"Foreldre med et smil?"

a book by Annlaug Madland

bookcover by Eric Laukvik

On August 20th Annlaug Madland's first book, "Foreldre med et smil?" (Parents with a smile?) was published in Norway. It has been a run-away success with three print runs in first three weeks. If you are Norwegian then you can find out more about Annlaug Madland and her book at annlaugmadland.com and barndomsland.com. The book is currently being translated to English, so English speakers please be patient!

Love Story from AnnlaugAnnlaug has an MA in teaching and training pre-school child development. She has been a kindergarten teacher in Oslo and head of a kindergarten in Stavanger and for some years she has been a full time lecturer in pre-school child development at Stavanger University.

She now lectures in self-development at an Agricultural college and has also launched a series of public workshops. This has lead her to write her first book, in Norwegian, tracing the routes from childhood experiences to adult patterns of behaviour and providing solutions in parenting. The book will be published in Augist 2007.

Currently Annlaug, much in love with Skopelos, is arranging for a Norwegian choir to be in Skopelos June 2007 for a one week workshop with a leading Norwegian choirmaster.

Annlaug dreams of buying a house on Skopelos.
photo by Sayyid

A few people get to experience great love once in their lives; those who have will find it easier to understand my relationship with Skopelos.

Great love encounters have a few things in common:
The lovers realize early on that they belong together. They intuitively know that they’re being understood, seen and confirmed in a way they have never before experienced, and most likely never will experience again. It is safe, it is groundbreaking and it is utterly and completely right.

Sometime during the first weeks of delightful approaches, they ask each other: “When did you first know that you loved me?” And he will tell her that it was when she came walking down those stairs, wearing that skirt, with that smile – straight towards him!

She can only confirm this: She knew it then too – or perhaps even a bit before? When he opened the door for her, that night in that restaurant... So much for the lovers.

What’s my relationship with Skopelos?
The first time I set foot on the quay, I breathed this entire wonderful island deep into my lungs. But it wasn’t until the third time I was here that I knew this was my great love. Then I knew that I will have to spend periods of my life here in the years to come. Now I’ve almost completed my fourth stay here, and the feeling just keeps getting stronger and stronger. This is “my place”.

I can list some of the reasons for this:

• - The incredibly charming small white simple houses that hang on to the mountainside of Skopelos town
• - The fact that these (probably) Spartan homes have been generously decorated with the greenest, most turquoise
    or sharpest blue doors and window sills.
• - The scooter rides around the island, with the most incredible scents, the deafening orchestra of the crickets and
     the fragrance of wild herbs that grow by the roadside.
-

• - All the beaches, with round, smooth pebbles and crystal clear water.
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• - The good food and the warm, friendly people.
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• - Blue Bar (Oinos)  – where I’ve met some wonderful people...
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But, just as the lovers may have problems in pointing out exactly what it was they fell for… it is difficult for me too to be exact. It isn’t one aspect – it isn’t really the sum of the reasons either. It is more all of the qualities – in my encounter with you! Something struck me – and is still striking me – my shoulders are lowered – I breathe in deeply – this is my Paradise on earth.

No more, no less!