My New Hobby

For the last 5 days I have been back in town to complete a training course, this is fractionally more interesting than it sounds as I did the whole thing via live video conference to Houston. It also meant that I didn't start work till 6pm here in Abu Dhabi which was causing my internal body clock massive issues as I was still waking up at 6 but not getting back till nearer 4. The big advantage was that I had the entire day to do what I wanted so I finally got round to taking up a sporty, outdoorsy hobby that is possible here. Kitesurfing. Sorry to all my windsurfing buddies but it had to be done! 

Day one was not a great success, after taking 2 "lessons" where I stood on the beach and didn't even get wet at the start of the year I decided I was going to man up and just go for it. So I rocked up on a day with a decent breeze, rigged up my gear and promptly got told to not go out with a kite that size by an instructor doing  a lesson for someone else. 10 minuets later I had been talked into hiring a smaller kite and was ready to go. Another 10 minutes later and I had nearly decapitated some chick and had swallowed approximately half the water in the Arab gulf which I promptly deposited back onto the beach 200m downwind where I had cunningly been dragged so nobody could see me throw up. Eventually and with some tips yelled at me from people who were actually moving I got up on the board where I promptly surfed/ sailed (?) directly into the only damn mangrove bush on the entire beach. Thankfully I had to head into work about this time so avoided any more embarrassment for the day. 

The events of the first day had bashed my spirits enough for me to take another lesson so I swapped instructor (which felt really taboo - I cant explain it) and hit the beach ready for more. And credit where it's due, Mr Kuba gave me two tips and a bigger board and I was away. I had also gone to the beach with French Chris, an engineer from Wireline at my base who, surprisingly, is French. He claimed he could Kitesurf and so Kuba rented him gear, told him to stay away from the beach and the power lines then spent a lot of the time of my lesson using the gear I was supposed to be learning with to chase after him and rescue him from the beach directly below the power lines. Annoying as it was I needed the rest and found it highly amusing when the only thing Kuba could say upon his return was "Mother Fucking French Bastards". 

Chris also provided one of the most awkward situations I've been in for a while; once we were done with our lesson(s) I set about trying to fix my kite, the details are very boring but simply put I needed a knife to cut some whipping so I could repair one if the lines. I tried to ask the instructor but he scampered off for a sail before I could catch him so Chris with his ridiculous French accent asked the next person he saw if they had one. This happened to be the chick I tried to behead on day one and just for the record - it does not matter how innocent your reason, you cannot ask a lone girl on a isolated beach if she happens to have a knife about her person without sounding like a mass murderer. To make matters worse I went for a rummage in Rayan's car (as I had stolen it to drive to the beach) and discovered a lethal 6" long weapon of a knife which I flourished in an act of triumph only to discover said girl had wandered over to see what the issue with my kit was and was now giving the both of us a very suspicious look while trying to sidle inconspicuously to her own car. 

Friday, my day off, coincided with some nice breeze the perfect strength for my kite and I had a great day although I did do a whole load of walking. In the end I spent nearly 5h out on the water and am consequently red in weird patches where I miss applied my sun cream. Most noticeably on the back of my hands which actually feel like I put a hot frying pan down on them. Lesson learnt. Now i'm back on another rig where nothing is happening. The well has losses (it is absorbing the mud we pump into it) which if we don't stop could lead to us having such reduced weight in the well that it could start to flow back on us (a kick) so we are sitting around monitoring stuff that I don't understand. Hopefully we will get started again soon because I am looking forward to getting back to the beach and living life again. 

Back to the UK

As I said when I was back "Wow, there are so many ugly people!" seriously what happened! I don't remember it being this bad. And I have spent the last 1 1/2 years working with sweaty, greasy, bald headed, fat, angry blokes with the worst teeth and personal problems you dare to dream up. Where did all the lookers go?

Any way, I did have such a fantastic time it's taken me at least two weeks to stop feeling horrifically depressed and get on with my life (well - work). It was great to see the lads in Aberdeen if only for one night an I'm sorry I didn't get the opportunity to get back up. 

A memorable night was going to the pub in Edinburgh and winning a raffle prize, after a bloke bought us two pints for finding his wallet, that resulted in me and Joe getting pretty hammered with the owner of a brewery based in Orkney. Much to the jealously of the bearded and anorak'd beer aficionado's who had obviously been waiting for this night and had turned up with specially prepared questions for Rupert (or Roger, I cannot remember) about hops and brewing technicalities rather than Joe or I who winged it with "Yea yea, I can really smell the Grapefruit in this one". Rupert was a great guy who had started out on an Aerospace Engineering course at university before realizing that he hated uni and loved beer and took a job as a laborer in a brewery 20 years ago. He now runs The Highland Brewing Company making some damn fine beer's and left me and Joe with our new favorite quote "I want to go the opposite direction to the pub, how do I do that?". 

After Scotland I popped into London where I discovered I have actually been living in a cave with a blanket over my head and my finger in my ears. I am now completely lost when it comes to technology, London seemed more like a city from a movie with everybody navigating themselves around with some kind of app on various phones, hailing cabs and checking the new trendy, retro, totaly sheek bar to go to. I spent 10 minutes trying to turn on a iPad before giving up and scratching myself like the ape that I have devolved into. 

Felixstowe had not changed by any noticeable means what so ever and after 1 day I was already chomping at the bit to move on but it was nice to see Mum, Dad and the two Granddad's and relax for a bit. This was also the point where the weather changed from the "drought" (Ha - my arse!) to the most miserable howling storm I've seen in well a year and a half. But that did mean Dom took me out for a windsurf! 

So, Ill be back in the summer hopefully for the big wedding - looking forward to it! 

2 Job's in Norway - DONE!

Working in Norway was amazing. I would even go as far as saying that I really enjoyed the work out there as well as the life back onshore. The difference between Abu Dhabi and the North Sea (and Barents Sea!) was even bigger than I could have imagined. The technology and engineering that is prevalent up there is mind blowing. I spent a week on Statfjord A a production platform just offshore Bergen and then 2 more on Transocean Barents a semisub 300km north of Hammerfest.

Statfjord A was absolutely enormous and staying on the platform is more like staying in a fairly nice hotel. I was also demoted back to a MWD as the other engineers out there usually have more than 4 or 5 years experience. This was definitely necessary as I had no idea about half the operations the clients wanted us to run, this combined with me stuffing my face at every meal and getting generally over excited at everything probably made me look like a bit of a simpleton but it was damn great to be out the desert!

Transocean Barents was the more interesting of the two rigs. This rig is super modern and everything on it is automated and huge in comparison to what I was used to. The other big difference was that this is a dual derrick rig. So we would be expected to prepare and pick up the tools for the next run while the rig was drilling the current one - this really does not give justice to how quickly this rig could operate and how tough it was preparing our tools so they would be ready for the next run. It is literally like have two rigs next to each other with them taking it in turns to drill the same well. There were several days where I barely entered the unit and even when I did it was usually to pick up some documents or equipment I needed and these are 16h days in -6 deg weather with the wind so strong you would get blow sideways across the deck.

The funny thing is that I loved it, the well was an exploration well and it was truly out in the middle of nowhere. It really felt like you were involved in something big and important and were out there at the cutting edge working against the elements in the wild winds of the arctic. It was a fantastic experience and justified why I wanted to work in this industry and I would be happy to go back if I get another opportunity.