In Oslo

Oslo airport... the duty free is huge huge huge.... get kurts cigarettes...... scotch...... black grouse i think...and i remember celebrating our first sesame training in bangalore with kartik....
Kurt and 6 month old hazel are there to pick me up...kurt has not a kilo extra on him, and hazel is 6 months pegnant.... its a hour drive to their place... there is no, i cant beleive it, noone on the streets. We dont see a soul.
Norway has 4.5 million peopl, kurt informs, which is the population of the town of pune where we all worked when we met. Kurt was the CEO of studentsguild.com a norwegian owned dotcom for students, i was in charge of content, and hazel was in marketing. Tis population in a country which is half the size of maharashtra. But still -- not a single person in the streets.
I had come to see th fjords, Fjords were created during the ice age when the glaciers cut through the land mass creating these bays with hills and mountains on the side. Much much land by the seas. There is an oslo fjord which we see.
In Oslo we go the immigrant area cause they need vegetables which they get at a srilankan place.... there ae many sri lankans here seeking asylum
As we drive there are so many marinas with sail boats...
they live in a suburb 20 km fro oslo, in what is called a village. all the houses are like bungalows. The bungalow they live in has 2 flats on the gound floor two on top. All wood, wood floors. Kurt then takes me on a drive, to his office which is by the marina and has a view of all these sailboats.
We then drive to the main street by one of the inlets. ITs a sunny day and there are many roadside rstaurants and they are full of people drinking beer...........
its light till 9.30 or so... hazel and kurt are used to eating dinner by 530....... but no formality...so i can have my whiskey and heat up dinner in the microwave.....
next day........gosh it gets light at 430 am.... i keep getting up......... i (ir i guess those in tropical countries) have ourbodies in tune with the sun..... so my first training is to realise not to get up when i see light enter the room.
The moring we drive 120 km to sweden border, where we are going shopping...since the prices here are almost half of sweden....we shop shop shop and drive back. highlight ...a 8 and a hlf km tunnel which goes under the sea...it slopes down and then slopes up...but you cant make out that its under the sea since yo cant see the sea anywhere,,,,
wvening we go for a drive to the top of the hill where the championship ski jumps occur...they are rebuilding it..we get a lovely view of oslo and the fjord that it is around. Visit an old church..wood one....
it was sunny but the sun goes behind a cloud and i am now freezing....
back to oslo to a sri lankan restaurant......... and to one of their freinds house... they are indians who have bbeen sent fby their companies in India for a project to norway.
its hard work here... you cant just ring up and get groceries, cigaretts, milk etc. 100 km drive and then carrying up all the stuff kilos and kilos of them......

on the plane mumbai paris oslo

Dropped off ..sasha sachin ashi himani ....all more excited than I am.
Panic when there is a colun on the disembarakation form, where it asks do you have emigration clearance not required.. i look up the passport... and i dont have the stamp. Wondering if the whole trip will be cancelled.
But all goes well... and I get on the plane.
Wonderful..we get a snack along with wine.....
manage the window seat... the young 24 yr old goan guy going to join a cruiser ship as a chef lets "aunty" have the window seat.
Clear skies and see stars ... many stars and it is like being out in the skies with the stars.
and sunrise slowly coming in. Pink and light blues...nothing very spetacular.
watch yes man and half of life ofbenjamin button...guess will have to fly from paris to US to get the last half.
Paris... its over a km walk from one terminal to the other... impression...there is no colour.... im the only one in bright orange and yelllow everyone is in greys browns and black... how dull.
And no ater in the loos... uncivilised country... at least have water in the loos..... not only toilet paper.