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!

Thought I'd give ya'll an update from Bermuda. Oh, and UK too I guess.

I arrived at Gatwick at 6:30 saturday. At 7:30 I met Roger for the first time. He's pretty kewl... and skinny. But being small and skinny myself, he's the perfect size for me. And he's the perfect guy as well. I'm definitely keeping him:)

Anyway, we went to the hotel and got settled in, then we went to a restaurant to have dinner and drinks to help us relax. It was good. The next day we went for a walk. The town we stayed in was called Three Bridges (awwwww how cute is that??), but I didn't see any bridges the whole time I was there. We were gonna walk to the town centre, but missed and ended up in Gatwick instead. We walked for hours.

Monday we went to the airport. We hung out at the airport for a few hours and then got on the plane. The flight took 7 1/2 hours, and I swear it was the most boring time of my life!!! I was hallucinating at the end, cuz my brain had to do something to entertain itself.

When we finally got to Bermuda it was like walking into water, cuz of the high humidity. (I have completely given up on my hair btw.) It was kewl tho, really colourful and beautiful and the ppl are really friendly. Weird, but friendly. We went through customs and all that and then wanted to get a taxi to the hotel. We told some lady we were going to Grotto Bay Resort, and she burst out laughing. She went over to one of the other ppl there and said "those ppl are going to Grotto Bay!!" and they both started laughing. Weird.

We got the hotel and checked in and all that. It's a pretty kewl hotel. The day after that we went to Hamilton, the capital. We wanted a McDonald's, but all they have is KFC. On the bus ride there we got a good look at the houses of Bermuda. They are extremely kewl. I'mma need to get one. Hamilton is kewl too. We raided all the gift shops.

After that we just stayed at the hotel for a few days, relaxing and sunbathing. We also went to see the Crystal Cave, which was small, but pretty. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at an ice cream place which makes the best milkshake ever. I would come back to Bermuda just to have it again. Yum.

Saturday was Roger's b-day, and the only day it's rained so far. I think he appreciated my pressy. We went to St. George, the old capital. It was small and wet and we had to wait forever for a taxi back to the hotel.

Yesterday we went to Horseshoe Beach to see the pink beaches. At first they didn't look pink, but after I got used to the brightness I could see that it was clearly pinkish, despite what Roger might try to tell ya. After we'd sunbathed and had ice cream, we went to Dockyard, a small town at the other end of the island. It has an old keep which is 100s of yrs old and was used to defend Bermuda from whoever attacked them. The keep has a pond where they have dolphins. I love dolphins, always have. And they are even kewler in real life:D We raided the gift shop there too. We then got the last ferry to Hamilton, where we ate at KFC again. Then we got a taxi back to the hotel.

Today we're going to the ice cream place to get more of that wonderful milkshake, and then we're going to the aquarium and zoo. Should be good. I'll write all about that later.

We have posted a bunch of photos, and add more every day, so make sure you check that out.

Roger just hacked this computer for me so I could write this entry. We paid for 30 mins, but now we have unlimited time....:)

Anyway, last night I dreamt that Julie died. She'd been outside for a few and came in with a big cut on the back of her head. It was huge, and it was bleeding. She was obviously in agony. I called the vet right away and he said to bring her in, so I put her in her cage and got her in the car and started driving. About half way there I looked over at her and she'd stopped breathing and I realised she'd died on me. I was in pieces and screaming, and all I wanted to do was die so I could be with her.

I'd never been happier to wake up and realise it was all a dream. I wish I had Julie here so I could hold her and kiss her.

On monday we went to the aquarium and zoo. The aquarium was small and looked like every other aquarium I've ever seen. The zoo was small too, the cages were small and dark and animals which shouldn't be kept alone were alone. It wasn't too bad tho.

Afterwards we decided to check out the village we were in, but it turned out there was nuthin much to see, so we got a taxi back to the hotel and then went and got some milkshake.

On tuesday we checked out at 11am, but our flight wasn't till 8pm, so we sat around doing mostly nuthin at all till we had to check in at 6. Then we sat around for 2 more hours waiting for the flight. Very boring airport. The flight wasn't too bad tho. I slept with my head on Roger's lap most of the time, which is the best way to sleep btw, along with sleeping with your head on someone's chest.

We arrived at Gatwick at 6:30am and went and got our rental and spent the next 2 hours driving to Salisbury. Once we got there we found a quaint lil B&B called Websters, which is run by some very nice ppl. Unfortunately we didn't escape the American tourists. We checked out Salisbury for a while and then we drove out to see stonehenge, which is basically just a bunch of big rocks piled on top of each other, and about as interesting to look at as a pile of rubble. I'm glad I saw it tho. We got in free, and raided the gift shop to make up for it.

(Btw, I don't think stonehenge is man made at all. The rocks prolly ended up there during the last ice age and it piled them up, and the whole thing means nuthin, except that it's a kewl freak of nature.)

Today we checked out Salisbury some more, ate pub food and bought Roger some jeans and a top for me. We tried to find some good milkshake, but the one we got was luke warm and no thicker than ordinary milk, but the gurl still claimed she'd put ice creamin it. Dam lying bitch... At sunset we went back to stonehenge to get sunset photos of it. It still hadn't gotten interesting...

I decided I should drive back, just to have tried driving on the left. It was weird and I almost hit some cars on my left several times, but Roger managed to grab the wheel and prevent it at the last minute. I'm not used to having car on my left. It was fun tho:)

Tomorrow we are leaving early for the airport to go to Oslo and then my home town. There I can finally get my cats home. I miss them so much:(

I'm back in Ålesund now. Got back saturday evening. It was nice to be home and see the cats again, but I kinda wish I was still in Bermuda. It's such a kewl place:) Roger is here with me. He's supposed to stay till saturday when he goes back to England, but I think I've convinced him to stay a while longer. Hopefully I can convince him to stay forever....

We raided the gift shops in Bermuda and Salisbury, and here are some photos of what I got:

I bought a Samsung E730 from Tele2 in february and signed up for a year, and pay 119kr per month. In exchange I got the phone cheap. Now I wanna swap phones with Roger, cuz I like his and he likes mine. Prob is my phone is locked for a year. He tried to unlock it online, but it didn't work, so I called my phone company and asked them to please unlock it for me. I still wanted to finish the year I'd signed up for, and pay the 119kr per month, just wanted the phone unlocked so I could use a different sim in it. They wouldn't lose anything.

But the woman I talked to wanted 1500kr to unlock it and would end my contract. I said "I don't wanna end my contract, I just want it unlocked", but she couldn't do that. 119kr per month till february is 700+ kr, so why she'd want 1500 to unlock is just unfathomable. And ridiculous.

On saturday Roger and I went and got matching tattoos. I got Julie's paw print on my shoulder and he got Beanie's somewhere else. His is so incredibly kewl, I can't understand why he wasn't born with it. Mine is kewl too, as you can see in the photo:

Yesterday I started my summer job as a cleaner, the 4th year in a row. I was cleaning the entire power station, which usually takes about 4-5 hours. What's weird is that some offices have big, dried up puddles of coffee on the floor or on the desk. What kinda ppl spills half a cup of coffee and doesn't even bother to clean it up??

After a while I got to the last bit, which is the control room with the adjoining kitchen/dining area. This area has always taken me 30 mins to clean. There was an old guy sitting there, so I smiled at him and said 'hi' as I entered. He looked at me as if I was an alien and then replied. A little while later, while I was still cleaning, he said
- you the summer help?
- yes.
- I could tell, they usually do all of this in 5 mins.

Funny guy.

Today I was doing the cafeteria daytime thing. I prepare lunch, then clean all the offices while they eat, and then put all the food away. I had just finished the cleaning bit so I went to the restroom to wash my hands and fix my hair. It's a small business so there's only one toilet and one sink. I didn't bother to close the door. Half way through washing my hands, the gurl from the reception came and stood outside and looked at me, as if I should stop what I'm doing and let her have the restroom. I have every right to use the restroom so I took my time washing my hands and fixing my hair. She stood there watching the whole time... o_O

Roger and I were walking home from the shopping centre and came across an abandoned bike. It had been there since Roger got here over a week ago, so we took it home. Fun.

With this crisis in Lebanon going on at the mo, Norway decided to bring home the few hundred Norwegians living there. We sent some buses and got them on boats to Cyprus.

There are a few thousand Americans living in Lebanon, and today 1000 american soldiers arrived there to "help evacuate them". What I wanna know is why they need soldiers for that? We sent buses, no soldiers, and everything went fine. Are Americans so stupid that they need military help to get on a dam bus? It's like when they sent 1500 soldiers to Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Why would they need soldiers??

But seriously, isn't sending a bunch of soldiers to an area on the brink of war like asking for trouble?

I've realised that oxygen is definitely the most underappreciated substance in the universe. Every time you walk into a room, it's there to sustain you. But when was the last time you stopped and took a minute to thank it for always being there?

I think everyone needs to do that when they walk into a room. Poor thing is always there for us, and no one ever cares. There should be an annual 'oxygen day' in its honour.

Dear Oxygen, thank you for always being there for me.

Roger left today. He's in Bergen at the mo, and will get on a plane to London around 4:30. He was supposed to go home the 15th, but we had so much fun he stayed 2 extra weeks:)

I'm so sad tho:( The only thing I could think when I drove home from the airport was "I'm so alone!" and it's so very depressing. R kept saying at least I have my place to myself again, but I don't want it to myself. I want him there:(

Luckily I'm visiting him in 2 weeks.... hopefully...

R is the perfect man btw. He's so sweet and lovable and honest and loyal, and he's more man than I've ever met before in my life. And he's all mine:D

I think the world needs to know about this. You can easily find out who has blocked you in MSN and Yahoo messenger, and find out who has deleted you from their list in MSN. It's pretty kewl.

MSN block checker
MSN agent detector
Yahoo block checker

This morning I sent Camilla off to Elverum, near Oslo. She is staying there for 2 weeks before she goes to England for a year. It might have been the last time I saw her before she goes, unless I can miraculously find a way to get to Oslo Airport in 2 weeks...:/ (which I kinda promised I would...) Poor thing, her suitcase was bigger than her.. hehehe:) I'm gonna miss my baby so much!!! :*(

Photos of Camilla at the bus terminal:

And btw, I thought you had to be 13 to work in Norway...o_O