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!

Last night I dreamt I was at a lake with Camilla. There were 1000s of ticks crawling around by this lake. Seriously, they were everywhere! And as ticks do, they started biting my feet and legs. I musta had 20 ticks sucking my blood. Here's what the dream dictionary says about ticks:

"To see or be bitten by a tick in your dream, suggests that a relationship or situation is sucking all the energy out of you. Ask yourself what in your life is causing you much exhaustion."

So if that's one tick, what does 1000s of them mean?? o_O

And then I had to start picking them all off me, which led to a blood bath. Here's what the dictionary says about blood:

"To dream that you are bleeding or losing blood, signifies that you are suffering from exhaustion or that you are feeling emotionally drained. It may also denote bitter confrontations between you and your friends.  Your past actions has come back to haunt you."

So apparently I have some serious emotional issues.......

Or maybe I just dream about ticks cuz I have picked them off J & T by the hundreds the last few years. There are no ticks in this area. Yay:)

J & T have been here for 3 weeks now. Thomas has completely settled in, while Julie still likes to hide under the bed or outside. R has begun spending more time with her so she will get used to him again and not be scared to come out. Odo and Beanie accepted them almost right away. Still some hissing going on between Julie and Beanie, but not big fights.

Here are all 4 of them eating together:

And here they're all on the couch. Easy to miss, but that black thing behind Julie is actually Odo.

At the end of a conversation:

Me: Chow*
Kyle: it's ciao.
Kyle: I know my french.

*I spelt it 'chow' because that's how Americans like to spell it, and I wanted to see what he would say.

The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

R and I decided we'd had enough of Vista's sillyness, and reinstalled Windows XP yesterday. It's wonderful. WMP 10 works again, I have IE6, Outlook Express and a proper 'All programs' thingy. It's in English, but I can live with that.

I had a few installation problems at first tho. R started the installation for me, but then he had to go out. So when it finished installing I had to install the drivers for wireless internet, graphics and sound. Wireless internet went ok, till I wanted to actually connect to the internet. That didn't work. Graphics driver didn't work at all and my screen looked messed up and I couldn't change it. I hadn't actually downloaded the sound driver before I formatted, so I don't know which one I need:/

R was able to fix my wireless and graphics when he got home:) but I still have no sound and neither does R. The hunt for the sound driver continues.

I'd rather have a dysfunctional English XP than a functioning Norwegian Vista.

R's list of what's wrong with Vista: www.roger.id.au/vista.php

I don't understand the bacteria hysteria these days. Originally one wanted to kill bacteria because they made people sick and more people died in hospitals. But now it seems that people aren't scared of bacteria because they make them sick, now people are scared of bacteria just for bacteria.

What's so bad about bacteria?? The massive majority of them don't make us sick. Every square centimetre of our skin has 1000s of them. Being exposed to them makes us healthier. A lack of bacteria will make our immune system turn on itself and cause illnesses such as allergies, asthma, epilepsy and MS.

R and I refuse to be part of the hysteria. Obviously we wash our hands after using the toilet, but not after touching the cats and before we eat etc. R even goes so far as to let the cats lick his food and drink his water. And we're not sick more often than anyone else. And that proves that most bacteria people wash off are harmless.

I have a mum who's a clean freak, but unlike most people I'm able to think outside the box I was taught to think in. Most people can't do that apparently. They were taught that all bacteria are bad and must be killed.  I bet they can't even explain why bacteria are bad, but that's what they've always thought so that's what they have to keep thinking.

I understand that some people, like babies and old people need to be more careful, but healthy adults shouldn't have to avoid bacteria. Are we really that fragile?

After Undre wrote a blog entry about how no man can resist a 'pretty please' I decided to see for myself. I told Undre I didn't think any amount of pretty pleases could make R paint my toenails, and of course I had to put this to the test.

Me: Would you paint my toenails?
R: No.
Me: What if I said pretty please?
R: Why do you want them painted? It gives you ingrown toenails.
Me: I just wanna know if you would do it for me..
R: Sure, if you want.
Me: Really?
R: Why wouldn't I?
Me: It's a gurly thing to do and a man might question his sexuality.
R: Pffft, I'm not like most men.
Me: *grin* I know.

So he would paint my toenails for me. But whether it's cuz I said 'pretty please' or because he's the best bf ever is difficult to tell.  

R is so the sexiest man alive:)

Last night I dreamt about an elephant for the 3rd time in a week and a half. I also had a dream about an elephant about a month ago.

In the dream I had last night someone was hurting the poor elephant. I wanted to wake up and stop dreaming cuz I didn't wanna watch.

Here's what the dream dictionary says:

To see an elephant in your dream, suggests that you either need to be more patient and understanding of others. The elephant is also a symbol of power, strength, and intellect. Alternatively, as a creature with an introverted nature, the elephant may thus be depicting your own personality.

Yeah.. so what? I can't see how that stuff applies to me. Why am I dreaming about elephants?? If it had been one dream I wouldn't even care. But this is getting weird.