Hobbies

Sky meets Earth.

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At 1222 metres above sea level, Finse in Norway lies at the highest point on the railway between the city of Bergen in the west and the Norwegian capital Oslo in the east. Finse is a favoured location for both winter and summer activities.

Finse is also a favoured location for learning how to build snow caves. The KFUK-KFUM Scouts in Bergen (pictured above) annually offer their youth members a course in building snow caves. Having the tools, knowledge and skills to build a snow cave may be what gets you out alive if you suddenly find yourself surprised by bad weather, lost or simply did not turn back in time.

On winter days when the sky is so white that is seemingly merges into the ground, when snow and fog envelop any landmarks around you, and when there is no sunshine or moonlight to contour your white surroundings, you are at extra high risk of getting lost.

Learning how to build a snow cave may then be what saves you from leaving Earth and entering Heaven a little too soon.

Articles available at:

http://www.ba.no/nyheter/article7292984.ece

http://www.ba.no/nyheter/article7292975.ece

Photo credit: Britt Embry

Boys wanted.

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While railway modelling is a hobby that is mainly associated with boys and men, dancing, as both a hobby and a sport, experiences the opposite: Most dancers at Hildemors Dansesenter in Bergen are girls and women, because few boys and men choose to take up dancing.

The trend is said to be true across Norway, and the reason explained to me is that many boys and men feel shy and are sometimes teased if they admit they like to dance. Indeed, among the parents and grandparents present during my visit, the dads and granddads giggled a polite “no thank you” when asked to take part in my story for the newspaper. One dancing boy even told me that under no circumstances must he have his photo in the newspaper, because nobody at his school knows that he dances.

In jazz, street and hip-hop, being a solo girl is not a problem. However, if a girl wishes to do partner dances, she must often find a female partner. Meanwhile, a boy can pick and chose the dance partner that suits him best. This, the dance centre said, explains why the few boys and men that do dance tend to excel.

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Photo credit: Britt Embry

Not just about trains.

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Railway modelling is not just about building and driving model trains. Landscapes, buildings, people and all the other things that exist in the real world also need scaling down, in the instance in these photos, to the scale of 1:87.

The level of detail and dexterous skill involved in railway modelling may therefore seem a job well suited the female’s small and nimble fingers. Yet, railway modelling is still considered a strictly male pastime. Among the approximately 2500 members of the Norwegian Railway Club, a club which makes model railways, only a couple of its members are female.

The club’s division in Bergen annually organises a model railway exhibition. Here, the club has experienced that women simply are not that interested in the trains themselves or in the technical and electrical aspects of railway modelling. However, they do frequently ask questions about how the landscapes, houses and figurines have been made.

By emphasising the latter aspect of railway modelling, the Bergen division now hopes that more women will be encourraged to take part. After all, a man’s hands may sometimes become the bull in the china shop when attempting the interior decorations of a tiny house.

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Photo credit: Britt Embry