The Laughing Stock in Moss 1840

The laughing stock (gapestokk in Norwegian) was used in
the old times as an educational punishment on public places
or in front of the church.
The crimes that could cause such punishment could be
swearing, talking against the church or the authorities,
immoral behaviour and unruly behaviour in public places.

The last time this punishment was used in Norway was in
1840 in front of the church in Moss.
A man popularly called Ola Mann had been hired to work
as a farm hand.
Then he was offered a better job working in a shop.
He accepted.
But the farmer was not having such behaviour, and managed
to persuade the authorities that Ola Mann must be put
in the laughing stock.

So as the churchgoers came out of the church,
there was poor Ola Mann stuck in this contraption.
Instead of laughing at him and perhaps even
spitting at him, people walked up to him and
put money in his pockets!

Not only that, but people shunned away from the farmer,
not wanting any contact with him. The situation got so bad
for the farmer, he sold his farm and emigrated to the States!

It turns out somebody even wrote a little book for children
about this event.

Gapestokken i Moss / Magne og Marit Aasbrenn ;
illustrert av John Andersen. -
Fredrikstad : Hvitveis, cop. 1992. - 56 s. : ill..


This story I heard for the first time this evening on a guided tour of Moss.

Tilgivelse og tillatelse (permission and forgiveness)

Today I heard somebody explaining wrongdoings done on public property, by saying that it is easier to get Forgiveness afterwards, than getting Permission beforehand.

I will have to ponder this.

Moss: Torderød gård

Torderød.
Farm from the 13th century.
Main building built in 1758 in Rocococo Style
by merchant Dawid Chrystie Senior.
Rebuilt in Empire style around 1825.
In the possession of the Chrystie family till 1904.

"Thordruga" means "The Dung".



Torderød Gård is situated at Jeløya ,
the island that is part of Moss.

The Chrystie family owned forests, sawmills,
ships - enabling them to export Norwegian
wood, and get rich.

The family lived in another house in the center
of Moss till around 1825.
For the first 50 years this huge house and the
garden were used during summer time as a
playground for grown ups!
Inside the house they danced in the ballrooms,
one upstairs, one downstairs,
men smoke in the Scottish Room,
women talked in the White Hall downstairs
or in the Red Hall upstairs,
meals were eaten in the big Dining Room.
Outside you could walk along the straight alleys
going north south and east west, or if you
looked to the east, you saw Moss and the sea
between the town and the island of Jeløya.

There was also an English natural style forest,
where supposedly you could flirt and climb
the little rock. You could walk over the specially
constructed brook on two small wooden bridges.

On the top of the rock was a little open temple
and further back an outside dancing floor
and an amphitheatre.
Unfortunately not all of this has been preserved.



The original baroque garden is being renovated.



A kitchen window.



One of the magnificent iron ovens,
made in Norway around two hundred years ago,
especially for this house.



A group of concerned citizens have organized
themselves into The Friends of Torderød Gård
and try to restore the former glory of the place.

The property belongs to the town of Moss.

The guided tour I took part in today was really
exciting and well done.
In my eyes, I saw it as a rally to add more active
members to the Friends of Torderød Gård.

To stand on ski in the summer

Story overheard at the train going to Oslo:

When I was a little girl in Fredrikstad my father made a bet with us children.
He insisted that the train could stand on ski!
Not only that, but the train could stand on ski in the summer!

It sounded like complete rubbish, but he sounded very confident.
What was up?

One summer, going on a holiday with our car in the direction of Oslo, my father drove the car to a railway station we did not know. On the station a train was waiting.
The sign on the railway station said SKI.
My father pointed at the waiting train and announced: "Here you see, the train can stand on Ski in the summer! "

Advice for travelers at Oslo airport

In Aftenposten this week an article tried to educate Norwegian travellers on how to get to their flights on time. This year daily around 20 passengers lose their flights because they are too late.

In the end of May 2006 people waited for 40 minutes for check-in and were so angry, the airport authorities had to call in the police!

In June this year 1.8 million passengers went through the airport, the busiest month since the airport opened in 1998. Remember that Norway is a country with close to 4.7 million citizens.

Some of the points in the article :
1. For going abroad to any country you need a pass. Some Norwegians thought they didn't need one for the Schengen countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

2. For inland flights be at the airport one hour earlier, and for flights abroad an hour and a half.

3. Take a glass of wine, if you want to, but do not exaggerate. Some passengers were too drunk this summer and were not allowed to fly.


Life is different in different countries.....

Moss: Kleberget

This afternoon I went back to a place I saw the last time more than 50 years ago.

Believe me, I remembered the place fairly well.

At that time one crossed the railway tracks, very close to Kleberget.

Now it is a tunnel under the tracks, next to the southern part of Moss harbor, at the end of those ugly containers. From there you walk along a path that must have been built not too long ago.


Kleberget itself is a fairly narrow, rocky, steep part between the railroad and the Oslo fjord.

I remember sitting on those rocks or on a blanket, but I do not remember being in the water there.

Now in 2007, seeing how steep it is and how deep the water is, I imagine it was dangerous for a little girl to enter the water there.

So we must have been there on some kind of picnic and to lick up some Scandinavian summer sun.

My mother does not remember what we did then, just that 15 years later she picked berries there.

This place, Kleberget, has followed me:

the smell of the salty sea wherever I have been near the sea,

the rounded rocks with patches of grass here and there - especially in Bohuslaen in Sweden.

Retiring in Europe

In Norway you retire, according to the law, when you are 67 years old.
Of course not everybody can or want to work till then.
There is something called AFP (avtalefestet pensjon), a possibility to retire at the age of 62.
I do not know who can do this and how it is done.
I imagine it is an arrangement for those who have worked for many, many years in Norway, who can retire at 62, but who will receive a lower pension than if they had worked till the age of 67.

The age of retirement according to the law, may perhaps differ in European countries (I don't know), but when do the average Europeans retire in practical terms?
It turns out Norwegians stay at work the longest, retiring on the average at the age of 64, with the Swedes right behind them with 63.7 years.
Here is the list, according to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten :
Norway 64
Sweden 63.7
Portugal 63.1
Great Britain 62.6
Spain 62.4
Greece 61.7
The Netherlands 61.5
Germany 61.3
Denmark 60.9
Belgium 60.6
Italy 59.7
France 58.8

My ideal calendar

This is the best calendar for me, and I am about to order the new one.

http://flylady.net/pages/FlyShop_calendar.asp

I have used it for last few years, and it keeps my life more organized.

Why?

Because it is not a calendar with pretty pictures.

There are no pictures, except the ones on the cover.

It is a calendar with big squares where I can make my notes.

Width:4.5 cm Height: 8.5 cm.

If I want I can use the stickers that came with the calendar.

In my case, the most useful ones are : Anti-Procrastination Day, Errand Day, Home Blessing (cleaning your house in regular language...), Renew Your Spirit.

Then I realized I could make my own little stickers, covering specific activities in my life.

I find a suitable picture on Google Images, make it really small on the WORD document, write one or two words underneath, repeat this as many times as needed and print it out on one of those sheets of paper with glue on the back.

If I get a little more advanced, I should learn how to fit my homemade stickers to the size of the smallest prepared squares on those same sheets, instead of using the scissors.

You can of course also print the stickers on regular paper, cut them with scissors and glue them on the calendar with regular glue or a gluestick.

On Fridays I go with my mother to a local cafe called Everts. That day they serve a fish dish for 80 Norwegian crowns (around 13 US dollars). It's a good meal and a good deal.

Now I am making a sticker for Everts with Mamma written underneath!

Rootless?

Thoughts to be checked out further:

It is true that my roots are in Norway and that I have lived in another country for very many years.
So those two very different languages should be my two main languages.
In some ways they are not.

I don't have too much patience watching talk shows in those two languages.
When I make lists for myself, in most cases I do not use those two languages.
I am not looking specifically for books in those two languages.

I use English.
Is this because English is a communication bridge between my other two main languages?

Is it because it reflects a certain degree of rootlessness?

Repairing your bicycle at Ski station

Ski is a town not far from Oslo.
If you use the train to work, you can live in Ski and work in Oslo.
It takes between 22 to 31 minutes, depending on what kind of train.

Last time I passed Ski station I saw a bicycle repair shop at the station.
I then realized that many of those using the train, get to and from the train in Ski by bike.
There must be really many of them, so imagine the person who understood that he could make a living out of repairing and maintaining the bicycles while the owners are at work in Oslo.

Smart thinking!

Living statues

Living statue somewhere else in the world.

Last time I was in Oslo and walked up the Karl Johan street to the Royal Palace, I saw several Living Statues on the way.
I don't remember having seen such statues earlier in Norway nor elsewhere.

One performer had a really big audience. I think it was because every time somebody walked up to put money in his box, from standing completely still, he suddenly lashed out in some dramatic gesture, changing his position. Also his costume was well done.

Today I saw that Wikipedia had instructions for how to do this.

If you need a new summer career, here is the basic course http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Living-Statue

Royal # 4: the stairs

These stairs outside the palace lead down to the main street Karl Johan.

In 2001, the wife of a Norwegian politician, Mrs. Eli Hagen, had just brought her husband to the Royal Palace and when leaving, forgot to use the two roads on the sides, but came straight down the stairs!

I have heard about this incident from several persons, so it must have made quite an impression at the time.

Even here in Moss there was an incident where somebody drove down some local stairs "Just like Eli Hagen did outside the Royal Palace", I was told.

Royal # 3: a king

This statue of King Haakon (1872 - 1957) stands between the Palace and the harbor.
This King was much beloved for the position he took when the Germans occupied Norway in 1940. According to the law, he should have acted according to the decision of the Prime Minister and the government. At once, when he heard about the occupation, he stated that in no way would he cooperate with the Germans.
The royal family then had to flee Oslo and Norway. The King and Crownprince Olav stayed in London where they led the Norwegian government and army in exile. Crownprincess Maertha and the three children stayed in -Washington DC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_VII_of_Norway

Royal # 2 : a crown princess

In February this year, on the King's 70th birthday, he was given this statue of his mother Crownprincess Maertha (1901 - 1954).

Such a statue is already placed outside the Norwegian Embassy in Washington DC where the Crownprincess and her three children spent World War Two, and where Crownprincess Maertha took an active role in representing Norway.

When I saw the statue in the winter, surrounded by snow and ice, I decided to come back in the summer. Today was a perfect day for the Queen to be dressed like that.

Royal # 1 : a palace

Norway has only one palace and this is it.
The Royal Palace is situated at the end of the Karl Johansgate in Oslo.
From the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace%2C_Oslo

For most Norwegians it is mostly associated with the royal family standing on the veranda on the second floor for three hours every May 17th, greeting the school children of Oslo parading on the Norwegian national day.

As a child , I attended some of these celebrations in Oslo as a spectator and in the mideighties I was here with my son on such a day.

In the nineties I heard the Royal Palace had been renovated and the renovation was very expensive because the building had not been maintained and updated on a regular basis.

A few weeks ago I found out that the general public, now in the summer, could visit the Royal Palace for a one hour guided tour.

My ticket cost 95 kr (around 16 US dollars) and was bought and paid for at the local post office in Moss.

This morning I took the train to Oslo and walked up to the Palace.
After putting plastic covers on our shoes, a very competent guide walked us through some of the 173 rooms.

Here is some of what she told us:
It was King Carl Johan who started to build the palace in 1820, but it was only his son who saw the building finished in 1849.
(Till today I personally have seen Carl Johan only as a Swedish king, though historically he is to be considered a Norwegian-Swedish king. One learns...)
More about the history of the palace
http://www.kongehuset.no/c33469/artikkel/vis.html?tid=33470

Till the year 1905 the Palace acted more as a hotel for the Swedish king who spent very little time there.
Only in 1905 when Norway became independent and King Haakon and Queen Maude and their little son Crownprince Olav were invited to become the royal family of Norway, did the Palace become a year round residence for the King and his family.
The present King Harald and his wife Queen Sonia, have a private apartment on the third floor (not part of the tour) but all the rooms in the Palace are in active use by the Norwegian government and the royal family.
Most official guests to Norway stay at the Royal Palace . We visited one of the guestrooms.
"The palace is not a museum", said the guide, "but we hope you will treat it as such."

Read more on the royal family's homepage
http://www.kongehuset.no/c28587/seksjonstekst/vis.html?tid=28701

If you click on Guided Tours you will see seven photos of the places I saw today.

Was it worth the visit?
I feel so.

Kitchen stories - a Norwegian film

"Salmer fra kjoekkenet" ("Psalms from the Kitchen") is the name of this film in Norwegian, but the English title is "Kitchen Stories".

My friend Anika introduced me to it. I have enjoyed it very much the two times I have watched it, though a representative of the younger generation complained the story was extremely slow, so be warned.
The BBC review is here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/12/19/kitchen_stories_2004_review.shtml

Historical background:
In the fifties the Swedes did a thorough study of the housewives' movements inside the kitchen in order to design a more efficient kitchen. (These days the term "housewife" would probably be replaced with "housemaker").
The argument was that within a year the average Swedish housewife walked the distance from Stockholm to Congo while preparing the family meals.

This film uses that as a background and pretends the Swedes then make an additional study of male homemakers' use of the kitchen. This comparative study is done by Swedish scientists studying Norwegian bachelors in the fictional Norwegian village of Landstad.

Being both Swedish and Norwegian myself, the film feels familiar, and funny.

Anika and her family also laughed, so perhaps you don't have to know the specific Scandinavian part in order to enjoy it.

By the way, this film was selected as Norway's 2004 Oscar candidate.

Just found another review worth reading:
http://www.reelingreviews.com/kitchenstories.htm

Writing my blog

Somebody asked me : "Why do you write a blog, putting your private thoughts and life out on the very public internet?"

Somebody else asked: "As there is no common specific subject on your blog, why do you write the blog?"

* First of all, in my opinion, the reasons for writing a blog are as many as the number of persons doing it.
For me personally it is like taking small snapshots of what I hear and see, as I go along. So of course the only common subject is that I saw and heard about it, and then decided to write a short text.

* Secondly, each blogger has a concious or subconcious guideline for what to publish and what not to publish.
The readers of the blog, can be of of two kinds: those who know who you are and those who stumbled upon the blog and have no clue who is writing.
As for the first group (friends and family) I feel the blog is a convenient way of sharing some of what I see and hear.
In the beginning I sent out group letters to friends as a way of keeping in contact. Then I started to wonder if those on my address list really wanted to read what I wrote when I wrote it, or perhaps altogether needed a break.
The blog gives friends and family the choice when and if they want to check out the blog. Getting a private email message with comments afterwards is nice though.....
But because the public nature of the internet and those who by chance may reach my blog,
I try not to give out too many clues of who I am.
So the blog is a balance act between telling something and not telling too much.

* The third reason for writing the blog, is that it is a way of looking at my present life as an observer, trying to be a more conscious observer and feeling the adventure of this special situation.

* Fourth, Google is letting me keep my texts and photos in one place, free of charge, in a virtual place that I can take with me, wherever I decide to move. A compact virtual diary!

Norwegian strawberries

Norwegian strawberries - do they taste differently than strawberries from other countries?

Many Norwegians insist they do :).

For the three plus weeks of Norwegian strawberry season there is a lot of strawberry eating in this country.

Strawberries with sugar.

Strawberries with cream.

Strawberries with whipped cream.

Strawberry cake.

Lately it has rained so much in this area, the strawberries now offered are for strawberry jam.

Personally I think strawberries taste great, but not that great.

On the other hand, when the local bakery called Moss Finbakeri made a strawberry cake I ate a week ago - that cake was divine!

Getting married in America

From an American documentary called Getting Married in America, shown tonight on TV.

Black American man whose mother originally came from Haiti is getting married to his nextdoor neighbour, a white woman. They have known each other since they were four and five years old.
The bridegroom tells about his mother's initial reaction to getting a white daughter-in-law: "Back then she would have preferred me unhappy with a woman from Haiti."

Perhaps both choices stem from the same - chosing what you feel is familiar to you.
For the mother that was Haiti. For the son it was his American neighbourhood.

Baking: the sweet life = Det soete liv

By chance I stumbled upon a website, in Norwegian, with 1484 cake recipees.

http://www.detsoteliv.no/

It even has its own little baking school.

For those of you who love waffles, Scandinavian style, the section Vafler/ Lefser will give you 38 different recipees for waffles.

Guess you didn't know you can make

Dream Waffles, Oldfashioned Sweet Cream Waffles, Strawberry Waffles, Spice Waffles, Low Calorie Waffles, Non Stop Waffles, Raisin Waffles, Chocolate Waffles, Sourmilk Waffles, Waffles without eggs and Vanilla Waffles?

31 Ukrainian children in nearby Rygge during World War II

At Rygge Museum, in an old farm building called a stabbur, is the local museum for the history of World War Two. The collection is quite impressive for such a small local museum.


I knew already that during the Second World War the Germans tried to build a military airport in Rygge, moving the local civilian population, cutting down the trees in the forest etc. It was called Lille Rygge (Little Rygge).



In the museum I saw the following sign:


The Russian Camp near Lille Rygge
For building the airport in the fields of roer, the (German) occupiers needed many workers for the project.
They solved this by using forced laborers, and these were mostly Ukrainian civilians.
Just to the east of Lille Rygge a camp was built for these.
282 persons were interned there - 190 men, 61 women and 31 children.
The Red Cross took over the camp on May 21st 1945 and till the end of that year the camp had been closed.


What happened to these civilians?
They were probably sent back to the Soviet Union, and one wonders what happened to them there.
Who were the 31 children?
Are there Ukrainians alive, now in their sixties and seventies, who spent their childhood in Rygge?

The doll's house - and not by Henrik Ibsen!

Today I was really lucky while visiting the local museum
in nearby Rygge.
On the second floor, for a few short weeks this summer,
Ms. Solveig Gulbrandsen is showing us her skills in
making dolls' houses. Dolls' houses to be looked at,
not to be played with by children.



Recreating rooms, often from old times, Solveig
Gulbrandsen is finding the right materials and
techniques to do it.
Imagine using a silk thread and knitting needles
as thin as sewing needles to knit a Norwegian sweater
with the traditional patterns!
Amazing!
It is all so tiny, you can't really understand how her
fingers and eyes can do it.



She told us that she goes abroad on special exhibitions
for those interested in this hobby. There are not that
many Norwegians doing this, but it is a common hobby
in Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the States,
she told us.



There is something wonderful in being able to build
a three dimensional model of a room that gives you
a feeling of history.


It makes the room real.
It makes you study the details of each object.
It makes you aware of each object.



It makes you admire the skills of the person who has
done such a good job.

Furniture from Fretex

For many Norwegians, visiting FRETEX, the Salvation Army shop, is a hobby. But for some it is also a great way of getting established on a shoestring budget. For me, for example.

The table you see on this photo is made of three parts, and solves my problems of writing and working on the computer. It cost me around 85 US dollars. The chair, if I remember right, was around 20 US dollars.
I also bought a simple IKEA sofabed for around 20 US dollars.

If my next apartment will be bigger and I will need some more furniture, I know I will be back at FRETEX.

Fretex - the shop of the salvation army

Just like in many other towns in Norway, Moss has a branch of FRETEX, a shop selling donations to the Salvation Army. Clothes, books, furniture and so on - you name it.

In a country with a high standard of living, many like to browse the FRETEX shop and buy something for themselves and their homes. In most cases, it is some kind of hobby.

As FRETEX started out with used clothes, in Moss they have a little sewing studio where you can get help in transforming the clothes you find on the racks to your own needs.

Personally I haven't used that option yet.

Last time I visited FRETEX I noticed some red dresses hanging outside the sewing studio and then found the note above. Checking out the website (sedinkjole is Se din kjole and that is See Your dress) it is a promotional site for FRETEX - showing dresses according to the colors. Click on one of the colored spots and get a fashion show :)

Just for fun!

Swedish crown princess Victoria is 30 years old

VICTORIA OF SWEDEN

Sweden, Norway and Denmark are all monarchies.

Each country has laws for who inherits the crown.

These laws have changed over the last fifty years, so now both sons and daughters can inherit the crown.


In Denmark the former King Frederik (who died in 1972) had three daughters and no sons, so his oldest daughter became the present Queen Margaret of Denmark.

http://www.kongehuset.dk/english

The present line of inheritance in Denmark:

Queen Margarethe, born 1940

Crown Prince Frederik, born 1968

Prince Christian born 2005


In Norway the present line of inheritance of the crown goes like this:

King Harald , born 1937

Crown Prince Haakon Magnus , born 1973

Princess Ingrid Alexandra, born 2004

A photo of these three on the Norwegian royal family's website

http://www.kongehuset.no/c26965/artikkel/vis.html?tid=27590

This is their English version

http://www.kongehuset.no/english/vis.html


In Sweden, the present line of inheritance

In Sweden the line of inheritance of crown is this:

King Carl XVI Gustav, born 1946

Crown Prince Victoria., born 1977 (Victoria is still single)

The Swedish royal family has a website with an English version

http://www.royalcourt.se/theroyalfamily.4.19fe5e61065eb9aeea80002278.html


Personally, I find monarchies an anachronism for the time we live in.

But having presidents is also not without problems.........

Schamyl - a Circassian chief (1797 - 1871)

SCHAMYL (1797 - 1871

According to "Nordisk Familjebok, encyclopedia och konversationslexikon", Stockholm 1932 :

"SCHAMYL (Schamil = Samuel), Circassian chief and Islamic religious leader, imam and murid (1797 - 1871).

Took part in the Caucasian Uprising against the Russians in 1824 and was wounded but was the only survivor when the Russians stormed Himri in 1831.

In 1834 Schamyl became the leader of the Sufi sect and got all the mountain peoples in Dagestan to fight together against the Russians, though despite his successes, in the end he was overtaken by their strength. When Bariatinskij stormed the fortress Ghunib in 1859, Schamyl was taken a prisoner and lived in exile in Kaluga till 1868. He went to Mecca in 1870 and died in Medina. "

Haven't heard about Circassians before?

You could try the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassians

Adyghe is a more clearly defined group among the Circassians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adyghe_people

The Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjeboe

From the Wikipedia:

Sissel Kyrkjebø (born June 24, 1969 in Bergen, Norway), also known as just Sissel, is a Norwegian singer. She is best known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, for duets with Plácido Domingo, Charles Aznavour, Neil Sedaka, Warren G, Josh Groban, and The Chieftains, and for participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.
Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs to classical vocals. Her work on the soundtrack to Titanic has led to comparisons with Irish singer Enya and Sarah Brightman.
Sissel's combined solo record sales (not including soundtracks and other albums to which she contributed) amount to over 9 million albums sold, most of them in Norway—a country with only 4.5 million people.

Read more on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissel_Kyrkjebø

She also has an official website http://www.sissel.net/ where I copied the photo above.

Her voice is incredible!

I want to listen to more of her music.

Knowing and understanding someone

Just found this quote on the Heron Beauty website:

Author Sam Keene talked once about how dangerous it is to a relationship to say you “know” someone or you “understand” them. This puts them in a small box. In truth, he claims, the longer you know someone, the deeper their mystery becomes. I have thought about this again and again and believe it to be true. We can hardly know the mystery of our selves in this lifetime, let alone someone else’s. When someone reveals their truth to me I feel deeply honored; to me it is the greatest gift a person can give.

If you haven't signed up for their free newsletter A Pause for Beauty, check
http://www.herondance.org/The_Best_of_em_A_Pause_for_Be_W296C111.cfm

Aha! Yes, a-ha will be nearby in August

Twenty five years ago the Norwegian band A-HA started their impressive career in the music world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-ha

Their website
http://www.a-ha.com/

This summer they are coming out with new music and an European tour.
In July they will have a concert in nearby Fredrikstad.

This is a short article , in English, from the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, published earlier this year
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article296250.ece

Rain in July

Norwegian summer days are very long , often giving the illusion that nine and ten and eleven at night is just five or six in the late afternoon.

Norwegian summers are green. Beautifully green.

Norwegian summers can be pleasantly sunny and warm.
Then the Norwegians dress up in their summer clothes, spend the time at the beach swimming and sunbathing or enjoy their freetime in their gardens and on the veranda.

Norwegian summers can also be rainy.
Then many Norwegians feel cheated. They want the sun.
Sometimes they panic and quickly order a charter trip to one of the countries around the Mediterranian Sea.

The last few weeks have been fairly rainy.
A lot of conversations center around the weather.
People tell about their friends who just went to Italy or Greece or Spain to enjoy the sun.

Perhaps some of those from down Southern Europe come up here to experience the summer rain?

Instant meditation?

Some places look like a piece of instant meditation to me.
In this case, a stone fence, a green soft lawn and two old and big trees.

Simple.
Relaxing.
Uplifting.

Strange dream in Chicago in May

In May I visited the States for the first time.
Two and a half days in Chicago isn't much of a visit, but being in such a big city,
gave me this dream at the hotel:

I had ventured out in Chicago alone, by bus.
Then I lost my money, my airplane ticket,
my passport and my shoes.
It was very unpleasant, but not scary.

Suddenly I remembered that I had left my money,
my airplane ticket and my passport back at the hotel.

So I had - after all - only lost my shoes.


Now, two months later, I feel that the dream expressed my anxiety
about my present life situation, but the dream also showed me that,
counting my blessings, life wasn't all that bad. I had lost very little.

Drunk parents

According to a recent Norwegian survey, half of young Norwegians
in the age group 12- 19 have seen at least one of their parents drunk.

I was quite surprised.
I never saw my own parents drunk.
As a teenager I never saw any of my friends' parents drunk.

Then I think about the survey:
What is the definition of drunk?
How drunk were these parents?
How often are they drunk?
Do they try to hide it from their children
or is it an open thing in their homes?

From my point of view:
If a person likes the taste of alcoholic drinks, I can understand
if he/she drinks a little, to enjoy the taste.

But the notion that persons who are , I hope, not alcoholics,
should choose to be drunk, is strange to me.

Watercolor tutorials

For some time I have been considering trying water color, for fun.
Perhaps as a way to overcome childhood frustrations of colors that after a short time all looked brownish and brushes I could not control. Painting inside those borders was just impossible!

Yesterday I bought a fairly cheap set of watercolors with a thick and thin brush.
After trying out that set instinctively - part of the result is on the top - I understood I could benefit from some instructions.

Checking out the internet, I found a website called Watercolorpainting.com where they have free tutorials. Just what I was looking for!

I printed out "How to Hold a Water Color Brush : Five ways to Loosen Up by Getting a Grip"
1. Classic
2. Pinch
3. Pass the pencil
4. Screwdriver
5. Conductor

http://www.watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-tutorials.htm

Next step will be to do those exercises. That will be a suitable Sunday pastime - especially as it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

Getting married on July 7th 2007

Today, July 7th 2007 or 07.07.07 or 7.7.07, turned out to be a day many couples decided to get married.

Perhaps for the new husbands to remember their wedding days?
Perhaps hoping that the ancient lucky number of 7 will bring some blessings to the new marriage?

Candles next to the tub

Showers are great.
Showers have been my good friends since I grew up.

In this apartment there is a bathtub.

Most of the time I pretend it is a shower.

But when I was really exhausted the other day, I filled it up.

For the first time in my life, I lit some candles next to the tub.

It was great!

Umbrella and Paraplui

Addis Abeba, Ethiopia

This morning walking through the rain to the bus - and getting quite wet :) - I thought about the Norwegian word for umbrella - paraply.
Which of course comes from the French paraplui (roughly translated as "against rain").

It has always amazed me that the British with all their rain and need of protection against the rain, decided to use the word umbrella (roughly translated "giving shadow") for that invention.

In Ethiopia specially made umbrellas are used in religious processions.

That seems to be a real umbrella and not a paraplui......

Local radio station

The other day I learnt about "widgets".
Now when I open my computer I see the weather in Moss, photos from my own PC in a little frame, a clock, the calendar and I listen to the local radio in my other country.

It is quite weird, listening to that radio station. It is like being in the other country.

Listening to the music, I feel I am there. The music usually brings back good memories.

The local news there bring me back. The news often bring back mixed memories.

Widgets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget
http://widgets.yahoo.com/

Looking for a new apartment

The summer is definitely here

Life brings surprises, even in Norway.
My landlords informed me that they are selling the house I am living in, so I will have to look for another apartment.

What I have liked here:
It is a quiet area.
It is close to the centre of town.
It has a nice view of the fjord.
It is close to the bus I take to work.
It has its own entrance.
It is a wellkept apartment.
The landlords were nice people.

So where will I go now?
It is actually a little exciting to look for something new, even though I thought I would stay here at least till the end of the year.

From Swedish to Norwegian in 1948

My mother told me that when she moved to Norway in 1948, the Norwegian language had quite a few words and expressions she did not know from her native Swedish.
Two examples from what she heard from my Norwegian grandmother:

LETTVINT (Easily done, done without much effort, convenient)
It was so LETTVINT to do that.

STAS (great pleasure, great joy, memorable moment)
It was great STAS when my cousin got a present in those first years after the war.