Possible problems with moving the Bunnies

Oh no.... Possible hiccup with taking the rabbits along...

(Just a short post as I'm on my lunch break)

Hans rang the Norwegian Mattilsynet to double check we had everything we need, and also to check an odd line on the 'Import of Rabbits' form (which to be honest I had thought might have been a translation mistake. One point on the form reads that the Fit to Fly certificate confirms that the rabbits:

'Have not been vaccinated against myxomatosis or rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD)'

Being responsible pet owners, we have our bunnies vaccinated yearly as recommended with Nobivac Myxo-RHD Vaccine. Apparently the form is right - we technically can't take the bunnies because they HAVE been vaccinated!

Hans was told to email the district office, explaining that they are house rabbits and have never been outdoors. Hopefully they will give us special dispensation to bring them along. Fingers seriously tightly crossed as we will be so sad to leave them behind. I can't even think about it.

Sad.

Edit: I have booked the bunnies in for a blood test next week to text for Myxo and RVHD, hopefully official lab results showing them as clean will help our case. Apparently we need to include this in our import form anyway.

Emigrating with Pets (Bunnies!)

Anybody who knows me knows I love animals, and I adore our two house-rabbits, Penny and Boo. It's absolutely unthinkable that we go anywhere without them, so an added 'stress' of the move has been researching how we go about that, what we need to do, gathering quotes for animal export, etc.

Penny and Boo, gorgeous little buns

We've had them for around a year and a half - they are house bunnies and have never been outside as we live in an apartment (so I am very excited to see them running free in the Norwegian grass!)

Penny (Penelope!) is the white bun: she is half English Spot and the vet reckons she has some giant in her too. In the picture above she is still small, she is a big girl these days. She is lovely and very fussy, she adores Hans (and he adores Penny) and she gets too many treats. She is a bit aggressive with food and grunts and growls when food is around and a careless person gets too close. She has helicopter ears (as you can see!) but as she gets older her upright ear is getting lazier. I hope she doesn't lose it completely as it's adorable and she looks confused and/or inquisitve all of the time.

Boo is the fawn coloured bun; a Dwarf Lop. Boo is.... difficult. They're both adopted / rescued bunnies and we found out (too late) that Boo was seperated from her brothers and sisters for fighting. She still fights; any other rabbit, slippers, sometimes socks (when you're wearing them). BUT to her credit she has developed a close friendship with the vacuum cleaner so it's not all bad. After lots of hard work we gained her trust and she is affectionate with us. Honestly, we did discuss putting Boo up for adoption and taking only Penny with us, but decided no - Boo is a little bit 'special', but she is our bunny and we love her. So she gets a new life too!

Luckily with Norway being a part of the EEA, the process hasn't been too difficult. The most awkward thing has been finding rules specific to rabbits, as they tend to state 'dog, cat or ferret'. 
On the Norway side of things, the rules for pet import are goverened by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Mattilsynet. It was on this site I found an 'import of rabbits' form.
 
The down-side of it is the cost - you can save money if you do everything yourself, but it would be too difficult for us to do that as we are going seperately and the rabbits are going alone. After gathering many different quotes and lookng at different options we decided to go with a company who would take care of everything.

In my own Little Miss Organised way, I made a spreadsheet showing the different companies I contacted, what the quotes offered, price differences (including comments on how the customer service was (because that stuff is IMPORTANT damn it!) In the end a company called JCS Livestock won. Obviously, the event hasn't happened yet (and I'll report back once it has!) I was given their details by a girl at work who used to work for Twycross Zoo, the Zoo apparantly use JCS and are very happy with them.

We got one of the best quotes from JCS, and then after researching reviews and checking out their Facebook page that did it for me - lots of happy customers! So fingers crossed and watch this space - I'll report how it goes.
JCS will pick up the bunnies from home, drive them to the airport, x-ray them (I think), provide carriers, sort all of the paperwork, arrange the flight, etc... we just have to collect them from the airport at the other end. We have saved some money by arranging to get the vet letter ourselves. We don't need passports for the rabbits, but Mattilsynet specify that we need a Vet letter specifying:

• we've owned them for more than 6 months
• they're older than 3 months
• they're healthy
• vaccinations are up to date
• they have had exams for myxomatosis and rabbit VHD

We just got them microchipped too - it wasn't necessary before as they lived indoors, but thought it best to do it now. We made sure that our vet registered them with Petlog, as we can tranfser the information once in Norway and it's officially recognised.

Will update on the pet situation when I have more to say! Bye x

All Steam Ahead!

So we are still going, it's definitely happening! I have changed my blog description now as it previously read 'My ramblings following my return from Norway and of my continued efforts to get back there...amongst many other things!'. This doesn't exactly apply now, but hopefully the new description will serve.

It appears almost all of my photos have disappeared from my older blog posts, this makes me sad and I did consider starting a whole new blog. But instead I will just replace what I can over time and delete the rest - this blog means a lot to me (I wrote it during an important part of my life) and I don't want to give it up. I think I deleted a 'picassa' album on my phone (not realising it was my blog pictures!) so it's sort of my own fault - I had no idea that would happen.

Anyway...

Hans is flying to Norway in 3 weeks time to get us settled. I think I'm lucky in the sense that although I am moving abroad, Hans really is just going home, so many of things will be easier; we have somewhere to stay initially whilst we find our feet, have family there, etc... I will be sad though to not see Hans for 2 months, but it's all for a good cause.

I've handed in my notice at work too, so no turning back (not that I would!) My last day at work is 4th July 2015. I plan to leave the flat where we live now around the same time and visit family. My sister is getting married at the end of July, so after the lovely event I will go to join Hans.

I can't believe my (not so) little sister is getting married :)

My little sister, Ruth x

Wake Up! The Blog is Risen!

Well, it's time to raise this blog from the dead. Hans and I are finally making the move from the UK to Norway this year. It's been a long time coming.

I found this blog a therapeutic way to deal with the stresses of the move last time - and that was only 6 months. This time, it's (hopefully) forever. So 'hello therapist', sorry, I mean  'hello blog'. I will need you over the coming months.

Hans is going home first, he's heading off early June. I am following very late July / early August (as I don't want to miss my little sisters wedding!) Also to give Hans time to settle us down a bit.

Anyway, this was just a quick wake-up call (to myself more than thing) as there is SO much to think about that we've already started, and I want to record it (hopefully in enough detail to help someone else as I have found other blogs useful.) I'll be back soon to record the surprising amount of work that surrounds us exporting our house rabbits to Norway - it's more fiddly than getting ourselves there!

To be continued...

What I've been up to!

I know it's been ages since I posted. Truthfully I have just been so busy (and a little sick) but I have medication now and an extension for my uni work so in both cases things are looking up.

I have been very busy though, lots of projects going on with uni and (most) of them are really fun but take up alot of time! One of my projects is a brochure (though I'm doing a book) on Phobias - I'm doing it sort of in the style of a dictionary and it's going to be an exploration of typography and print / materials.

This week I have spend DAYS creating my own fonts for this book; I found a website where you can do this online (and for the moment it's completely free) It's not an in depth font creation programme so you can't spend time on kerning and the more technical side of typography but for a free programme it's really really cool. The address is www.yourfonts.com

These are some of the fonts I have made (click the image for a better look) I think the site is mostly meant for people to make their own handwriting into a font but for what I needed it was great. I will invest in a font creation programme at some point in the future as typography is a side of design that I love, but for now this is fine!


Other than that there has not been alot going on apart from work (I havent really even been training that much, which I hate) Just been so busy - I have hardly studied Norwegian at all which is really nagging at me - I had a dream the other night that my little niece was speaking fluent Norwegian and I was still stumpbling my way through sentences. It's frustrating me obviously! I'll get there - there are so many things I need to get sorted right now it's quite stressful - As amazing an experience the exchange to Norway was I feel in a way that I have lost 6 months here - so many things were stopped in their tracks and I havent managed to pick them up yet. I guess I lost my routine. I am a person who thrives on routine and order in a way so it's been a bit much.

I am glad I went though, as time goes on the memories become even more rose tinted you know how it goes. I miss my friends the most, but I have had a few nightmares that I have woken up back in that grotty dive Fantoft! I miss Norway generally too, the place - but I do prefer the East. I know I'll be back there soon so no worries - and I plan to visit Bergen as well. See Maria et al and Anita!

Anyway I have to go - I am actually training today and then back to work (oh, on another good note one of my lecturers recommended me to some 3rd year photography students to help design their degree show material) so I am working on that too - it's nice to be recommended and a good opportunity for me to 'network'. I want to do a good job for them, they're a nice bunch. Tiny budget though. Aarrggh.

I shall try and make a slot to post on my blog every saturday just so I can keep this up to date. Fingers crossed!

Bye x

Real Snow

Well.... Hans' Aunt Britt sent me a photo of the current snow in their part of Norway... (edit 15.05.14: this is my picture, not the one Britt sent - after Picassa deleted all my photos I found this one)

Kirkenær snow... not fair :(

Makes our England snow look a bit...hmm...crap. BUT it's still the best snow we have had for ages and ages and ages - since I was 9 years old :) I am ignoring the fact that it has dissapeared now and we are left with the standard english grey clouds and rain/drizzle.

Still really missing Norway - everyone keeps asking me how it went over there and the more I talk about it the more I miss it! I am more and more excited to think that in a couple of years I will be preparing to move there (REALLY need to start studying the language again)

I have been so busy here lately - started back at uni full time, back at work, not to mention the cooking and cleaning and attempting to get to the gym... not really settled into a routine yet so will have to sort myself out and fast.

Speaking of which, have to go and cook now!

This is England!

I think I brought a little bit of weather back from Norway (well, hardly in comparison) but I have really started to miss being in Norway, so the recent wonderful weather here has been somewhat of a comfort; (or as the newspapers are putting it, the worst snowfall to blight England in 18 years!)

I decided to take a slow walk home from uni today (yes I am back at uni now!) so took a few pics to upload as it is a bit of a rare occurance - to be honest it's not a particularly large amount of snow in the city - but some parts of the country - particularly rural England - have LOTS of snow - it's still going too and apparantly will be with us for a few days...

The view from our apartment

Derby University

Broadway

I am really missing Norway though, I sometimes wish we could just go back there now (together!) but it's not the right time... I am missing everyone, especially Anita, Maria and her family (and the cats!) it will be so nice when I get to see them again. I am pleased to be back at my university though - it's such a great experience to be on an exchange programme but I do prefer the style of learning more here - I guess I will talk more about that as the semester goes on!