This is the blog of a Norwegian (Marianne, aka 'M') who moved to Australia in 2007 to be with Roger (aka R) and feels lucky to have escaped a comparatively communistic country with ridiculous weather!
The Girl EffectPosted in 'Random stuff' on July 30, 2010
| A woman or girl will reinvest 90% of her income into her family. A man will reinvest 30-40% |
| Research in developing countries has shown the children of educated women are healthier, and are more likely to be in school themselves |
| An extra year of secondary school raises a girl's lifetime wages by 15-25% |
| When girls have received 7 or more years of education, they marry 4 years later and have 2.2 fewer children |
| For every developmental dollar spent, girls receive less than two cents |
Convo about animals and deathPosted in 'Roger' on July 30, 2010 R and I discussing animals and death and grief.
M: So if it was up to you, you would not have any animals in your life, because they will die one day?
R: That's right.
M: What if I die? R: You will outlive me, so I don't worry about that.
M: What if I die in an accident?
R: Then I will kill myself.
M: But what about the cats?
R: Yeah ok, I will continue to live for them. But I will set your room up as a shrine.
*pause*
R: What will I do about your fish, I don't know how to take care of them.... Give them to a pet store?
M: *shocked* No, they are rare, expensive species. Give them to an enthusiast in the forum.
R: I don't know where the forum is.
M: You'll find it in the favourites on my computer.
R: If you die, I won't go near your computer. Imagine me opening your browser and it comes up with the sites you were looking at the last time you were on your computer. How sad would that be??
M: Yeah, I spose.....
Bullfighting banPosted in 'Random stuff' on July 29, 2010 | Catalonia has made history today: the Catalonian Parliament has voted to approve the amendment of the current animal protection legislation and therefore ban bullfighting within the region. The ban will come into effect on January 1st, 2012. Bulls will no longer suffer a slow, painful and terrifying death in Catalonia’s bullrings. |
WeaklingsPosted in 'Usa bashing' on July 27, 2010 Said by a friend of mine: | They breed them weak in America. That's why they all need guns. |
Guard catsPosted in 'The cats!' on July 27, 2010 Our cats let us know when there is an intruder. They are not shy around visitors, some of them will go up and want attention, others will simply ignore visitors. But what's funny is when one of the kids from over the back climbs the fence to get a ball, or one time we came home to find someone in our backyard (who ran off as soon as we yelled out) or if a courier comes to the door before we are up. We will instantly know that something isn't right because the cats will get very spooked and run around, which means we get up to check what is going on and we then usually find someone on or near our property that we didn't invite (usually one of the kids from over the back). But when someone comes to the door and we go and greet them and invite them in, the cats don't care at all. It's funny how they all know who is allowed to be on our property and who isn't. Cats don't generally get cedit for that sort of intelligence. It's good when I'm home alone and think I heard a noise somewhere, and then I just check the cats, and if they are still asleep/not spooked then I will know it's nothing.
Female Prime MinisterPosted in 'Roger, Life in Oz' on June 27, 2010 The other day Australia got its first female prime minister. She wasn't elected by the people, but decided to overthrow the current prime minister, after he became more and more unpopular by making silly suggestions for the future of Australia. One of these suggestions was to allow a lot of immigration to increase Australia's population to 36 million by 2050 (current population is 20 million). The trouble with this is that infrastructure is already not keeping up with the current population growth. There are always roadworks everywhere, and you can't drive anywhere near the city without either being stuck in traffic or being held up by roadworks. By nearly doubling our population in the next 40 years, I can't even imagine the amount of roadworks and traffic problems we would see.
I dug up a Norwegian news story about Julia becoming prime minister, and one paragraph actually says that she has been criticised for being unmarried and childless, saying that she cares more about politics than family.
I don't know where they got that from, because I live here, and I have not heard anyone say anything bad about her not being married or having children. What I did hear was someone say "she is a redhead who lives in a flat and eats takeaway food with her boyfriend!" and I think everyone loves her for it, because she's so untraditional.
I have heard people say bad things about her politics, but I have not heard her criticised at all for her lack of family life. Or for being a woman for that matter.
But as Roger said:
R: Why are they obsessing over what gender she is anyway? She's just a person; and that's it. End of story.
Awww:)
ResidencyPosted in 'Life in Oz' on June 18, 2010 We got back from Usa on Wednesday, and I found a letter from Immigration waiting for me. I lodged my application for permanent residency early in May, so it was quite exciting. And sure enough, it had been granted, and I am now a permanent Australian resident! :)
This means I can remain in Australia indefinitely without having to go through any more visa stuff, and I have access to all the benefits that Aussie citizens get, such as Medicare, study help, unemployment benefit, etc etc. Not that I will be using all that of course, but it's good to know that it's there:)
Name changePosted in 'Random stuff' on June 18, 2010 I mentioned in a blog entry a few months ago that I would not change my name if I got married, and I still feel the same way. It's not that I don't like R's name, it's that I like my name; I grew up with and have had it all my life. It's part of me, and I don't see why I should change it. I also don't agree that it should be an automatic thing for the woman to take her husband's name.
In Norway the female usually keeps her maiden name as her middle name, and takes her husband's last name as her new last name. I don't know why they have started doing this, because according to Wikipedia, Scandinavian women have only been taking their husband's last name since the beginning of the 20th century.
But me not changing my name means there is an issue with my title, which English speaking countries love to use. Whenever you fill out a form here, they ask for your title. I am no longer "Miss", because I am married, but I am not "Mrs Hovde", because R's last name isn't Hovde. So the only title I can use is "Ms", which I don't like. Oh well.
One weekPosted in 'Roger' on June 17, 2010 Today R and I have been married for one week. Woohoo! We got married on June 9th, but that was in Seattle, so that was early morning on the 10th here in Brisbane, so we have decided that we will celebrate our anniversary on the 10th each year.
We got married kind of on impulse. R said to me a few days before we left for Seattle, "What if we get married over there?"
So I looked into it and found that it's one of the easiest places to get married, so then we figured why not. It might be fun, and it's a souvenir of us and of Seattle. So when we got there we went and applied for a marriage licence, which is very simple, all you do is fill out your name and address and they give you a piece of paper that gives you permission to get married.
A couple of days later, on Monday when R's parents arrived, we went out to dinner and announced to them that we would get married on Wednesday the 9th (2 days later) and we wanted them to be our witnesses. They were of course pleased.
So on Wednesday we all walked down to the courthouse, the judge read his little thingy about the importance of respect etc when married, then asked us the routine questions and we of course said yes and he declared us husband and wife. (I was very pleased that he didn't say "man and wife" which I have heard a few times on tv). R and I shook hands on it, after I told the judge that's what we do in Norway, but he then exclaimed "boring!" so we kissed as well, so we double sealed the deal:)
We then signed some papers and off we went.
It was all very casual, R and I wore jeans and t-shirts and we didn't make a big deal out of it, which is how we both wanted it. I felt very self conscious getting married in front of 3 people, and I could never have done it in front of a whole crowd, and R said later he felt the same way.
To celebrate we went up the Space Needle in the evening where R's parents bought us dinner.
A couple of days later we decided we wanted wedding rings, so we went and bought some. So there was nothing really traditional about the process, but that suits us just fine.
 (click for bigger version)
DinnerPosted in 'My travels, Usa bashing' on June 11, 2010 Following our marriage ceremony yesterday afternoon, R and I went up the Space Needle with R's parents, because they wanted to take us out to dinner. We thought that was very nice of them. I have a few comments on Usatian dining, however. First of all, their restaurants are sooo loud! This would be because they all feel the need to shout at each other all the time, rather than speaking normally. It's the same in England, you can hardly hear yourself think in cafes and restaurants, and speaking to the other people at your table is difficult. You have to lean in and speak very loudly for them to hear you, thus contributing to the noise issue. Restaurants in Norway and Australia are nice and quiet, with other people's talking as gentle background noise. Another thing is that their menu has "apetizers" and "entrées", apetisers actually being the entrée and the entrée actually being the main course. Why?? Do they not know the meaning of the word entrée?? It literally means 'entry' or 'entrance'. There are apetisers (like chips or bread rolls), then entrée (small, light meal), then main course.
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Yes.... a little out of context... it seems like a serious conversation in here, but it was light, and me trying to be funny in some areas... yopu'd have to know me to appreciate it
Yeah, it wasn't dark or depressing or anything.
I think that is what the above clip is addressing and it would make an amazing difference in our world if these atrocities were never allowed to happen but the women were treated as equals instead.