Another week .. another new location

So where were we?!  Sorry for the lack of posts over the last month.  We had no internet at home for a couple of weeks and with a deadline now for getting all those jobs done it left very little time for blogging.  However we will start catching up now....

So after arriving back in the UK on Saturday lunchtime it was off again on Monday evening.  A busy day going up to London for a meeting with headhunters on a very interesting and high profile role it was off to Gatwick for the flight to Norway and Stavanger.  Now this was my first time on this project flying out from an airport other than Heathrow.  It was interesting to compare the two airports.  Gatwick is very much a holiday airport and it has that general feel throughout the airport compared to Heathrow which is far more business like.  This difference also was shown at security with a very long queue and wait at Gatwick as passengers struggled with all of the various requirements.  At Heathrow you get the feel that the percentage of regular travellers is far higher and as such they are prepared for what is to come, speeding up the process.

My flight was on the Norwegian.com, which is basically their equivalent of Easyjet and Ryanair.  Usual rules on these type of flights - pay for any drinks or food.  I have to say it was fine and I had no compliants on the service which was on time both ways.

I arrived at Stavanger at 11pm for my first ever visit to Norway.  The MD of the local business, who is English, had flown back in on an internal flight just before me and waited to give me a lift back to the hotel.  Now it had been very warm at home and the other locations I had been to on my travels and this had made me complacent.  I arrived to find a much colder country (around 5 C) and not bringing a proper coat was a bit of a mistake!  Stavanger itself is now the third largest city in Norway and has grown significantly since the 1960s when it was made the onshore headquarters for Norway's North Sea oil and gas fields.  The city is home to a large ex-pat community. The city also used to have a significant number of visitors from the North East of England as there was a regular car ferry service from Newcastle to Stavanger until a few months ago. Unfortunately this has been discontinued as it was losing money.

The MD sent someone to collect me in the morning.  Now for the first time I found myself dealing with a company insider.  The MD was a long serving employee of the group and been involved with acquisitions or worked at most subsidiaries.  He clearly had his views but to his credit he also wanted to make sure I also got to meet all relevant individuals within the office.  So I ended up interviewing virtually the whole office over two days which was an interesting experience and very tiring especially when people are a little nervous and English is their second language.  I also later found out that the previous MD didn't let anyone speak to any auditors without either him or one of his senior management team sitting in.

Now some of those cultural differences again .... the first one was lunch where all of the office pay into a collection and a selection of breads, cheese, hams and salads are delivered to the office very every one to make their own lunch and sit down together.  Again not something you see very often in the UK.  The second one was very similar to Sweden.  The office hours are from 8am to 4pm and by 4.05pm the office is deserted.  The MD told me that most people work with 15 minutes of home and expect to be back home so that the whole family can sit down for dinner at 4.30pm!

The MD took me and the new local FC, who is based in Oslo, out for dinner down to the waterfront in Stavanger. The car park we used had huge thick metal doors and apparently they are relics from the days of the cold war when it doubled as a nuclear bomb shelter.  Fortunately we only had to use it for parking in!!! 

Now I have to say Stavanger was probably the most boring airport I had travelled from with a limited selection of food outlets and shops.  With airport fatigue really setting in now I couldn't wait to catch the flight back home.  After a horrible slice of pizza and a flat diet coke it was back on another plane for the journey home.  I have recently finished watching a BBC4 documentary "Secret life of the airport" which was a history of airport growth in the UK.  A very interesting series and it struck home on how exciting it seemed to go to one in the 1970/80s but that has largely gone now with all of the extra security and increase in passenger numbers.  I have to say for me any excitement was well and gone by this time!

Now on the way back I finished the latest Nick Hornby book "Juliet Naked" that I had started in the US.  Here is a quick overview from the official website...

"Annie and Duncan are a mid-thirties couple who have reached a fork in the road, realising their shared interest in the reclusive musician Tucker Crowe (in Duncan's case, an obsession rather than an interest) is not enough to hold them together any more. When Annie hates Tucker's 'new release', a terrible demo of his most famous album, it's the last straw - Duncan cheats on her and she promptly throws him out. Via an internet discussion forum, Annie's harsh opinion reaches Tucker himself, who couldn't agree more. He and Annie start an unlikely correspondence which teaches them both something about moving on from years of wasted time."

Now I loved Fever Pitch and High Fidelity both which hit a nerve with me.  I have to say since then I have been increasingly underwhelmed by his books.  This one is his first in 4 years.  This book was very much of two halves for me.  I really enjoyed the first half as it really brought to life how the internet has allowed obsessive fans to join up together and discuss every more obscure details or theories on an artist and his work.  Especially one like the fictional Tucker Crowe who disappears suddenly.  However the second half of the book rang much less true when Tucker comes to the UK to meet Annie and by the end I felt a little disappointed.  It almost seemed written to fit with what a future film adaption will want to see not real life. An enjoyable enough read for long plane journeys and hotel rooms but not a classic by any means (3 out of 5 for me). 

So finally for this blogs musical choice.  Now I am going really different this time and picking Dame Shirley Bassey.  When the recent Electric Proms were on the BBC I had set up a series link on the Sky box and it had picked up her concert as part of the series.  I nearly just deleted it but decided to give it a go.  Thank god I did as it was just excellent and I couldn't believe her fantastic her voice still is for someone who is now 72 years old (she didn't look half bad for her age either!!!).  Now if the X Factor "mentors" every want their acts to learn how to really perform and work an audience then they should just show them a recording of this concert.  She seemed to be having a fantastic time especially when joined by various artists (all younger men!) who have written tracks for her new album.  She teased most of them and I think made them all blush!!!

Songs on the album, which is produced by the current James Bond composer David Arnold, include the obvious like the Pet Shop Boys, Gary Barlow, Rufus Wainwright through to more unusual artists such as Manics and Richard Hawley.  On the back of the concert I downloaded the new album and I have to say it is excellent and has a real Bacharach type sound and feel to it.  I would strongly recommend it and give it 4 out of 5.

To finish off her is the song by the Manics which could only be about her Welsh roots couldn't it!