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!

Yesterday I took the bus to Elverum to visit dad and his gf. It was a 7.5 hour drive, but I had my iPod and smarties, which helped:) When I finally arrived, we went straight to a church concert, cuz dad's gf's best friend's son was in the choir, which meant we had to go.

I slept in Camilla's room  last night. Her room is perfect and I slept like a rock.

Today I've mostly been sitting in front of the computer, cuz the office is the only room in the house with a decent temperature. We were supposed to go to Sweden today, but dad is busy trying to get his movie projector to work, his gf is at work and (future) stepsis has disappeared somewhere. I'm bored and I dunno what to do at the mo, so I wrote a boring blog entry. I have a kewl cat to keep me company tho

and a nice view

The amazingly clever Americans have decided that the world needs a new greeting. ‘Hello’ just won’t do. No wonder society is messed up when we use the word ‘hell’ uncounsciously all day.

The word ‘hello’ (or ‘hullo’) is said to have been first used by Thomas Edison when he invented the telephone. The new word then made it to the English dictionary in 1883. Who woulda known that such a great inventor was a devil worshipper and only made the telephone to have an excuse to propose a new greeting, based on the most negative word in the English language; ‘hell’. No one ever questioned it till recently. Someone born in Texas, USA (where the cleverest ppl are from) realised that the ‘o’ at the end isn’t enough to hide the word ‘hell’. (It was well hidden, that was. Well done noticing *thumbs up*) And now this hellish word has been used for 123 years!!

The brilliant Leo Canales has proposed a new greeting: ‘Heaveno’. He says: ‘I'm overwhelmed by the impact my idea has had.  People want to know why we use the word 'hell-o' as an everyday greeting. We promote a negative attitude every time we greet someone.  Maybe it affects the way we behave to each other.’

According to Leo's site, town officials have praised "heaveno" as "a universal word for peace, friendship, and welcome.  And a top restaurant in Kingsville welcomes its customers with a huge banner emblazoned with "Heaveno".  A state-wide chain of convenience stores has even adopted it as an official greeting.  Leo believes many of society's ills can be blamed on the unconscious use of the word "hell".

Let’s hear how the public feels about this new greeting. J-W #656 says:

I prefer "Purgatory-o."

Nice suggestion that. Very creative. Bisbonian points out that several words will need to be changed

I'm with him 110%. I stopped calling sea shells "shells", and now call them sea sheavens. I avoid going to Helena, Montana. So, yeah, I'm gonna use his new greeting; what the hell?

Such evil words. Sheldon has a simpler solution:

"heaveno" sounds like you are saying no to heaven. Pretty much just as bad as saying hell o. I prefer "Hail Satan".

It certainly makes a statement... robert.wood suggests:

I find the word heaveno, pronounced "have-a-no" or "heaven-no" extremely depressing. That's why I am starting a worldwide campaign to endorse the use of the word heaveyes, pronounced "have-a-yes". I believe many of my problems would be solved if more people would say heaveyes to me. Well, at least if more women would do so.

Exploding Undies speaks for many ppl when he says that

"heaveno" is actually a discouraging and negative term because it is the opposite of "hell yeah". As far as promoting peace and love in the world goes, I think it would be great if we could all just find the time to superglue little plastic dinosaurs to each others ceilings.

Yep. Time for change.

There seems to be some confusion among men about how a real man should act. Some men think manhood is measured in how many women he sleeps with, how much hair is on his chest or how big his thing is. Society tells men they become more manly by eating steak, using certain types of deodorant or driving a car with lotsa horse power. A lotta guys take that stuff seriously because they are so desperate for instructions on how to be a man.

Manhood isn't measured like that. Society tells you that so they can take your money.

In action movies, the real man is the guy who shoots or beats up the most ppl. In real life, no one can live like that. You can't live with that kinda violence without getting messed up. It's not healthy. There are so many men who don't know that.

And you can't have sex with a lotta women without getting messed up. Having sex with someone triggers a response in your brain. The brain's response is to make you fall in love with the person you have sex with and make you wanna be with them. If you have casual sex with a lotta ppl, this response won't be triggered anymore, which makes sex meaningless. It would still give physical pleasure, but that's only half of what sex is. The other half is the emotional connection. Everyone knows sex is better  with someone you're in love with.

Society is messed up in other ways too. Women these days demand to be the boss in a relationship. They make rules and expect the man to follow them. They want their men to become more feminine and change their men into whimps.

A smart man by the name of Stephane once said: 'The woman's job is to try to get the man to do what she wants. The man's job is to never ever let that happen.'

Women are just doing their job. Men have misunderstood everything completely.

Here are some basic rules of how to be a real man:

Real men don't hit women or children. Or animals. Ever.
Real men have sex only with consent. They think of rapists with hatred and contempt.
Real men don't need to prove their masculinity.
Real men know that bullies are people who want to be men, but aren't.

I could prolly give you lots and lots of rules. But there's no point. The important thing to remember is that being a man doesn't mean you follow a given set of rules. It's wanting to follow them. To a real man, following the rules will come natural.

Being a man isn't something you do, it's something you are.

I used to do this... smile to myself in the mirror every morning. Guess it can't work for everyone...

© Lise Myhre / Distr. iblis@nemi.no

More Nemi  

I have recently been called a prejudiced and unintelligent racist for not liking USA and Americans. Now I've made a list of reasons why I don't like them, so everyone can see that I have good reasons for not liking them (and it's also a good opportunity for some good ole USA bashing and who can say no to that??).

But first of all, let me clearify something. 'American' is a nationality, not a race, and thus disliking Americans couldn't possibly make me a racist.

Alright then. Let's get started:)

Reason #1: The stupid psychopathic git they call president.

George W. Bush is the worst president ever, and lazy too. 'Oh but he has nuthin to do with Americans being stupid' you might say. He does. He was elected by the ppl and re-elected 4 yrs later. The first time it coulda been a mistake, cuz it coulda been difficult to tell he would be such a rotten president, but in re-electing him, they knew what they were getting.

He lied to his ppl about Iraq having weapons of mass destructions and invaded without waiting for UN approval. Now there are soldiers from Norway (and various other countries) in Iraq fighting a war we never wanted cuz Bush thinks he some kinda right to change world politics. They've never found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and Bush conveniently stopped talking about them only a few months after the invasion. He still refuses to admit he was wrong. When asked if they are winning the war in Iraq he said 'We'll succeed unless we quit'. As if he hasn't done enough damage already.

He says he's fighting terrorism, but all he has done so far is make the world a more dangerous place.

Reason #2: How Americans view the world.

To an American, USA is the world. Any other country will be unheard of or considered insignificant. Most Americans don't know where France, Australia or even Europe or Japan is. In fact, they dunno where USA is. When asked to place USA on a world map with no names or borders, 65% of Americans would fail.

This is an actual conversation I had with an American:

K: USA is the world's largest country.
Me: umm... no, Russia is.
K: Well.... it's the most populated.
Me: No.
K: 2nd to China
Me: India too.
K: oh... it's the wealthiest tho.
Me: No it's not.
Me: Suppose you think all of the rest of the world wants to live in USA too?
K: Yep.

Different conversation with the same person:

K: All of the world speaks English.
Me: Not really
K: Well, the literate part of the world anyway
Me: so anyone who doesn't speak english is illiterate?
K: Pretty much.

Conversation with a different American:

S: so how long would it take to drive from your place to England?
Me: that would be kinda difficult...
S: Just an estimate
Me: No, i mean it would be difficult because you can't actually drive to UK, seeing as it's detached from the rest of europe.
S: Oh... hahaha

o_O

They also think all of the rest of the world take a passionate interest in USA and all that goes on in it. One time I chatted with an American I pretended I'd never heard of 'Usa':

American: I'm from USA.
Me: Usa? where's that?
American: North America
Me: oh.. never heard of it.
American: you've never heard of USA?
Me: nope
American: USA is the world's superpower, it's not possible to not have heard of it.
Me: I haven't.
American: you can't be very intelligent then.
Me: it's not my intelligence you question, it's my knowledge.
American: no, I question your intelligence. You must be a bit dim-witted.
Me: I'm sure there are lotsa countries you've never heard of too.
American: I've heard of the important ones.
Me: A country is important to the ppl who live in it.
American: that's irrelevant.

Reason #3: How Americans think they live in the freest country in the world.

I really don't understand this. Americans don't have any privileges that the rest of the western world doesn't have. I continue to ask Americans what makes them more free than me. They are either unable to answer, or they say 'I'm free to carry a gun'. Alright, so you get to carry a gun. I'm free to walk down the street without worrying that any random person walking past me might be carrying a gun. In my opinion, that makes me freer. (I wrote a blog entry about this once.)

USA also has more school shootings than all of the rest of the world put together. Sending your kids off to school, wondering if they might die today, doesn't sound like freedom to me. (I wrote an entry about this too.)

Reason #4: America is obsessed with race.

America must be (with the possible exception of South Africa) the most racist country in the world. Anything that involves a non-white person, is about race. You can't even say the word 'race' anymore, cuz it's such a touchy subject. In chat rooms, when Americans wanna know what race someone is, they ask 'what nationallity are you?' as if white and black are actually considered nationalities.

According to the dictionary 'nationality is 'the status of belonging to a particular nation, whether by birth or naturalization: the nationality of an immigrant' and has nuthin to do with skin colour.

A white American is only allowed to date other white ppl, while ppl of other ethnicities are allowed to date whoever they want, without anyone questioning it. If a white person a black person date or marry, ppl will either have a huge problem with it or feel the need to point out that it's perfectly ok with them. But if it was perfectly ok, no one would need to point it out.

USA also gave birth to the KKK.

Reason #5: How incredibly stupid American women are.

It seems to me that the ultimate dream for an American woman is to get married, move to a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, have a couple kids (one boy and one gurl), be a stay at home mum who drives her kids to soccer practice and have dinner ready for her husband when he gets home from work.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with stay at home mums. It's just that when a whole nation of women have no other ambition than to give birth to and raise kids, I start to wonder what on earth is wrong with them.

American women are also stupidly insecure when it comes to their men. I watched an American reality show on tv once, and there was a couple at a restaurant. The waitress started flirting with the man, while the woman was at the table watching them. The man didn't flirt back, he was just polite. Every time the waitress went back to the table, she said something flirtatious. The woman at the table got more and more upset. Not at the waitress, mind you, but with her boyfriend. She actually said 'you better be thinking hard about how you're gonna make this up to me', as if it was His fault that the waitress was flirting with him! What did she think he was gonna do anyway? Sneak off to the restroom with a woman he'd never seen before in his life and have sex with her??

Reason #6: They all wanna become famous.

The ultimate dream in USA is to become rich and famous. I have no idea why. Prolly cuz they have this irrational desire for attention. (This is possibly connected to how they love to talk about their problems and brag about having a therapist, and how they are unable to control the volume of their voice. Everyone in close vicinity has to hear everything they say whether they want to or not. (I know this from experience, as R and I were surrounded by American tourists about half the summer.))

A conversation I had with an American:

Me: I have no particular desire to become famous.
American: Why?
Me: just don't feel like it.
American: Are you shy?
Me: if you had asked me if i wanted to become a dentist and i'd said no, you woulda assumed it was because i just wasn't interested. But if i don't wanna be famous you assume there's something wrong with me, and not cuz it's something i'm not interested in?

Reason #7: They stuff themselves with junk food and then whinge about being fat.

30 % of Americans over the age of 20 are obese. 16 % of children and teenagers between 6 and 19 years old are considered overweight.

I'm sure we've all heard of the teenagers who had lunch at McDonald's every day, got fat and sued McDonald's, claiming they didn't know the food would make them fat.

I'm always amazed by the ppl who say they've tried every diet there is and not been able to lose weight. How can you not understand that a diet will make you lose weight, but as soon as the diet is finished and you go back to eating what you used to eat, you'll put on weight again? Permanently losing weight takes a change of life style, not a diet.

And it's no wonder that Americans are fat when there are no footpaths in their country. You can't walk anywhere. Not to mention that they have drive through ATMs. How lazy is it possible to get?!

Reason #8: I speak better English than the majority of Americans.

Americans can hardly speak their own language. They use the same 27 words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know'. Or even worse: 'like, you know'.

They use the phrase 'I could care less', which means exactly the opposite of that they're trying to say - 'I couldn't care less'.

They pronounce the word 'aluminium' embarrassingly wrong. They say it "uh-loo-muh-nuhm", while the correct pronounciation is "al-yuh-min-ee-uhm".

The word 'irregardless' has made it to the American dictionary. Many mistakenly believe that this is the correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Outside of USA it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of 'irrespective' and 'regardless' and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir– prefix and –less suffix in a single term.

Americans also use the phrase 'not hardly', the correct phrase being 'hardly', and ridiculous sentences such as 'where are you at?'

Reason #9: They dunno how to make chocolate.

American chocolate is bitter, and mostly lacks the most important ingredient - cocoa. This is done to save money, because that is the only way Americans compete with each other. Competing on the basis of quality is unheard of. They are obsessed with mixing peanuts in their chocolate, prolly to hide the bitter taste.

Reason #10: They pay for incoming phone calls.

What more can I say? This is just ridiculous. When I first heard about this I told one of my American friends that this is unheard of anywhere else in the world. Any phone company which tried to do that in Europe, would be out of business in a matter of days. Instead of realising how stupid it is and that there are better ways to do things, he started telling me how much sense it makes that he should pay for incoming calls.

Reason #11: Their country doesn't have a name.

USA, or 'United States of America', isn't a name. It's a description. USA is often called 'US' (United States) for short, which could apply to several different countries. Australia and Pakistan being some of them.

What's worse is that USA is often referred to simply as 'America'. As if the other countries which make up the Americas are too insignificant to be included in the term. The ppl are called 'Americans', which I wonder at for the the same reason. To me, any person living in North and South America would be an American.

This is why both R and I have suggested renaming USA to 'Ignoramia' and the ppl 'Ignoramians', more appropriate names.

Reason #12: Their cars.

Americans are obsessed with buying cars that are too big to be intelligent. And they don't have LPG, which is cheaper, as an option to run their cars on.

Reason #13: Their units.

Americans still use inches, feet, yards and miles. When an American asks me how tall I am or how much I weigh or what the temperature is, I always give it to them in metric units. Sometimes they pretend to know what it means, and sometimes they show how stupid they are to be unable to convert it.

Reason #14: How they think they are anything but Americans.

Conversation with an American:

American: I'm Norwegian.
Me: kewl.. you've been to Norway then?
American: No not yet.
Me: oh... are you a Norwegian citizen?
American: no
Me: right... you speak Norwegian?
American: nope
Me: exactly what about you is Norwegian?
American: my parents are from Norway.

There's nuthin Norwegian about this guy, he's 100% American. And another thing: how on earth is it possible to have Norwegian parents and not speak Norwegian?!? 

Once I saw a documentary about Norwegians in USA, and this gurl said 'I'm Norwegian. 5th generation, but yeah, I'm Norwegian'. And all I could think was 'you are so not Norwegian!'

Americans so like to say that they're Italian or Irish or German or whatnot cuz that's where their ancestors came from. I have Viking ancestors, it doesn't make me a Viking.

I have been told that this blog entry is discriminating against black ppl.

I reckon the real problem is this sentence:

why do bald black guys go for the glossy head look?

To discriminate means to treat someone, consider someone or make a distinction in favour of or against someone based on the group or class they belong to, rather than on individial merit.

According to Wikipedia "Racism is commonly defined as a belief or doctrine where inherent biological differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, with a corollary that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others."

My blog entry didn't say anything about glossy heads being neither good nor bad, and since my blog doesn't have nearly enough power to rule ppl,  it doesn't meet the requirements for being discriminating or racist*.

If my entry had said

why do you white bald guys for the matt head look?

no one would think twice about it.

You can't even say the word 'race' or 'black', cuz it might offend black ppl. This phenomenon seems (to me) to be particularly common among African Americans (and ppl who think USA is the kewlest country on the planet and decide to copy their silly behaviour).

How obsessed must these ppl be with race to think about racism every time they hear the word 'black'? And every time something doesn't go their way, it's 'cuz they're black'. When a person is that obsessed with what skin colour ppl have, I'm tempted to ask who the real racist is.

Europeans have been kept as slaves too, and yet I find nuthin discriminating in wondering why white bald men have matt skin. (Article about European slaves)

My conclusion: There are some black ppl who want all white ppl to be racist, so they can play the role of the victim**. This is commonly referred to as the Small dog syndrome.

*Despite popular belief, ignorance is not racism. Racism is physically or mentally oppressing someone based on the colour of their skin. Ignorance is just lack of knowledge, and is more closely connected to prejudices than racism. However, prejudices at its most extreme can manifest itself in the form of racism.

**And by doing this they become the real discriminators.

I love music. I always have music playing when I'm at home.I also have an iPod so I can bring my music with me. I love my iPod. It's beautiful and pretty and oh so convenient. My iPod is fairies and ponies and all that is good in the world.

That's why it's such a bummer that Apple has messed iTunes up so thouroughly. The iPod can't be accessed through My computer. Using iTunes is the only way to add, remove and edit music. Which woulda been fine, if iTunes hadn't been so damn useless and illogical.

I had 700 songs on my computer that I put onto the iPod. Which wasn't easy. My songs wouldn't show up in iTunes, and just dragging them from the My music folder to the iTunes folder didn't work. (That woulda made too much sense.) The music was in the iTunes folder, but didn't show up in iTunes. After trying various things in iTunes, none of which did what they were supposed to do (i.e. the option 'add to library...' let me choose music to add to the iTunes library, but after having to click each song I wanted to add from My music, it still didn't show up in iTunes) I finally realised that I had to add the whole My music folder to a thing in iTunes. My songs were finally on the iPod. My life was bliss.

Then my life fell apart. I got a virus on my computer and had to format. I lost all my music:( But then I remembered 'they're all on the iPod! Yay!!' and started the process of figuring out how to get the music from the iPod back to the computer. This turned out to be impossible. And it doesn't store music as mp3's, it converts them to the Apple secret file format. So if I had bought all my music I woulda been up shit creek in a barbed wire canoe with no paddle.

I tried to stay positive and thought 'at least I still have it on the iPod'. So I started downloading all the music I had lost all over again. This worked well for a while. Till I wanted to transfer my new music to the iPod. Firstly, I had to figure out how to do it all over again, cuz the way to do it is so illogical and makes so little sense, that I can't actually remember how to do it between each time.

Then, having finally figured that out, it turns out I can't keep the music which is already on the iPod and add only a few files from my computer. It synchronises. This means that when I transfer music from my computer, iTunes will delete any music on the iPod which isn't on the computer.

Not to mention that adding the My music folder to iTunes doesn't mean it automatically updates the music that's in it. I have to re-add the My music folder to add the most recent files to iTunes. And even then it doesn't just add the files that aren't already added to iTunes, it adds all the files all over again! So there'll be at least 4 or 5 versions of each song. I have to go through them all and uncheck the extra copies, and then there's no way to remove the unchecked ones from the list. I have to go through all my 600+ songs an delete each one.

Maybe there's an easier way to do it. But it's well hidden.

To top it all off I had to leave the iPod plugged in to the computer the other night, cuz iTunes wouldn't let me disconnect it. When I checked on it the next morning, iTunes had deleted all the music on the iPod. Every last song.

I hope this doesn't turn me into a racist. iTunes today, non-whites tomorrow o_O

The "Americans" have now developed a new birth control pill for women. Unlike normal birth control pills, which you take for 21 days and then not take them for 7 days, the new pill is to be taken every day. Consequently, women on the new pill will never get their period, which is the whole point of the new pill. Experts say there's no reason why women should have a period every month.

The ordinary birth control pill does this too. During the pill-free week, women will bleed. However, this is not a period. Women on the pill don't ovulate, and the only reason they bleed is cuz the pill doesn't control the mucous membrane in the uterus during the pill-free week. All you have to do is skip the pill-free week, and you'll never bleed. A lotta women are already doing this.

Personally, I wouldn't. It's a natural part of being a woman and it doesn't bother me. Each to their own I guess.

But my real question is: If you can already do this with any birth control pill on the market today, why did they spend lotsa time, money and effort on developing a new one? Why??
(And one that doesn't even seem to be as effective as the exisiting ones. After a year, 21 % would still bleed every month.)

When you ask an average Norwegian how they feel about global warming, the standard reply will be 'it's bad'. Then they'll smile and say 'but it's good too cuz it makes Norway warmer'.

I don't think global warming is something that might/will happen some time in the future. It's already happening. According to Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth 'the 10 hottest years ever measured have all ocurred in the last 14 years, and the hottest of all was 2005'.

A couple years ago, there was no snow at all till 23 December. Last year we had temperatures in the mid 20s in October. Flowers we normally only see in spring started growing in October/November. This year, we've had snow once. People with hay-fever started having symptoms in November. They said that for the first time ever, there might be a pollen forecast for Christmas.

A few days ago I read an article about the Arctic being ice free within 30 years. And that was the optimistic estimate. If the snow in the arctic and antarctica melts, sea levels world wide would rise 6.5 metres. Ålesund, my home town, would be mostly under water. Coastal areas world wide would be devastated, resulting in 100s of millions of refugees with no homes, no food and no medicines.

The number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. 100s of species of animals have responded to global warming and are moving closer to the poles. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes.

More than 1 million species could be driven to extinction by 2050. Animals in arctic areas, such as the polar bear and various seals, will be the first to go.

But hey, screw that. As long as Norway gets warmer.

© Lise Myhre / Distr. iblis@nemi.no

Football (aka soccer) is so stupid. It's like someone said 'let's invent a game that is so stupid even ppl with the IQ of lint can play it'. And they came up with football. Then ppl with the IQ of lint enlisted to play it.

I bet if you ask someone what they like about it they wouldn't be able to answer. What could they say anyway? 'I like it when they kick the ball' or 'I like how they might kick it into the goal' - might being the key word. Is there anything else to it?

It's just the same stuff over and over again. For 90 minutes at a time, 100s of games a year!! Why don't ppl get bored with it?! And what good does it do? It takes ppl's money, it causes violence, it wastes time, it consumes funds that could be better used. Does it do any good?

I don't understand. There must be some kinda conspiracy. I dunno how or why, but there has to be more to it. Ppl just can't keep liking it.

And another thing, why is there never an obviously intelligent football player? Every interview I have ever seen with a football player, they are always obviously retarded. Seriously, name one smart football player! You can't, can you? And I wanna know why, dammit!

This blog entry was inspired by a highy intellectual conversation with Roger.

Norway's ex-crown princess' husband, Ari, was recently seen wearing only his engagement ring, but not his wedding ring. (Article.)What a disaster! How will I live now? I'll have to reconsider everything!

The Insert key is utterly useless. No one ever uses it. If i want to overwrite stuff I'll highlight it. What's so stupid is that it's right next to the enter and backspace keys, so I keep hitting it by mistake.

There are several ways to fix the problem tho. One is to disable it in Word. Another is to disable it completely. This seemed like too much work for me tho, so I simply ripped it out of my keyboard.

And gave it to Julie.

(Caps lock key annoys me too. I was gonna rip it out, but R told me I could disable it with this registry patch (remember to reboot), and re-enable it with this. Not that I've ever missed it.)

Poor lil sis Camilla. As some of you might know, she's an exchange student in England, and was gonna come home for Christmas today. She was soooo looking forward to it. She has now travelled all the way from Isle of Wight to London to get a flight to Oslo. But then about half the flights out of London got cancelled cuz of fog. Including Camilla's. As if planes can't fly in the fog.

So now she's stuck at the airport till tomorrow morning, when she might get a flight at 8am. British Airways is being very unhelpful. She's queuing to talk to someone and try to fix it, but the queue is so long that she's actually standing outside the terminal building.

She also saw a group of cops walk past carrying machine guns. Maybe it's not "fog" that's keeping the planes on the ground?

I have just dropped off my cats at the cattery. Thomas seemed ok with it, but Julie wouldn't come out of the travel box. She just sat in it and cried. Poor babies. I hate leaving them. When I drove home I had this big lump in my throat and a very empty feeling. I drove up to my house and thought about how they'd welcome me home when I walked in the door, and then I remembered that they wouldn't. And again when I put my key in the lock on my door I thought how I'd have to stop Thomas from going outside.. then I remembered I wouldn't have to. When I walk between rooms in my house I always notice where the cats are and what they're doing, and now they're nowhere. My flat feels very empty......

But enough of that. I'm leaving for Australia tomorrow morning:) First to Oslo, then London (fingers crossed there's no fog and no delays), then I get on the plane to Sydney which is a 22 hour flight, including a 1 hour stop in Bangkok for fuel. I arrive in Sydney 6:25 am on Christmas Day, which is 8:25 pm Christmas Eve in Norway. And I get to say I've been in Bangkok:) How kewl!

There's lots to do in Australia and R and I will be very busy. If anyone back here in cold ole Norway wanna know what the time is where I am, you can click here.

I arrived in Sydney exactly on time, and had to wait 2 hours for R to show up. At least Australians know how to make comfortable seats for their airports, unlike Heathrow which has the most uncomfortable seats in existence. When I arrived it was 20 degrees and light rain, but that cleared after a few hours and it was sunny the rest of the time. Australians are the friendliest and politest ppl ever:)

We spent 2 days in Sydney and saw the opera house and the bridge, and went up Sydney Tower were we saw the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. We also raided all the souvenir shops, which is a must when one is on holiday.

Today we flew to Brisbane, and it's 18 degrees and raining. R has promised me sun for tomorrow, but after seeing the weather report I won't be holding my breath. R also says it's normally 35 degrees and always sunny this time of year. So we're blaming global warming and the Ignoramians for the bad weather.

Tomorrow we're going shopping. They have the kewlest clothes here and they all cost 1/4 of what they do in Norway.

Photos will be posted soon.

Today the weather improved slightly. It was cloudy when we got up and about 23 degrees. R promised me that it would clear up by 4:30pm.

So we went to Chermside shopping centre as planned. We spent several hours there and I found the kewlest stuff. Haven't bought anything yet tho. Shop assistants here are so friendly. Whenever you walk into a store they smile and say 'hi, how are you?' and when you leave they always say 'have a nice day' or something similar. Norwegian shop assistants could learn a thing or two from them.....

After that we went up Mt Coot-tha.

At 4:30, while we were still up on the mountain, the clouds cleared, just like R said they would. That makes him the weather master and I am stunned by his accurate predictions.

Then we went back to R's house and seeing as the weather was nicer, we went for a walk. There was the kewlest sunset.

Later in the evening we went to the cinema and saw 'Night at the museum'. It was good, and Australians have figured out how to use comfortable seats in their cinemas, unlike the cinema in my home town.

So that's my day today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 'mostly sunny' and we are going to Australia Zoo.

Why is it that everyone complains about having to go through the Christmas stuff? No one is forcing ppl to celebrate Christmas, but every year it's the same complaints about how stressful it is and how many ppl they have to buy presents for. It's a free country, you choose to celebrate Christmas. And if you choose to do it, why not be happy about it? And if you don't like it, don't do it.

Ppl think they have to do it just cuz everyone else is doing it.That kinda mob mentality is only admired in sheep.

There's no reason to buy a gift for someone just cuz they will buy one for you. The definition of gift is 'something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favour toward someone, honour an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present' and another definition is 'something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned '.

A gift is given unconditionally. If you expect to get one back it's not a gift anymore, it's exchanging items.

So don't bother with Christmas if you don't like it. Leave it to the ppl who do.

Yesterday it was a very comfy 28 degrees and sunny so we drove to Beerwah where Australia Zoo is.

The Zoo is really kewl. All the animals live in their natural habitat and nunna them are kept alone. I got to pat a koala and a kangaroo:)

Today we went shopping at North Lakes shopping centre, which is closer to R's, but smaller than the one at Chermside. At least I'd never get lost at this one. I got some very Australian looking clothes (and it's actually warm enough to wear them too, at 32 degrees, (Yes, I'm obsessed with the weather, I'm Norwegian:))) and R got a very kewl looking roboraptor.

Then we drove to Redcliffe for a quick look around, before we went to Bunning's for more shopping.