America!

well....with the new job comes the need to move to america...yeah yeah i know, a bit out of leftfield, especially as i was planning on moving back home next month...but there you go...america!...more specifically Houston in Texas...maybe not my first choice in places to move to...actually im quite sure it was near the bottom of my list (Texas, not the States), but im sure it will be interesting/fascinating/weird if nothing else. the plan is to move across in august, pending visa.

i guess i have so much to say on this topic that i dont actually know where to start...so im going to leave it there for tonight, how do i feel about it? really dont know at the moment, excited/nervous/disappointed im not moving home/excited/nervous/excited/nervous/excited etc...

now...where did i put my cowboy boots...?

Work

Well, its always kinda been a rule of mine to never mention work on here, for various reasons, and that certainly wont change now, with this time being the exception, and im certainly not going to mention who i work for, a) because im not b) because youve probably never heard of them...anyway...and please bear (bare?) with me as i try and word this correctly and without sounding...erm..i dont know, just without sounding..., i joined my company just over a year ago, and in november was promoted to the head of my department for europe and africa, something that i was particularly proud of...anyway, my boss left in march and ive just been been promoted to his job, ergo i am now the global head of supplier quality (see announcement below...) what does this mean?...well, a few things, from a work perspective i now have a team of around 85 people working for me across the globe in our offices in: brazil (sao paulo), mexico (mexico city), houston (us), canada (edmonton), aberdeen and montrose (scotland). bristol (england), gdansk (poland), port harcourt (nigeria), luanda (angola), singapore (singapore!), shanghai (china), oslo and stavanger (norway) and soon to be perth (australia). it will mean more travel..and travel to some new places, longer hours, more work etc... but anyway, ive been filing in doing the job since march, but am looking forward immensely to getting stuck in full time....well, thats it, thats probably the last work mention, but it couldnt really pass without being noted, as it of course does have one significant impact on my life...and blog i guess...remember when i said i was moving back ot the uk...? well....

Sarruday

A saturday mooch around doesnt usually merit an entry, but this tickled me somewhat. surprisingly for the ultra restrained and straight laced Oslo (especially the 'west side'....you have to say 'west side' as if you were a 'gangsta', and do some kind of phunky tribal hand gesture....anyway...), they had a skate-punk band playing outside a skate shop, and to be fair, the were pretty good, actually really good, anyway, they were giving away numerous goodies to the 'kidz', stickers etc...and i was quite impressed with this 'rock and roll' punk attitude on display which is very not Norwegian, anyway, this was a little dispelled when i turned around and there was someone dressed up as a tube of toothpaste, also giving away free samples, now im sure these weren't linked, but it did make me chuckle that the kidz were rebelling, causing anarchy in the streets of oslo, fighting against 'the man'...but they were still careful to make sure their teeth were clean....anarchy indeed...

Firenze!...(or Florence to me and you)

Amongst all this work travel nonsense you very occasionally get to go somewhere pretty cool (i refuse to use to phrase 'business trip'....it just sounds too 1980's Gordon Gheko...ask your parents). 'Work travel' usually involves a 4am start, bleary eyed drive to the airport, queues, pushing, shoving, self check-in machines that don't work, security queues, belt off, laptop out, 'anything in your pockets sir?', racing through airports for a connection that should never have been booked so close, sweat, pleading, queues, yet more security checks, still nothing in my pockets sir, and no, i have no liquids, sitting next to a large sweaty man who also had a connection too close, crap food (although my friend jasmin adores aeroplane food...and this from the girl who owns one of nottinghams finest eateries), weak tea, £10 sandwiches, no legroom, kid behind kicking my seat, the seat in front of me reclined so far back that Newton would have had second thoughts (ask your great great grandparents), turbulence, bouncy landings, queues, lost luggage, taxi queues, long taxi rides...to finally begin a days work...long day, bland offices, over priced congomerately homogenous hotels, bar food, dining alone with a book, up at 4am back to airport and not actually realising what country you are in, let alone see any of it (i actualy had a 'moment', or 'episode' depending on which generation you are recently when i was in Bristol in the UK, it was a new hotel to me, and i woke up and i swear for 30 seconds i actually had no idea where i was, which country, which town, what day it was or anything, i tell you, i was a bit of a panic for a while, not a nice feeling)

however...

as i said, sometimes it can be worth it. (despite this trip being a 4am sunday start), i was off to Florence, Italy for a few days, more explanations for the whys another day. anyway, i had the sense to go on a sunday to actualy see a bit of one of the most beautiful towns in the world. also, my good friend Gwyn (see Milan) lives about 1.5 hours away from Florence, so she came and spent a lovely lovely day with me. we mooched, we drank coffee, we sightsaw, lunched, more coffee and generally just italianed around for the day (i think thats two made up words in one sentence)...was a lovely lovely day, and was ace to see Gwyn again...anyway, photos below...(or above)

Saturday night

with Gunn Elin and her chums...top night...awful music!

Oslo Musikfest

an annual event with 27 venues and 200 bands/dj's across the city...such a great idea..shame all are norwgian and i hadnt actually heard of any...well apart from Goldfinger who are one of my favourite bands, so trapsed across town only to discover a dj had the same name...was gutted! then off to another beach, called paradise beach about 5 minutes drive from my house....was mucho scorchio..and the beach was packed! norwegians worship the sun, maybe as its so dark in winter...but was fantastic...even had a swim in the fjord (which wasnt as warm as i was poorly informed....)

Bergen invasion!

a good friend of mine, Gunn, was over from Bergen staying with friends...cue beer. the bottom picture was taken at 2am....and it never actually gets properly dark here in the summer. in fact, am planning a trip up north in a few weeks to see the midnight sun...it does what it says on the tin, its sunny at midnight! cannot wait

Hovedoya

sunday was a boat ride with Melina and Mira to an island just off slo, for sunbathing and a pretty wonderful lunch of fresh shrimp...tell you what though, this is the longest ive spent with a little person (Mira, not Melina)...and was knackered! you cant relax for 2 mins...full respect to the parents out there

Frognerbadet

its ben sooo hot here recently (oslo), the warmest place in europe for 2 weeks, in the 30's (celcius), so have spent most weekends in the park or on the beach...this was saturday by the pool with Ioannis and Melina with Mira and friends of theirs....also messing about with new camera...oh yeah...this is the expensive digital slr that was 'broken'...so i took it to a shop to get sent away for fixing....it was broken because all the shots turned out black...so the guy behind the counter plays with it for about 2 minutes, then declares that i pressed a wrong button or something...he didnt even charge me he was that embarrassed...ahem...