Little Pixy Boots on Shop: Shopping in Norway

A white Christmas in Norway

Pardon for the late post... I've been busy with Christmas, New Year's and my birthday today. As much as I want to spend the whole day lying in the arms of my loving Viking Man, I got up from my slumber to finish this post.

I wanted to first write about Christmas shopping, but ended up side-tracking to my knitting experience. But hey, the first thing you need to know about shopping in Norway is - don't expect the big shopping centres that you can find in Tokyo, Bangkok or Singapore. I'm not a big shopping fan, but even I miss the usual hustle and bustle of the busy shopping places like Takashimaya and Bugis Street in Singapore. It was nice just to do window shopping and enjoy the colourful sight of clothes and wares in Singapore.

Bugis Street as seen from the eyes of Tor Eigeland

Here in Norway, I feel that almost every shopping centre of the vicinity carry the same branches of H&M, Cubus and Dressman. Perhaps the closest resemblance to the modern shopping centres in Singapore is the Sandvika Storsenter. But as Norwegians say, it's on the other side (Western) side of the Oslo fjord and far away from where I live. The "western" side also implies that it belongs to the wealthier part of the society.

Sandvika Storsenter (which means Sandvika "big centre")

Now living on the eastern side of the Oslo fjord doesn't mean I'm poor, but since I'm trying to be thrifty in the most expensive city in Europe (and some say the world), I got more into DIY. This, of course, makes Christmas gift-shopping a creative endeavour. Norwegians actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, with gift-opening on Christmas eve evening, which almost sounds like a heresy to Americans and British worldwide.

Now, having grown up in a traditional Chinese family with no Christian tradition whatsoever, I was clueless how Christmas gift-giving would be. In Singapore, Christmas was a light celebration with friends because two of my friends' birthdays fell on Christmas Day and two days after. We had always exchanged gifts that cost no more than SGD 10, just for fun. Therefore the gifts I brought to Viking Man's family was a grand total of *two* relatively cheap gifts from UK.

Imagine my embarrassment when I found out that the unstated expectation was to fill up the space under the Christmas tree with presents, even if they are just chocolates, sweets or marzipan wrapped up as gifts. I presented my two gifts happily, only to find out that I was receiving many more presents in return. The total sum of my presents must have exceeded the amount for the family.

The mountain of gifts below the tree...

So in 2010, determined not to lose out (yes, the typical Singaporean "kiasu" scared-to-lose spirit still lies active in me), I prepared one month in advance to give my hubby all that he needs and more. I decided to challenge myself with a new hobby - knitting! Yes, Norway is a country where knitted clothes are very practical for -20 degree Celsius winter. I thought Viking Man would be impressed when he receives my first ever knitted piece of love (which he was). On top of that I had to juggle work, Norwegian language classes, and long-distance commuting while hiding my knitting from him.

As a kid, I was never a big fan of knitting because it always seemed so technically complicated with its own Da-Vinci code of knots and bobs. Yet one evening, inspired by a knitting shop's Christmas window display, I popped in and asked in my broken Norwegian:

"Jeg lurer på om jeg kan knit a lue." (I wonder if I can knit a beanie hat)

The world of wool

Oops, I didn't know the words for "knit", which is "å strikke" in Norwegian. I gave up struggling with Norwegian after that and started asking in English for wool and "whatever" I would need. The shop lady knitted me the first round of the "lue", gave me some strange looking needles and told me to knit "two rights and two wrongs". I ran to class muttering "two rights and two wrongs" under my breath without understanding what they meant, but I knew they were important.

Later I found out from my knitting mentor that it meant two knit stitches and two purl stitches (which goes the opposite direction of the knit stitch). "Wrong" in Norwenglish (Norwegian English) means "opposite". And my knitting mentor is - *drumroll* - my bridesmaid, who is a gym instructor, of all people! Apparently in Norway, all teenagers were taught to knit in school, even the boys. My bridesmaid, J, happens to be passionate about knitting even though she's an extroverted fitness role model who used to be a professional dancer.

Yes, it's not only old grannies who are knitting experts in Norway.

My first attempt at knitting was full of mistakes and challenges, because J is a busy woman and I had to find other sources to rescue me from my "wrongs". Fortunately my colleague pointed me to a knitting shop "Strikkedilla" in Oslo City, one of the biggest shopping centres in the centre of Oslo. It became my refuge whenever I needed guidance, extra needles or simply an experienced eye and hand to correct my mistakes. I actually didn't even know which part of the beanie I was knitting and needed to ask a lot of questions before I could understand. It also took a lot of reassurance from the knitting experts that I (they) would be able to undo any mistake I made.

I regret not choosing a brighter colour for the lue,
but that gives me an excuse to knit another!
(P.S. pardon the untidy desk)

The week before Christmas, I managed to tough it out despite my doubts about my knitting ability and the lue's colour, size and shape. The lue was completed late at night after everyone had gone to bed. When Viking Man saw it on Christmas, he was touched by my knitting but later commented that the shape was rather like a sotong (squid).

Other than my knitting adventure, I was also on the lookout for presents to my other friends too. In Norway, it is common to have Christmas markets in late November and December but I kept missing out on those because they are held only on certain days in certain locations, which requires some research before December.

The Christmas market in Barcelona

However before this past Christmas I managed to attend a Christmas market by happy coincidence - I went to Barcelona and happened to walk into a Christmas market just outside La Sagrada Familie, a famous church designed by Gaudi. I was so glad that I purchased many smalls gifts there for my friends, including a Santa Claus on skis as a small present to my knitting mentor.

Little Christmas tree ornaments

Awww...aren't they sweet?

Hehe... looking at the photos from the "rojak" Christmas photo post makes me realise that I have indeed a more festive Christmas time in Norway. It's a classic place to experience Christmas - snow, wooden huts, pine forests, Santa Claus, real Christmas trees. Best of all, there is a fireplace with real log wood to burn and give warmth to the whole house. Ahhh..... what better life could one ask for?

Have a great New Year, everyone!

pixy

N.B. Some photos are taken from the internet.