snow day!!!

I'm having my first day off-offshore :P

We went out as usual tonight I'm on the 6pm-6am shift, but around 8pm came this announcement on the PA system "all personnel please stay clear of the main deck because of strong winds, that's all personnel, do not go outside until further notice"

So we went back in... and that's it! Winds are getting stronger and stronger... with high seas and snow blowing everywhere... all this is suppose to peak around 10 tomorrow morning and slowly come down during the day I'm very glad to be staying inside... with choices of tv in the lounge, Wii in the cinema, internet in the conference room and endless food in the galley... and since I have a room to myself this trip, I can even go for a shower and nap if I want :P

tough life really... but considering I froze my ass for 12h straight the last 2 days, I'll say I deserve the break :P

frozen solid

I've been working outside for the past two nights.. it's -7c, windchill of -28c... I'M COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!!!!!!!! Even inside the rig it's freezing... my room sticks at 14c if I turn the heater off.. so that's the temperature I face outside my door :(

And outside, along with fighting the blowing snow and icy sidewalks, I need a friggin heatgun to loosen the quick disconnects who are frozen shut the heat gun also does a good job of warming my fingers and face :P

this job would be so great if it was 27c instead of -27c

v.e.r.y. u.n.p.l.e.a.s.a.n.t. >:(

off I go

Going offshore today, for the rest of my hitch...
hopefully they haven't cut internet and the phones they always get a bit touchy when drilling a new well
I should be back in town Feb 11th
wonder how fast 10 days instead of 21 out there will go by :)

Made it this far!

I just realized that Wednesday was my one year anniversary of working offshore! So I found an orange cake to match my ho-so-fashionable coveralls and jacket! 8)

A year ago I was on the Atlantic Osprey, facing 17m waves, listening to stuff banging around and wondering if it was the norm out there :P

The year has gone by waaaay too fast! Something about splitting your time in two makes it go at lightning speed. Good news is, I wouldn't have it any other way I'd rather die than do the whole 9 to 5 bit though I wouldn't mind crunching all the offshore time from January to May and then take the summer off :P
3 months off, 3 months on sounds better than 3 weeks on 3 weeks off... .... especially if you can do the 3 months on somewhere around the Equator hehehe...

try it without gps...

I've been navigating the crazy, narrow, winding streets of St.John's in both a minivan and a massive pickup truck. I wanted to find a way to convey what this means.. and while browsing google map it kinda jumped off the screen.. :P

...so here's downtown Montreal... and here's downtown St.John's

click on the pics for clearer/bigger image :P

and please note that this map does not display the many one ways and the elevations (everything is slanted, from mole hill to ski jumps angles) that are found all over downtown St.John's :P

Mystery solved... somebody took a regular city's map, crumpled it and turned that into St.John's layout!
:P

All hail the iphone!!!

I've been tackling the streets of St.John's for the past 2 days yes I now have one of the company cars to scoot around! ... driving around here is a serious challenge for any outsider... it has something to do with the absence of straight, flat roads. Everything either :
a)twists
b)turns
c)goes up
d) goes down
e)all of the above

And this morning I learned another tip... don't follow signs for the TransCanada Highway! They will not lead you to it, but will make you follow it two streets below, where you get traffic, street lights and speed limit of 50km/h!! :S I wasted 20 minutes following signs, before yelling screw this and opening my phone fitted with GPS

So, with maps not showing the ups and down, signs getting you away from where you're trying to go and streets changing names 3 times along the way and Google Map forgets to mention this! :0 the only option for expats like me is.... the wonderful, beautiful, reliable IPHONE!!!! or a GPS My "around me" application has been showing me the way all day! How to get on the highway, where to find lunch, how to get to the hotel from a co-worker's place that I just dropped off...

♡♡♡♡ I LOVE MY PHONE!!!!!!!! ♡♡♡♡

:)

un-be-lie-va-ble!

I found one thing St.John's has over everywhere I've been before except maybe Ottawa...

You can close your eyes and cross the street anywhere corner or not without getting hit by a car or yelled at by the driver!
I was waiting to cross, when two guys just passed me and kept walking... and all the cars stopped!!! I mean they really s.t.o.p.p.e.d.!!! and did so BEFORE getting within hitting distance!!!
In Montreal those guys would have been pancaked! O_o

I was just standing there, my mouth open, thinking out loud "you can do that?! people will stop?! wow!" :P

make the most of it they say :)

I may have reached total decadence...
considering that I should be offshore, in a freezing, alcohol-free environment, but that I'm on standby in a hotel downtown St.John's instead.. and that I just called room service to order a martini...
hum... maybe not so much total decadence as total laziness :P

It can never be simple

I was all pumped up at the idea of going back to the rig.. I was on 6-6 nights, would be working with the people I get along best with.. no changing schedule halfway, no not knowing what's going on.. all good and fluffy...

So, of course, it had to fuck up

When I got to the airport hotel, I was told the guy I'm releiving on the rig had been there earlier in the day huh?! and that he had canceled the reservation... Since I've been at this hotel regularly they just rebooked me for the night.

Once in the room, I checked my email.. to find out that I was supposed to go at the hotel downtown instead, cause the rig was down manning and I would be on standby, maybe going on the Osprey, maybe going to the shop... so I canceled the room, took a cab downtown and called the rig.

Somebody realized the lifeboats were planned with people weighting 75kg... a lot less than the average rig worker! so until they figure out what to do with this, they've sent about 20 people home.. and since I was coming today, they sent my opposite home a day early and I'm staying in St.John's.

So I'm going to the office tomorrow, and I have no idea what's gonna happen next. All my gear is on the rig so it will have to be sent in town if I'm going to work in the shop... but one thing is sure, my night shift is now history since one of the day guys will have to go on nights now and won't want to change back when if I get there >:(

not happy...

Saturday night reflection

Sometimes I wonder...
Am I leading a straight life in a lopsided world,
or do I have an askew perception in a straight world?

wouhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

Saw Jeff Dunham yesterday...

HMG!!!! I've never laughed so hard for so long in one single show!!! The guy is insane!!! And we had the best places of all! 6th row center!!! There was a giant screen for the poor people sitting in the bleachers, but we were up close for the real deal! :P The show was 2 hours, felt like 5 minutes! no lull, no breaks, all the material kept on the same level of hilarious for the whole show!

Walter, the grumpy old fart, had one of my favorite quote of the show... talking about the wii fit...
"Is your wii white? and it corrects everything you do? I have one of those... it's a wii-ife" :P

I found parts of the show already online... visual sucks, but you can at least hear the text :P
you can find other bits easy enough by searching Jeff Dunham Ottawa :)

One impressive part... at the end he brought out Bubba J; he didn't have new material for him, but did a patchwork of his usual skip.. until he realized people in the crowd were calling the words before he did! He was speechless for 10 seconds and then just built on it, improvising as he went!

and here's a condensed version of Peanut's sketch, that was presented on Letterman a while ago:

holy crap...

... I wish I could keep this calm when speaking of the pile of s*** that is Rush Limbaugh... not that I speak of him often... I prefer to deny his existence as much as I can

Following that moron's and Pat Robertson's declarations on the Port-au-Prince earthquake/catastrophe, MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann gave this reply... he just made a fan...

But seriously... do these people have no shame?! deal with the devil?!?! what is this??? 1676?!?! can somebody PLEASE take the mics and cameras away from these moronic inbred haters!!! >:(