Obviously, if they’re good enough and their country is participating in the World Cup, they are in South Africa, but what about those that are not?

I recently came across a blog belonging to a certain Norwegian named Morten Gamst Pedersen.

It doesn’t say much at the moment, and looks as though it may be reasonably new, but I’ve stuck it in my links section and hopefully he’ll be blogging throughout the season.

Here is a recent post he’s done about a tour of Northern Norway …

In early May me, Stig and Marchello went on a tour around northern Norway. Stig is from Finnmark, so he was helping me guide our English friend Marchello. Marchello has been in Bodø once before but he has never seen Finnmark. So I was really looking forward to show him where I come from. We started in Vadsø where I come from. Marchello is half English and half Italian, so he is accustomed to slightly warmer temperatures in early May than Vadsø can offer. But he was undaunted by 5 degrees and a bit rain from the east, so we started with a tour of the capital of Finnmark. Marchello owns several restaurants, including my favorite, the San Carlo in Manchester which is the restaurant that I eat in almost every day, so it was exciting to offer him some of the local delicacies. My cousin Jarno had prepared some seagull eggs, whale meat, reindeer meat, seal meat, king crab and smoked salmon.

Finnmark is a sauna and hot tub country, and it was no doubt about what we should do in the evening. Kristian Sirka on the Sirka farm has made a great conference senter where there are several different saunas and hot tubs. I and my childhood friends sat there for several hours, talking about the good old days. There is nothing like coming home to sit in a hot tub or a sauna to listen to one good story after another. At night we slept at my grandmothers old attic where we used to sleep when we were children.

The last day of Vadsø we were invited to the Tundra center by the center director Petter Dahl. There we met some wonderful people who had a huge work effort. They have virtually zero sick leaves because employees show up for work even with a fever. It was a pleasure to meet these wonderful people. Therefore I would like to say hello to Gry and all the others who worked there and thank you for a heart warm welcome that we will never forget.

Photograph taken from www.gamst.co.uk

Although I haven’t reflected on the last few weeks on here, I have still been watching the Rovers, I haven’t thrown the towel in!

Things, although precarious, aren’t as bad as they seem. With a long way still to go we are in a favourable position and are not yet reliant on other results going our way.

Big Sam has firmly established himself at Ewood and the team do look like they have fight in them, although at times it would seem there’s more fight in a wet kipper. It’s this inconsistency that provides us with our only minor worry.

As I said though, it’s in our hands.

To use an old cliche, we’ve got 11 cup finals coming up and the previous two games were also cup finals!

I said on the way to the KC Stadium, ‘this is the most important game of our season’. We won and dragged our way back out of the bottom three.

Cue another ‘massive game’ last Wednesday and two dropped points saw us drop back in there. Leading us to another ‘most important game of the season’ tomorrow night at Craven Cottage!

It’s quite strange, I don’t know if it’s just the naivety of being a Rovers fan, but although we’re down in the mire it doesn’t feel that way and I’m not constantly worrying about the dangers we are facing.

However, the situation is very real. This has been reflected by a recent Sky announcement to screen three of our games live. Sky tend to avoid Rovers as much as possible because we aren’t the most widely supported side and often one of the less pretty to watch, however they have now decided to show our games against Liverpool, Tottenham and Wigan, obviously gearing up for a relegation battle!

Several members of the playing staff have come out to state their belief we are good enough to stay up, as has secretary of state Andy Burnham, although what it’s got to do with him is beyond me!

Pedersen’s recent revelation he wishes to sign a new contract also reassures me there is still a good deal of togetherness within the squad. Indeed they still seem committed to the cause and looked absolutely delighted after beating Hull. The lads know what they need to do and are more than capable of doing it!

I’m still quietly confident we’ll stay up. West Brom are gone, and travel to Ewood on what could turn out to be a crucial last game of the season, with Middlesbrough looking decidedly dodgy. Although Stoke (who we are also still to play at the Britannia) have nipped back above us they will join WBA and Boro in the Championship next season. But please don’t quote me on that come May…