Being part of a global telecom, I went on a induction visit to Oslo where my group Telenor is headquartered. Here's a brief recap of how the visit was...
The Club World business class ticket in the upper deck of British Airways was a good start. I had a rather quick flight; comfortable flights must be appearing quicker I guess and also I spent good amount of time discovering the various controls of the cool fully flat-able seat and accompanyng controls as well as consuming the refreshments and drinks I was offered. On reaching Heathrow terminal 5, I went to the BA arrival lounge for club world class and had nice breakfast; I also collected some chocolates, brownies etc for the day ahead, took shower in nice hot water in modular showers (there are some 50 of them in the lounge) and stepped out. I had planned some 10 hours halt to look around and see if I find anything of value; January being the sale season at London.
I went by tube to the Westfield Shopping Center area. There are lots of old buildings around in London as I discovered on my tube journey (while it went over ground). There were no leaves being peak winter but I could see a few perennially leafy trees. It was fully cloudy though not very bleak.
With woolen inners, a shirt, sweater, coat and a over coat, I was a tad too warm. I had no lower inners, yet legs felt very comfortable. I wore a pair of Woodland shoes which were comforting and warm. Several lines were closed that day due to blockages caused by snow (it was a good winter after decades with good snowfall reported) and I could see few inches of snow whereever the tube went over ground. Tiled roofs were barely covered with an inch or two of snow, but mostly in patches .
I had to wrap up my shopping just when I had started enjoying it as I had found some so called value buys in Marks&Spencers - women's lingerie and sun glasses... I rummaged through the mens and kids sections but could not find anything worthwhile for the price. Same was the story so far in all stores till I found these few good buys in M&S.
I walked out of West Field Shopping Center and walked back to White City tube station. The route from Heathrow to White City was Heathrow to Eaton on red line, Eaton to Earl on district (green) line and Earl White City on blue line. So changing 3 trains again I returned to Heathrow terminal 5, the same one where Ira had danced to the water fountains' rhythm when we had come to London earlier.
At terminal 5, there are two lounges for the Club World class passegners and the first one I hit, the North Lounge, did not have the Spa facility. Before reaching North lounge, I had walked upto another lounge which was for the first class and which I was not authorised to use with my club world ticket. While I was looking for these lounges, I asked a british official about where the lounges were and he said there's one just right there but it's for First Class and as I thanked him and started walking in that direction he asked incredulously are you travelling first class and I replied yes, keeping it as low key as possible. The look on his face was very enjoyable for me till I was politely asked by the woman manning the reception of the first class lounge to go to the other two lounges, north and South, to which Club World was authorised.
By the time I reached South lounge it was 4 and the boarding time for my flight to Oslo was at 4:25, so I thought I could avail the 15 minutes face massage that was complementary with my Club World ticket. The spa happened to be one floor below the lounge and when I finally reached there, they told me that of course I could not simply walk into the massage room and the earliest appointment slot was at 4:40.
So with no prospect of free massage and close to half hour in hand, I went back to south lounge, looked around the facilities, took photographs, had two drinks of scotch and some tid-bits enjoying the nice view from the lounge. I also had a bite of the menu but only the hot rice and curries and not the cold salads etc. When the display board showed that my flight was boarding, I left the lounge.
I was in 2F with no one in D and E; so I spread myself all over. Seconds after take off the aircraft entered the clouds and remained in cloud for long. There was no in-flight entertainment, so I read up the papers that I had brought from the lounge. The clouds thinned as we came over scandinavia. And as we came above Norway I could see very well lit cities/towns connected by very well lit roads looking like golden necklaces. The snow cover was not well visible as it had become night and it was no moon that day but I could make out huge swathes of faint whiteness below. We landed at Oslo and I could then see few feet of snow besides the runway.
At the luggage belt, I had to wait 40 minutes to get my one piece of bag, I was not alone, there were several passengers who had to wait this long. I could not know why it took so long and asking did not prove fruitful.
I took a map of Oslo from the information booth, withdrew a couple of hundred Norwegian Kroners from an ATM and went to the train station. A train was about to move in a minute or so to my destination, National Opera station. These trains are like the Thalys in France, may be bigger in height and very comfortable seating.
At Opera station, the side I came out was a little farther from my hotel 'Continental' than the side I should have come out from. It was a 200 meters walk by the end of which my exposed hands were completely frozen and my open head had started to sting; but otherwise I was well clothed. The temperature in my estimate would be minus 20 or so at that time.
The hotel staff upgraded me to a bigger room without asking and I liked the room when I saw it. The hotel itself is very old and of only 8 stories; but they had modified it to very modern and very neat standards. There were some hassled with my credit card; the Deutsche Bank card did not have enough credit to cover my entire stay of 6 nights at 1240 NOK per night (1NOK is approx 8 Rupees). The office provided HDFC debit card did not work but finally my ICICI credit card worked and it had sufficient credit. I tried getting my changed to one with a better view but realised that being at the city center with tall buildings all around and it being only a 8 story building, there was no view possible. Came back to the original room and slept by midnight.
I woke up with the alarm I had set for 8 after a good night's sleep; that was very necessary as I had been awake for most of the previous 36 hours and had not had my full sleep for the preceeding few days as well.
I was the last guest to slip into the buffet breakfast at 9:55 before they closed at 10. And my colleague Arne called to inform that he had reached the lobby even before I had a bite. So I called him up to join me on the breakfast table with a coffee. After the exchange of greetings, I grabbed my breakfast while he had a couple of cups of coffee.
We went to office in a taxi from my hotel. It was a pakistani taxi driver, by the look of him. We reached Fornebu, where Telenor head office is located, within about 25 minutes. The office campus is exactly where the Oslo airport was located earlier. So it's very spacious with great view all around and bang besides the fjord. It has two parallel running wings separated by space of 30 to 50 metres in between and connected by an insulated sky bridge. The construction is modern with good and modern art work all around.
Inside the office, I met Johnny who had been instrumental in hiring me at Delhi. I also met several others from Group Risk, this is the group under which Information Security as a function is organised in Telenor. The first meeting we had was with Per Pundsen who heads the group and Ann Reinsen, the Security Director. From then on, it was a lot of meetings, discussions, debates and deliberations with several people in the group office - Heinrich and Gunhill for Awareness, someone for Crisis Management, Olav for Risk Assessment, Sonja for SOX, etc.
At office, I would arrive everyday at about 9:15, have meetings from 10:00 to lunch time, go for lunch with Arne/Johnny/Ann, more meetings till 3 or 4 PM and break off. The first day Arne brought me back to hotel in a cab; the next day onwards I used the bus to go to office and return. Taking 31E from just outside Continental to bus stop just outside Telenor office was most convenient and inexpensive at 39 NOK.
The first day evening, I explored the entire main street in the biting cold and ended up having dinner in an Indian Restaurant called Mister India. I even walked to Radisson Scandinavia nearby to check it out and compare with Continental. Tuesday evening, I took a short walk to the Nobel Peace Prize center and the dock area but retired early as I was a little down under the weather. Wednesday went by tram to the north east side and had food in a Spanish restaurant; returned by cab. Thursday evening was dinner hosted by Johnny and Ann by a nice restaurant by the dock side with a great view of the sea front; the bill of 2100 NOK for 3 of us having a bottle of wine and four course dinner was somewhat stunning but not quite a shock. Thursday morning Johnny had taken me out in his private car to show the Vigeland sculpture garden which was snow covered but very nice with some good sculpture.
It was a friday morning and I was in the bath tub for the second time that week; this time with lots of bubbles of Euclyptus bath liquid. I had been using the hotel gym too; that day was the third time. It was about time to wind up; I had to be in office by 9:45, to visit Network Operations Center and the Data Center and wind up by lunch time. I then had the second half free for myself. In the evening I met Eric and Lina, our long lost friends from my US Army training in 2002. Eric and I had a few drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe before Lina joined and they both went for some onward engagement.
I did some specialised packing of bags to accomodate my enhanced baggage in the same bags that I had taken and to board a 7:30 AM return flight from Oslo to London, I left from the hotel at 5:00. Reached the airport well in time, had breakfast in the Oslo lounge, took snaps of snow all around and boarded my flight. There I was exposed for the first time to giant machines which sprayed water on aircrafts wings to thaw the strong ice formed on them due to the very low temperarures outside.
At London, I had another entire day time to roam around and find value buys. This time I went off the airport in time, headed for central London. I spent the whole day walking on Oxford street going from shop to shop. By evening I had seen almost all big shops that Oxford Street is known for and found a lot of good things that I had been given a list for. So I returned to Heathrow, encashed my Oyster card at the terminal 5 tube station and settled in the lounge for a last drink and food before I board the long haul flight on BA back home.
And back to work...
The Club World business class ticket in the upper deck of British Airways was a good start. I had a rather quick flight; comfortable flights must be appearing quicker I guess and also I spent good amount of time discovering the various controls of the cool fully flat-able seat and accompanyng controls as well as consuming the refreshments and drinks I was offered. On reaching Heathrow terminal 5, I went to the BA arrival lounge for club world class and had nice breakfast; I also collected some chocolates, brownies etc for the day ahead, took shower in nice hot water in modular showers (there are some 50 of them in the lounge) and stepped out. I had planned some 10 hours halt to look around and see if I find anything of value; January being the sale season at London.
I went by tube to the Westfield Shopping Center area. There are lots of old buildings around in London as I discovered on my tube journey (while it went over ground). There were no leaves being peak winter but I could see a few perennially leafy trees. It was fully cloudy though not very bleak.
With woolen inners, a shirt, sweater, coat and a over coat, I was a tad too warm. I had no lower inners, yet legs felt very comfortable. I wore a pair of Woodland shoes which were comforting and warm. Several lines were closed that day due to blockages caused by snow (it was a good winter after decades with good snowfall reported) and I could see few inches of snow whereever the tube went over ground. Tiled roofs were barely covered with an inch or two of snow, but mostly in patches .
I had to wrap up my shopping just when I had started enjoying it as I had found some so called value buys in Marks&Spencers - women's lingerie and sun glasses... I rummaged through the mens and kids sections but could not find anything worthwhile for the price. Same was the story so far in all stores till I found these few good buys in M&S.
I walked out of West Field Shopping Center and walked back to White City tube station. The route from Heathrow to White City was Heathrow to Eaton on red line, Eaton to Earl on district (green) line and Earl White City on blue line. So changing 3 trains again I returned to Heathrow terminal 5, the same one where Ira had danced to the water fountains' rhythm when we had come to London earlier.
At terminal 5, there are two lounges for the Club World class passegners and the first one I hit, the North Lounge, did not have the Spa facility. Before reaching North lounge, I had walked upto another lounge which was for the first class and which I was not authorised to use with my club world ticket. While I was looking for these lounges, I asked a british official about where the lounges were and he said there's one just right there but it's for First Class and as I thanked him and started walking in that direction he asked incredulously are you travelling first class and I replied yes, keeping it as low key as possible. The look on his face was very enjoyable for me till I was politely asked by the woman manning the reception of the first class lounge to go to the other two lounges, north and South, to which Club World was authorised.
By the time I reached South lounge it was 4 and the boarding time for my flight to Oslo was at 4:25, so I thought I could avail the 15 minutes face massage that was complementary with my Club World ticket. The spa happened to be one floor below the lounge and when I finally reached there, they told me that of course I could not simply walk into the massage room and the earliest appointment slot was at 4:40.
So with no prospect of free massage and close to half hour in hand, I went back to south lounge, looked around the facilities, took photographs, had two drinks of scotch and some tid-bits enjoying the nice view from the lounge. I also had a bite of the menu but only the hot rice and curries and not the cold salads etc. When the display board showed that my flight was boarding, I left the lounge.
I was in 2F with no one in D and E; so I spread myself all over. Seconds after take off the aircraft entered the clouds and remained in cloud for long. There was no in-flight entertainment, so I read up the papers that I had brought from the lounge. The clouds thinned as we came over scandinavia. And as we came above Norway I could see very well lit cities/towns connected by very well lit roads looking like golden necklaces. The snow cover was not well visible as it had become night and it was no moon that day but I could make out huge swathes of faint whiteness below. We landed at Oslo and I could then see few feet of snow besides the runway.
At the luggage belt, I had to wait 40 minutes to get my one piece of bag, I was not alone, there were several passengers who had to wait this long. I could not know why it took so long and asking did not prove fruitful.
I took a map of Oslo from the information booth, withdrew a couple of hundred Norwegian Kroners from an ATM and went to the train station. A train was about to move in a minute or so to my destination, National Opera station. These trains are like the Thalys in France, may be bigger in height and very comfortable seating.
At Opera station, the side I came out was a little farther from my hotel 'Continental' than the side I should have come out from. It was a 200 meters walk by the end of which my exposed hands were completely frozen and my open head had started to sting; but otherwise I was well clothed. The temperature in my estimate would be minus 20 or so at that time.
The hotel staff upgraded me to a bigger room without asking and I liked the room when I saw it. The hotel itself is very old and of only 8 stories; but they had modified it to very modern and very neat standards. There were some hassled with my credit card; the Deutsche Bank card did not have enough credit to cover my entire stay of 6 nights at 1240 NOK per night (1NOK is approx 8 Rupees). The office provided HDFC debit card did not work but finally my ICICI credit card worked and it had sufficient credit. I tried getting my changed to one with a better view but realised that being at the city center with tall buildings all around and it being only a 8 story building, there was no view possible. Came back to the original room and slept by midnight.
I woke up with the alarm I had set for 8 after a good night's sleep; that was very necessary as I had been awake for most of the previous 36 hours and had not had my full sleep for the preceeding few days as well.
I was the last guest to slip into the buffet breakfast at 9:55 before they closed at 10. And my colleague Arne called to inform that he had reached the lobby even before I had a bite. So I called him up to join me on the breakfast table with a coffee. After the exchange of greetings, I grabbed my breakfast while he had a couple of cups of coffee.
We went to office in a taxi from my hotel. It was a pakistani taxi driver, by the look of him. We reached Fornebu, where Telenor head office is located, within about 25 minutes. The office campus is exactly where the Oslo airport was located earlier. So it's very spacious with great view all around and bang besides the fjord. It has two parallel running wings separated by space of 30 to 50 metres in between and connected by an insulated sky bridge. The construction is modern with good and modern art work all around.
Inside the office, I met Johnny who had been instrumental in hiring me at Delhi. I also met several others from Group Risk, this is the group under which Information Security as a function is organised in Telenor. The first meeting we had was with Per Pundsen who heads the group and Ann Reinsen, the Security Director. From then on, it was a lot of meetings, discussions, debates and deliberations with several people in the group office - Heinrich and Gunhill for Awareness, someone for Crisis Management, Olav for Risk Assessment, Sonja for SOX, etc.
At office, I would arrive everyday at about 9:15, have meetings from 10:00 to lunch time, go for lunch with Arne/Johnny/Ann, more meetings till 3 or 4 PM and break off. The first day Arne brought me back to hotel in a cab; the next day onwards I used the bus to go to office and return. Taking 31E from just outside Continental to bus stop just outside Telenor office was most convenient and inexpensive at 39 NOK.
The first day evening, I explored the entire main street in the biting cold and ended up having dinner in an Indian Restaurant called Mister India. I even walked to Radisson Scandinavia nearby to check it out and compare with Continental. Tuesday evening, I took a short walk to the Nobel Peace Prize center and the dock area but retired early as I was a little down under the weather. Wednesday went by tram to the north east side and had food in a Spanish restaurant; returned by cab. Thursday evening was dinner hosted by Johnny and Ann by a nice restaurant by the dock side with a great view of the sea front; the bill of 2100 NOK for 3 of us having a bottle of wine and four course dinner was somewhat stunning but not quite a shock. Thursday morning Johnny had taken me out in his private car to show the Vigeland sculpture garden which was snow covered but very nice with some good sculpture.
It was a friday morning and I was in the bath tub for the second time that week; this time with lots of bubbles of Euclyptus bath liquid. I had been using the hotel gym too; that day was the third time. It was about time to wind up; I had to be in office by 9:45, to visit Network Operations Center and the Data Center and wind up by lunch time. I then had the second half free for myself. In the evening I met Eric and Lina, our long lost friends from my US Army training in 2002. Eric and I had a few drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe before Lina joined and they both went for some onward engagement.
I did some specialised packing of bags to accomodate my enhanced baggage in the same bags that I had taken and to board a 7:30 AM return flight from Oslo to London, I left from the hotel at 5:00. Reached the airport well in time, had breakfast in the Oslo lounge, took snaps of snow all around and boarded my flight. There I was exposed for the first time to giant machines which sprayed water on aircrafts wings to thaw the strong ice formed on them due to the very low temperarures outside.
At London, I had another entire day time to roam around and find value buys. This time I went off the airport in time, headed for central London. I spent the whole day walking on Oxford street going from shop to shop. By evening I had seen almost all big shops that Oxford Street is known for and found a lot of good things that I had been given a list for. So I returned to Heathrow, encashed my Oyster card at the terminal 5 tube station and settled in the lounge for a last drink and food before I board the long haul flight on BA back home.
And back to work...
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