Berit & Chris's weblog

Winter in Britain

Yesterday evening, we finally saw the first feeble snowfall of the year. It barely covered the ground, but it fast caused a great deal of excitement and frenzy in our road from students desperately trying to form snowballs with what little building material they could find!

Despite all the anticipation, however, not even the British weather could overshadow the political events of the last 24 hours. The long awaited publication of the Hutton report into the circumstances surrounding the death of weapons expert, Dr Kelly, caused much political and media intrigue, and its conclusion, which largely cleared the Government, MoD and the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing, and criticised the BBC and the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme for wrongly attacking the integrity of the Government, resulted in the resignation of prominent BBC directors. Having studied British politics, this was indeed a fascinating show to watch.

This morning, desperate to experience the little snow we had had the previous evening, I had a long walk on the Downs. Parts of the Downs beautifully overlook the Bristol Suspension Bridge and the Avon Gorge. The Avon Gorge and the Downs, which is understandably popular with joggers, picnickers and sightseers, was once a meadow grazed by sheep and cattle. Now, it is a favourite subject of painters, and the Gorge has been designated Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its rare insects, mammals, and birds.

Arctic Winter approaching

I am waiting in great anticipation! For over a week now the news and weather reports have been talking about one thing…the fast approaching arctic winter about to hit Britain at any time. When the news hit the headlines last week, I watched in wonderment how it drew the British closer together, and suddenly found myself chatting about it with our lovely post lady and the checkout staff at ASDA. I became increasingly bewildered when I leaned that the arctic conditions about to hit us would include temperatures down to an amazing –4 C during the night here in the South West and a truly arctic +2 C degrees during the day. Maybe even the odd snowflake. All this excitement over the weather is quite endearing, really.

Cold Mountain

Tonight, Chris and I went to watch Cold Mountain starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger. And it was fantastic!

An American Civil War epic, it depicts the journey of a Confederate deserter on his way home to his true love, a journey made treacherous by soldiers of both sides baying for the blood of the deserters. The real beauty of this film, however, is the portrayal of the women left behind when the men went to war, and the realisation of just how much life suddenly changed and families were torn apart. The film has an impressive and very well directed cast, great cinematography, and a brilliant soundtrack. In addition, it has some of the best lines – will have you crying and laughing all at once – of any film, we have seen in a long time. Well worth it!

Boat Show and ballet

We spent most of Saturday at the London Boat Show with Chris’ parents, Claire and Henrik. Unlike previous years, the boat show now takes place in London’s Docklands and stretches, it seems, for miles. The show environment features a 1,500 seat indoor windsurfing championship, life-size jetties, a waterside pub (fibreglass, but still!), yachts in numerous shapes and sizes, million pound motorboats, barges and tall ships. In addition, stalls and shops offer technical clothing, equipment and gear. In the end, I had fallen in love with a lovely 42" Sweden Yacht. Chris was slightly more realistic and seemed content with state-of-the-art navigation. Sadly, we had far too little time to explore the entire boat show and not enough money to buy anything!

Before taking our seats at the Sadler’s Wells theatre later that evening for a Matthew Boune production of the Nutcracker!, we had an enjoyable Buddhist "non-violent" vegetarian meal in Islington. Not being a ballet in the classical "swan lake" sense, Nutcracker! features a varieties of colours, a fantasy landscape setting and fabulous music. And it was a perfect ending to a lovely day.

Visit from Denmark

Well, it's been a very busy and interesting week! My Danish thesis partner, Maria joined me in Bristol on Sunday, and we commenced our empirical work the next day. During the week we conducted a number of interesting interviews, acquired much new information and insight. Theory is all very well, but talking to people brings situations and experiences to life. All in all a very encouraging experience, which made me think that life after uni may not be such a scary thing after all! Luckily, Maria also had time to visit some friends in Bristol, and I managed to squeeze in a little flu.

This afternoon, we're off to London with Chris' parents.

Wildlife Exhibition

Until 18 January, the City Museum & Art Gallery in Bristol is home to a very special annual exhibition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003. Chris and I decided to take a closer look earlier today. And it was amazing. The collection brings together the very best of wildlife photographs from across the world to celebrate the beauty and wonder of our natural environment.

Touring Guernsey II

Happy New Year!

We decided to do some serious sightseeing on this our last day in Guernsey. We first drove to Vale church, an ancient church, which has been a house of prayer for more than a thousand years since a priory was founded there in 968 AD as a daughter house of the Benedictine monastery of Mont S. Michel. Then we drove to Beaucette Marina to admire the boats. But the weather quickly drove us back to the car and we continued along the coast all the way around the island. We stopped at Plainmont Point, one of many places on Guernsey which still has remnants of the German occupation during World War II. Hitler planned to use Guernsey as a springboard for an invasion of Britain, and several thousand German troops were once garrisoned here.