Day one with the client in Oslo. Slightly foggy headed start when I got off at the wrong station but luckily there is train every few minutes so that wasn’t the end of the world! Got my building pass straight away which was unexpected but great – it also doubles as a payment system for lunch (which is both nice and good value in the staff canteen.)

Did an extensive ‘sheep dip’ to get up to speed with the work my Norwegian colleagues have already due on this project – spotted a few familiar themes straight away – and then went on a Google enabled read around the topic to try and get familiar with a new swarm of acronyms.

First meeting with one of the client projects went well but I suspect was also a glimpse into the future of all the other workshops planned this week…it was very difficult to get them out of the weeds and to look at the bigger picture. These are technical, detail people and that is going to be a challenge I think.

Tomorrow kicks off with a 3 hour workshop at 09.00 so fingers crossed I’m suitably acclimatised.

I’m trying to keep an eye on / hand in a couple of projects back home via Slack mainly. Not sure how well thats going to work for me…or the teams there to be honest. Maybe I’m better off staying out of it!

Sorted my travel pass for the rest of my time here on the way home – will save a bit of money and some time every morning which is good. I splurged on a bright yellow Leuchtturm1917 notebook as I didn’t bring one with me and felt a bit lost without one in todays meeting. I also went grocery shopping…it was pretty confusing if I’m honest but I managed to get some basics and hopefully will be a bit better prepared next time.

My next project after this one is confirmed now and it is pretty exciting (for me at least). I’m going to be interim Head of Product at Essex County Council for a few months – working with Sally, Vicki and the team(s) there. It will be brilliant to properly stretch my product muscles again and to learn more about local gov!