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!

I miss my kitties sooo much! Every time Odo or Beanie do cute stuff, or we look at kittens at pet shops or there's a cat in a book I'm reading, I start thinking about my cats. And I miss them.

They'll be released from quarantine 19 May, and it's only 15 days away, but it feels like I've been away from them a lifetime already. I need them now:(

Last night R and I was watching the Friday night games on Big Brother, where they compete to spend 2 days in the rewards room. At one point, a woman was competing against a man, and she was winning. She triumphantly shouted to the guy 'how does it feel being beaten by a girl?'

R asked me why the men never ask the women 'how does it feel being beaten by a man?' to which I answered 'men are superior and expect to beat women'.

And because R is so smart, he then asked 'doesn't that mean that by saying that she's saying that women are inferior to men?'

I'm very unhappy with the way SAS Cargo handled the shipment of my cats. So unhappy that I made a page for it here.

Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called "love"?

A: In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on scoreboard looked like an egg and was called "l'oeuf", which is French for "egg". When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it "love".

I noticed this little fella yesterday.

He didn't look so good, but was crawling around, like insects do. When I got up today the poor thing had died. So why did he roll over onto his back before/when he died? Why do all insects lie on their back when they're dead? You'd think their legs don't hold them up anymore, so they'd lie down on their stomach. But no, they all go through the trouble of rolling over first.

Saccarina has written a blog entry about teenagers' attitude towards and beliefs about rape. For those of you who can't read Norwegian, here are some of the questions they were asked. The numbers show how many agreed with the statements, and the numbers in brackets show the answers to the same questions among the adult population.

Women tend to exaggerate how much being raped hurts them:

Girls: 7.3% (2.8%)
Boys: 26.1% (3.3%)

Even if a woman calls it rape, she could have enjoyed the incidence:

Girls: 11.9% (5.2%)
Boys: 31.7% (8.3%)

If a woman doesn't physically resist, you can't call it rape:

Girls: 10.6% (8.2%)
Boys: 25.6% (10.0%)

When someone is raped, it's important to consider the victims character and past:

Girls: 22.4% (5.9%)
Boys: 33.9% (13.9%)

In most cases, it's not the man's intent to rape, but he can't control his sexual urges:

Girls: 8.6% (13.8%)
Boys: 16.7% (13.3)

A woman who doesn't want sex, but who turns a man on, must bear some of the responsibility if she is raped:

Girls: 5.3% (5.2%)
Boys: 12.3% (22.9%)

As you can see, 1/3 of boys think women can enjoy being raped, and 1/4 think women exaggerate how harmful being raped is.

Saccarina goes on to saying that men seem to identify more with male rape victims, than female. She also says that obviously a girl's parents will tell her about rape and how to protect herself, but do parents of boys talk to them about rape and sexual boundries? Parenting a rapist must be as painful as parenting a rape victim.

I know if I ever have a son, he will know about this stuff.

My cats got out of quarantine today:) We picked them up at the airport at 2 pm, and came back here. Odo and Beanie were put in the bedroom so my cats could have a look around the house without being attacked. They lay on the couch for a while with me and R and seemed very relaxed. Then we moved them to the bedroom which has access to the outside area, while the other two gets the rest of the house. They will be kept seperate till they get used to the thought.

Julie hid under the bed till about 20 minutes ago, while Thomas had a smell at everything and settled in. Julie came out of hiding 20 minutes ago, and had a look around and got some food. She seemed pretty relaxed, and more like her old self. She went into hiding in a cardboard box a few minutes ago, but she'll settle in ok. She was like this the last time I moved her too. I'm quite impressed with Thomas actually, cuz he's never moved before, but he seems completely settled in:)

Odo has been staring at Thomas through the glass door all day, but Thomas doesn't even care. He was rolling around on the floor and enjoying himself while Odo was giving him an intense look only 40 cm from him:) Julie saw Odo through the glass door too, but she didn't care, and Odo seemed more relaxed then, so I reckon they'll all tolerate each other:)

Here are some photos of the cats. Some of them are bad, but as any cat person would know, as soon as you point a camera at a cat they'll stop what they're doing and start moving around, making it impossible to get a good photo...

   

 

I've been tagged by Undre.

What are you good at?

What is your dream?

What is the best thing about your home?

Who do you dream about pashing with?

What would you do if you were PM for a day?

What are you afraid of the most?

Who would play you in the movie about your life?

What job do you want?

What would you sing on your Idol audition?

Why are you not a celebrity?

Who do you tag?
No one. Can't be bothered. Thanx for the fun tag tho:)

Julie is 6 today. Happy happy b-day!

 

"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression,
while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace."

-George W. Bush addressing the UN General Assembly, 21 September 2004-