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!

Summer my butt. It snowed today:(

I've spent the last 2 days at my grandparents' place. I couldn't get online, so it was quite boring. I found lots of wireless networks around the house, but they were all secure, and after about an hour I gave up on guessing passwords. Yesterday I decided I wanted to have a quick chat with R and I needed to send an email, so I took the car and went for a drive to look for a wireless connection that wasn't secure. I found one.

яэgoя sier:
where are you parked?
Marianne? sier:
next to a house
яэgoя sier:
who's internet you stealing?
Marianne? sier:
prolly the ppl in the house
яэgoя sier:
hehehe
яэgoя sier:
you feif
Marianne? sier:
i'm only borrowing it a lil bit
яэgoя sier:
it's their own stupid fault
Marianne? sier:
yeah
Marianne? sier:
and they didn't secure it
яэgoя sier:
yeah
Marianne? sier:
so they mustn't mind
яэgoя sier:
true
яэgoя sier:
they must want you to use it
Marianne? sier:
yep
Marianne? sier:
so i'm just doing what they want me to do
Marianne? sier:
they should thank me
яэgoя sier:
good
яэgoя sier:
they'd be happy
Marianne? sier:
yep
яэgoя sier:
they should pay you
яэgoя sier:
for your time
Marianne? sier:
i was gonna say that

The rest of the time I sat around and did nothing, ate or watched my annoying uncle Finn do everything wrong with his dog Frida. Whenever the dog tried to get attention by barking, he would turn to her, pat her head and give her lots of attention to 'calm her down'. Frida would think she was getting rewarded for barking.

Alternatively he would look her in the eyes and talk to her in a sweet voice and then take her out for a walk.

He would let her sit practically in his lap and dribble while he ate. Then he'd give her some of his food, get annoyed with her for nagging for food and send her away.

Frida's food was discussed at one point, and my uncle revealed that he only gets her the cheap food from the supermarket, and said that 'if I don't give her anything else, she eats it eventually', which means that Frida doesn't like her food, she only eats it so she won't starve. No wonder she's in everyone's lap at meal times.

Frida is pregnant. He let her out when she was in heat and blamed it on 'being terribly sick from the flu'. Now he assumes she only mated with the neighbour's dog which is the same breed as her and expects pure bred pups. Yeah, cuz dogs are known for monogamy.

He started asking dad questions about my laptop, which I answered for him of course. He was prolly shocked, cuz women shouldn't own laptops. Just like they shouldn't drive big cars. When I was asked to go to the store, I took my dad's big car. Uncle Finn told me 'women can't drive big cars', and that I should take my gramps' small one.

When he wasn't messing up his dog or discriminating women, he was micromanaging his 14 year old daughter. Telling her when to get up and when to go to the bathroom. And asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap when they watched a DVD.

And what is it with 14 year old gurls and writing/drawing on their hands? They all do it.

1. Obvious reason first: Norway (and lots of other countries) have waaaaaaaaaayyy too many cats. Every spring 1000s of new kittens are born. Most of them won't find new homes, and will either be put to sleep or dumped, in which case they will most likely get hit by a car, killed by wild animals or starve to death within a year. The ones that do find new homes not only take a home from another cat, but there is no guarantee that the cat will find a good home. A lot of ppl think kittens are very cute (which they are), but after about a year the cat won't be a cute kitten anymore, it will be more work than ppl bother with and they will have it put to sleep or dump it. Or they simply move away and leave the cat behind.

2. Female cats won't go into heat. Being in heat is very stressful for a cat and if they don't get pregnant they could get a nasty infection in their uterus. This infection can be life threatening and requires emergency surgery to remove the uterus.

3. Both male and female cats will stay closer to home, because they're not out looking for someone to mate with. This has several benefits: There will be no fighting for sex and thus less injuries. Fewer cats will feel the need to roam and cross roads and hence fewer cats will get hit by cars and seriously wounded or killed.

4. Both male and female cats get cuddlier, and are more pleasant to have around.

5. Pregnancy and birth is very stressful for a cat. Giving birth is painful, just like it's painful for humans. Kittens are a lot of work and it's very tiring for the mummy cat to take care of them for 3 months. Just because a cat can get pregnant, doesn't mean it should. Cats don't care if they never experience motherhood.

6. Cats get STD's too. FIV is like HIV and spreads through sexual contact.

7. Pregnancy and birth can completely change a cat's personality. They can become aggressive or simply lose all interest in human contact.

8. The majority of male cats will stop scent marking. For the few that continue to do it, the smell will be nearly completely gone.

Other things to remember:

Female cats reach sexual maturity at 6 months. If you don't want a pregnant cat, she should be spayed before she goes into heat. It can also be dangerous for a very young cat to be pregnant and give birth. Breeders never breed their cats before they are 2 years old, because the cat isn't physically mature enough before then.

If you let your cat get pregnant because you want another cat to keep it company, it's completely unnecessary. Kittens are given away for free everywhere. Instead of bringing more kittens into this world, you can adopt one that's already here and give it the good home it needs and deserves.

Unlike humans, male cats don't have sex for the fun of it. It's pure instinct and they won't miss it. There's no need to feel sorry for neutered cats.

Even if your cat is pregnant, it's not too late to spay her. The vet will remove the fetuses. If the cat has gotten really big, it will be sligthly more expensive because of the extra work involved.

If you already have kittens at home, remember that they are not ready to leave their mummy before they are 12 weeks old. If they are taken from their mum sooner, they can develop health problems, mental problems, behaviour problems and become aggressive.

Your kittens should be vaccinated and dewormed, and sold for a price that covers your expenses, rather than given away for free. This will help raise the cat's status.

Here in Norway it's very popular to have female cats put on the pill rather than to have them spayed. The pill isn't nearly as safe. If you forget one day, or the cat vomits or has diarehea, the pill will be less effective and the cat can get pregnant. It also increases the risk of the cat developing cancer.

Keeping the cat inside while it's in heat, is not a good solution. If a cat doesn't get pregnant it can go into heat every 3 weeks, increasing the risk of a uterine infection.

Be a responsible cat owner. Spay or neuter your cat.

Here's a cute quote I stumbled across the other day:

A dog will whine when you leave and whine when you get home; they whine for a goodie, and whine to go out. If you're eating something that smells good, or if you're eating something that doesn't smell good, or if you're eating something that has no smell at all - you could be gnawing the draperies - they sit at your feet and whine for a taste.

Not a cat, though. If a cat wants food, they'll sit at their dish and Look at you. Even if you're in another room, they'll sit at their dish and Look at you. You could be out of the bloody country, and right in the middle of a meeting in Japan, when you'll get this crawly sensation in the back of your neck — that's your cat, Looking at you.

 Heh:) Read the rest here.

I'm not a big feminist. Obviously I want equal rights and all that stuff, but I am capable of thinking and talking about other stuff, unlike some women.

But there's a guy I know, or used to know, that just annoys me with his stone age views. He's my age too, I went to school with him. I talk to him on MSN once every 2 or 3 months on average.

When I talk to him, I sometimes mention things I'm planning to do. His standard comment is 'your boyfriend lets you do that?' as if I actually need to ask R for permission to do stuff I wanna do. I always reply with 'I don't need his permission' or 'I don't need R to let me do stuff', but he never gets it. I bet he'd like to club R and drag me back to his cave by the hair too...

No wonder the guy has never had a gurlfriend in the 7 years I've known him.

A few days ago I talked to him on MSN. I told him R and I are getting married (just to rub it in, cuz I suspect that he fancies me). He asked if he could come to the ceremony, and I said 'it's gonna be a really small wedding', and he said 'there's room for me isn't there?' as if he's so special to me that I should invite him to a wedding not even my parents are invited to.

The reason I suspect he fancies me, is that he said he wanted to meet up before I go to Australia, and I told him I'd be at Elverum the last few days cuz I thought there was no way he was gonna wanna go there, where he knows no one else and has nowhere to stay just to see me. But instead he said 'when will you be there? I have a few days off starting the 22nd'.

Luckily, I leave the 19th. Hah! Tough luck.

From what I understand, there's a new law saying all cats must be microchipped. This is great news.

The new law will mean they can catch cats to check if they're microchipped and if they're not they can either be put in a shelter and put up for adoption, or they can be put to sleep. This will fix the problem with homeless cats in Norway, which is the largest animal problem in this country.

I've been unable to find a link for it, but I'll provide one if I do.

As Islam gets more dangerous and even more ridiculous, I'm losing my patience with Allah. The latest UK airline bombing attempt, the Hezbollah bombings into Israel and the senseless train bombings in Bombay have now made me start to think that I just might have lost all tolerance for Allah and Islam. I've usually blamed bad behaviour on a few bad apples. However, ultimately a religion is only as good as its practitioners and Islam seems to be a religion which has been hijacked by terrorists, extremists and other demagogues. In fact, over half of the identified terrorist organizations in the world are Islamic. Proof of a terrorist religion.

Yeah, many Muslims claim that Islam is peace loving, but where is that Islam? I don't see the public denouncement of these acts from leaders of this community. They go onto defend their actions by framing them in light of prior injustices or claiming the perpetrators are innocent until proven guilty, but there is not an overwhelming outcry from the community condemning these acts. Killing innocent people of any religion or nationality should not be tolerated by any religion. Islam not only turns a blind eye to this, but actually seems to condone and promote this behaviour.

I did come across one site called Islam Denounces Terrorism, but this seems to be a view in the minority as the majority have bought into some form of extreme Islam. It now appears that Islam is a religion that cannot co-exist peacefully with any other community in the world. Muslims can't even co-exist with one another, i.e. Shiite vs Shia, Iran vs Iraq, etc. I still remain unclear on what they want or what their end-goal is. It seems that an oppressive, fundamentalist Islamist world where people live in caves is what they'd want, but even then I'm not sure they'd be happy.

The reason I'm saying all this is that a muslim woman here in Norway, Kadra Yusuf, has recently said that the Koran's view on women needs to be re-interpreted. The response from a respected Muslim leader was 'she can say whatever she wants, and I'm sure she's pretty and has a nice body, but we can't change the Koran based on what a woman says'. Last night Kudra was beaten up by a group of men. No Muslim organisation has condemned the attack so far. Instead they question whether or not she's telling the truth, and say that it was 'unnecessary' of her to talk to the press about Islam's view on women.

While I'd love to give Islam the benefit of the doubt, I have lost patience along with many others. I worry for Europe which is seeing such a huge growth in the Muslim community as this backwards and fundamentalist religion may over time bring Europe down. I worry for innocent people throughout the world who need to go on with life as is, but who know full well that our reality has changed. I worry for the world overall. And since I've lost hope that the rational Muslims will speak out (assuming there are some), I do wonder how this irrational enemy known as Islam can be fought. If Allah truly is non-violent and peace-loving, let's hope he opens a can of whoop ass on these morons pretty soon.

My blog is now available as an RSS feed. I know my thousands (or millions) of readers have eagerly and patiently waited for this day. And now it's here. Yay:)

But not only is this a milestone for my blog, it's also a milestone for R, who made it happen. He's never made an RSS feed before, and yet he has done it so well.

Perfect site, perfect boyfriend:)

I am now living in Brisbane, Australia with R. You can read all about how that goes in my oz blog.

From Bill Bryson's book 'A Walk in the Woods':

Now here's a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked further than the average American walks in a week. For 93 per cent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car. That's ridiculous. When we moved to the States one of the things we wanted was to live in a town, where we could walk to the shops and post office and library. We found such a place in Hanover, New Hampshire. It's a small, pleasant college town, with a big green, leafy residential streets, an old fashioned main street. Nearly everyone in town is within an easy level walk of the centre, and yet almost no-one walks anywhere ever for anything. I have a neighbour who drives 800 yards to work. I know another - a perfectly fit woman - who will drive 100 yards to pick up her child from a friend's place. When school lets out here, virtually every child (except four bitching kids with English accents) gets picked up and driven from a few hundred yards to three-quarters of a mile home. (Those who live further away get a bus.) Most of the children sixteen years or older have their own cars. That's ridiculous, too. On average the total walking of an American these days - that's walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, round the supermarket and shopping malls - adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day.

I am now sitting outside in the garden behind mine and R's house. The temp has been 32.2 degrees today, and every day since I got here. It's been sunny, as it usually is here in the Brisbane area. I've been told it hasn't rained for 3 weeks.

I'm was listening to the Aboriginal family over the back earlier. The children (whose mum rather enjoy screaming at them, or barking orders) were playing rather noisily.

2 days ago my dad asked me if i was homesick yet (after 3 whole days in Australia). I said no, but I started thinking about stuff.

I started thinking what would happen if I did get homesick. And then *why* would I get homesick. Seriously, why?

There's nothing for me in Norway. All my friends have spread out over the entire country, as has my family. My flat isn't mine anymore, so I couldn't go back there even if I wanted to. My old job is waiting for me if I ever decide to go back, but I wouldn't go back just for that. I don't like it that much, and I could get the same kind of work here. The Norwegian climate doesn't suit me *at all*, unlike the climate here, which suits me perfectly. It's like Australia was made for me:)

If I ever get homesick - which btw is an inappropriate term now, because Norway is no longer my home - it would only be because I've lived there my entire life up till now. Not because I actually want to continue living there.

To conclude, I'm not homesick and I don't see why I ever would be.

This is my new outdoor office:)

Protected from sun and rain, but still has that outdoor feeling. The temp is always perfect. It's the best office one could ever have.

Today has been rather unproductive. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's weekend:)

R and I slept in. When we finally got up, one of R's employees, Qads, called. He was having a problem with his modem and R had to go and help him with it. In the 3 hours R was gone, I decided to do the washing, clean the kitchen, vacuum and kill the ants which had formed a trail in to the cat food. It's quite satisfying killing ants. The bastards.

Then R and Qads came back here, to test the modem further. It still didn't work, so they decided to try a different one, and I decided to go with them back to Qads' place. The modem kept failing, and then we finally realised that both modem were in fact not modems, but wireless routers, and they didn't have built in modems. So we rushed out to the store to get one before they closed, and got there 1 minute after closing, but they let us in anyway. Problem solved.

We hung out at Qads' for a few hours and R and I got the delicious new meat pie pizza from Domino's. And it cost $4.95. That's about 25 kr. Yep, eating out in Australia (or ordering food) is cheaper than making your own, as it should be. In Norway you'd have to save up to be able to eat out. Pizza would cost about 300 kr for two people, and 400 kr with drinks. I know, it's ridiculous!!

After that we went home and went for a walk to the 7-11, which is a 15 minute walk from our house, and got my new favourite chocky milk.

After that we've just been hanging out, mostly on the couch. R kept saying he needed to get stuff done, but I've been distracting him..

That's a photo of me groping him. He has also left some interesting marks in various places on my body. Being married rules:D

Anyone who has been reading my blog for the last month and a half, know that I'm not crazy about Windows Vista. It is now the OS for stupid, computer illiterate people. And it's full of inconveniences. R has now made a list of things that's wrong with it here. He will prolly keep adding to it.