Mambo = Living with mom

Sometimes the son, after he grows up, continues to live at home with his mother. She cooks, she does the laundry, she cleans the house - and in many cases without asking anything in return. So her son, later thirty, forty, fifty or more years, continues to enjoy the service his mother give. He does not marry.
He is not ready to consider marrying.

He is a real Mambo (Mam= Mom, bo= live) - living with his Mom.
In the meantime Mom herself has usually become a widow, and the arrangement makes her feel important and needed.

I know some Mambos in Norway.....

Sambo = Living together

Growing up in Norway in the fifties and sixties, most people were married if they lived together.
Nowadays many prefer to live together, have children together and spend their life together, without being married in any civil or religious ceremony.
So in addition to "Single", "Married","Divorced" and "Widowed", there is also "Sambo" (Sam = together, bo = to live).
But if persons who are Sambo do not write special testaments and legal agreements, a Sambo will not inherit the person he is Sambo with, in case that person dies.

Where nobody believed anybody could live

A very popular TV series has now become a book.

It is called "Where nobody believed anybody could live" (Der ingen kunne tru at nokon kunne bu) and tells of Norwegians who have chosen to live in "special places", often far away from where other Norwegians live.

Some of them grew up there and decided to stay.

Others have broken up from busy city life and found peace and quiet in an old farm or house where nobody else believed they could live.

This is a book I certainly will borrow from the library.

It was written by Oddgeir Bruaset who made the TV programms and published by the Genesis forlag. At the moment it costs 398 Norwegian crowns (a little more than 70 US dollars, I estimate).

I wonder:

If Oddgeir Bruaset had made an English version of this book and sold it as an e-book through the internet - how many people around the world would be interested in buying such an e-book, and to what price?

It certainly would be a fascinating way for foreigners to learn about some special places and persons living in Norway.

Smoking in Norway - A story

This is a story I heard.
True? I don't know.

A group of Japanese visited Stavanger, the city on the southwest coast of Norway, a kind of oil capital these days.
The Japanese were very impressed with the town, the buildings, the development.
But there was one point they did not understand in this otherwise perfect town: How come the Norwegians allowed groups of prostitutes to stand outside the fancy office buildings?

These "prostitutes" were not prostitutes at all, just office workers, smokers, who had slipped outside the building, for a smoking break.

PS. Even in the winter, I see smokers standing outside offices, restaurants, shopping malls, sometimes only dressed in their inside clothes. It must be hard to be that addicted.

Smoking in Norway

As a non smoker, I find it interesting to observe smoking habits in Norway.

It is prohibited to smoke in public places, by law.

But what happens inside Norwegian homes?

70 % of Norwegian homes do not allow smoking inside the home. Often the smokers use the balcony as a smoking area.
In 1993 only 17 % had smokefree homes.

90 % of Norwegian smokers say they do not smoke in a room where there are children.

Next to where my mother lives, a big block with balconies, gives the opportunity to observe "smoking on the balcony".

Many have installed heating lamps on their balconies as the climate here can be fairly cold.

Imagine, sometimes I feel a little sorry for the smokers standing outside, shivering, with their cigarettes.

Statistics for Norwegians

From the Norwegian Statistical Bureau we learn:

* There are now 4.7 million Norwegians, 100 000 more than in 2004.

* In Europe only French, Islandic and Irish women have more babies than their Norwegian counterparts.

* Expected average age in Norway is now 82 for women and 78 for men, an increase of three years since 1987.

Around the world with SMS

This last year somebody I know here in Norway has travelled around the world.
For eight or nine months, I think it was.
Occassionally he sent an SMS from "the global nomade".
Before I erase those messages from my mobile, here are some selected quotes .

"I am going to Burma tomorrow. I don't think it is possible to use my mobile in Burma."

"Came to Bali tonight. New country, new mobile number. "

"Going to Jayapura on Papua. Will try to visit the Dani people. Their "town" is Wamema in the Baliem Valley."

"I am now in Wamema, Papua, Indonesia. It is 2000 meter above sea level. Here they walk around stark naked quite seriously. The men only wear a penis cover that reaches the navel. It is as exotic as it can get. It is now the yearly festival Singsing. It is a mixture of a farmers' festival and the Titanofestival. Extremely enjoyful. And incredible photo opportunities. After this I go back to Bali."

"Going to Australia."

"Flying from Darwin to Sydney today.
This is a strange country.
Old men in short trousers and knee stockings. And hats of skin."

"Going to New Zealand on Monday."

"I am now in Auckland, New Zealand. This country is even stranger than Australia. It is winter here. Down under, you know."

"In Chile now, after a loooong flight. Flying makes it possible to make some quite schizofrenic cultural jumps in a short span of time."

"I am now on the Easter Island. Here it is better than I expected. Will stay a week and play little Heyerdahl."

"Have arrived in Lima, Peru."

"I am still in Peru. Trouble with the ticket."

With a slight delay of a few days, he arrived safely back in Norway.