ICS CINFERANCE BERGEN, NORWAY 1995

The conferance took place in July 1995. I had never been to any of the previous meetings and knew nothing at all of what was expected from me. Now I was in charge of the entire arrangement. I was somewhat surprised by the reluctant attitude shown by the main club here, and I was left to do all the work myself. But working hard has never botheed me at all, so I went on. I made agreements to several places of accomodations to a variety of prices, had a conferancehall in the town center where we also could have the main meals, dinner &dance. We were to have a show during these days, so I had to put up a show and have it recognized by the kennel club, and there were speeches to be held and I had to put together topics for these and find the people who could do the speeches. July is summer holiday in Norway, so this is not the easiest part, but it worked out successfully. All these speeches I translated either from English to Norwegian or from Norwegian to English, copied them and put them together in a compendium. I know I have a few copies left, and I can do some more if someone should be interested. All income is going to ICS.

The ICS is sending out an annual handbook (now a collector's item), and they have oversea agents all over the world. I sat down and wrote them all a letter of invitation and asked them for their help to publish it in their respective countries. Quite a few of them has remained as my penpals over the last 14 years, and I just love to stay in touch with people sharing my interest and it's very interesting to see what they are doing. We ended up with nearly 60 participants from 11 different countries like Norway, Finland, Estonia, England, Ireand, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark. Everybody had a private transport from Bergen Airport Flesland to their accomodation. Some of them ended up at my place during the evening before it all started, completely unknown people to me, but that did not last for long, and today they are my highly appreciated friends. One of those who was to give a speech was going to stay with me over the collieholiday.
 

On the opening day, we had hot sunny weather, and I had dressed up in my National costume from my birthplace (they are different from which region you come from), and it was all solid thick wool. I really felt HOT. The council of Bergen had invited us for a small reception on the conferanceplace where I also had been able to find the most prominent phenomenon of Bergen, buekorps (boy band with just drums), who "drummed" us into the receptionhall.

 It can hardly be more "Bergenese" than that. The rain was not coming, and that is really amazing. After the reception we went by a mini train for approx. an hour to show my Bergen at its best. A night we had a welcome dinner at Admiral Hotel.
 

On behalf of The Norwegian Collie Club, Mr. Per Frey received gifts from clubs in Europe due to the club's 60th anniversary. It's the oldest Scandinavian Collie Club..

Then the conferance started. First to hold her speech was Mrs. Lyn Westby (Lowerpark Collies), talking and explaining the breed standard. She's like foreworks when speaking, all fingers, hands, arms and legs. She gave us lots of things to keep in mind and we really did learn quite a lot. If you once should have the opportunity of listening to her talking about the standard - please do!

 Then we had a short break before Mrs. Ann Hollywood (Amalie) took us through the grooming of a show collie. The "model" was Randi's elderly bitch Racine, NUCH Crubow's Racine Blue Rose. It was a pleasure to pick up a lot of this's and that's under her speech, but I do not think Racine was equally enthusiastic. After two speeches we benched up for lunch.

When the speeches were finished, we rushed home - for my part to feed and walk the dogs - before dressing up in a nicer outfit and go back for dinner, dance and the raffle. During that dinner we were privileged to have the founder of the Club with us at an age of 85. Mrs. Irene Somerfeldt initiated the Club and was the first leader, and to me at was really a pleasure to have her among us on that occasion.

 She was presented with a gift and flowers. Unfortunately, she passed away some years ago. Music was ran by my son being a disc-jockey, and it was very late when most of the crowd could cuddle up to sleep. I could not as I was out, along with my son, to put out signs for the show so that people would know where to go. Of course, when I'm out we had a terrible thunderstorm and heavy rain, but on the very show day it had all clear up and the sun was shining. The puppies were judged by Mrs. Jill Jewell (Moorland), and the rest was judged by Mr. John Walsh (Joshren).

BOB was Reedham Red Door, handled by Mr. Lars Linden (Sweden) and BOS was Lynnfield On your Credit owned by Mrs. Gitte Hjort Sørensen (Vanity).

On the monday we had a longer speech held by specialist vet. Mrs. Eva Heldal Monsen on Pancreas Insuffience, a disease that is more common on collies that we would like to know. The rest of the conferance day was spent discussing and summing up the topics touch on.

Next day was a day off for walking about in our city (we are very proud of it) and shopping. Obviously, that was what a lot had done, and it was great to hear all the nice words about my hometown. I spent most of the day at home walking the dogs and prepare a little bite as my husband had done some invitations that day. Relaxing at home, enjoying company with all these people who carries the knowledge of the breed is tremendously enjoyable.

On the last wednesday I arranged an excursion of 8 hours called Norway In a Nutchell. I did this tour as a tourguide during the summers as a job when was student. We went by train from Bergen to Myrdal (800 meters above sea level), changed train to go down the steep Flåm valley. We had a few stops on our way down for photos. In Flåm we had a little lunch before going on a boat through the narrow Nærøyfjorden with very steep mountains on both sides of the fjord. Fortunately, the busdriver from Gudvangen was willing to drive the bus up the steep and narrow road called Stalheimskleiva with 17 hair pin bends. There were quite a few pale faces onboard that bus when we reached the top.. Being at the top we went out to enjoy the dramatic but ever so beautiful view. From here you can see the farm from whom one of our famus author's lived, Per Sivle. One of his most famous books are "Berre ein hund", or "Just A Dog" and the song "Den fyrste Song" or "First Song". I would advice you if you are visiting this part of my country to do that trip. The bus then stoped at Voss, my birthplace before going back to Bergen.
 

Thursday night was the night of the farewell dinner at Admiral Hotel, and we had stayed together for 10 days being quite close to one another.To say goodbye is to die a little bit, and I could feel like crying at Flesland airport when everyone left. I really would like this to go on for ever. Fortunately, Miss Toka Briet stayed with us for a couple of days before heading eastwards. Regrettably, oka is no longer among us, and her kennel is dissolved, but I know many ould have had great benefit by talking collie with her.
 

Our lounge was filled with bottles of various kinds and loads of flowers given to us by the crowd that left us as a sign of their gratitude. It is me that should say thank you. I should say thank you for trusting me to do this job, it was a pleasure,and for getting to know you all. Even this year (2008) I had some coming up to me talking of the Bergen-experience. That felt very warming.