This week, Andrew and I spent our first few days in the house I am renting in Dumfries. We travelled up on Tuesday amid dire warnings that there was a storm on the way. It duly arrived that night. I had bought some new duvets in a sale in Skipton and had worried that 13.5 and 15 tog might be ridiculously warm, but I was glad of mine as I huddled in bed, feeling the chill of the bedroom on my face. Before I left Norway, a few people asked what I would miss and I couldn’t answer. You never really know which things you will feel most intensely, but I can now tell those people that the thing I miss most so far is having a draught-free house!

It did get better. The storm changed direction the next day and the house warmed up a good deal after I’d adjusted the central heating. We don’t have internet yet (which is why this post is late) but Andrew had downloaded some TV programmes onto my laptop, so we had something to watch in the evenings and it was, in the end, quite cosy and comfortable.

Work has been up and down. The whole IT situation seems very sketchy. A new planning system is coming into use and there seem to be daily e-mails about getting ourselves on board. The only problem for me was that, when I followed the link that should have taken me there, I got a message to say that an app was missing and I should ask my administrator for help. I took a screenshot before I started the Christmas break and sent a message to IT support. I came back to a series of messages, the last of which said the case had now been closed as it had been marked as resolved for three days,

Working backwards, I finally found the message that supposedly resolved the issue. Rather than helping me with instructions on how to get the app, or who to ask, there was a message saying everyone had the app, with a series of links about how to use it and all the different applications it covered. At least that was the topic of the first three or so links. I didn’t open the entire list because none of them appeared in any way related to my actual problem, which was that I didn’t have the app.

The most spectacular part of the message though, was the instruction at the end. It said that if you still had a problem, you should refer to the links and that if you wanted to ask them again for help, you must have read all the links. You had to give a full explanation of what you had tried, with reference to which link it related to. If you hadn’t explored every option, you wouldn’t receive a response.

I was close to sending back a snotty message, pointing out that they had just asked a qualified vet to waste several paid hours wading through a long list of articles that (from the evidence of the first three links) were not even targetted for the problem I had reported. My second thought was to send a message appealing to their better nature and asking them to treat me as if I was an elderly relative asking for help with working their newly installed TV.

Instead, I went back to one of the daily e-mails exhorting us to get onto the new planner and check our profiles. Right at the bottom was an address to contact if you were having trouble doing that. Crossing my fingers, I sent a message. The response came back quite quickly. I was, apparently, one of a tiny number people whose laptops had slipped through a crack in the system and hadn’t had the app installed.

I must say that the original e-mail left a bad taste. Presumably the terse message was borne of frustration with their own system somewhere, but it was so impolite that my gut reaction was to abandon any attempt to use the new planner until someone insisted I use it, at which point they would be forced to address the issue that I couldn’t. I’d add that it hasn’t all been bad. I’ve had some very helpful experiences with the IT providers as well, whenever I’ve actually called rather than sending a message, so it definitely isn’t that they’re heartless and horrible. I need to remember not to respond with a knee-jerk reaction when something seems a bit off.

But maybe that’s the second thing that I miss. In Norway, Øivind was often my first port of call when I had an IT problem and he also arranged great parties. I think we need a Party General with IT skills in Dumfries.

Despite my IT teething problems and the weather, it’s been a good week. I’ve been handed my first welfare case, and though my first reaction was that I didn’t know how to tackle it, I’ve had enough help to jump in and make a start.

The report that was sent in used the What3Words system and my first inclination was to follow that trail and see what I found. For anyone who hasn’t come across What3Words, it’s a computer mapping system, where every three square metres of land is allocated a combination of three words. If you are standing somewhere and want to direct someone to find you, the system tells you the words, which then can be used by the finder to trace the location.

So interested was I in seeing whether it worked, and wondering what I would find, I forgot that I hadn’t put my kit in the car. What I actually found was a muddy field and what I now have is a lot more information and a ruined pair of shoes. As G said as he helped me to find out who owned the muddy field the next day, I won’t make that mistake again. Still, tackling my first welfare case was a great reminder that this was what I came here to do.

Andrew and I stopped for lunch on the way from Dumfries to Yorkshire yesterday. Robert Burns’ Selkirk Grace at the top of the page was painted on the wall and I thought it was an apt quotation on a day when Auld Lang Syne – Burns’ most famous song – will be sung in so many places round the world as the year turns. While sitting there, I was struck by another difference between Scotland and Norway. I had Cullen Skink – Scottish fish soup – with crusty bread. In Norway, there would have been two slices of bread and one small pat of butter. In Scotland, there was one slice of bread and two pats of butter. There’s also a lot of haggis on the menu everywhere, which I’m embracing with gusto. Triar and I are going to have to do a lot of walking when the rain finally slows down.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a photo, taken from Mum and Dad’s conservatory, just after midnight last night. For me 2024 is going to be very different from 2023. I hope (once I have internet in my house) you’ll join me on my journey through it.

Happy New Year!