Batu akik

Almost anywhere you go here in our home town, and I have been told its the same in the whole country, you'll find gem stone markets. It is extremely popular to wear rings or necklaces with anything from normal stones, to quite expensive precious stones.

So to see what this is all about, a couple of friends and I went to have a look.

A guy selling uncut stones 

Both sides of this street was full of gem stone stores

Here's fossilized coral stones

A guy cutting stones with a table saw

More uncut stones

Right in the middle of the stone market, a guy was selling baby rabbits...

Mr. D and Kris checking the quality of a pink ruby

One guy had a few rings where he had simply put a whole, uncut stone on a ring

The fake plastic stuff

What I bought: a small, very cheap ring for Alia, that she already lost... and a fossilized coral ring for me.

I don't think I'll be wearing it much to be honest...

-e-

17th of May in the tropics

The 17th of May is the national day of Norway, and is, as far as i know, one of the most celebrated national days in the world. In every town, and in every village there's a place where people gather to celebrate. Everyone dresses up in their national costumes, best suits or dress, get out their Norwegian flags and celebrate the whole day.

17th of May is actually not Norway's independence day, but it is our constitution day. This year was the 201st 17th of May celebration, even though Norway has only been independent, in modern times, for 110 years.

Norwegians abroad usually celebrate the national day too, I have heard about 17th of May celebrations taking place anywhere from Seattle in the west to Bandar Seri Begawan in the east, so with these things in mind, we Norwegians here (there's 8 + 2 of us here (the +2 are not Norwegian citizens, but they are mothers of Norwegian citizens, and that basically makes them Norwegians, right?) in "Hammertown" decided to get together, and following are some pictures of our celebration

We didn't have a flag pole.... :-S

The weather is usually so bad that it rains sideways on the 17th of May and by now we are so used to it that we just consider it part of the tradition. But here in AP, we had 32 celsius, no rain and no wind.

Good barbecue weather, in other words.

After a while it was just to hot outside, so we moved into the air-conditioned house.

Norwegian (looking) cakes!! They were goooood!

Max' first 17th of May. He didn't get it...

But he liked getting attention

The kids, in their red, white and blue clothes.

Games for the kids is usually a big part of the celebration, the best we could do was let them jump on the trampoline.

All in all it was great to spend a day reminding our selves that we come from that strange, little country in the far north. Even though Norwegians are experts in complaining about our own country, when we live somewhere else, we get all nostalgic and sentimental about it.... 

If you want to read some more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Constitution_Day

And I also just found out that the 17th of May s also the constitution day of the Republic of Nauru.

We learn something new every day...