Sunday, February 20, 2011
Moved to Norway
After a crazy year, somehow I've ended up moving to Norway, to keep up on what I'm doing follow this new blog. :)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Moving to Norway!
So I've finally decided to move to Norway. I had an interview earlier this year with the #1 company in Norway and it went well so I'm moving, details of my adventure are listed here.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
London Big Bus Ride and Conclusion
We spent about 24 hours in London. We got on the tube and went to Westminster then caught the big bus and went on a large loop. First stopped at Picadilly to have some lunch then caught the bus back to Westminster. The city is pretty big, we didn't have a lot of time so we tried to make the most of it. Took lots of photos, here are a select few.
Aquarium along the River Thames.
In front of big ben (the clock), it was a bit windy.
Somebody lose their clothes?
Sherlock holmes statue along baker street.
Trafalgar square.
London Bridge.
There's so many spy cameras in London, you can see them everywhere, some posts had 4 cameras!
We then caught the tube to Knightsbridge, had a walk around Harrods, bought a few things, namely tea, then caught the tube back to our hotel at the aiport, packed our things (with 10 mins to checkout!) then went to book in. The flight was surprisingly not empty. The person at the counter said there weren't many people but there were. Mostly were New Zealanders and Australians going back to their own country. There was a couple sitting next to us in the middle aisle and they had 2 children, one of them was crying and screaming at varying points throughout the night. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep, and when I did get some sleep it was in incredible awkward positions.
So now I'm back in Singapore, we just had a tasty dinner in Geylang. Scallops, dim sum, porridge, otak, miam miam.
This will be my last post for this blog. I've had a wonderful and incredible past few weeks. Memorable experiences (northern lights, dog sledding, awesome and incredible scenery, driving in waist deep snow, sub zero temperatures, going on a boat, long flight times) and (mostly) good food. There's such a huge difference in the lives of people here compared to the other side of the world. Even different topics of interest, areas of concern. Being with different company. Even the food that you think tastes the same? It tastes different elsewhere. Makes it interesting to see the bigger picture on how the world really works. If you ever have the chance I highly recommend visiting Iceland and Norway. Of course, make sure you have the money first and I mean cash not credit. :)
Aquarium along the River Thames.
In front of big ben (the clock), it was a bit windy.
Somebody lose their clothes?
Sherlock holmes statue along baker street.
Trafalgar square.
London Bridge.
There's so many spy cameras in London, you can see them everywhere, some posts had 4 cameras!
We then caught the tube to Knightsbridge, had a walk around Harrods, bought a few things, namely tea, then caught the tube back to our hotel at the aiport, packed our things (with 10 mins to checkout!) then went to book in. The flight was surprisingly not empty. The person at the counter said there weren't many people but there were. Mostly were New Zealanders and Australians going back to their own country. There was a couple sitting next to us in the middle aisle and they had 2 children, one of them was crying and screaming at varying points throughout the night. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep, and when I did get some sleep it was in incredible awkward positions.
So now I'm back in Singapore, we just had a tasty dinner in Geylang. Scallops, dim sum, porridge, otak, miam miam.
This will be my last post for this blog. I've had a wonderful and incredible past few weeks. Memorable experiences (northern lights, dog sledding, awesome and incredible scenery, driving in waist deep snow, sub zero temperatures, going on a boat, long flight times) and (mostly) good food. There's such a huge difference in the lives of people here compared to the other side of the world. Even different topics of interest, areas of concern. Being with different company. Even the food that you think tastes the same? It tastes different elsewhere. Makes it interesting to see the bigger picture on how the world really works. If you ever have the chance I highly recommend visiting Iceland and Norway. Of course, make sure you have the money first and I mean cash not credit. :)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Leave Norway for London
Today we flew from Tromsø to Oslo then from Oslo to London. Our flight from Tromsø was delayed by half an hour due to bad weather and we barely made it for the fight from Oslo to London. We're a bit lucky, yesterday ALL flights from Tromsø were cancelled. So this morning was spent mostly on lolly shopping, I bought 90 AUD worth of chocolates and other sweets, I didn't buy much to be honest, things here are very expensive compared to what I'm used to. I found a stick of lip balm that cost 30 Australian dollars and a large pizza here costs 50 Australian dollars. :)
We got into London at 6pm then checked into our hotel before catching the train to Hammersmith to meet an old New Zealand friend. Had dinner at Japanese restaurant, it was nice to pay "cheap" prices for dinner for once.
It was a bit strange to see take the train and go past the stations that we use as test cases for work. MAN to EUS, only work people will know what I'm talking about. :)
Now we're back in the hotel and it's 12ish am. Today we'll explore London and then catch our final flight back to Singapore.
So the Scandinavian adventure has ended but there's going to be another day of blog updates. Stay tuned.
We got into London at 6pm then checked into our hotel before catching the train to Hammersmith to meet an old New Zealand friend. Had dinner at Japanese restaurant, it was nice to pay "cheap" prices for dinner for once.
It was a bit strange to see take the train and go past the stations that we use as test cases for work. MAN to EUS, only work people will know what I'm talking about. :)
Now we're back in the hotel and it's 12ish am. Today we'll explore London and then catch our final flight back to Singapore.
So the Scandinavian adventure has ended but there's going to be another day of blog updates. Stay tuned.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Day 7 - Polaria (Tromsø aquarium) and Dog Sledding at Lyngen (Town to the North of Tromsø)
Today we woke up a bit late. I had set the alarm for PM instead of AM, opps. Good thing Lauren woke up in time. Our reindeer sledding had been cancelled in Tromsø due to bad weather but good thing we found another company that did dog sledding at Lyngen which is an area that's more inland, and that was for 5pm so we booked that and then went to Polaria, the aquarium here that's famous for its bearded seals.
Bearded seals can grow up to 350 kilos and consist of 60% muscle and 40% fat. They are apparently easier to train than dogs.
One of the trainers telling one of the seals (there were 2 of them both female) to go fetch.
Freaky fish!
We also watched a documentary on the king crab. Russia's trying to re-introduce it and Norway's trying to get rid of it. Funny.
Did you know ...?
Arctic prawns, they are much smaller in size than the ones in Australia and Singapore. I've eaten lots of these in the past couple of weeks.
At 4pm we went back to the hotel to book our accomodation in London for tomorrow then at 5pm the tour van came to pick us up for the dog sledding. The weather was bad, you could not see anything outside the van!
We dog sled in snowing weather with nothing but head lamps, it was really hard to take photos and at times we had to push the dog sled in waist deep snow!
On the sled.
After sledding we had to remove the muzzle and place each dog back to its chain which is close to its kennel.
Dinner was in a Sami hut thingy where we had soup (potato, onion, carrots and reindeer meat) around a fire.
I also took some photos of Tromsø at night, we didn't get back till after 1am.
Today will be our last full day in Norway, tomorrow afternoon we will fly off to London for a day then back to Singapore.
Bearded seals can grow up to 350 kilos and consist of 60% muscle and 40% fat. They are apparently easier to train than dogs.
One of the trainers telling one of the seals (there were 2 of them both female) to go fetch.
Freaky fish!
We also watched a documentary on the king crab. Russia's trying to re-introduce it and Norway's trying to get rid of it. Funny.
Did you know ...?
Arctic prawns, they are much smaller in size than the ones in Australia and Singapore. I've eaten lots of these in the past couple of weeks.
At 4pm we went back to the hotel to book our accomodation in London for tomorrow then at 5pm the tour van came to pick us up for the dog sledding. The weather was bad, you could not see anything outside the van!
We dog sled in snowing weather with nothing but head lamps, it was really hard to take photos and at times we had to push the dog sled in waist deep snow!
On the sled.
After sledding we had to remove the muzzle and place each dog back to its chain which is close to its kennel.
Dinner was in a Sami hut thingy where we had soup (potato, onion, carrots and reindeer meat) around a fire.
I also took some photos of Tromsø at night, we didn't get back till after 1am.
Today will be our last full day in Norway, tomorrow afternoon we will fly off to London for a day then back to Singapore.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Day 6 - Hammerfest and back to Tromsø
Today was spent mostly on board the ship. At Hammerfest we went for the Arctic Energy tour. The tour guide spoke in 4 different languages even though there were less than 10 of us who attended. We also arrived late and had only an hour before the ship was scheduled to leave. Hammerfest is the northernmost town in Norway and exports LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) to Europe and the US.
Hammerfest from the top of the mountain.
LNG facility, view from the ship.
The tour was a bit disappointing really, it was a tour of the energy house, and the energy house was basically only 2 rooms! I expected a tour of the facility.
Types of wall insulation, from post world war 2 to present, left to right. The new (right most) insulation is supposed to be more energy efficient.
The oldest generator, still working and provides 2% of the energy requirements for the town.
We boarded the ship at 12:45pm then read and slept for the next several hours. There's not much to do on the ship and the next stop was at 4pm, at Skjervøy which was only for 15 minutes but we got off anyway just to have a walk about.
It was raining and the ground had turned to ice (snow's melted) so it was very dangerous to walk.
Skjervøy dock.
Dinner was again at 8:30pm, same table, same people. We had to check out at 10pm so after dinner we packed our things and waited at the deck for our arrival at Tromsø at 12am. Now we're back in a decent hotel so I can finally send an update.
Tomorrow (or should I say, today!) we shall explore more of Tromsø!
Hammerfest from the top of the mountain.
LNG facility, view from the ship.
The tour was a bit disappointing really, it was a tour of the energy house, and the energy house was basically only 2 rooms! I expected a tour of the facility.
Types of wall insulation, from post world war 2 to present, left to right. The new (right most) insulation is supposed to be more energy efficient.
The oldest generator, still working and provides 2% of the energy requirements for the town.
We boarded the ship at 12:45pm then read and slept for the next several hours. There's not much to do on the ship and the next stop was at 4pm, at Skjervøy which was only for 15 minutes but we got off anyway just to have a walk about.
It was raining and the ground had turned to ice (snow's melted) so it was very dangerous to walk.
Skjervøy dock.
Dinner was again at 8:30pm, same table, same people. We had to check out at 10pm so after dinner we packed our things and waited at the deck for our arrival at Tromsø at 12am. Now we're back in a decent hotel so I can finally send an update.
Tomorrow (or should I say, today!) we shall explore more of Tromsø!
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