Tea time with a Muslim family

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Anne

The Norwegian centre against Racism have started a campaign which they call Tea Time. Statistics have shown that Norwegians who know people with minority backgrounds also are less likely to have prejudices against them, but that a large part of the Norwegian population don’t know anyone with a minority background well enough to get to that stage.

The Tea Time campaign is designed to help improve that, if only a little bit. It consists of Muslim families inviting Norwegians to their homes, for tea.

Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit have been invited (and accepted) to tea with a Muslim family at Grünerløkka in Oslo on March 10.

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Heir Consort Project, February 2011

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Anne

Here are February’s numbers for the Heir Consort project. I’ve picked the numbers from the official calendars, as well as any events I’ve seen featured elsewhere. I haven’t gone beyond that to scout for this, so please let me know if the count is wrong – and inform me of the events I may have missed.

I keep track of all of it in a GoogleCalendar, so if you’re interested, I can give you access to it so you can do your own counting :)

I have removed the category of how many events these group of people do solo. (It was the same people out on their own often, and in similar numbers each month). If anyone misses it, let me know and I will put it back.

Without further ado, the numbers.

Continue reading →

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Haakon visiting campers

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Anne

The Norwegian royals are really present when there is a big wintersports event going on in Norway. They were there at the Lillehammer olympics, and they’re now present at everything with the FIS World Championships in Oslo.

Almost everything on the King’s agenda for the last and coming week has to do with attending the games. Crown Prince Haakon is also participating in daily meetings with the organizing committee to evaluate how the organizational side of things are going.

Yesterday, after they finished watching the sports, Crown Prince Haakon visisted the many people who have chosen to put up tents in the area around the slopes. Many of them went out early into the woods to get access to a good site, so they could be close to the action on the slopes. Camping outside in the winter in Norway… sounds slightly insane to me, but people are bringing with them wood-burning ovens for their tents, so there is some thought put into it.

Picture gallery here.

 

 

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Official pictures of the twins

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Anne

Better late than never, the Danish court has released the first official pictures of the twins: link to the photo gallery at the royal site.

Notably: Big sister Isabella and big brother Christian are missing from the production in the gallery at Kongehuset.dk.

The little prince looks a bit like the first pictures that were released of Princess Isabella.

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Hugging the King

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Anne

At the reception last night, King Harald received a huge hug from the mascot in the receiving line. Crown Princess Mette-Marit received a hug from the mascot as well.

 

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World Championships in Nordic Ski 2011

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Anne

The whole family are out in full force, including Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus, for the opening ceremony.

King Harald and Princess Astrid are the ones who have almost all of the championship events on their calendars for the next 11 days, though.

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Jelling stones defaced

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Anne

In Jelling, a small town in Jutland, Denmark, two massive rune stones stand on top of a huge hill. The stones are grave stones, or memorial stones.

One of the stones was put up by Gorm the Old, as a memorial for his wife, Thyra.  The other one was put up their son, Harald Bluetooth, both as a memory of his parents, and as a way to brag about his conquest of Denmark and Norway and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity.

I remember seeing the stones as a teenager, and thinking they were very impressive. Later, we also studied them in my Norwegian class.

Last night, someone with a spray can of green paint defaced a bit of Danish royal history. The stones, as well as the nearby church, have been tagged with graffiti. The signature tagged says Gelwan E.

You can see a picture of the stones before the graffiti here.

A case of old text tradition meeting new text tradition, but not a pretty mash-up, in my opinion.

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Baptism of the twins

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Anne

The royal Danish twins will be christened in Holmens kirke on April 14.

This is the church where Crown Prince Frederik was christened, where Queen Margrethe was christened and where Margrethe and Prince Henrik were married. Due to the fact that the family had ties to the church, it was also believed that Christian would be christened there, but the parents chose the Palace church at Christiansborg instead then.

It will be interesting to see which names they have chosen.

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Have you seen…

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Anne

King Haakon VII’s ski jacket? It has been stolen from the ski museum in Oslo, straight in open daylight. It also turns out that the security cameras were switched off, both in the museum and outside in Holmenkollen ski arena. The ski jacket was picked out of the glass box, and off the model, without anyone noticing.

The jacket had an emblem embroidered on the inside, with the king’s initials. This emblem was made in 1942 by a female prisoner in the German work camp of Grini, and was smuggled out from there. It was later fastened inside the jacket.

I realize that the weather in Oslo has been cold this winter, but you would think someone might notice a guest at the museum not wearing a jacket in to the museum and wearing a fur coat on the way out? (Assuming that is the way it was done. A fur coat is fairly big to put in a plastic bag and hide away.)

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Heir Consort Project: January 2011

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Anne

If we’re looking in the beginning. January seems to have been a fairly quiet royal month on the royal front. Even the new year receptions in Denmark received less press coverage than normal – with Crown Princess Mary on maternity leave, and Joachim and Marie taking the opportunity to go on vacation under the radar. (Was hosting the Christmas with the Prince Consort and Queen so tiring that they had to have a break afterwards?)

Anyway, here are the numbers for January.

Continue reading →

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