RANT RANT RANT!!! To be really annoyed with my mum for changing to winter curtains yesterday, when I told her I would help her TODAY?

[QuintessentialShadow]

I see red.
Yesterday I had a really tight schedule, dropping the kids off to school, bring a letter to the post office for recorded delivery to the UK, get her groceries, appointment with the company who makes my kitchen, drop groceries home, pick up dh and go to and appointment to the police station to finalize his work permit and permission to stay, go to the language school to enrol him on his Norwegian course, appoinment in town to see a woman I know who works in a shop such as Dixons and had promised to get me a good deal on all the white and brown goods, come home and do an hour or so of work before going to school for parents evening.

She announces: TOday I will take down the summer curtains of all the windows in the living room, shake the dust out, fold, carry to the loft and hang up the winter curtains.

I say: "Mum, leave it til tomorrow please and I will help you. I have a free day tomorrow, but today is jampacked"

She says "I will see...."

She changes the curtains.
I come home around 5pm with the kids, AND she has gone and cooked our tea. She knew what I was making, as I had bought our tea at the same time as I bougth what she was having with my father.
Of course it is nice of her. BUT, I dont want her to do all this.

Today, she is in bed. Feeling exhausted, and unwell. Typical.

Why will she not listen? Why could she not wait with the bloody curtains till today?

I am now going out to pick blackcurrants, and wash the living room windows. They are on the first floor. I better go do it before she gets the idea it needs doing.
ARGH!

Maybe I am morphing into a fish.

QuintessentialHaddoc

This is thread of the week imo!

Quint, is it really dark all day?

lol

It is not dark all day yet. But, it is light at 8am and dark at 5 pm, it will be daylight later and dark earlier just like in the UK, the difference is, that it goes on until you have dawn around 11am, and dusk half an hour later, so in reality you have half an hour of daylight daily, when it is at it the darkest around Christmas. The sun is already very low on the horizon, and will be gone by mid november. So even when it is light, it is not really light. The sun will yet again be visible at the end of January, and then days will gradually last longer till summer when the sun doest go down at all, and we have midnight sun. People really do get a bad sunburn in the hours between midnight and 3 am.

No- QS- I love your NorwEnglish- it's so lovely I only notice because my MIL does it with French- will just say the french word or perhaps literal translation phrasing in the middle of a sentence and not notice.

Huglit is a sort of 'homely cosiness'- like sitting at home, in front of the open fire in your living room, sipping a beer or a comforting hot drink.... it has no direct translation in english, sorry.
It won't be spelled like that I'm sure, is pronounced sort of Huugleet.

Am genuinely confused now.

Surely "winter" curtains are more for heat-preserving purposes than anything to do with light - or lack of it.

When it's dark all the time surely even thin "summery" curtains would suffice if you had extra-brill triple glazing.

Speaking of which, wouldn't proper insulation/windows be better?

Ah Hugleet! Now I could "hear" the Danish in that. Yes. Hygge. Peis Hygge - fireplace cosyness. Familie Hygge - Family cosyness, etc.

Bundle, yes heat preserving may have been the origin, now everybody has very good double glazing and little heat loss from windows. But I dont think somebody after centuries of winter curtains would come up with the idea "lets skip curtains, now that we have doubleglazing" It doesnt make sense.

The other thing is, Norwegians dont really do netcurtains much, aside from in bedrooms. You find netcurtains, but they are open, like other curtains, and for summer use. People like to look out of their windows, and netcurtains prevent looking OUT as well as looking in. So, no netcurtains.

Now, think about this: If it is light outside, what do you see when you walk past a house set 3-4 meters back from the road, and the window has no curtains? Not much.

What if it is dark outside, and there are no netcurtains? You see EVERYTHING!

Now, I think I should do a phd on Norwegian Windowdresseing, and I think we can sum it up thus: Most Norwegians like to change their curtains for every season, sometimes to preserve heat, sometimes to let light in, or block the darkness out, but also for cosyness and privacy. The End?

thanks QS! (even more boggled!!)

same here, same here, lol!

rofl- yes- I did suggest my spelling would eb way out

Funny how this is not the only curtain thread on at the moment.