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 R and I went by a Toyota place to check out the new generation of Prius. R has wanted one for over a year, but last year he decided to not get a new one, but to try to find a black second hand one. A year later he's still had no luck finding a black one.

So we went to check out the new one, and were allowed to keep one overnight for testdriving. We took it back to the Toyota place this morning, and the salesperson started crunching some numbers (who is the same person we spoke to a year ago, and who somehow still remembers us. We like him.)

As far as I knew, R hadn't decided whether or not to get a new one or a used one yet, so I was quite surprised when R told him to put an order in for a Prius. He also got a very good trade in price for his Celica, which I guess helped him make the decision.

The Prius is an extremely cool car, it has all kinds of features that no other car in the same price range has, such as intelligent parking assist, where the car actually parks itself.

Had I known R would be getting a Prius so soon, I wouldn't have bothered getting my own car. I could just be driving around in the Prius. But I do kind of like the thought of having my own car, which I can do whatever I want with. And there is nothing wrong with my car, it's just not hi-tech like the Prius. So I prolly won't be driving the Prius much.

Now I have even more incentive to get a job and save money, because I want a nice new car with cool features as well... I'd go with a European car tho..

The images below are for illustration purposes only, as R doesn't get the car for another 2 months or so.

Shortly after I got my car R told me he would buy me personalised plates as an early b-day present for me. I spent the next 2-3 weeks deciding what I wanted on them, which was extremely frustrating because whenever I came up with something it would already be taken. But last week I finally found something I wanted that wasn't taken, and the plates were ordered. They arrived yesterday and I put them on my car today (we had to get new screws for them before I could put them on).





BDA is the airport code for Bermuda, and 06 is for 2006, so the time and place I met R in other words. (Technically we first met at Gatwick and then went to Bermuda two days later, but GAT06 was taken, and Bermuda sounds nicer anyway.)

The style of the plate is called 'Hibiscus blue' and I really like the tropical look of it:)

I recently realised that I never gave proper updates about our two newest adoptees. So here it is.

Tai:

Tai has been with us for over a year, we took her in after her previous owners had had enough of her and wanted her put to sleep. Pet rescue originally rescued her, but desperately needed a foster home to put it in, so we told them we would do it.

The reason her owners wanted her put to sleep was that they had moved to a new house, and Tai being an extremely highly strung cat, she protested by peeing everywhere. After several months her owners had simply had enough. How you can give up a cat for that reason I don't know. I wouldn't give up any of our cats even if they had pooed in my computer keyboard three times a day; but some people just don't get very attached to animals.

The first month Tai was with us we tried to manage without medication, contrary to Pet rescue's recommendation. Being Norwegian, I only medicate as a last resort. But after a month it became clear that something wasn't working, so I put her on the anti-anxiety/anti-OCD medication we had been given. There was instant improvement and after a couple of months I took her off the medication and she had then settled in enough to not pee anywhere she wasn't supposed to.

Initially R and I thought her extreme grumpiness and aggressiveness was due to her being thrown around a bit in foster homes, and we figured she would settle down when she got to know us. But over a year later, she hasn't. We have simply accepted the fact that she is an unpleasant cat; she never comes up for us unless she needs something, like being let out in the garden. So I make a point of going up to her several times a day just to give her a little bit of attention, and when I do she's just as likely to growl and attack me as to enjoy it and start purring. Even when she does enjoy it, it's only for about 30 seconds before she goes feral and I back off to avoid being attacked.

She can't handle being told what to do, and will think we're trying to attack her if we ask her to get down from somewhere or get out of a room.

She also doesn't like any of the other cats. She regularly picks fights with them for no good reason. R and I blame the Siamese in her; they are very grumpy and anti-social by nature.

But she seems happy enough most of the time. She hangs out in the garden most of the day and she has several spots around the house where she enjoys sleeping. And at least she's alive.

Tabby:

We took Tabby in about 6 months ago, after we failed to find her owner. She is an extremely friendly cat, she loves attention and cuddles and talks all the time.

She's not an easy cat tho. When we first took her in, it was obvious that whoever her previous owner were, they had no clue about training animals. Tabby's way of getting what she wanted was to be annoying, she would start scratching the carpet and curtains and jump across us in bed. Obviously this had gotten her what she wanted in the past, but we saw it for what it was; bad conditioning/training, and she quickly stopped when she realised all she got was a telling off.

She doesn't seem to ever have had any rules, so I've had to have endless patience when trying to teach her the rules of the house. She usually gets told sternly not to do somehing if she's about to do something wrong, if she doesn't listen she gets removed and put somewhere else. If she goes back to do it again (which she usually does) she gets put in time out. And she still doesnt get it, after being let out of time out she will go straight back and do it again, and I will warn her and remove her again, only to have her go straight back. In the end I just put her in time out every time without warning, and she will still go straight back to do it again. So after putting her in time out about 5-6 times, I put her somewhere else and try to play with her or get her interested in other things so she will forget what she wanted to do.

She shows every sign of being a very smart cat, but she's just really stubborn.

She gets along really well with the other cats, with the exception of Julie who she for some reason cannot stand. But she plays with Thomas and doesn't mind the others being really close to her or sleeping right next to her.

We originally thought she had been dumped in this area, or that her family had moved and left her behind, but now we think she might have run away. Half the time when I go to pat her, she will cringe and close her eyes, as if she expects to be smacked. We've certainly never smacked her; I might have tapped her or pushed her away (gently of course), but she has no reason to think we would ever be abusive. So she must have learnt that somewhere else.



More photos of Tai and Tabby.

As we pulled into our driveway the other day, R stalled the car. As he started it again, we had the following convo:

R: I hate gears, they are so primitive.
Me: Yeah!
R: Why do I have to manually change the gears for it? What does the car want me to do for it next, get out and push it?


(R's new Prius is obviously an automatic.)

Convo with R:

Me: Why do you always come and hang out with me when I'm on the phone with my family?
R: I like listening to you speaking Norwegian.
Me: Why?
R: It fascinates me. There's complete gibberish coming out of your mouth, and the noises actually mean something. I like to see if I can make out any of the words.
Me: And can you?
R: Nope.

I find the English use of titles likes Mr, Mrs and Miss very sexist and very dated.

If you're a man, you're a Mr, no matter what. If you're a woman your title changes with your marital status, for whatever reason. And your new title 'Mrs' is a Mr with an s at the end, as if your identity is somehow tied up to your husband.

Titles are used a lot in English speaking countries. Pretty much every time you put your name in online to pay for something or sign up for something, you have to choose your title from a dropdown menu. Today I was asked for my title when I dropped my car off for a repair, and I felt like I had just travelled 50 years into the past.

In Norwegian we have words for titles, but they are hardly ever used. I don't think I have ever been referred to as 'miss' in Norwegian, and have only ever heard someone else referred to by title two or three times in my entire life. And then it was always an older person speaking to another older person. I suspect that if it wasn't for the English use of the terms, Norwegians would no longer bother learning their own words for them.

And there is a big flaw in the title system. I'm sure it wasn't an issue 60 years ago, but these days a woman doesn't always take her husband's name; so if I married R, would I then be 'Mrs Hovde', despite having a different name than my husband?

I think a woman should always be 'miss', or they could make up a new, less sexist way to address women. Or they could just get rid of the titles altogether, Norwegians seems to do just fine without them.

Well we had a fun day today!

We got up at 7 because my car needed to have repairs done, and as we drove home from the auto repairs place after dropping it off I commented to R how hazy it was, but I didn't really think anything of it.

Once home I got online and decided to have a look at the news, and noticed Sydney was having an interesting day, completely covered in orange dust, reducing visibility to about 10 metres in some areas:

(full story)

I showed it to R, and thought 'that's cool'. R apparently already knew about it, and told me we would prolly get it too, as it moved north.

And sure enough, 2-3 hours later there was a distinct orange haze everywhere which fascinated us both and we took some photos:

But 20 minutes or so after the haze descended on us we started being able to taste it and smell it, even inside the house, which was unpleasant; much like breathing in concrete dust. So we brought the birds and all the cats in and closed all the doors.

We then had to go for a drive, and I noticed that the sun looked blue and reflected blue on all cars:

So today was much like living on Mars, assuming that Mars was built up and covered in vegetation....

I had to go out and walk around the neighbourhood to distribute Avon catalogues, and the dust then went in my pores and hair and teeth, so I had to have a second shower when I got home and when I blew my nose orange stuff came out...

And of course the cars are in desperate need of a good clean...

To see all the photos we took, click here.

I have come to believe that the deodorant companies are scamming us all.

I shower every morning, and apply deodorant afterwards, like any normal person. In the evening when I go to bed, I have noticed a slight smell. Nothing offensive, but enough for me to notice it.

A few days ago I forgot to apply the deodorant until after I had gotten dressed, and decided I couldn't be bothered with it and went without. In the evening, there was no smell. None whatsoever.

That made me curious, and I went several more days without deodorant, to see if there was a pattern. And there is. When I use deodorant I smell. When I don't use deodorant I don't smell.

Sounds like a conspiracy to me. I can't explain how or why, but obviously the deodorant manufacturers are putting something in the deodorants that keep us smelly, so that we will keep buying deodorant.

Roger received his new Prius today, only a month after ordering it. They originally said it would be 3-4 months before it would arrive, but after R let them know he would be very unhappy if that was the case, it seemed they were able to sort something out.

The features of the new Prius include:

- dynamic cruise control, using radar to maintain distance to the car in front of you
- Head Up Display where the speed and nav directions appear on the windscreen
- park it in the sun, and it remains cool using solar powered ventilation
- self dimming rear view mirror
- rain activated wipers
- anti-collision system using the radar again, which will detect an imminent front end collision and apply the brakes and tighten the seatbelts
- voice activated bluetooth phone integration
- rear view reversing camera (also used with the self parking system where you tell the car where you want to park and it parks itself)

http://www.toyota.com.au/prius/features/cutting-edge-technology



And he got it just in time too, because tomorrow we are driving 3 hours south to go camping with friends at Yamba, NSW. Should be fun.