Day Two in Oslo

Well, I woke early, it was the suns fault rising at such an un-godly time!!! We had arranged to meet at 10am, allowing me to get a little 'sleep-in' (yeah right!). But instead, we got away at around 9am, and headed for some more spotting - but this time, it was some 'Ship Spotting'!

Mr C drove me around, he offered for me to drive, but NO WAY was I going to, as I wanted to see what there was to see, and I didn't want to crash his car!!!

We went to a spot that looks up the harbour and offers a nice view of the city centre and its surrounds. Luckily, there was a ferry coming upstream from Denmark, so I managed to snap it! I must say, the 'thrill' of ship spotting with me, isn't going to take I'm afraid...

Pearl Seaways

After this, we drove to collect Mr T. He was flying later in the day back home to Bergen. But, we had another full day of spotting to do, and first up, it was to the top of the ATC tower, some 94m high!

OSL Spotters

It was a great view from up there, and I am grateful for the experience. I managed to get a couple of good shots!

Icelandair

Korean Air Cargo

We then went to a total of about 6 different spotting locations around OSL airport! And this isn't all of them either!!! Throughout the day, we shot the usual suspects, SAS and Norwegian, but I also got a few of the bigger stuff we just don't get at home, Qatar and PIA!

Lupinus

Mr T

Fungi

PIA

It was another FULL on day, and after saying goodbye to Mr T, we headed back out for a little bit, before the fading light (clouds) gave in and we headed back to the apartment. I said my goodbyes to Mr C and thanked him for his hospitality, and I showered, changed and headed out for some city sights and dinner! I have found a little cafe bar nearby, good food and reasonably priced, so I headed back there. Afterwards, back to my apartment and after a quick Skype call home, I found some well earned sleep.

Hoo roo for now...

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Hello from Oslo!!

Yes, I know, I've been slack lately with my blogging, but I've not had much to really post about... Not that THAT is an excuse either, I've just been slack!

Anyways, as I write, I am on a train from Oslo to Kristiansand in Norway. My trip began many weeks ago, when I signed up to go to a conference. It morphed (over time) to include both a visit to the Prague Botanic Gardens in the Czech Republic, and also to the World Horticultural Expo in Venlo in The Netherlands!

It was a booking of sorts, that whilst fragmented, was a great routing... Let me give you the highlights...

Monday 18th June 2012

This saw me fly out of Sydney aboard one of the newest airliners SCOOT. They are a LCC of Singapore Airlines, and are using a B772; which is an ex SQ plane. There are NO bells and whistles at all with them, and this for me is OK, but I only wished that they had the moving map on monitors on the bulkhead walls. This would give me the situational awareness of where I am!

Anyway, I had a 'FlyBagEat' ticket in economy, which is pretty much that, I can fly, with a bag, and I can eat! The later of course you pay for! The flight was good, the crew were friendly ex SQ girls, and in just a shade over 8 hours, I was in Singapore. I had a 3 hour transit here, but due to a delay getting out of Sydney, it meant it was a 2 hour layover.

From Singapore, I flew with Finnair, which for me, was the second time I have flown with them. This flight was over 11 hours, and after a long laborious take off, I quickly nodded off, and only woke up for the breakfast some 2 hours short of Helsinki! I must've been tired!

Arrival into Helsinki was great, and it bought to a close the end of my long haul flights from Sydney - I just had a short, 90 minute, flight, to Oslo. Helsinki airport is very easy to get around, its clean and in typical Nordic blonde timber and lots of glass. I found my departure gate, and I was off again, this time on a smaller regional plane.

Tuesday 19th June 2012

My short flight across from Helsinki to Oslo was pretty much uneventful. The crew again were very polite and served me a coffee ex Helsinki. Our arrival into Oslo, as I had not been here before, was difficult in that I didn't know where the airport was! Soon enough, we were turning for finals, and I had it in sight. I was to be meeting up with some friends in Oslo, and even though I could not see them from my aircraft, I was actually sitting on the right side too, they got a photo of my arrival into Oslo!

I cleared immigration, there was no-one there, and before long, I was outside shaking hands with my Norwegian friends! I was asked IF I wanted to be taken to my apartment, but as I had slept almost the entire journey SIN-HEL, I was fine and we went straight out to meet up with some more local spotters and spot for the rest of the day.

Soon after, Mr C got a text message asking if the 'Kangaroo' had arrived, and not long after that, a van with two more people (and a dog) came out to welcome me!! Such nice people!! Anyway, we spotted and here are a couple from the day...

Estonian Air

Lupinus

Dandelion

I was driven into town to my apartment, and once I had my keys, headed downstairs and had a nice long HOT shower; it was SO refreshing. Soon, I headed outside in a much more respectful manner, to a cafe nearby, where I had dinner, a Norwegian beer, before heading home for a sleep. Oh, and I forgot about the Norwegian light, it was still DAYLIGHT at 11pm, and the sun was up from 3.30am!!!

So that is, basically, how I got here...

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 146 Something Sweet

Every morning, I head over to the coffee shop, to get a coffee and a bit of morning tea. Sometimes, its savoury be it a Ham, Cheese and Tomato toasted sandwich, or a Ham & Cheese Croissant, but sometimes, I want something sweet... The order of the day - a Rhubarb and Apple Crumble

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 145 12 O'clock

Cheers

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 144 Unusual

Kinda says it all really...

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 143 Something New

In some ways, carrying on from the last post (Technology) this is a 'New' and 'Old' photo and it shows just how the technology has changed over the (many) years! To the left, we see the new South Coast Daylight Express train, whilst on the right, we have the old railmotors that use to service the NSW Railroads. I've not yet been on the new models, but if they are anythin like those in the UK that I have been on, they would appear to be pretty comfy. As opposed to the older Railmotor, which bounced its way along the railrs from Central down to Bombaderry (Nowra) on the tour we did back in Janruary 2011.

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 142 Technology

I am constantly amazed as to how technology is working, both domestically and in the industrial world. In some ways, I wonder if "we're just playing god" in the many ways we can manipulate the weather, and can cast additional UV light, and heat, onto playing surfaces so as we can extend (or bring forward) a playing season to suit our needs...

This is no more evident than in Europe (mainly, although the same technology is used here at home in Australia) where the use of lighting booms on playing surfaces, in order to promote the active growth of the turf so as the shading from the large grandstands is counteracted. Here we see the lighting booms in use at K.A.A Ghent, in Belgium.

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 141 Pink

June 2010, whilst in Berlin, I had arranged to go to the Tierpark Zoo. It was a great day, I spent it with MB who was also there with her dog Miss A who was over for a breeding service. Anyway, during the day, and it was a hot day, we got to see many animals... Here is a couple of Pink Flamingo's, whilst we have them here in Sydney (Taronga Zoo) they were still great to see...

Tierpark Zoo Pink Flamingos Pond

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 140 Where You Stand

Last year, when in china for the World Horticultural Exhibition, I got to visit the Terracotta Warriors, also in Xi'an's Shaanxi province. I was in awe of the site, and in NO way, does my photo do it any justice what's so ever... Seeing the way the soldiers were standing, en mass, I was standing myself just in sheer bewilderment of it all...

Terracotta Museum - Pit No. 1

Hoo roo for now...

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Photo a Day Challenge - Day 139 Something You Can't Live Without

Not so much the paper, and really the coffee is not that important, but there are days that I just DON'T function without a cafine hit...

Free Paper & Coffee

Hoo roo for now...

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