Hello dear readers, how are you? I hope life is treating you well, but if you have a challenge to face, that you always have someone at your side to have your back.

I am going to face a new challenge this year that changed my blogging plans for 2020. At the end of January, I told a little of what I had planned for my blogs. Shortly afterwards I was diagnosed with primary breast cancer.

On Thursday, I will find out how the doctors at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals have planned my treatment. I fear that I won’t have as much time or mind for blogging for some time, depending on what’s coming my way. So I am going to concentrate on this blog to share my journey to beat cancer. Thanks for your patience.

Introducing Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge

In December I started a musical journey around the world with my Music Monday posts. After “Love Is In Da Blog 2020” finished, I pondered how I am going to deal with my cancer journey. Do I want to blog? Do I want to share what’s coming? And how do I deal the best with the knowledge that the illness that took my mother now has caught up with me too?

I so enjoyed to share music with fellow bloggers and also to discover music from other countries than the UK and the United States in February. There are musical universes out there that we know nothing of and that are beautiful and exhilarating. I believe I need an exciting project to get me through my journey to beat cancer. So I invite you to take part in “Come Away With Me Musical Challenge” every Monday. Discover music from all countries of the world with me. You can find all the information and countries to discover music here on the “Come Away With Me Musical Challenge” page.

There will be information on what country to visit the next Monday and a link to find some music, bands, musicians from that country so you have something to start with after my Music Monday post.

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country Norway

So let’s start with today’s country Norway. Yes, it’s not that unknown musically. There is AHA and Aurora and many others but do we really hear a lot of music from this Scandinavian country? I checked out “Life In Norway’s” post “Famous Norwegians Bands” and discovered some that I did not realise were Norwegian like Kygo for example. But the one that I want to introduce you to is “Röyksopp“.

Norway has an arctic techno scene in Tromso where Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland the two members of Röyksopp come from. I guess the long dayless winter in the far north might be a good atmosphere to create funky 😉 techno music. From what I understand they are quite known in the world wide techno scene but that is not my usual pad so they are new to me.

According to Wikipedia Royksopp with the Norwegian ø is the name for a mushroom class known as puffballs. But they changed the ø for ö to make it their own. They formed in 1998 and brought out their first album in 2001. However, since then, they only created four more albums. According to their homepage, they feel much music today has no identity. It is their aim to establish their identity and experiment with many techno related music styles.

The song I chose is “What Else Is There” from their 2008 album “The Understanding”. They lyrics are rather mysterious and remind of fairy tales mixed with mining and war. You can find it here. But now enough said. Enjoy the song and if it does no play here on the blog follow the link underneath the video to it’s YouTube location.

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country for Monday 9th, 2020

I am taking a rather random route around the world but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we are going to visit Sweden and you can find some of today’s interesting Swedish musicians here on the Last.FM page for Sweden.

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. https://www.facebook.com/ComeAwayWithMe2020/Join in! No matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2020 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2020 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2020MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2020 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Charity Boudicca Appeal

I would also like to encourage you to support the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Charity’s Boudicca Appeal. They are fundraising 800 000£ to create a dedicated breast cancer unit. The hospital today sees almost double as many breast cancer patients than they did five years ago. That is an enormous rise and puts a lot of pressure on the current facilities and staff. 

For me, that meant so far five journeys to Norwich within a month. That is between 35 and 45 minutes travel each way and the worry, not knowing what comes. On Thursday 5th, we go again to find out how they are treating me. While I am holding up well, it still puts a lot of pressure on my family and me. 

They say on their page they want to build:” An enhanced environment. Purport-built, spacious waiting, diagnostic and treatment rooms. Counselling rooms for women with a breast cancer diagnosis.
Better experience for patients with fewer days of anxiety while patients wait for results.”

That would help a lot. According to the NHS, 1 in 8 women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their life time. So it is essential to create better facilities for breast cancer care. The staff I have met so far are doing an excellent job. They are so caring, being extremely effective and supportive. They do deserve a better work environment.

So please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Please stay a little longer and discover some of my photography. Find my photo posts for Wordless Wednesday on Bee Wordless… on Blogger. Thanks!