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!

Most of the population in Australia are descendants of British convicts. That means that Brits and Aussies have the same origin and ancestors and pretty much the same genes right?

So why are the majority of Brits butt ugly, while the majority of Aussies are good looking??

The other day while we were painting the outside area, we encountered this little fella:

I've always thought stick insects are fascinating, but I've never seen one in real life, so it was very kewl:) R wanted to get a sideshot of it, but it kept following the camera around.

Obviously, a concrete floor which is about to be painted is no place for a small stick insect, so we put it on a tree in the garden.

I went to the shopping centre today, and decided to get some of R's favourite wine. At the checkout:

Staff#1: Can I see your ID?
Me: Sure *handing him my Norwegian drivers licence*
Staff#1: *Looks at the drivers licence with a confused look on his face, then calls some woman over* Can we accept this?
Staff#2: *looks at the drivers licence for a few seconds* Oh I'm not sure we can accept this. It's not English.
Me: It has my date of birth on it.
Staff#2: *Looks confused and then goes to ask the manager* This isn't English, can we accept this?
Manager: Yeah, it has her date of birth on it, it's fine.
Staff#2: *Checks date of birth* Ok, that's fine. *hands it to staff#1*
Staff#1: Ok, that's fine *hands it to me*

Yeah, cuz, you know, if you're born in a non English speaking country, your date of birth is invalid.

Yesterday we went and bought an Aqua One AR620 90 litre fish tank. I wasn't gonna buy it until I got the b-day money from my fam in a week or two, but we had to go to the pet store to get cat food, so I thought I'd just have a look around. And it turned out they had a very nice deal, so Roger said 'let's just get it and get it over with', so we did:)

We got the tank with a hood which has a built in wet/dry filter (550 l/h) and lights, the aquarium stand made especially for the AR620, a heater and a polystyrene 3D rock background for $395 (1975 NOK)! Very good deal.

The woman at the pet store was a little bit clueless, but that's to be expected. She said to come back in a week with a water sample and they will test it for ammonia and nitrate and after they do that we can buy the fish and plants. This is a 'duh!' to anyone who knows a little bit about aquariums. Ammonia and nitrite is produced by fish and other live things in the tank. A tank which has nothing but water and gravel in it will not produce any toxins. So we'll ignore that advice.

I was gonna get some shubunkin goldfish and catfish to keep in the tank, but R basically told me he hates goldfish and wants something more interesting looking. Goldfish don't go well with other fish, so getting interesting fish means no goldfish. But I'm ok with that, I'm getting swordtails instead and then R can pick something which is interesting enough for him.

We will get plants and gravel today, and then when those are settled we can start on the fish:)

This is what my aquarium looks like today:

I spent about 2 hours cleaning the gravel before I put it in the tank, and it really paid off. The water was almost completely clear when I filled  the tank, and it was more white than brown. I then put all the plants and decorations in, and got the filter up and running. The tank was filled with cold tapwater, and when I plugged the heater in it didn't come on, so I thought maybe it wasn't working. Then I checked the water temp and it was 27 degrees. The heater is set to 24 degrees. No wonder it didn't turn on. The water temp has since stabilised at 28 degrees. Perfect for most tropical fish:)

The water is still a bit white, but as soon as it clears up I'm gonna put a couple of hardy fish in, and then slowly add more. Fish produce ammonia when they breathe. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish, so the filter needs to build up bacteria which consume ammonia and turn it into nitrite, which is another toxin and very bad for fish. When the nitrite is present the filter will build up bacteria which consume it and turn it into nitrate, which is harmless to fish even in large amounts.

So if you fill the tank with heaps of fish right away, huge amounts of ammonia and nitrite will build up, the filter has no way of dealing with the toxins, and all your fish will most likely die. By adding just one or two hardy fish (such as guppies or swordtails) and doing regular 25% water changes, you keep the ammonia level so low that the fish can survive it, and the filter has time to catch up.

I was quite happy with the old layout of my aquarium, until I'd spent a few hours looking at it. Then I decided it looked too messy and cluttered, and decided to make some changes.

As you can see there are no big changes. The ruin has been moved slightly to the right, the plants in the left corner have been moved further into the corner, the terracotta pot was moved into the corner and so was the fake piece of driftwood. I didn't like how the colour of the pot really stood out. I also took some cuttings of one of the plants and planted in the ruin. Hopefully that will look good when it grows a bit bigger. We also decided that instead of keeping both lights on, we will keep the left one turned off. It gives the left corner more of a hide-out feel. I really like the open swimming space in the middle.

Now we just need some fish...

I was aware that some people get these unwanted snails when they buy plants, but my plants have been in the tank for a week and I've never seen one of these before, so I thought it might be a baby mystery snail which was accidentally put in the bag with my big one. But then I saw another one, and another one and another one, and then I knew that there was no way that many snails could be in the bag without me noticing.

Today is my 26th b-day. That's right, I've started my 27th year of life on this planet. Damn I'm old.

Anyway, I've had a good day. We had a couple friends over, stuffed ourselves with junk and wine and played pool. Turns out one of them is into aquariums and he gave me some advice and offered me some plants that he doesn't want anymore:)

I have a wishlist at thinkgeek.com, and R ordered about half of the stuff on it, in addition to buying me a new digital watch. I've been without a watch for about a month now, so that was good. He has also been my slave for the day, making me tea and bringing me food and chocolate, and is taking me out for Chinese food for dinner tomorrow. We were gonna go out for dinner today, but we both filled up on junk and figured we'll enjoy it more tomorrow.

I got an email from mum and my grandmother and my dad have called me. So pretty good.

My family is weird.

When I was a teenager, my parents were very relaxed about it. I would go out every weekend and stay out until about 5 or 6 in the morning, and would go out with friends several times during the week as well. No one even asked me what I did or anything. They were just happy that I had friends to be with.

When I was 17 I went on an Easter trip with all the youth from my church. It was a last minute thing, which I arranged about 2 hours before we were scheduled to leave. So I signed up for it just after school, then went home and told mum 'I'm going on an Easter trip with my friends'. She was distracted by the tv, and said 'yeah, ok' without really listening to me. I then went and packed my stuff, and then left, saying 'bye' on the way out. Mum distractedly said bye.

I was away for 5 days and had a great time. When I got back and walked in the door at home, mum looks away from the tv and goes 'where have you been?', in a pretty normal tone. So basically I was missing for 5 days, no one knew where I was, and they didn't even care. And I was 17 then, not yet an adult.

My sister Camilla is now 18. And she's not allowed to do anything! It's so weird.

When dad found out she had a boyfriend about 6 months ago, he actually started crying and then told her 'you're still my daughter'. As if there was any doubt about that...

Camilla's boyfriend lives in England, so naturally Camilla needs to go to England to see him. In September she told me she was planning to go to England for the school holiday. Dad had a massive tantrum over it. He actually told me on the phone 'let's hope she doesn't come home pregnant'. Because apparently he thought she would deliberately get pregnant so she could stay in England with her boyfriend. I guess he didn't realise that an 18 year old doesn't have to do desperate things like that to be able to choose where to live. He also wanted me to discourage her from going, because he didn't want her to.

In November when I talked to dad on the phone one evening I casually mentioned that I wanted to invite Camilla to come to Australia for a holiday. He got upset, because 'Camilla is scared of flying, and the long flight will prolly be very traumatic for her, and she's not grown up enough to handle it'. And because of all that he actually forbid me to even mention it to her, in case I made her want to do it. Of course I invited her anyway.

Then we went to Norway for Christmas, and when I mentioned to dad that I wanted to teach Camilla to make a really good salad I learnt to make in Australia, he got upset and told me to not influence her to become a vegetarian because 'she hardly eats as it is, and we don't want her to exclude another thing from her diet'. Well if she hardly eats, isn't it important that she at least eats healthy stuff? He didn't say 'I don't want her to be a vegetarian', which would have been fine, he actually forbid me to even mention it so I wouldn't put ideas in her head.

Just before we left Norway, I invited Camilla to come back with us, and have a 3 week holiday in Australia. She said no, because she was so scared of dad getting upset with her.

So when I talked on the phone with him a week after we got back home, I decided to find out what he would have thought of it, and told him I invited her but that she said no because she was scared of what he would think. He replied 'I've told Camilla she can do whatever she wants as long as she's happy'. Well! I told Camilla he had said that and that she should have come back with us. She was very surprised that he said that, because apparently when she told him she'd been invited, his response was 'M invited you even tho she knows you're scared of flying?!' and according to Camilla he was very annoyed with me for making her want to go to Australia.

Yes, we should all censor what we say around Camilla, just in case she wants to do something dad doesn't want her to do.

I talked to dad again a couple of weeks later, and he told me Camilla had gone to England to see her boyfriend. He was annoyed with her because she had said she would only stay for a weekend, but had already been there for over a week. She told him she had some problems with her boyfriend that she needed to sort out, and so had to stay longer. He told me he was pretty disappointed that she had 'run off' like that.

A week later I talked to Camilla. She said she wanted to go back to Norway, so naturally I asked why she hadn't gone back. She said 'it's because the whole family is so disappointed with me. Dad keeps saying how disappointed he is, his girlfriend texted me and told me how disappointed her and dad is. Mum is depressed because of me, and grandmother keeps telling me she's disappointed and that I shouldn't have a boyfriend'.

No wonder she's still in England. I would much rather stay with my boyfriend than put up with a family that does that too.

I wasn't planning to, but I decided to get involved.

I sent an email to dad, telling him that Camilla wanted to go back to Norway, but because everyone keeps saying how disappointed they are, she doesn't wanna go back and have to face everyone, and I made it clear she had my complete support, and I also told him I didn't understand why they are all so disappointed, seeing as she's not doing anything wrong.

Dad replied that he's disappointed that she left on a one-way ticket, without informing him, and that he doesn't think she should try to save a relationship which is failing before it even got started. He then asked me 'shouldn't we show that we worry or that we care?' and concluded with 'no one is disappointed with Camilla, only with what she did!'

I then sent: 'what has she done that's so wrong? Why are you disappointed? She's gone to England to see her boyfriend. It's a completely normal thing to do. She doesn't have to give a report to her parents of what she does. So what if the relationship is failing? It's part of the lesson we all learn as teenagers. It's fine that you disagree with her, but I don't think you have any right to try to influence her decisions. She's an adult and will learn a lot more from figuring things out for herself than from people telling her how to figure things out. I just don't understand why people are disappointed.'

To which he replied: 'Do you think it's best if parents agree with and support everything their children do without expressing their own opinions?'

And I replied: 'disagree all you want, but then explain why in a calm manner. And then you let people do whatever they want without going on and on about how disappointed you are that they made their own decision. Or you can disagree, and not tell them you disagree, and let people make their own mistakes. Manipulating people into doing what you want them to do is childish. And it seems like that's what people are trying to do when they go on and on about hos disappointed and hurt they are. Especially when there's nothing to be disappointed with. It's nice if she tells you what she's up to, but to DEMAND that she tells you is wrong.'

He never replied to that one.

Seeing as it is my b-day today, I got a call from my grandmother. After we talked about b-day stuff, she wanted to know if I've talked to Camilla lately. I said 'yeah, a week ago'

Grandma: Is she ok?
Me: Yeah, seems like it.
Grandma: I think she did a really bad thing.
Me: Why?
Grandma: You really don't know?
Me: Nope.
Grandma: If you think about it I think you'll understand.
Me: No, I really don't see it.
Grandma: *Exasperated laugh* Well let's not discuss that then. But I'm pretty disappointed.
Me: I don't understand why everyone's disappointed. She's an adult, she can do whatever she wants.
Grandma: But you have to be considerate of other people.
Me: Not if it stops you from living your life the way you want.
Grandma: Then she has to face the consequences of that choice.
Me: But there shouldn't be consequences, everyone should be allowed to live whatever life they want without other people telling them they are disappointed with that choice.
Grandma: If she chooses not to be considerate she will face the consequences.
Me: Fine, I guess she will.
Grandma: Well I'm fine with it, I just feel really sorry for your dad.
Me: I've talked to dad about it and I told him I don't understand why he's disappointed.
Grandma: *Exasperated laugh*

So basically everyone in my family thinks they should have the right to tell Camilla how to live her life. They say she can do whatever she wants as long as she's happy, but if she does what she wants it means everyone will be forever disappointed and hurt because she's not listening to their advice.

If they don't change, the whole thing will prolly end with Camilla getting so sick of it that she will no longer stay in touch with the fam.

My swordtail and 2 mollies seem to be doing fine. No sign of white spot on them. The tank was medicated on sunday, and will be medicated again tomorrow. The mystery snail had to move out into its own little bowl for the treatment, because I read somewhere that white spot medication can be harmful to snails. I was hoping that meant it would kill the unwanted snails.

But it didn't. A few hours after I put the medication in I saw them crawling around happily. So I took to crushing them with a spoon whenever they were within reach. That's kinda fun. What's even more fun is that having snails in my tank gives me a perfect excuse to get a snail eating fish. Loaches like snails, and I like loaches. Clown loaches are very kewl, but too big for my tank, so I'll be getting a pakistani loach or golden zebra loach.

Anyway, the mystery snail was in its bowl, which it didn't seem to like. Yesterday I decided to move it back to the tank seeing as the medication turned out to be not harmful to snails. I poured out about half of the water from the bowl and replaced it with some tank water. I let that sit for a few minutes then I picked the snail up and put it in the tank. And the snail instantly went into shock. It didn't make it and has gone to invertebrate heaven:(

I'm not really sure what happened. Possibly the stress of being moved so much. It moved into my tank on saturday, into the bowl on sunday and back to the tank yesterday. Poor little thing. I liked that snail.

But the fish are fine, and one of the mollies is pregnant:) That might be interesting. Apparently it's very likely that the other molly and the swordtail are also pregnant, as there were males in the tank at the pet store, and they can store sperm for up to 9 months and use it for 3 or 4 batches of fry. Free fish:D

The mollies loooove peas. I removed the skin from a pea last night and cut the flesh into really tiny pieces and put them in the tank and they went nuts over them. They obviously like it a lot more than the flake food. Even the swordtail had a taste. Fish keeping is rather funXD

Total body count: 4

2 swordtails, 1 molly and 1 mystery snail dead.

Survivors: 2

1 swordtail and 1 molly are alive with no signs of disease.

Now I just have to wait a few days to make sure it's not coming back, then I can get another molly and a swordtail. Mollies like to live in groups where they establish a pecking order. My molly has no one to pick on except my swordtail.

R and I went and got him a new desk last night. He found one he really liked which had a locking file cabinet to sit under the desk. When we picked it up from the warehouse, it looked like we got the wrong one, but they were about to close for the night, so we took it home anyway.

When we got home we confirmed that we got the wrong cabinet, but the right desk. So we put the desk together and then went back with the cabinet today.

At the store we went and had a look at the desk on display, and yep, it had a different cabinet, and it did have a lock. So we found a staff member, Terry, and told him we'd gotten the wrong one. He said that we got the right one, and they just had the wrong one on display. R told him part of the reason he chose that desk was because he liked the locking file cabinet (white lie).

Terry then said that they didn't have the locking one in stock, but if he could find the key for it, he would give us the one on display. He then went off in search of a key. It was actually a seperate unit, which we checked the price of. $349. So basically, they'd be losing money on the whole thing, but they didn't seem to mind.

Terry was unable to find the key, but he promised he'd get one and then have the cabinet delivered to our house free of charge on Monday. And we get to keep the cabinet that came with the desk. So we got a $349 file cabinet for free.

I was amazed. It would never have happened in Norway. They would have said 'oh, we have the wrong one on display. Too bad for you, but there's nothing we can do about it'.

R and Olivia both had a good laugh when I told them that, they couldn't believe it.

R and I went out and bought 2 swordtails, 2 silver mollies and a mystery snail today. They all seem to be thriving, but unfortunately my dalmatian molly has become the worst bully. At feeding time, she chases everyone away from the food and completely stuffs herself, and the rest of the time she chases everyone within reach.

I hope she calms down, because I think she's really kewl and would hate to have to take her back to the pet store. I might get another dalmatian molly and see if she calms down. I suspect that she just doesn't recognise the silver ones as her own kind, and so she thinks she's all alone. Maybe she just needs a friend.

The new mystery snail seems a lot healthier than the old one. My old one hid in a corner most of the time, while the new one is all over the place, tasting the plants, crawling on the glass and generally looking healthy and happy.

We got them all from the pet hypermarket. Olivia's friend who's into aquariums recommended it, and it seems like he knew what he was talking about.

Here's how hot it got today:

Up till now, it has been about 30 degrees every day, and mostly sunny, but we've also had an unusual amount of rain. R has been telling me 'this isn't what summer is supposed to be like'.

But now summer is here. 35 to 40 degrees, 70% humidity and afternoon thunderstorms several times a week. I'm gonna get a video of the next storm that comes along, because they are extremely kewl.

It's now too hot to sit outside during the day, so I have moved my laptop into R's office.

We just brought home a red-tailed black shark and 3 Pakistani loaches. I've been reading about the shark (which is not a really a member of the shark family of course) and I totally fell in love with it and knew I needed one. Luckily I didn't get the small schooling fish I was planning to get, or they woulda ended up as shark food.

The shark is soooo cute! And soooo tiny! It's about the same length as my swordtails, which is about 4-5 cm, but it has a much more slender body. It looks like a total whimp compared to the swordtails. Not for long tho. They grow pretty fast, and can reach 17 cm, but more likely around 10-12 in captivity.

It was so scared when I first put it in the tank, it went really pale from the stress of it - from black to light grey. But then it found the corner where all the plants are which made it feel safer, and it quickly recovered and darkened.

The Pakistani loaches are also endlessly cute. They all crowded into a corner of the plastic bag and were climbing over each other to be the one to get the furthest into the corner.

When I put them in the tank they immediately started digging around in the gravel for food, which makes them look adorable.

Norwegians haven't quite understood how to use domain names yet. You have .coms which anyone can register. Here in Australia you have .com.au and .net.au for registered businesses, .id.au for personal domains, .org.au for (non-profit) organisations, .edu.au for schools and universities and .gov.au for official government sites.

In Norway they have .no and .nu for registered businesses. That's it. There's no .id.no or .org.no. So when Norwegians go to register a domain for a personal site, they usually go with .com or .net. But, if the names they want are not available as .com or .net, they'll register it as a .org. I've seen heaps of Norwegian personal blogs which end with .org.

It's quite silly. .orgs are for (non-profit) organisations.

Wikipedia says:

".org was one of the original top-level domains, established in January 1985, originally intended for use by organizations.. "

So stop the silliness. It looks stupid to anyone who's not Norwegian. If you can't get a .com or a .net, at least go with .name or .info. Or just choose a different name.