Successful toilet training!

We are optimistic, but realistic! It will take some time to learn our boy how to urinate in the toilet and not around it. It seems as he is satisfied if he reach the toilet in time, and get his trousers down. From this it is just luck if he make success or not. Sometimes we are thinking that he don`t want it to happen in the right way. He wants to learn, but he also wants other methods than we suggest. He tries to learn about the toilet, how it looks like and how it works (see picture).

We try to:
- let him watch and learn of me
- let him practise
- motivate him with cool underwear
- celebrate triumphs
- have fun
- dump the diaper!

I will definitely not be more in this situation:

Highbury - home of football

Arsenal.com told me today that it is 17 years since Arsenal won the league after that dramatic game against Liverpool in 1989. I remember i was sitting together with some friends, watching the game on television. I didn`t expect anything of the game. Arsenal was out of form, and Liverpool was totally different. All odds against us. We had to score two goals at Anfield that night, in the last game of the season. And we had to deny Liverpool scoring. It was too much to dream of, i thought. And everything looked to go the way i expected. We had the lead until 90 minutes was played. That was not enough. Liverpools Ian Rush and John Barnes shake-hands and was celebrating, even before the referee had whistled off the game. And then, a long ball from the defense ended up in Michael Thomas feet. He scored! Celebrated wildley. And we won the league, that night on Anfield. It was remarkable!

I visited Highbury for my first time (picture above, me in the middle with that smile) that year, - and watching players like Adams and Rocastle was a big moment for me. After just three minutes into the game against Everton, Lee Dixon scored and the roof was lifted of celebration. It was special to be there. An incredible atmosphere. Each tackle was followed of shouting, and i really fall in love with english football. This happened 9 years after i decided to follow Arsenal as my team (1980/81).

This season (2005/06) was the last season at Highbury. The capasity was too small. We are moving some hundreds meters down the road to a new stadium, which is called Emirates stadium. The supporters do not like the name. Of course. There is nothing special with that name. But it gives money to the club for som years... I just hope that some part of the soul at Highbury has moved together with the club to this new stadium. You see - Highbury was the home of football... 

Prostitution or buying sex - should it be a crime?

Prostitution is sale of sexual services for money or for a kind of compensation. Last year the national competence center, Prosenteret, claimed that 2500 persons were so-called sex-workers in Norway. In Norway prostitution is not a legal work as it is in Germany and Netherland for instance. Not a crime either. I am a social worker and have been working for women in prostitution the last four years.

In Norway it has been a quite interesting development the last three years. In the cities where prostitution is visible for everyone, the norwegian women have been out-competed of foreigners. The Norwegian women are well known as drug-users. They finance their drugs with money earned in prostitution. In just two-three years the situation is totally different in the streets. In my town, Stavanger, the number of women in prostitution has doubled and the police think that criminal networks is organizing it. Trafficking is the topic in the media, and making it a crime to buy sexual services of someone has now been suggested of a parliamentary party.

And it is true that these women are suffering. It is not easy to be in prostitution. You have to take care of your own security, and most of the women, norwegian and foreigners, experience violence of the customer from time to time. Most of the women have to cope with this post-traumatic stress disorder. To survive they develop a cynicism.
Most of the women get problems with their identity. It is not an easy task to seperate the body from the soul. This is what they try to do, but what is impossible. For most of the women i have met in prostitution, this is their main-problem. They are getting depressed of it. Feeling that they are nothing worth. But because of the money they earn, it is not easy to quit.

The foreigners are poor people. Earlier this year i was in Nigeria. I was talking to women who had been in prostitution in Europe. They talked about the routes and their journey from Nigeria to Europe, how hunger, rape and manslaughter destroyed their positive dream of getting a job and a new life. Not all of the women are travelling through the same routes. But ending up in prostitution when their dream are legal work… it is awful! More about Nigerian women in prostitution in this.

Not more talk about the women. What about the man?

He buy the newspaper and call a number connected to sale of sexual services. He phone her and make an appointment meeting her at a hotel or in an apartment. Maybe he take the car, down to the streets...

There is that man who has never had sex, and really bad experiences connected to relationship. Some don`t know how to express their own feelings and needs. "When you buy sex, you don`t need to think. Just pay!", one man told me. Some men choose to buy sex because they are not interesting in working for having sex in a equivalent relationship. And they are totally not interested in going without having sex. To do it with their own hands, is not so...? He prefer to buy.

One man told me that he wouldn`t buy sex of foreigners. He was afraid of getting envolved in trafficking. He wanted the women to be a prostitute of "free will". If she was not there of her own will, he would get a problem with his erection! So when do you have a free will?

Should it be a crime, buying sexual services?
I am really (really!) not sure, because…

What do you think?

The camera is back!

Finally i got my camera back from the repair shop! And everything on the guarantee. Puh, i was nervous i had to pay...

To be without my Canon 300D has been such a disappointment. May is definitively the most beautiful month in Norway. The nature becomes green and the flowers is there! The farmers let their animals go grazing! For me this is the period i go wild in the water. Around 10 degrees and so easy. No more ice-cutting for having a bath.
So amazing!

Met this horse on my way to Ivesdal and Bjerkreim this weekend. I always bring with me the camera. Have to be there when the motif arrive. Nice one?  

Thierry Henry !

Jeg er målløs. I 26 år har jeg fulgt Arsenal. Jeg har fått oppleve cup- og seriegull flere ganger. Jeg har sett store fotballspillere som Tony Woodcock, David O`leary, David Rocastle, Paul Merson, Ian Wright, Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp og Patrick Vieira i favorittklubben min.

Før mesterligafinalen mot Barcelona 17 mai (to dager siden), tenkte jeg at jeg kanskje ville være mest fornøyd med tap. Arsenals beste spiller gjennom alle tider, Thierry Henry, har brukt god tid på å komme frem til et valg på om han ønsker å tegne ny kontrakt med Arsenal eller ei. Dersom vi hadde vunnet mesterligaen, hadde han vunnet alt han kunne vinne med Arsenal. Så jeg tenkte at da var det kanskje best at vi tapte. Og så gjorde vi det...

Så går det to dager og jeg får mitt ønske oppfylt. Thierry Henry sier at han ikke klarer å forlate Arsenal. Han skriver under på en 4-års kontrakt. Jeg har nevnt mange store Arsenal-spillere ovenfor. Men ingen, absolutt ingen er i nærheten av Thierry Henry. Jeg mener at han er en av verdens absolutt beste spillere. Kanskje en av historiens aller beste.

Han har teknikk, et rykk og en fart som skiller ham fra alle andre fotballspillere. De som har sett ham spille fotball, vil måtte erkjenne at dette er en mann utenom det vanlige. Han har en fantastisk evne til både spille frem og avgjøre selv. Han er mye, mye mer enn en målskorer. Han er overalt når Arsenal angriper. Rykket hans er det ingen i verden som kan stå i mot. Mot Real Madrid i årets mesterliga løp han fra hele forsvarsrekka før han skoret. Et av de målene jeg nok aldri glemmer...
Han overtok som kaptein etter Patrick Vieira, som forlot Arsenal for å oppleve mer suksess på annet gress. Som kaptein har han nå fått i ansvar å lede kanskje verdens mest talentfulle fotballag mot nye høyder. Spillere som Fabregas, Diaby, Reyes, Senderos, Eboue og tenåringen Theo Walcott (nylig tatt med i Englands VM-tropp uten å ha spilt et eneste sekund premierleague-fotball!) vil tjene stort på å ha Thierry Henry som forbilde.
Han er en atlet og en tvers gjennom proff. Han er familiefar og kjent for å holde seg mye hjemme. Han er kjent for å la andre ta seg av festingen.

Han begrunnet valget om å fortsette i Arsenal med at han ikke klarte å reise fra fansen. Han forklarte at engelsk fotball og engelske tilhengere er det beste som finnes. Det er en lidenskap og trofasthet blant disse tilhengerne som er helt unik. Taper et storlag i Italia, Spania eller Tyskland snur tilhengerne ryggen til spillerne. Det skjer ikke i Arsenal og i England. Fulle tribuner og tilhengernes engasjement var avgjørende for valget om å fortsette.
Gode spillere blir møtt med respekt, sier han i intervjuet med BBC i dag. Jeg husker hvordan Portsmouth - fansen reiste seg og trampeklappet for Arsenal og Henry etter at de var blitt slått av Aresnal på eget gress. De hånet ikke sitt eget lag. De takket bare Arsenal for deres bidrag til god fotball og en god kamp. Henry tok etter kampen på seg en Portsmouth-drakt og løp bort til motstanderens tilhengere for å takke dem. Slike scener er umulige å oppleve utenfor fotballøya.

I dag er BBC bombardert med e-post og sms`er fra andre klubbers tilhengere. De er glade for at Thierry Henry fortsetter i Arsenal. De er glade for å kunne nyte denne spillerens utrolige kvaliteter også i fortsettelsen.

Og, ja, om jeg måtte velge mellom mesterligagull og ny kontrakt med Thierry Henry, ville jeg fått et enkelt valg. Arsenal ville aldri klart å spille så utrolig flott fotball uten Henry. Og jeg velger gjerne bort en sølvbøtte mot 4 nye år med verdens beste fotballspiller - i favorittklubben!

Thierry Henry er en legende.

 

Kameraet er til reparasjon!

Mitt Canon D300 er til reparasjon. Heldigvis går det på garantien. I to år har jeg tatt bilder med mitt digitale speilreflekskamera. Det har vært en ren nytelse å jakte etter motivet, fange det, fokusere, trykke av, høre klikket og så se resultatet. Ingenting er som å gå på jakt etter vakre og spennende motiver.

Om noen uker reiser jeg til Italia og Torino. Kameraet skal da være tilbake, og jeg vil selvsagt legge bilder ut på nettet:

I mellomtiden er det gebursdager for begge barna, 17 mai og mesterligafinale mellom Barcelona og Arsenal.

Mye å glede seg til, med andre ord. Men ingenting blir det samme uten mitt Canon 300D!