So, I'm back on Scottish soil. With a computer keyboard that resembles normality. And all that remains from the Norweigan leg of the trip is for me to tell you what I got up to on my last few days...

I returned to TV Follo on Friday, safe in the knowledge that I actually had something to do. I was shown into the studio and was told I was to rehearse my script, to be filmed later in the day. The studio was fairly small, and backed with a large blue screen. It is here that they film all of their new bulletins, and computer-generate a large studio behind them,. Sneaky, eh?! but rather clever if I may say so myself. And I do. They also have a rather novel way of overcoming the lack of an autocue - in essence, they have a camera hanging from the ceiling, and a screen in front of you. You then have to flip through printed out pages of script, as they only film the top half of your body. Attempting to keep my shoulders still was a tall order.

So, after an hour and a half of rehearsals and script refinement, which had been interrupted by Mr Robertson (who had arrived for his ritual photography session), I went to lunch with Aaron, Lynsey and Mr R. We must have sat for about an hour and a half, but when I returned to TV Follo it didn't really look like they had noticed. Ah well, I'm not complaining!

So then the producer arrived. I think I am putting it politely, when I say that he looked about twelve. He hadn't been there earlier in the day because he'd been at school. And he couldn't return phone calls from other members of staff because he'd been in class. The producer of the TV studio was the same age as me. Go figure!

So, he sat in the control room and i recorded my studio piece, after a bit of tinkering with light and computer graphics. Ah, the showbiz life at last! Surprisingly, it went without a hitch ,and I was done within one take. Then it was off to the editing room, and we stuck some credits and titles onto both ends, and spliced in my interview footage from the day before.

So then came the moment of truth: I showed the finished article to the folk in the office. They were impressed (or so they said!). They were surprised that I'd managed to do it in one take, and said that I was a natural in front of the camera. Either they were being nice, or they didn't realise that I'd spent an hour and a half rehearsing! They also said Lynsey was good in front of the camera, and that if we ever decided to follow careers into TV, we should work together. So we burned the short 3 minute film onto a DVD as a souvineer, and they gave me a tshirt as a parting gift. Maybe this wasn't such a bad place to work after all! A quick magic trick later (which got an awesome reaction) and I was heading off towards the train station.

It is at this point that I must admit something. I have lied to you all. My first day at TV Follo was not quite as unproductive as I have previously made out. I actually did get down to some hard graft, and managed to beat the high scores on both the Beach AND Downtown tracks on the racing game on my phone. I am deeply, truly sorry for deceiveing you.

After a bit of packing and snacking on my advent calander choccie, we headed off towards Ski so that we could take our Norweigan hosts out for a treat: pizza. Man, they love thier pizza! Of course, we invited Mr Robertson and Hilde as well, and we all had a good laugh over 6 very large pizzas. When we left, not a scrap of evidence was left to indicate that there had ever actually been a pizza on any of the plates.

We headed off to katarina's house for a bit of a last night shindig. On the way there, Aaron and Katarina decided it would be a good idea to have a playfight in the snow. Sufice to say that Aaron looked like an old man, with snow replacing his usual fiery hair. Rather amusing to say the least. The entertainment of the night was provided by a certain YouTube star by the name of Laingalang, who wowed us all with her excellent "Matleases Rappin"

Another quick update.
Tonight was the Norweigan night. We arrived at Annabels at around 5 and sat down to tea. First off we had lutefiske, but that's probably not how you spell it. It is this jellied-fishy-chemical thing, but it's actually really rather nice, if you can get past the odd texture. Which I did, of course! Then it was onto this salty, smoked lamb which was to die for! It was really amazing. This was followed by some pork, and then finally a cold rice pudding/cream kind of thing. The whole meal was delicious!

We then sat down to talk, and someone put on Singstar. After croaking my way through a song, I realised my sore throat wouldn't hold up, so refrained from taking too much part in further proceedings. Food seemed to appear from thin air and we were soon munching on various cookies and biscuits and cakes and random things.

An early night was had by all, as this far into the trip, we are all zonked!

G'night
Eoin x

My Dad said "lol" in an email to me. As far as I know, my Dad saying "lol" is the first herald of the apocalypse. Ye be warned...

I was waitin at the train station this morning, after getting a long lie at long lst. It was bliss to be able to rise at ten past seven. Pure, unadulterated bliss. However, standing at the station my nose bgan to run. The longer I stood there in the cold, the more my nose began to drip. And the more my nose began to drip, the more I wished I remembered my tissues. According to the train, the temperature was +0 degrees. So at least it was on the warmer side of freezing...

It was with great aprehension that I approached the TV Follo building this morning. Another day or boredom awaited me. I went into the building, walked through the newspaper at which Aaron and Lynsey are working and to TV Follo. Where there was noone in the office. I couldn't get in for five minutes until someone arrived. Oh great, I thought, what an excellent start to the day! But I did get in, and in fact, I did get something to do. I almost fainted when they told me! Apparenty they had felt really guilty after I'd left yesterday, so had come up with a plan...

I am to produce a mock news report, which is quite cool. So today, I wrote myself a bit of a script, which tomorrow I will read and record in the studio. The studio is amazingly funny. It's a tiny wee room, with a blue screen at the back. Some tech guys made them a graphic that looks like a big funcy studio, and they just stick it behind them. Oh the hilarity!

I then met Aaron and Lynsey for lunch, and it turned out they had nothing to do. So, armed with a camcorder, we went out, and I interviewed them, and we took a whistle-stop tour of Ski. And it was great fun. We then headed on back to the studio, where we edted the film into segments, which could be added into my report tomorrow. Good times were had by all! As I left, I hanked the two women, whose names I still don't know, for giving me something to do today. (Albeit in a nicer way than saying just that!)

And so it is now that I find myself sitting at Linn's house, awaiting people to get ready for the Norweigan Night tonight, at Annabel's.

Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday Martina and I went for a walk in the forest, which backs onto Martina's garden. It was very snowy and slippery and we both fell on numerous occasions. But I got some nice photos, once I realised what I was dng wrong with the camera!!!

In other news, I am still trying to convince my dad to bring a chicken into his act. He thinks that "Fifth Dimension and their Amazing Magic Chciken" doesn't sound right, but everyone here in Norway disagrees. If you think he should get a chciken, please tell him. Maybe pester power will win!

So, it's off to the Norweigan party thing tonight, and then it's just 2 sleeps 'til my Norweigan adventure draws to an end. But then of course, there is all the fun on the Scottish leg...

Eoin x

P.S. It has come to my attention that some people reading my last blog (four) though some of it had been cut off. Just click on the blog title and it will show te whole thing!