Yesterday's view from the office

We finally got some light snow! Some snow has fallen earlier this winter, but snow turns grey pretty quickly due to the dust and the mud. So it was very nice to wake up to a white landscape! It is not proper snow though, more like ice powder, but never the less, it makes everything go white!! The day turned into a great winterday with minus 15, beautiful sunshine and glittering snow!

Today, on the other hand, the world around us was gone! Fog! pretty thick fog as well. So the view from the 11th floor this morning was pretty limited....nothing really, just white cotton..
And we know the reason for this weather change, K and K are supposed to go offshore! Jepp, the saga continues... When will the girls be going offshore this trip? That is the 1000 kr question!!

Exciting new event in KZ! Pizza Delivery!!

A new and exciting service is available in Atyrau: pizza delivery!
A poster in our elevator in the apartment building said that we now can order pizza and get it delivered to our apartment door. This we had to test of course! So Catrin, Kristin and I ordered pizza last night. And after 40 min a nice girl knocked on our door on the 11th floor and had two pizzas for us! Great! And they even tasted ok! We of course had to add spices, and should probably have made some pizza sauce, but we were out of sour cream, but anyway, we were pretty content and happy! Small joys in the life of an expat in KZ!!

Back in KZ!

We made it! After a rather comfortable journey, we landed safe and sound in Atyrau. Even our suitcases made it. We did NOT travel light though... Two big somewhat overweight suitcases, two inflights, a rather big handbag each, add in a couple of big airport shopping bags and even a pc-bag, then you have K&K on a trip to KZ! And do not forget the HUGE jackets! We were quite a show! And add the fact that we were the only girls on the flight, we did probably not go undetected...
The girls are prepared!! We even made some shoe-shopping at Schiphol, and the usual cheese and snacks shopping. It should last us a couple of weeks!

Even though we were well prepared, the first 12 hour day in the office was tiresome and pretty tough! It was the usual 28-29 degrees, and stuffy. My high spirits lasted until 09:30... I thought they would last at least the first week.... Well, hopefully it was just a first day setback! Tomorrow will be better, much better!!

Here we go again!

The time has come, again, to return to work! 4 new weeks in Kazakhstan! Well, actually this time it is almost 5 weeks.

After a night of partying at Oslo Plaza, it was two somewhat reduced K's that meet up at the Airport Express Train. But luckily for us, the airport was almost empty on a Saturday evening, so everything went smooth, and the flight to Amsterdam was not full, it was on-time, quick and rather pleasant. The transfer to the hotel was quick, and the dinner in the hotel lounge was good. So now two tired but content girls are planning an "early evening", and hopefully some sweet dreams and a good night's sleep! God natt!

Pictures: Kristin on the train, talking to Anne. And me at the hotel lounge in Amsterdam writing this!

Aker New Year's Party

The annual Aker party was at the Oslo Plaza this year. Around 500 happy party people attended, and we had a fun evening! Pre-drinks at the Sky-bar, dinner with entertainment, and good table company, what more can you ask for!!

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

We had a great celebration in Oslo! Gjertrud made a fantastic new year's celebration dinner, and after the great dinner party we made our way to Frognerparken to look at all the fireworks! It was a cold night, yr.no said it was minus 14, but we had plenty of warm clothes on, so we had fun! A great evening!
I do not know what PØ wanted to take a picture of, the snow or our hats! But if you can not see us, it is three happy girls: Hilde, Gjertrud and me!

Winter wonderland

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! The view from my parents house out towards the Oslo Fjord on x-mas eve! And it has snowed ever since!!

After two days of eating and socializing with lots of family 24/7, it is now time to be lazy, drink coffee in our pyjamas, and just do nothing!!

Going home for Christmas

We are going home for Christmas!! But it was not without anticipation... bad weather in Norther Europe caused delays in the air traffic, and fog and snow in Atyrau made us a teeny bit nervous! With just one hour delay from Atyrau (due to delayed incoming flight, as it had been stuck in Amsterdam for 4 hours yesterday) off we went to Europe!
We had a 4 hours connection in Amsterdam, so no worries regarding the one hour delay. So after landing in Amsterdam we were pretty happy! Closing in on winter wonderland! Just a 1,5 hour flight to go!
3 extremely happy girls in Amsterdam, having champagne and strawberries with melted chocolate!

Merry x-mas, or was it Mreey x-mas...

The girls have (again) gone shopping!

Pretty fascinating in itself, as Atyrau is not a shopping mekka... This time we have been x-mas shopping!! I can not tell what we shopped. But I can tell you about the bags, the plastic bags to put all our shopping in! Nice colorful Santa Claus bags!

But when I took a closer look, I had to laugh! And after a bottle of wine, we laughed a lot!!

The winter has arrived

The Kazakh winter has arrived! Last week the cold weather came (around minus 12-15), with strong winds from the north east, and the Ural river froze over quickly. And yesterday we got the first snow. Well, I would not call it snow, it is more like fine white powder. Snowing and minus 15, strange combination, maybe that is why it was only powder?? Whatever it is, it brightens up our day!! That is the most important thing!
Here you see today's view from the office!