Oscar, 9 years old, pictured with his buddy Garfield, 35, caught chilling on the balcony of their 14th floor cabin on the P&O Ventura, a very big floaty thing with about 12 gazillion people on board. It was Uncle Phil’s idea; we blame him. Difficult to turn him down seeing as how it was his 50th a few days ago.
And actually, not a bad place, Stavanger. The economy was fisheries, (if tinned sardines are your thing, then this is your town 😳). Then it turned into an oil town, from all the North Sea oil. On our way up the North Sea, saw loads of oil rigs and wondered how many are producing anything these days. To some extent the answer was found here, where the oil economy has all but gone. They have a Petroleum Museum, I kid thee not, which tells the story. So these days, the place has gone eco; I’ve never seen so many electric cars. Loads of Teslas, i3s and electric Golfs.
The town itself has charm, especially the old timber buildings. The place was forestry lying on rock, so the houses have rock footings upon which timber houses are built. Bit of a fire risk, but attractive. You can see them in the background of the shot.
Maybe I’m a bit twitchy about fire risk. But then I work for a professional body, IRPM, that is helping government make big residential buildings (blocks of flats, basic) safer to live in, following the Grenfell tragedy.
Lots of walking today, so it’s time for a cup of tea. I’ve not forgotten about Oli’s news. Stand by…
