KARETHE LINAAE
In the early days of passenger flights, air hostesses needed to be small and slender, yet strong and steady enough to carry heavy serving trays with smoking dishes on stilettos through constant turbulence from take-off to landing. These are some of the memorable encounters my mother, Aase Linaae, had in her ‘flying days’…
As you read this, my husband and I are travelling around Morocco by rail to mark my 60th birthday. I am NOT sharing this news to attract felicitations (Please don’t!) or sympathy. Rather the contrary. I usually keep very quiet about such occasions and am no great celebrator of birthdays in general. I cannot remember…
After living in Spain for a decade, it is almost unavoidable that we have begun to inherit some Spanish habits, attitudes, and even ways of being. It isn’t as if we suddenly start dancing Flamenco in the streets and speaking while everybody else is talking. The changes are more subtle than that, as we, of…
«In the end, it is about the essence and quality of the products, and the care one takes in preparing the food. There is no greater secret than that.» This year, 289 Spanish restaurants received stars from the world-renowned French gastronomy-bible, Michelin. 23 are in Andalucía and eight are found in the Málaga-province, more specifically…
She is Norwegian. She is Basque. She is an internationally awarded Architect & Interior Designer, and she is only 33. If you haven’t heard the name Kristina Bråteng in connection with architecture and interior design, you are bound to hear a lot about her in the future. Despite her young age, Bråteng is the…
Unbelievable, but true! Exactly ten years ago to the day, on a stormy night on November 3rd, 2012, my husband and I arrived in the small town of Ronda in Andalucía with a couple of suitcases. Our few other earthly possessions that we hadn’t given away, donated, sold, recycled, or thrown away, sat…
Photo from the front page of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, February 1957. Aase (right) together with the Swedish captain and air hostess from the first commercial flight over the North Pole. One of the many times that I have flown across the Atlantic, they showed a video of Air Canada’s 75+ years…
When we bought a ramshackle village house in Ronda nine years back, we had no idea that it would take more than two years to get the building permit from the municipality as well as the regional culture department. That was of course before they threw in an archaeological dig, even though our shack was…
People I have met that have impressed me the most, are almost always individuals who give unlimited of themselves in some volunteer capacity. The act of choosing to share one’s time, knowledge, energy, resources, conviction, or compassion is the greatest gift one can offer others. At the same time, the giver receives an indescribable…
I am sad to say – just as we thought we could allow ourselves to stop being concerned about Covid, came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and another war on European soil. Meanwhile the desperate draught in Andalucía is creating ripples in water reserves we do not have. These are trying times. Which is why…