It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens,Great Expectations
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Boys wanted.
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.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Not just about trains.
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.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
The stories they could tell.
Keeping a quiet watch over Paris, the gargoyles of Notre Dame would have a story or two to tell of war, revolution and love across the centuries. If only they could talk.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Snakes’ Ambassador.
What does it take for many people to understand the value and importance of each species of mammal, bird, fish and reptile in nature, including the much demonised snake?
Animals in captivity may serve as ambassadors for their wild and threatened kin, provided they are properly taken care of with regards to living space, food and stimulance that will assure them a mentally and physically healthy life.
At the Oslo Reptile Park, many visitors learn for the first time that snakes are not slimy, that not all snakes can or wish to kill you, and that snakes ususally will not bite a human unless they are surprised or provoked. And did you know that snakes, like the ball python above, have individual personalities, just like humans do?
Snakes regulate the number of rodents, frogs, birds and other populous species that humans otherwise would have a very difficult time regulating without the snake – although introducing a non-indigenous species into a new environment may upset the existing balance and lead to mass-extinction among the native species.
Maintaining a snakes natural habitat and a healthy snake population is vital. And sometimes the only way we can understand the value and importance of something is if we can see, touch and feel it ourselves.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Old bodies, young love.
They met more than half a century ago, but their love never aged a day.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Traveler vs. Tourist
The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.” — Daniel J. Boorstin
Photo credit: Britt Embry
A story no picture could tell.
Yesterday, at a Norwegian roadside cafe, i ordered fish and chips. I didn’t eat the fish and could have done without the chips, too.
Waiter: Did you enjoy the meal?
Me: No, the fish wasn’t good and – (interrupted by the waiter at this point)
Waiter: Well, this fish is special because it’s battered and deep fried.
Me: I’m English, I know what fish and chips is supposed to taste like.
Waiter: Please help yourself to some free dessert.
A tragedy in Paris.
Strawberries, so vibrant and fresh, waiting in vain to be enjoyed, perhaps with a glass of Champagne, perhaps by two lovers in the City of Love. But was their tragic fate perchance the result of a tragic love, in which one wounded lover cast the beautiful, heart-shaped berries aside on the cold, hard pavement only to be stepped on and squashed like his or her heart had so most recently been? One can only picture the story.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
If love could be frozen in time.
Frozen, preserved at their most beautiful. If only one could do the same to love at its most pure and perfect moment.
Photo credit: Britt Embry
Picture the Stories 