remember to this day the thrill of speeding downhill, screaming my head off and landing in the soft snow, so it was a delight for me to offer the same experience to “my” six Norwegian boys.

Of course snow is a everyday sight for these children but there was one who had never been on a sledge before. He did just fine and found it as exciting as I had done in Szentes those many years ago. As I sit and write this I can feel the ache in my back but it had been well worth pulling two sledges at once just to see the smiles, hear the screams, see faces covered in snow, and see the rosy cheeks. I wonder whether they too could feel their nostrils freeezing!

A few of the mums and dads joined us. One has offered to build a fire in a willow shelter beside the lake and grill sausages for the children’s lunch tomorrow. I can’t wait. I am more excited than the children. This is apparently a very traditional Norwegian custom in the winter and much more exciting than a summer-time barbeque.

...then back indoors

Today the group really started to work together, which made it possible to do all sorts of lovely bits of in-between stuff (as you may have seen from reading my blog, the favourite parts of my work are the 'bits in between', the enjoying-life bits).

I actually got Angel Lill on to the spare plinth today, working alongside the children, and I ran around facilitating them all. Tomorrow I have told them all thwill bemy turn to get on to the plinth, but Angel Lill says Noit is not as we have a visitor! Maybe on Friday!

After today’s plinth programme we did our standing tasks at the plinth, where we then we had a go at forming dinosaurs from bread dough made for us by the lovely Ellen. The dinosaurs had raisons for eyes and armour plate. It had been only the promise this afternoon of eating the freshly baked bread which tempted the boys in from their icy playground.

They didn’t want to come in doors at all, but the smell of bread wafting out to them was just too tempting and just as the sun was setting, at 2.30 pm, we were back indoors tasting our produce. Today was a day made up entirely of bits in-between, lots of smiles, good food and really healthy faces.

I'm so loving it

As have said so often, I love my work and I think that this time I may be near to tears when I have to leave these children and my NICE angels in just seven days' time.

Until then we are going to make the most of it, tomorrow its grilled sausages by an open fire at the lakeside, on Monday the other group is joining us to make marcipan dinosaurs with a chocolate coating, and we still have our “dinosaur’s love underpants” play to rehearse and perform.

Lill and I are exhausted (I actually fell asleep in the office over the computer both the last two evenings) but my six boys are banging on the door to come in in the mornings which makes it all worthwhile. I can recover back home under the Christmas tree for a week before the next conductive upbringing continues in northern Germany, on 26th December, with preparations for the next art exhibition!

PS I was actually quite impressed with myself this afternoon, as I was pulling two sledges at once and actually running on snow and ice without falling over. This is quite a feat for one of the older conductors amongst us, one who was brought up on the east coast of England where hardly a snow flake is ever seen in winter!

Conductive upbringing at its best

Sunset, 2.30 pm, Hamar, 9th December 2008

"Driving along in a big red car what did you see today?"

I have just received a mail from a family in Germany who, I can honestly say, are one of my few examples of conductive upbringing at its best.

I mentioned the child, now a young adult in a blog that I posted in April this year called "On the road to orthofunction", She had just passed her theory driving test. Well, yesterday I received news via Mum that the four-year-old I once knew is now the proud owner of a full driving license and is driving her own automatic car.

This family havs done everything that they can to keep their expectations, as high for this daughter as for their other three children (now two doctors and a financial wizard). The whole family has followed a conductive upbringing since before I met them in 1994.

I worked within the family home, at first once every month for a week, slowly decreasing this as school commitments increased, to what happens these days, emails and phone calls between myself and Mum.

As you can imagine, the whole family is delighted with this new "Michael Schaumacher": what better Christmas present could they wish for? Knowing how much work has gone into getting this driving license, not only during the past seven months but also over the past 18 years, gives me a far nicer feeling in my soul than achieving five hundred blogs ever could!

Congratulations, I wish I was with you, as I have been at Advent time for many years, to join the celebrations.

All the way from Norway I wish you a peaceful Advent time and remember with pleasure the hours that many years ago we spent preparing Christmassy pictures for the windows, that I imagine are still hung up each year.

Notes

"Driving along in a big red bus"
Children's song

On the road to orthofunction
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-road-to-orthofunction.html

All I want for Christmas…

Northern light , December 2008 by Susie Mallett

I just published my only wish for Christmas, my hundredth posting on my blog.

The "Oscar" acceptance speech

Thank you for the present,

Thank you purple-spotters for reading,

Thank you to all my conductive teachers, colleagues and mentors for supporting,

Thank you to all my clients for inspiring.

Thank you too to Nick, my art teacher, 1975, for showing me how to draw and therefore how to keep my soul healthy.

Notes

All I want for Christmas is a hundred blogs!
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-i-want-for-christmas-is.html

The present
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/03/little-black-dress.html