Norway does seem to be such a well organised and pleasant country to live in. It perhaps does have the "advantage" of it's weather and topography. Norway needs to plan or it's in trouble. By comparison the UK is mostly able to muddle along. We usually don't have extreme conditions, and if they occur the don't last. However, the UK struggles in weather that other countries take in their stride. And that seems to encourage political inadequacy.
@22Michelle But surely much of Scotland at least is very much like western and southern Norway. And I remember hitchhiking down the middle of Wales from Snowdonia to Tenby in 1975 and experiencing snowfall as heavy as I have experienced in Norway. You are right that it wasn't so cold so it would not have built up like it does at high altitudes here but still. And they have gates across the main roads across the Pennines just as we do here. A couple of years ago I chatted with a couple from the Pennines over breakfast in a Wiltshire hotel and they told me that they switch to winter tyres and find they often drive past cars that just can't make it up the hills.
What I mean is that surely the places where it does snow must be prepared for it. Local councils in the Cairngorms can hardly claim that snow would be a surprise.
What happens here is that a lot of farmers have a contract with the kommune (local council) to clear village streets so outlying areas don't have to maintain a large fleet of snow ploughs. Instead the farmers just attach one to the front of a tractor. The main roads between towns are the responsibility of the ministry of transport (Vegvesen) or the county authority (fylkeskommune).
And of course some of the least used roads in the mountains are summer only (vinterstengt). the dig them out in the spring like this fylkesvei (county road) 500 between Sirdal and Lysebotn
See the video here: https://www.nrk.no/video/0c284ba7-6c1d-4b50-8d4c-6600534b7ffe
@ninalanyon Back in my schooldays I never experienced a "snow day". We had lots of snow, but we trudged through the drifts. However, since the early 1970's the incidence and seriousness of winter snowfall has been reducing. The grit stocks councils have purchased have usually ended up being hardly used. If we do get snowfall, very low temperatures it has been lasting a few days only. Thus Councils are either heavily criticised that roads etc are not gritted, cleared or that they've was lots of money wasted on grit etc., that wasn't needed. Regular snowfalls in winter justifies spending on snowploughs, grit etc. Lots of milder winters, hardly any snowfalls for less spending. I'd also add that we used to get and start shovelling the snow out. Now the majority sit indoors waiting gor the Council to clear roads, pavements, etc., whilst calling for them to reduce spending.
The next stop was the gallery showing Tom Sandberg's photographs. There is something compelling about the size of the prints. Seeing a portrait of John Cage that is nearly two metres tall is quite different from seeing the same picture in a coffee table book of photographs.
At the entrance to this gallery is a small table with postcard sized reproductions of some of the pictures. I picked one up and caught my breath; it was a picture taken inside the then relatively new national airport at Gardermoen. the reason for my surprise is that I had taken a picture from almost the same vantage point in 2003.
Here is a picture that I took today of Tom Sandberg's picture
And here is my version of the same view. I was so pleased with it that i actually had it printed.
Mine was taken with my first proper digital camera, an HP Photosmart 735. Only three megapixel!
@22Michelle I quite like looking at storms, from behind a nice big window. But I prefer to be on land to do it! I can understand how a flat calm sea must be rather dull and featureless even if it is less immediately scary.
@22Michelle I take a cross-Channel ferry to and from the UK each year and sometimes Hook-Harwich and of course across the Skagerrak to Denmark. The Skagerrak is a four hour crossing in a 33 000 tonne passenger, car, lorry ferry. Service speed 27 knots. On this one I feel very comfortable, it's quite a modern ship and you don't feel much of the sea.
There's quite a contrast between the Norway-Denmark and UK-Continent trips. Travelling from Norway to Denmark I just drive up to the gate and the woman (usually) in the kiosk has seen my registration number and printed my boarding pass before I have even wound my window down. She hands it to me, wishes me a safe trip and says which lane I should park in. I wait a while there and drive on to the ship.
At Dunkirk I first stop at the DFDS kiosk to check in, that usually takes a couple of minutes. Then I stop at the French exit control where I often have to get out of the car because it's on the wrong side and present my passport. Sometimes I also have to present my Norwegian residence card because it seems that no one knows what the actual rules are since Brexit. Then I drive on to British entry control and do it all over again including getting out of my car, then a security check where half the time I have to get out, but they never ask me to open the bonnet despite my har having a luggage compartment there. And sometimes there is a separate customs check. And finally I drive to the lane to wait for the ferry.
Went to the gallery to see the new exhibition. But I also looked at some of the parts I've seen before. I enjoy visiting the same exhibits several times. Sometimes I see something I overlooked but sometimes I just enjoy seeing what I have already seen before; so the first thing I viewed was Yayoi Kusama's Hymn of life installation. I think this must be the fourth time I have walked through it.
It's such a simple thing, just a room full of mirrors and lots of big globes with colour changing lights. But it's magical
Of course the justification for visiting the Henie-Onstad was that a new installation opened yesterday. It is ANIMOID by Ann Lislegaard. It relies heavily on audio-visual technology and mirrors. Here are some pictures of it.
I suspect that the projector is just as much part of the work as the projected images. Even if it is not intended that way i think that one cannot really separate the artists tools and materials from the art.
This is the mirrored outside of a sort of booth with an animated fox on a screen inside
@Rickichickie Thank you! I don't think I've ever been called chic before much less très chic. The boots have 75 mm (3") heels too. I feel really good striding along in them looking down on people. :-) Well some people; even with the extra 75 mm I'm still a lot shorter than quite a lot of Norwegians. But dressed up like that I feel that I stand straighter and taller!
