NOVEMBER LIGHT

My daughter-in-exile Julie was born on this day twenty-seven years ago. This photo taken today at her office in Melbourne is lying. Well, she doesn't look any older than eighteen so perhaps it's not really lying after all.

I find it very hard not to have her here, and I keep telling her she could have chosen to live in a country a bit closer to home. But she's come to love the Australian way of life - the people, the landscape, the climate, the outdoor experience, the party scene, her friends. And most important - her boyfriend and her job.

So there we are. What can we do? She's old enough to make her own decisions. She'll be home for Christmas though - we all look forward! She wasn't meant to, but her Dad's illness made her want to spend valuable time with her family. I think she's found it quite difficult to be so far away during this time.

The Dim Sum in Oz is fabulous, I know!

Oslo recently acquired a new sculpture park - Ekebergparken. Scattered around a forest are sculptures mainly dedicated to "The Female." The sculptures and the upgrading of the footpaths through the woods have been donated by a Norwegian billionaire, and in democratic and feministic Norway the whole donation caused a huge public debate with two basic con arguments: 1) A billionaire shouldn't just be able to infiltrate an outdoor public area with his enormous gift (the municipal government sucked up to him) and 2) Sculptures depicting women (and their bodies) are also degrading to them, especially when there are so many in one place. The billionaire has also made a point of the fact that he loves women and especially their curves! Bad billionaire! Okay, I know I'm simplifying this a bit, but going to see it for myself this afternoon with sister-in-law Tone was a very positive experience. The area is beautiful!

Per Ung - "Mother With Child"

Sean Henry - "Walking Woman" (and sister-in-law)

Richard Hudson - "Marilyn"

We had lunch in a nearby café, where we actually had to send the soup back! I don't often do that, but it looked like brown gravy and tasted as if they'd dropped both the soy sauce and the balsamic vinegar in it. So salad it was instead.

The area where the park is situated - Ekeberg - is not all that familiar to me, except for when I spent summer days driving my children there for Oslo's annual international football tournament "Norway Cup", or for knowing it's the location of Munch's "The Scream." But as we approached the park (from the back apparently) and walked through it, we realised that this hill above Oslo played a huge role during World War II. Coincidentally the evening paper that was in my mailbox when I arrived home had a long article on this subject! The Germans consolidated their positions particularly in this area by establishing anti-aircraft cannons, barracks, camps and radio stations.

There used to be marble steps here constructed by occupant Germany during WWII, then torn down and now reconstructed as a fantastic viewpoint, almost an amphi-theatre

My husband was in hospital again for a few days early this week, with medicine induced intestine problems. He had to sit in a waiting room at the doctors' emergency office for four hours (it was Sunday evening) with excruciating stomach pains. When at last he was let in to see the doctor he was referred to hospital at once. Terrified that this might happen again we managed to get a requisition directly to hospital in the event of a next time, without having to do a detour by a doctor's office. A good friend who's in fact a doctor told us about this possibility, otherwise we wouldn't have known. Learning details about health care as we go, that's for sure.

But I can't help thinking that we should have been informed of this initially, by the treating hospitals and doctors. With an illness as serious as the one my husband is going through now he shouldn't have to spend hours in cold waiting rooms not having his pains relieved.

We're watching some breathtaking sunsets in Oslo this November - who says this is the darkest, dreariest and greyest month of the year? I don't. (Hmmm.... well, I might). Two of the people I love the most were born in November - my husband and my Oz daughter. Well, we can't all be summer children.....