Reading the paper this morning I found a story which exemplifies something of Norwegian rural life. Norway’s an odd country geaographically. Long and narrow, with fjords and mountains galore dividing one valley from the other. Not to mention large areas being pretty much uninhabitable. This has meant that a lot of communities ‘on the edge’ have, historically, but also currently, been pretty isolated. Hence the relevance of the story. Apparently, in the little village of Hellemobotn in Nordland, the 150 inhabitants have thus far had one phone booth between them – as in: That’s the only phone in the village. When it rings, whoever’s nearest has to go pick it up and locate whoever the call is for. As one of the inhabitants says, luckily the children enjoy doing the running to pick it up…
But now the village will be put on the mobile network map, a new transmitter or two going up, I assume, so all 150 will now be able to get a mobile phone.
Shame! Though practical, I suppose.
Funny, “what a shame” is just what I thought, too. Though I suspect I’d probably be absolutely delighted if I lived there myself.