Flatpack and meatballs

I must admit I haven’t been to IKEA for a while even though the largest IKEA store in Europe is on our doorstep, well 20 minutes drive away in a town called Åsane. The problem with IKEA is it drives my husband crazy just walking around there, because the marketing gurus who designed the floor space ensure that you circulate every single department before you get to that one tiny area you want to see, let us say dining tables.

Also, for those of us who are directionally challenged, IKEA is an absolute nightmare. You end up seeing the same furniture twice over, and coming back to the entrance point more than once, before escaping! GPS or an equivalent maps app is a must, plus a will of iron to prevent you from picking up too many 'oh that's so cheap!' items, only to find you almost max out the credit card at the check out!

Don’t get me wrong, IKEA furniture can be a very good buy, and we do own some, including a ‘vintage’ pine bed from 1985. But the store experience can be frustrating to say the least. In particular, when you get to the shelf in the basement that should have all your flat pack boxes and you discover that there are only 4 of the 5 boxes you need to build your bed/shelves/table!

We are not buying anything IKEA’n at the moment, but for those who love to eat IKEA’s Swedish meatballs in the restaurant, come to Norway and shop as all is fine!  Elsewhere though in the IKEA Empire all is not so well. A total of 13 countries with IKEA outlets in Europe, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Dominican Republic (no I didn’t know they had got to that last country either) have had to stop serving Swedish made meatballs because they have found horse meat in them.

Funny thing is though, that the Danish supplier of pizza meat (yes that grainy brown stuff on your Bolognese pizza is meat) has always sold it to small fast food restaurants throughout Scandinavia properly labelled as a mix of beef and horse meat and no-one has ever complained. The restaurants have forgotten to mention it to their customers though! It does make me wonder what they will find once they test the meatballs here as no doubt Mathuset Holmens (who produce for IKEA Norway) in Stavanger use imported meat too!

I wonder though what is less healthy, the horse meat/beef mix, or the ‘mechanically deboned’ chicken meat that goes into chicken nuggets! Mmm lovely thought

Horse meat scandal reaches Norway!

Yes, I am afraid Norwegians have also been eating horsemeat without knowing it. So far horsemeat has been found in one cheaply produced frozen ready meal - lasagne. I bet though there will be more revelations before the month is out.

What really surprises me about the news though is that this frozen ready meal is produced and packaged in France before being trucked all the way to Norway. The meat itself comes via another French company which gets its meat from Roumania! It really cannot be cheaper to ship meat from Roumania, make lasagne in France and then ship it to Norway (all the way up to Hammerfest and Kirkenes) than to make frozen lasagne here?

Your average lasagne consists of beef, pasta, onions, tomatoes, milk, cheese, flour and butter.  Two of the products, pasta and tomatoes, have to be imported I would guess, and maybe the beef too as Norway does not produce enough for its own consumption, but there is usually plenty of milk, cheese, flour and butter (OK butter is a sore point for most Norwegians after the butter fiasco Christmas 2011!).  If it is cheaper to produce a lasagne from Roumanian meat in France and ship to north Norway then there is something terribly skewed with the import tariffs and restrictions set by the EU and Norwegian government.

All I can say is, I'm glad I make my own lasagne from scratch!!

By the way, according to a nutrition expert here in Norway, we should actually be happy to eat horsemeat as it has less fat than beef and contains more iron, zinc and vitamin B12!  Wonder when it will be on the supermarket shelves then?


Update on the horse meat scandal here in Norway!

Findus - who dominate the frozen ready meal market here have withdrawn seversl products which use beef. They say they are fully confident in their suppliers but  I guess Tesco's were too!!

Norway is on the EU sidelines as it is not an EU member, but the news about the use of horsemeat has really shocked the government. When it comes to consumer problems, Norwegians can be very tough on a company who appears to be mis-selling aproduct. There is a feeling of 'fairness' which runs through society here, for better or worse. In many ways they are quite naive, expecting the truth to be told.

Anyway, Norway is part of EFTA the European Free Trade Association, which encompasses many European countries including those which are not part of the European Union (e.g. Switzerland). Confusing? Well I guess to non- europeans it must seem so!

So Norway has a hiking boot in both camps, the EU and non EU (known as EFTA). EFTA has an office known as the ESA or EFTA Surveillance Agency. This agency ensures that countries within EFTA subscribe to international trading requirements. The ESA has issues with horse meat! So now all EFTA countries have to take tests of pre-prepared meals and submit results within a certain time frame to satisfy EFTA rules - which tend to mirror EU rules. I wonder how many bureaucrats are actually needed to provide this information - reckon there is a whole office of them!!


I will update this post as time rolls by!



Update on the horse meat scandal here in Norway!

Norway is not a member of the European Union, but in order to trade with them they have to agree to most of the rules and regulations that the EU requires. However, it is not the EU that requires some kind of follow-up on whether horse meat is being used in Norwegian food stuffs but EFTA, the European Free Trade Association. Apparently EFTA have an ESA or 'EFTA Surveillance Agency' (sounds a bit like 1984 to me!) which monitors trade between all European countries (not all are in the European Union). So Iceland (which like Norway is outside of the EU but part of EFTA)  and Norway are going to make random tests on products and report back to ESA who will share the findings with the EU.

Bureaucracy flourishes!

Look forward to hearing what they find if ever it becomes public knowledge.

Car pooling Bergen style

It's time for all smartphone users in Bergen, of which there are a fair few, to download a new app.  HentMEG (get me) is not an app for sadists or those with a penchamt for something out of 50 Shades of Grey, no it is an app which will give drivers the opportunity to car pool.

Despite the fact that cars are extremely expensive, no self-respecting family here is without one or two cars - one of which is preferably a four wheel drive of some description capable of taking skis, tents, canoes and other Norwegian necessities! People here own cars because the public  transport system is not that brilliant. There is just one commuter railway line to Indre Arne (theother to Dale, Voss and Oslo, doesn't really count as trains are not that frequent). To make up for the lack of railway, there are loads of bus routes, but they tend to follow main roads, and the weather here can be challenging- it's no fun getting to work either frozen to the bone or looking like a drowmed rat because the bus was late! So people drive everywhere, which means most of the cars on the road in the rush hour only have one person in them (or possibly two if it is that parents' turn to pick up or drop off the sprog at kindergarden).

It will be interesting to see whether the app does lead to more car sharing. Personally, I think it will take more than an app to change a person's driving habits. Who really wants to share their car with a complete stranger. What if they don't like your choice of radio station, or are late getting up and bring their breakfast with them to consume in your front seat, leaving crumbs everywhere! What if, at the end of the day the meeting takes longer than expected and you  are late picking them up, which means they are late for something else.

Passemgers too may have a problem with the ride they get and may not appreciate being picked up in a car that smells of wet dog or cigarette smoke!

I don't think Trevor is going to sign up for it! As for me, working at the school in Sletten is an easy 10 minute bus ride from the top of our steps up to Kalvedalsveien - I'm doing my bit to fight pollution anyway!

The most successful school in Norway ..

.. is a run down faith school in central Oslo with over 90% of its students from different ethnic backgrounds.

In Norway, there are national tests for children aged 11, 15 and 16 in reading (Norwegian), maths and english. Most schools only put their top students in for these tests, and those with special educational needs (SEN), or from ethnically different backgrounds can be excused the tests completely. At St. Sunnivas, all the children are put in for the test, regardless. Last year, their class of 16 year olds got an A* (snit 5) in the Norwegian reading exam (you have to read various Norwegian texts and answer questions about them to show that you have understood what they are about) despite the fact that there were both SEN children taking the test, and the majority were from different ethnic backgrounds.

Educationalists here are dumbfounded. Why? Because St. Sunniva's is a catholic, minority school which receives no state support, and gets students from one of the poorest areas in Oslo. The school was threatened with closure in 2009 when the Government decided that all faith schools should be closed, but massive student and parent support meant that it managed to stay open. Parents pay approximately £2,200 (NOK18,500, US$3,400) per year to the school, and I guess they have to do alot of fundraising inbetween to keep it going.

The school welcomes students from any and every ethnic and religious minority, but insists that all students respect catholic religious observance. Prayers are held at the beginning and end of the day, catholic texts are discussed in class, and once a month everyone goes to chapel and takes part in a Mass. The key to all of this is respect. Respect for the fact that everyone understands the concept of faith differently.

Just because you have a different faith does not excuse you from taking part. You can choose to say the catholic prayers or not. The school encourages other faith children to use the time in church to reflect or pray quietly by themselves. The service is not important, it is the time taken to respect others which is.

Respect takes many forms, and at St. Sunniva's teachers are conspicuously present out on the playground when the children are out playing. Bullying of any form is dealt with swiftly and robustly. Children are made to discuss issues then and there, shake hands and walk away. Repeat offenders go straight to the Head.

It seems very different from ordinary Norwegian schools where difference is not necessarily respected. For example, press reports have highlighted problems faced by Sami children in north Norway. The Sami are the traditional inhabitants of northern Norway, ethnically linked to other Arctic people and cultures. Gradually, their cutlure has been eroded. That I think will be another blogpost!

Anyway, I like the sound of St. Sunniva's. Be yourself, and respect others - a little bit 'do unto others as you would be done unto'


'Education is what is what remains after one has forgotten everything you have learnt in school' quote from Einstein!