HarrisFamily

We awoke this morning to the tragic news of the sheer number of innocent young people gunned down in cold blood. As if the events of yesterday weren't bad enough, but this is just terrible. We decided to go ahead with our pre-planned trip to Bergen as we figured it would be good to get out of Oslo for a couple of days. We left our house at just after 7am to catch the tram to the central station. Everything was eerily quiet, we live just outside the central Oslo very close to the royal palace, normally at this time of the morning people are out and about walking etc, but this morning everyone seemed to be staying in. The tram arrived and to our surprise it was half full. We were heading for the central ... read more

The only thing missing from the house was the bedding and towels etc. So there was only one place to go - to the world famous IKEA. This was going to be a multi stage mission. Sara and I had decided that we would compare prices for bedding etc in Norway versus NZ. Everything else here is expensive so we thought we would check first. If it was going to be much cheaper in NZ Sara would bring this stuff with her. So on Saturday afternoon I was of to IKEA. I didn’t really know what to expect as I hadn’t had the pleasure of visiting an IKEA before. One arriving at the store, the first thing that really hits you is the overall size of the shop, it is frigging huge. You drive into the ... read more

After a long absence here is an update of the adventure so far. It is hard to believe I have been here 5 weeks already. I am really starting to be over my own company I might add. It has really been a lot about work as I get into the swing of it. The main thing has been the Oslo boat show. This ran for 10 days, plus setup and breakdown, so it has been a good 2 week distraction. I moved out of the hotel into a serviced apartment on the water front, a bit like the viaduct / Princess wharf, I have written about Aker Brygge in an earlier blog. It is a small one bedroom apartment with views of an office block. See the pic’s attached. It has been comfortable, and it ... read more

I woke up to a magnificent day, beautiful clear skies, but very crisp. I had breakfast in the hotel and decided to go for a walk around the local area. I headed out towards the stadium, then kept going past the stadium, I could see what was an airport control tower. As it turns out this used to be the old international airport, but was closed about 15 years ago, when Garderemon Airport was opened (30 min north of Oslo) The whole area is being developed into high end commercial. There is a lot of construction happening around the immediate area. Telenor (Main cellphone company has its head office here), Sony Norway, Stratoil (main Fuel company, like BP, but without the bad press) are building their very large, flash head office. All of these buildings are ... read more

I managed to sleep through most of the night. But I was wide awake at 5:30am. Anyway, I got up and got myself sorted, packed my gear as I was changing hotel, had breakfast and was picked up at 8am. Traffic was a lot lighter this morning, apparently this is normal. Arriving at the office, I started to get my office sorted. Going and finding stationery, office products and all that type of stuff. Most of the day was spent organising myself. The highlight of the day was picking up my temporary company car. I was a bit nervous about this as it was the first time I have driven a left-hand drive on right-hand side (who am I kidding, I was shitting myself) Anyway, one of the guys drove me down the Avis yard and ... read more

Woke up like clockwork at 1am again, this time I didn’t have too much trouble getting back to sleep. My sinus infection seems to be easing, and so I’m starting to feel a bit better. Had breakfast and was picked up at 8:30am. (I really like these gentleman’s hours) It was a bit cooler this morning, it was a clear night and it got down to about minus 8, It had warned up to about -6 when we had been picked up. When you’re not used to this kind of cold, the first few breaths of cold air really hurts your lungs. It was very crisp. We went to the office had more briefings. I had a fitting for the boat show uniform, which consists of a Navy blue blazer, light blue dress shirt and dark ... read more

I woke up at 1am again; my body clock is running about 6 hours behind. I finally managed to get back to sleep before waking up at 6:30am - just in time to get ready for work. It was a pleasant - 4°C. I met Ferruccio and another colleague, Jussi (who has been overseeing the region and is based in Finland) for breakfast. We were picked up from the hotel at 8:30am by one of my new colleagues, who took us to the office. Traffic was very heavy, so what should have been a 5 min trip took about 30 min (I thought Auckland traffic was bad). The office is in an office complex, of about four, 3 to 4 story buildings, made from red brick. The Brunswick Marine office is on the second floor of ... read more