October 3, 2010

We started the day with some school work for the kids. They logged in to the Norwegian online school and all 3 worked hard.

And then straight out to a well deserved session in the pool.

I spent the better part of the day catching up on blogging and setting up a good infrastructure for further blog work. I’ve been struggling a bit with setting everything up but things are coming into place now. The very fast internet connection at the house is a blessing. Notice the difference in clothing style.

We had all been invited over to Benoit and his family for dinner. Benoit is a good friend of mine and a former colleague (troll). I was so engulfed by getting everything right on our website that we ran late, but we managed to get there only 20 minutes late. In France that is considered extremely punctual.

When we arrived Benoit was busy preparing barbecued lamb for us.

Benoit is a French-speaking Belgian. He and his wife have 2 lovely girls. One slightly younger than Iseline and one a bit older. They both speak French and the kids had a ball together.

The girls prepared a fire

After a great dinner

we sat outside next to the fire as it got gradually darker.

Benoit has astronomy as a hobby and had a 50cm diameter telescope standing in the garden. We got to see a double star in it during the evening.

Hélène and I also climbed on top of the house to get a great view of Silicon Valley from the roof. I took a few pictures while trying to hold the camera extremely still. Benoit had no belief in them turning into anything. Look here Benoit, not bad given the conditions, eh? (OK, I admit it’s not what I hoped it would be :-))

All in all a great and relaxing day. Tomorrow we will go visit Hal (the guy who is not going to get walnut wine, jam and liqueur) and his bee hives.

Eirik

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