Bring on the (hospital) clowns!

Our local health authority here in Bergen, together with the Grieg Foundation and GC Rieber Foundation pays NOK473,000 (about £49,000) each year for 6 clowns to visit the children's wards at Haukeland University Hospital 8 times a month. The clowns are also regular visitors to several homes for the elderly n the Region.

The clowns are clowns, i.e. professional artistes not doctors or nurses dressed as clowns. Their make-up is very toned down so it is more red nose than white face, but the crazy clothing and large shoes are still part of the outfit.

The consensus here is that the clowns make the children and their parents happy, and distract them from what may otherwise be difficult and emotionally draining periods. They cannot always make a difference though. One clown in the local paper 'Byavisen' was quoted as saying that it is never easy going into a ward or room containing a very sick child, although you gradually get used to it, and also that it demands alot of insight into reading that child's emotional state when they do go in. Sometimes, they get it right and other times they don't.

These clown are there to distract with whatever they have at their disposal. A globe, spinnng on a finger starts a magic trip to Australia for one child, finding a marble in a plastic flower brings smiles to another.

Considering though that the 10th most searched for phobia on google is fear of clowns or coulrophobia, maybe the idea is not as good as it first appears. The clown persona is one that hides behind a smiley mask and maybe is not as funny and kind as it appears. Most children know Krusty the clown in the Simpsons (not the most positive person in the world), and there are plenty of horror films where clowns are difinitely not your funniest friend - Stephen King's It anyone?

Danger money required!!

Bergen is surrounded by mountains, craggy, grey granite mountains!. This is reflected everywhere you look in the choice of building materials, whether it is for houses, schools, paths,  walls or garden landscaping.. Easily available, granite and marble is everywhere!  Polished to a high gloss, or rough and raw shot with shiny flecks of mica it reflects Norway's cultural landscape, harsh but beautiful. The rock, however, hides a secret.

Have you ever heard of radon gas? It is radioactive, colourless and odourless and found together with uranium, which in turn exists in certain types of granite. It is considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon is only emitted from granite that is cracked and fissured, so it is a problem in some places and not in others - Norway has a big problem! The granite deposits here have been reworked many times by earthquakes and plate movements, scoured by glaciers and just plain worn down by hard weather conditions. The cracked granite leaks radon gas like a sieve. Apparently Norway has the highest concentrations of the stuff in the world.

So the problem is, radon is all around us, particularly here on the west coast. It isn't dangerous whilst levels are low in the great outdoors, but it does become a problem if you are living in a basement or ground floor flat with poor ventilation!!

So our local Health service is on a mission to get every house in Bergen to measure radon levels. Autumn and winter are the best time to do it, and you have to keep one or two radon monitors somewhere in your flat or house (as close to the ground as possible) for 2 months. The monitor is then sent away and the readings registered. Cost about £50 (NOK540)

The level allowed is 100Bq/m3, which means nothing to me, but they had to close a school recently on Bjørøyna, an island south of Bergen as levels were too high. The problem is easily solved by improving ventilation, but it must be  worrying for parents.

Wonder whether the landlord has checked it out at all? 

Christmas cookie butter crisis - again

Once again, we are facing a butter crisis in Norway. Tine, the largest dairy company here has warned that they are facing exactly the same problem as last year - not enough milk/cream with a high fat content to make butter from.

At least this time they have come clean! Last year, butter was gone from the shops by mid November, and there was none available for the traditional Christmas baking frenzy that comes between Advent and Christmas in famiily homes all over Norway! The outcry was huge, and some butter was imported, but as soon as it reached the shops it was snapped up! Even the Danes tried to help by sending shipments of butter to Norway, and dsitrivuting packs free in the middle of Oslo (a little like the food parcels they sent in World War 2). The irony was not lost on the Norwegian press.

This year, however, Tine has arranged with a French butter producer to take up  the slack and make butter from Irish cream, which will then be imported into Norwa. Why? Is it not possible for Tine to import the cream themselves and make butter here? There is probably an answer to be found in how import duties levied on food products. My guess is that because it is documented that Norway will suffer a butter shortage unless butter is imported, the duty has been lowered in order to allow the butter to enter the country and be sold at a reasonable price. We are not facing a cream shortage, so the duty on that will be at the highest possible level - to protect Norwegian y farmers!

We must be careful though with this oreign butter, it is not like Norwegian butter. Tine has warned that because Irish cream has a different fat density compared to Norwegian cream, butter made from it is 'softer'. As a result, baking times will be shorter and they cannot guarantee that the results will be as good.

Really? You know, I think this might be a challenge for Wenche's cook slot on TV2's  Good Morning Norway TV Programme. Bake some Christmas cookies (there's plenty of different types to choose from - it's a big tradition here!) rom both types of butter and then do a taste test!

Bon appetit.

Sirupskaker (Sirup biscuits)

Ingredients

100 g	golden syrup
60 g	sugarr
0.5 dl	double cream
60 g	butter
1	egg yolk
250 g	plain flour
0.25 ts	ginger
0.5 ts	pepper
0.75 ts	baking soda
100 g	almonds

Method (gives around 40 biscuits)

Heat the syrup, sugar and cream. Add the butter and stir until the butter is melted. When the mixture iscool to the touch mix in the egg yolk. Sift a little of the flour, together with the ginger and baking soda into the mixture. Stir. Cotinue to sift in flour until you get a smooth firm dough. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge.

Take small amounts of the dough and roll out to about 2mm thickness. Try not to use too much flour as loose flour on the surface makes them look grey! Cut out diamonds with a fluted wheel.

Place on an oiled or silicone lined baking sheet. If you like place a half almond on each square. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 180°C. Cool on a wire rack.