I'm on my way to get my residence card renewed. The appointment isn't until 14:30 but I got a lift most of the way with No. 1 son on his way to work at 07:30. I've taken a leisurely and circuitous stroll, crossed the river twice and now I'm having coffee and a chocolate croissant in the student café.
The police station is just around the corner so I'm over four hours early. That's okay because the whole point of starting so early was to put myself in a situation where there is nothing to do but walk so I get more exercise than I've been getting lately. With my car out of action I've been staying home more which means I've had more time for hobbies. But my principal hobby is computer programming which means I spend rather too much time sitting down.
So when I've finished my coffee I'll take a walk to a shopping centre on the edge of town and visit another café. The round trip is only an hour and a half so I don't need to rush.
When we arrived here this bridge was just one lane in each direction and was a bottleneck on the motorway from Oslo to the south, and of course in the opposite direction during the rush hour. For years there was dithering over the cost and disruption that building a new four lane bridge would entail. Then it occurred to someone that the existing bridge was quite recent in civil engineering terms and in good condition so it would be a waste to demolish it.
So they just built a new two lane bridge about a metre away and added cladding so that it looked neater and as though it was just one bridge.
The north side of the river used to have a major road running along but it is now a pleasant piece of parkland. Here and there are a few exercise devices; here's one of them
And the outfit minus the hat and jacket, in the Papirbredden cafe
I've taken lots of pictures today so it's going to take a while to sort them all out. I'll try to separate them into meaningful small groups.
Here's the first
This odd thing on the side of the road bridge over the river is something that I've been meaning to find out about ever since it was installed decades ago when the bridge was built.
I walked along the north side of the river partly because it was a longer route and partly because I think the view looking south across the river is more interesting.
Looking upstream to the recently built town bridge that replaced the rather tatty one that was there before.(bybrua).
I wonder if the Utlendingsdirektorat (UDI, Directorate of Immigration) has a high staff turnover. When I got my first residence card five years ago (after over thirty years a a permanent resident without needing one) the woman dealing with my case was 'under opplæring', under training. Today was the first time I've been back since and it was the same again, different woman of course. All the staff there seem to be women too.
Anyway, they examined my passport, took my picture and finger prints, asked me if I was going on holiday and when. The latter was simply to ascertain whether i would get the card in time.
As I mentioned earlier this was my first time en femme dealing with such a formality. Not only that but my picture was taken with lipstick and earrings, I wonder if that will be obvious in the image printed on the card. if it's anything like the image on my current card which is a rather wishy washy grey the lipstick probably won't show but I think the earrings might. It's not an ID card anyway so it doesn't really matter I suppose.
