St John's

Conclusion after the three days in the new city: charming in its own way, very friendly people, potential, great traveling companions! Now at the airport, heading west, to go east! Great!

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New adventures! Canada here I come!

Sitting at gate 136 in Toronto heading east again for St John's Newfoundland! Getting tired, my body is trying to tell me it is 01:45 and it wants to sleep! But we have a few hours to go! Hoping for a quiet nap on the plane. But looks bleak, the plane is overbooked, so guess it will be packed... Well well, only a 3 hours flight! Bon voyage!

Home sweet home!

It is great to be home! My supermom picked me up at the trainstation and helped me up with all my gear! Super extraservice! I would have struggled on my own! Now the bags are emptied out and huge piles are covering my floor, laundry day will be tomorrow, now it is time to put this exhausted body to bed! Good night Oslo!

Amsterdam

KLM Lounge, sushi and cava! What more can you ask for! Slept all the way here, got a 2 seater for my self. 5 hours in Schiphol is just the perfect time to relax, eat and shop!

The last adventure of K and K, for a while anyway...

Early one morning at Atyrau international airport! The bags are sent (all 4 of them) and time has come to go home. Goodbye Kazakhstan! For this time! You never know where life takes you, maybe I will come back one day! Plenty of oil in the Caspian! So never say never! So I will say goodbye for now, på gjensyn!

We had a great night

out yesterday and early today... Thank you so much my great friends, for giving me a super goodbye! Who needs to sleep when you have such good friends!...
Kristin and I are back on the same rotation, so we are going to do what girls always do at Schipol: lounge, cava and shopping!

 

The very last day has come!

The very last day has come! Time to clean out the desk and also the apartment. Went home during lunch, and packed the last stuff, and moved everything over to a crew-change apartment. So now my two suitcases, two bags and an in-flight are in the hall, waiting to come home with me tomorrow morning at 5! Erik Anton and I have got presents and cakes, and lots of nice words. Sad and nice at the same time!

Tonight we are doing some wine and beer up on the 17th floor, then we will go over to Champion's and eat and have some fun! I can not waste my last hours in KZ sleeping can I…!

Post party note...: The story ended a little differently! We went to Champion's first (as I was so hungry and could not wait any longer...), and then at midnight or so we made it over to the Ardager and up on the 17th floor. With chilled wine and bubbles, music and good friends, we made every minute count! It was a night to remember!!

The last days have come...

Today is my second to last day working in Kazakhstan this time around. Atyrau is showing itself from its muddy and cooler side. We had rain yesterday and during the night, so there is a good deal of flooding on the roads (as the drains do not work very well, way too flat here...). So now we have the usual cold wind from the north, slippery mud and grey horizon, with temperatures this morning of 6 degrees, and at lunch 9 degrees. Guess summer is definitely over for this time!
It is time to clean out my desk, finish up the most important work tasks, and get ready to leave. Kristin, Linn, Mike, Rob and I had a great big lunch at our favorite lunch restaurant, Sanshack, a Turkish Restaurant with quick and tasty food! And tonight is the last pizza and wine at Renco! Looking forward to a great night out!

370-летие города Атырау

Congratulations Atyrau with the 370-th Anniversary of the City! And this has been celebrated for days, with different events on the main square, ending with a pop concert with "stars of Kazakhstan", fireworks and disco! As we walked past last night on our way home we arrived in the middle of the pop concert. And to our great surprise and enjoyments, the pop star started singing Aleksander Rybak's "Fairytale", so we sang along and dansed a little! The square was crowded with people off all ages, and there were several big Yurtas, and even stands had been put up, so people could sit and enjoy the show!

Music Night at Hotel KZ

Last night Ken and Clair had arranged a music night at the pub in the Hotel Kazakhstan with a donation to the Children's Charity Fund.
We had live music, Ken played guitar, Clair sang, Gaukhar played the Kazakh national instruments the Dumbra (a two stringed "guitar"). The pub was pretty packed with people from the office, both expats and locals. It was a fun night of entertainment and good friends, and in total over 130 000 Tenge, that is about 6000 nok, was collected for charity.

New pavement!

It is a big day in the life of the hard working expats of Atyrau! We now have a sidewalk to walk on all the way from home to the office and back! It is no longer an endless collection of uneven mud and clay! Over the summer the city have slowly but gracefully been upgraded with sidewalks laid with grey and red pavement stones, and all the curb stones have been repainted white. The last stretch to be finished to complete our path was just outside the office, between our office building and the Ideal Grocery store. And we even got a traffic light up last week! Pretty amazing! So now we can cross the road without being used as human targets by white Ladas driving at high speed!
And to add to this loooong list of amazing infrastructure-news, I must inform that the crazy big round fountain and rose-patch over the bridge in Asia is now a official roundabout. They have dug up the rose-bed and asphalted in stead, but left the fountain. The roundabout rules are still not fully in place, the signs are up, but lot of cars still stop inside the roundabout, giving way to the other cars driving into the roundabout. Pretty chaotic the whole thing, but amazingly it works in its own impossible way!

Beautiful morning in Atyrau

Just had to add this beautiful sunrise!
It is taken at 07:30 out the window on the 16th floor.
I will miss the sunrises and sunsets of Atyrau! The colors are so strong and the sky is on fire!

Going away party!

Many of the great people I work with are on a rotation that overlaps with mine for 3 weeks. So in order to gather most of my super coworkers, we had my going away house party last night! Sturla offered his apartment as the venue, so we had a great pent-house party on the 17th floor!













We had used our lunch break to go to the supermarked, and we ended up with sparking pink wine, watermelon (with vodka..), some more cheese and crachers, and snacks. Kristin baked her great foccacia bread! Perfect! We had a great night and early morning among great friends!

Houses of Atyrau, part 2!

A picture of the office is also needed in this presentation! Our office is pretty new and nice! The Isker Building behind us to the left is our office. The white lower one to the right is a government building.

Our huge lump of an apartment building is next to the hyper modern glass Renaissance Hotel, which is next to the traditional white and blue Mosque.

Houses of Atyrau

We have some nice looking houses, some shabby falling down houses/cottages, some brand new shiny houses, some religious houses and some creative houses! These creative looking houses are on our way to work. So we see these creative looking houses every day! Must say, they look better than the normal USSR concrete lumps, these at least have some colour and decorations!!







The Russian Orthodox church does also makes a good feature in the "sky line", here seen from both our office building and from the square.



The last picture here is the silver and shiny River Palace Hotel, aka Renco building. This is where we eat the great Italian pizza and drink wine at the roof top bar. It has a glass "fence" around the top, so it protects from the wind, but also lets you see the sunset, the low houses of Atyrau and the river right on the other side of the building!

Cake! Again!

We have cake all the time! And all the time is several times a week!
Today it is a leaving-cake. Dinara is going to the UK to take a Master's. Good luck and have fun!
We have leaving cakes, birthday cakes, drivers license cake, baby cake. Any *good* reason, and we have cake! The most popular of the cakes is the one with minced meat! Or even fish! And in addition to the meat/fish cake, is the fluffy very sweet cream cakes. Dinara has good cake-connections, so she had the "Napoleon" cake, which is Asbjørn and my favourite! Mmmmm.... Always nice to take 10 min of the 12 hour workday for a little cake-break!

Boat Trip on the Ural River!

Yesterday evening we went on a boat trip on the Ural River, on a fine vessel named Europa!

It was a 1 hour trip up the river. It was a warm late summer night, the sun was setting and we had a great time! The mosquitoes were off course with us, but with some mosquito repellent and the inevitable bite or two, we did not pay attention to them! More important was the good colleagues and the cold beer!

The city looks quite different from the river. And in the sunset, it actually looks rather nice! The confusing part is always the meandering of the river. One moment the landmark buildings are to the right, next moment they are to the left…. Or is maybe just that the buildings keep moving all the time… you never know in KZ!

Agip End of Summer Concert!

Sunday night was Agip End of Summer Concert at the Riviera Sports Complex! It was only for Agip people, but they could bring a friend!
The concert invitation came with a long list of information including some good recommendations:
-This is an outdoor venue, so please dress accordingly, including comfortable walking shoes
-Celebrate responsibly. You should have fun, but be careful about having too good a time. Follow all tips and you'll be able to return to the office with your head held high
- Come prepared against mosquitoes
- Food and beverages will be available on-site for purchase – don’t forget to bring along cash

- At the concert you can just stand and enjoy the music... and if you know the lyrics, go ahead and sing, no one will mind if you know them completely or not.
Just have fun,
Welfare Helpdesk

Let's just say, we came prepared, in sneakers and with mosquito spray and money, we sang along and had fun, but not too much fun, so we could return with our head high...

Weekend and Kebab-time!

Gregor has a rule, and that is weekend is Kebab-time! So we can do nothing else than comply with the rules!
The Kebab is sold outside a supermarket on the other side of town, in a proper Kebab-shed with the picture of a roasted chicken on the wall! Sold at the expensive price of 300 KZ Tenge (about 13 kr).

Last week we bought our Kebab and went back to the park outside the office. It was Erik Anton's first kebab ever! And first kebab in KZ for Martin and me.
This weekend we had a more organized excursion with take-away food heading for the Victory Park. We were two alliances: The Burger House alliance and the Kebab Alliance. Kristin, Freddy, Mattis, Torill, Sturla and Erik Anton had burgers. And Gregor, Martin, Odd Arne and me had kebabs.
Nothing is like eating a KZ-Kebab sitting on a Tank from the Great Patriotic War (aka WW II) in the warm autumn sun with Gregor my good colleague!

Eat and drink maybe?

Did you ever wonder what the little kitchen in the office was for, or what to do in there?
Well, just to be on the safe side, and to avoid misunderstandings, we have a sign on the wall that might help you solve the puzzle...

From dawn till dusk..

Morning view out my apartment window. Clear beautiful weather most days here on the steppe. And quite a nice view out the window when the sun make the rive look all beautiful and nice!

The sun comes up around 7 now, and sets around 20. So I see it rise when I get up in the morning, and see it set behind the orthodox church out the office window when I go home at night!

Welcome back, but by the way, bye bye!

Project life is project life! You never know what will happen next. And this time it was my "box" on the organization chart that was removed. So that means, bye bye! Guess you just always have to expect the unexpected, and see the positive in whatever happens! I am sure new adventures awaits!

So now it is just for me to enjoy my last month in Kazakhstan! I am sure we will do the best of it! Last night at Champion's we tested the beverages and had a good time! What do we think of David O's artistic composition of beverages and table-mat?

Back in town!

Back in Atyrau and ready for 28 days of non-stop work! Landed in the dusk, and by the time we got through immigration it was pitch black. Still a sniff of summer in the air and about 26 degrees. Good to see "the gang" on the plane, and great to see "my project family" in the office again! It's all about the people!

Packing! Again!

The big question, as always, how many kg this time! Earlier today it was 22 kg without the extra food and toiletries, so had to take out some "non-essential" food. But now we are back up at 22 kg, and still have not added the stuff from the fridge.... Hmmmm. Time to sleep on it, can figure out tomorrow morning what to take out!

Early fall?

Still brrrrr.... Think the fall came early this year! But have had a sunny and nice week in Oslo! Done some shopping, spent some time at the physiotherapist and spent quality time with friends and family! And been eating my very own home grown sweet cherry tomatoes! Pretty good week in total!

Åj åj åj, brrrrrr....

Home sweet home? Or home cold home? What happened? Where did the
summer go?
Sitting in the plane in Malaga, ready to push back from the gate, the
Captain welcomes us to this flight to Oslo, it will take 3 h and 40
min, and in Oslo it is heavy rain and 11 degrees. What! Can I please
get off the plane and back to 35+?
Well well, in 6 weeks time I will be back! Gives me something to look
forward to, when I sit here in my livingroom in Oslo freezing and
debating if I should put on the heating, but it is still August...

Last day in the sun!

Our last day in Spain has come, driving to the airport tomorrow before
noon. Today I had a relaxing day on the terrasse reading a book and
enjoying the heat! The book actually melted.. Marianne said it was too
hot, so she was inside washing and fixing! It was pretty hot, but when
you know it is 14 degrees and rain in Oslo, a hot day on the terrasse
is just perfect! Warm up the core and hope the body will store it for
a week until I go back down to + 35-40 in Kz.

Spain again!

If you choose a week in Spain in August you are guaranteed hot and
sunny days! Not a cloud in sight! But the sad truth is that we have
not been to the pool or the beach all week. We have been inside
building ikea furniture, taken care of an electrician, a plumber and a
lock smith, cleaned and organized. Result after 5 days: great! All is
fixed except the hot water! Hoping the last two days will be more
relaxing! Maybe even a swim or two?!

Late summer in Oslo

Summer in the city is not bad. Loving the fresh tasty fruit and the
light summer nights. On Thursday Kristoffer started school. Big day
for a small boy, 6 years is not much life experiance! Good luck with
13++ years or so of school!

Less wise?

A 30 min ordeal at the oral surgeon left me with one wisdomtooth in a see-through envelope, but still one experience wiser! Life with less wisdom seems good so far (yes, still taking the drugs...)

Home sweet home!

Åj åj åj! Hooooome! Sunny, beautiful Oslo! And my very own bed! What
more can you wish for!

Good old Amsterdam!

Made it to Amsterdam and the lounge! Had a good flight, slept almost
all the way! Now 4 hours of hanging around! Time for cava, fresh
rolls, coffee, then some sushi, and flower shopping on the way to the
gate! Great day in the western world!

Back on "dry-land"

So good to be back! Not that I did not have a good time offshore, but it is too hot and humid offshore!! We had a nice helicopter flight in. Burning hot and hazy, in two layers of clothing…. but still great to see the whole island from above, and also fly up the Ural river and get a good view of the town. When we landed in Atyrau airport, it was 42 degrees! Hot, but dry, much easier to handle!! A loooong shower in the apartment before going to work was great! Had an urge to put on a summer dress, so I did! Strange thing that, after a week in coveralls!

La Isla Bonita

Life on the Island is a little different this time. Usually I stay on a vessel with lost of Aker people, and you have plenty of people to talk to at breakfast, lunch and dinner. But this time I am on a vessel with only one other Aker expat. So I find myself sitting" alone" for just about every meal. But I am by no means alone! I have made lots of new friends! The vessel if full of Agip (the Client) personnel, and Italians are as Italians are; very friendly and talkative, at least to me….! Yesterday I found myself in a bizarre situation. I got personally invited to an Italian special pasta dinner. Mess hall (after closing) at 20, Special Pasta Genovese! So at 20 I show up to a room full of Italians! Two of my "new friends" come and talk to me right away, so I do not have to "hang around" alone, puuhh! And after 10 min or so a man shows up at the table with a hairnet and apron, with a huge kettle of fantastic-smelling pasta. Plates are filled, and I get served first, nice! And then the senior managers, and then the rest. The "chef" sits down next to me. We have a great pasta dinner with extra parmesan and olive oil, and nice conversation! I am not the best with remembering names, they are all called Giorgio, Luigi, Franco, Claudio, and Roberto… how I am supposed to know that the guy in the hair-net next to me is the big boss?? Well well, that I found out later, after playing with a "home-made phone" and singing karaoke with the guys...! I had a great unexpected "dinner and games" on the Shkotov! This beautiful picture was sent to me by one of the guys...! No comment needed....!

I even have a sofa!

Just had to add a picture of my sofa! I have my very own sofa!! Nice!

Pretty happy with my cabin!

And this is my bathroom. It all work perfectly! All I can complain about is that the big towel does not really work, it just pushes that water around. But the small towel works, and it is so warm anyway, that you dry up eventually! No problemo!