The Shortest Night

No not a reference to one of the SFN members who has been burning the midnight oil.


What have you all got lined up for the Fête de la Musique tomorrow that also falls on the logest day of the year?

We have a fairly decent rock band palying in the next village on Saturday evening. Good!

Well there's always the weekend. I think a lot of places are combining it with the feu de St Jean celebrations. Can catch up then.

all sorts of various things going on in town, dancers, bands, groups etc. this evening but Alicia has a temperature and hasn't gone to school so neither has Robin (but they'll both have to go to nounou's this afternoon as we both have meetings) we need to set off very early tomorrow morning to dump kids with Mum in law before spending the day with various banks and FDJ etc. So early night all round this evening!

Oho, must have been Bodø since Mo i Rana where I lived (? kind of) is called the 'Artic Circle City' in several languages on the way in and once you are through it is about 20 minutes and you are on the line of the circle. Bodø is the next place with more than about 20 inhabitants and a Hilton or its ilk, and that is where they have about 10 days of perpetual daylight because it is so far south of the real thing. The secret is simple, only go with natural sleepers. I am one. If I lay down I go to sleep whether daylight or pitch black dark and I have worked with strict night only people who need eight hours every night. Sharing a hotel room can be worthy of murder!

A very good mate of mine who now works in Abu Dhabi and originally is from Troon, was obviously missing the cold last summer so he took his wife and three daughters for a camping trip just inside the arctic circle. I called him on the second night, by which time he had decamped and was in a Hilton somewhere. At some point in the conversation I asked him "so are you having a good time?" to which he replied. "Are you listening to a word I'm saying. It's midnight, we're locked in a hotel room with all the blinds and curtains shut to keep the light out, the girls are screaming because of lack of sleep and I've got another 4 days of this" - he sounded as though he was about to crack.

If I go, I'm going with people who really want to go.

Oh yes, do it. First time I was in Trondheim where I have had a fellowship in one of their institutes since who knows when. The next village north of the city is called Hell. There are devils and so on painted on rocks, so we had a party at the hotel there which is something like eight floors and went to the roof for midnight. The sun is more than half visible at midnight. The second time I went with my (very temporary) Norwegian OH to Tromsø up north and there it is broad daylight for about four weeks but the midsummer celebration was something else. To go for.

Brian, one of my to dos is the midnight sun. Tend to agree, may prove a little tricky after we croak as you say (unless we are completely wrong, but in that case it will be the eternal fires).
I remember when I worked in Cameron’s brewery NE Coast uk, I would go to the drying room of the oasthouse at the very top of the building and look out over the sea towards the end of my summer night shifts. So peaceful to see that big disk appearing then rapidly diminishing on the horizon.
As for the music no doubt I’ll have a healthy selection within about a five minute walk of here tonight.

Well, nada. It is Thursday and daughters have school on Friday, so that if we go the 12 km into Lalinde where they have something on they will be wrecked by staying up late, etc. I shall be missing the east of England a little where sunrise is something ridiculous like 0420 and sunset a few minutes earlier than those of you from Devon, etc but nonetheless well after 2200. I would love to see the midnight sun again at least once in my life (not much chance after though, is there?) which is just amazing and a superb celebration way up at the top. Mass sharing of strong hooch in the streets, song and dance and madness.

Of course you can. If you leave Paris now, stopping off to pick up the wife and kids, you could possibly get here in time for the bubbly!

Sounds great, can I come?

As it is Henry's birthday tomorrow, we are in the throes of lining up an impromptu celebration (truth be told we both forgot his birthday was imminent), with a few friends - aperos in the new resto down by the river, then back here for main courses (everyone bring their own). To finish it off, we'll have a little blanquette, and I might warble a traditional Irish lament - for all those who are still back in Ireland. Oh, did I mention lots of wine as well?