In memoriam

For the Montreal Canadiens' 100th anniversary, the organisation was selling commemorative plaques that would be put at the new Centennial Place they've built by the Bell Center.

I figured it would make sense to get one for my grand-father, who was just about as old as the club itself.. making him their oldest fan, for the longest time.

The plaques have finally been laid out... and I stopped by to see it yesterday.

When I ordered it, I asked them if they could place it by Maurice Richard's statue my grand-pa's favorite player of all time... the guy wasn't too convince they could, but incredibly they remembered and did it!

So here it is... a token of the Ferland's family "fandom" set in stone for History :P

that's where it is

That's what it says:
In memory of
Jacques Ferland
unconditional fan
from 1912 to 2007

My mom and uncles were very moved (I didn't tell them I was doing this), I just feel it's right :P

WOW!!!

When looking for a condo/duplex to buy, I was thinking of the biggest flaw most places have in Montreal... small windows...

I'm used to live in a glass house and a reduction in natural light is not acceptable for me.. I need my sun!

So I was thinking of ways I could go around this and thought of grow lights... the kind used for indoor plants in the winter so they don't die. They now sell those lights for humans too, to alleviate winter depression (caused by lack of vitamin D absorption)... so I could carve "windows" in windowless plaster walls, put those lights in and place a cool picture in front (like a beach...) with a frame.

Well somebody beat me to the punch; and if I can't get unit 551 and its two full walls of windows, I'll get fake windows and ceiling from THEM!!! check the website, seriously! I'm flabbergasted!!!

This is what they do... the lights are sunlight imitation (same wave frequencies and all)... you'll never need a lamp again!!!

Wall treatment...
and I'm getting this for my bedroom ceiling!!!! wowowowowowow!!!

or maybe this one... ... or maybe I'll ask them if they can print one of my Utila pics..

and you can also get programmable lights that change with the time of day (from sunrise to sunset) the frequencies change so the colors do to!

This is f****n genius!!!!
I WANT IT!!!

homygodhomygodhomygod!!!!!

I just had the most expensive shopping day of my life!!!!

I bought a coat, a pair of pants, a backpack... and... A CONDO!!!!!!!!!!!

It was so nerve wrecking! The new phase of my future home was on sale at noon today... some people had been in line since 11pm last night! :O
When I got there, at 11am, they were giving tickets to pass people in order of arrival... my number was 47! :S There's about 100 condos, but half of them are tiny and uninteresting...

After looking at the plans, there was only 3 units I really wanted, one smaller on the 10th floor, with an awesome view of downtown; one very big on the 5th floor, too expensive for me but mom and dad said they would help if need be; and one on the 3rd floor, big and surprisingly not expensive same price as the smaller one on the 10th actually :P.
Some of the units have redundancy more than one available on each floor, but of course none of the ones I wanted did.

So I waited for my turn.. watching the units disappear as people reserved them... my stress level rising to the point of hysteria... Two of them were gone, my first choice by default on the 3rd floor because the one on the 5th is, really, a bit too expensive but goddamn it's HOT! was still there... I was praying all my ancestors to put a blindfold on it so no one would notice it... AND IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!

They finally called my number and unit 351 was still available!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I was never so happy to write a 5000$ check in my life not that I've done many of those before :P

So now I'm waiting... all the units are reserved, but there will be a lot of movement in the next few weeks... people change their minds, don't get approve for mortgages, etc. I gave my name for the 5th floor one.... and now that I have the official parental seal of approval.. if it becomes available it will be MINE!!! if not, the one I have now is awesome too :P

I HAVE A CONDO!!!! WITH A POOL, BEAUTIFUL GARDENS, SPA, SAUNA, GYM, POOL TABLE, FIREPLACE AND GIANT SCREEN, ALL ON THE ROOF!!! and a view of downtown to kill for too :)

*happy HAPPY happy HAPPY happy dance!!!*

Ho and my future neighbours are hot too judging by the people I saw today... all young professionals from 30 to 40yo... the scenery by the pools (yes, pools) should be statuesque :D

one annoying thing... I'll need to be really patient cause phase 7, where I'll live, will only be ready in Spring 2011! :S a year and a half to wait... I will die of impatience, but it will give me time to get a bigger down payment and more time for people to change their minds so I can snag unit 551 :P

So check out my new home here (phase 7 should be online soon)

... and this is one of the views! XD

!!!!Hurray for me!!!! :D

I'm home! yipee!!!

and I'm getting organized for DISNEY!!!

Went shopping :P got 3 skirts for the price I usually pay for one gotta love those end of season sales :D and found socks to replace my melted ones...

Now that all the purchasing is done, I can abuse espresso and martinis in peace for the next week...

I got almost everything checked off on my to-do-before-Florida list

:)

gniarrrrg

You know what's more annoying than over assured know-nothing-know-it-all?

Incoherent over assured know-nothing-know-it-all...

big cheeze

Suncor's the new name for Petro-Canada VP is here this week.. we just had a meeting where he explained the objectives for this place in the next few years... Nice guy, cool Scottish accent

It's funny when you see business men pushing their agenda and passing not so subtle messages to the company they're trying to get more deals with... made me giggle anyway :P

At least the East Coast is one of the leader for environmental safety... not even at a third of their allowed spills quota... wonder what it's like on the west coast of Africa.. and in the Gulf for that matter....

guess I wont be cleaning oily seagulls anytime soon :) I better not! >:(

1...

... more shift and I'm going hooooooooome!!!! XD

but... there's 2 flight per day, one in the afternoon, one in the evening... and the weather gods are predicting 6+ visibility all week... except for tomorrow afternoon/evening, where they say: scattered fog periods going from 6+ to 0.3/2 nautical miles... the chopper needs like 2 minimum to land on the helipad :S

grr arg.. who did I piss off up there to get such retribution?

ET phone home

Since my other means of communication do not seem to work...

home? do we have new floors yet?
I haven't received the price list for the Rene-Levesque condos...
I will txt my ETA in Montreal when I get in St.John's sometime Thursday

ok?

fashionably late

Tonight was suppose to be my last shift, but I'm going home only on Thursday.

It's my regular crew change day, that got all messed up because of the "suit issue"... the boat for "suit people" was on Tuesday... but since I now have a perfect seal around my face I can travel by chopper again and go back to the normal day.

More days offshore = more money... that should keep me sane for these last two shifts... cause I think motivation to smile, give my 110%, do stuff has left with Bill ;)

Bill remnants

Bill has passed with no major harm but he left some wave action... we're still at 5m swell, so the sub is in the water and will stay there for a while.

Watching the Newfoundland news this morning was interesting... "So the storm has only brushed us and is now heading out to sea, so it's all good"
yeah... all good... thanx... :S *grabbing the walls so I don't end up on the floor*

It didn't look too bad when I came out of the van at 6am, but we're high up so perspective is deceiving. I walked around the rig, a hand on my about to blow off hard hat. I thought it was nothing, bit of wind, bit of rain, bit of ok, mighty big waves, until I got on the SW side, where there's no big structure to block the wind :P yaiks!! I was suddenly walking twice as fast, with the help of some windy gusts pushing me forward.
Then I licked my lips and realized it wasn't raining after all... the water on my face was salt water, brought up from 30m below by Bill :/

I retreated inside and turned on cctv closed-circuit tv! to watch the moonpool live... funny, you see the wave coming on the screen and feel the heave 5 seconds later when it hits outside of the camera range

So that's it... wasn't too bad.. but now I'm curious to see what winter will be like :S

Bill? bof....

It's starting to swing a little but nothing crazy...
we just lost our satellite tv too much swing makes the sat signal go byebye... which sucks cause there was a Criminal Minds marathon on A&E that was making babysitting the rov and doing modules much more interesting :S

It's too dark and I can't believe it foggy to see the waves below at the moment, I should have a peep at it when going in after my shift, at 6am. The peak of the storm is suppose to be from 6 to 9am...

... but for now looks like Bill the hurricane is full of hot air HAha... gimme a break I've been up all night :P

countdown....

Only 2 weeks 'till...

wooooooooooohoooooooohoooooooohoooooooo!!!!!

the Husky

There is a new guy on the rig that stands out big time even though he's about 5' tall ok maybe 5'8"

He's really tan obviously he's not from around here ;) and has impressively clear gray/green eyes... like a husky :P
He always wear an "army green" tight t-shirt that shows off two full sleeves of tattoos. With his body builder shape, shaved head and mean look no mustache! I have no idea what he's doing here.. he belongs on Prison Break!

Strangely enough, he's not an obnoxious alpha male! When saying hello he doesn't stare people down like you would assume he'd do... he looks at you then at the ground... go figure...

Anyway, if there are any talent agents reading this, come to the HGR to find your next bad-ass-guy-tv-star :)

Don't hire him!

... and who the hell is "they" anyway?
He gets blame for a lot of stuff all the time everywhere it seems...

you don't know s***

You know what's annoying?
When someone contradicts you with a lot of conviction, so you don't argue because you assume they know what they're talking about... and it turns out they don't and you were right.

imaginary ex:
-This goes up I think I've seen it before and it was up, so I can assume this one should too no?
-No, no, this goes down!
-err... you sure 'bout that?
-yes yes, down!

turn the thing upside down, all its insides fall out and break

-well... erm... maybe they've changed it... it used to be down... yes... they fucked it all up!
-huh huh...
*leaves the scene thinking either I have no credibility or men are over assured idiots*

Bill's arrival

Looks like Bill will be here Sunday night/Monday morning... but will hit St.john's more than us.

We'll still get some wind and wave action, and will leave the sub in the water according to rig procedure in case something goes wrong and they need us, but it shouldn't be too bad.

... and the weather forecast looks good for Wednesday :) woohoo!

Hoho she's a teenager now! ;)

J'aurais aimé ca etre la aujourd'hui, mais ca va aller a jeudi prochain! :S


Alors en attendant les vrais, voici

un hug virtuel :




un gateau virtuel :
et un cadeau virtuel (que tu sais deja c'est quoi :P) :


Passe une belle journée, fais le party, et on s'organise quelque chose a mon retour!
J't'aime fort!!!!
xxx

PS: dans presque 2 semaines ♪ on s'en va a Dis-ney!! ♪ on s'en va a Dis-ney!! ♪
<:)

Oscar's wisdom

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her -Oscar Wilde

Well that sure explains a LOT!!!

:S

Wilde also said : I can resist anything but temptation ... I like him :)

Bill's attack

Hurricane Bill is on its way to Newfoundland.. and guess who's right on its path? ME! :S

And who's gonna get all sorts of bruises bumping into walls like a drunken idiot while the rig gets rocked around like a cork on high seas and strong wind? ME!! :(

Hopefully it'll die down before it gets here... but since it should arrive sometime between Monday and Wednesday guess who might get f***ed for the chopper who tends to stay grounded when a hurricane hits ride home on Wednesday ? ME!!! >:(

grr arg :/

I'm late for my countdown!!!

Only 3 weeks (minus 2 days) 'till...

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

reminiscence

I'm thinking a lot about Utila these days... it's been two years already... time flies...

Some people I met there are still good friends, others pop in and out of the picture occasional emails or when I see the highlights of their life on Facebook... it's amazing to see how everybody has moved on since 2007... divorces, marriage, babies, more traveling, new jobs, relocation to another country because of a relationship that formed on the island and is still going today! It hurts more than I like to admit that I'm not part of that last category :(

Diving every day, dancing every night... it was so much fun!
Listen to "into the night" (Santana with Chad Kroeger) it embodies the spirit of Utila perfectly...

I miss it and, colisse, I miss him

I freeze my a**

...but I get to see things like this...

click to enlarge the sunrise :P

I think it's worth it
the a** freezing I mean :)

Playing for change

I've seen this group on The Colbert Report last week... one CD you want to buy, not download....



Really good initiative, check their website here... they're touring the USA this fall... I'm thinking of going to see them in New York or Albany in October.... I should be home on those dates :)

quote of the day (not sure which day though :P)

Hunting is not a sport
A sport is when both sides know they're playing

I'd love to see a deer with a shot gun, trying its luck on the hunters... mmmm sweet sweet payback :)

hot? no, hawt!

On the HGR, we don't have to do laundry, the Transocean crew does it for us, we have mesh bags with a tag indicating our room number; we bring it to the laundry room and a couple of hours later it's hung on our door knob, with our stuff cleaned, dried and folded in it.... but
I never wash my clothes here cause they have industrial washer/dryer which tend to reduce clothes' lifespan from a year to about 5 minutes. I bring enough stuff so I don't need to.. I'm not THAT much of a slob... come on!

But yesterday I had new sheets on my bed... as in just out of the package still reeking of that comforting chemical dyes/petroleum smell... so I put them out to wash and decided to throw in a couple of pair of socks as a try out...

When I got them back, they looked like this :

They .... have .... MELTED!!!

You can boil tied up polyester and the creases become permanent as I've done many times to add texture to fabric for costumes but you do not get the hard pieces of plastic that my socks now have... The only way to achieve those is with a heat gun aka hot enough to melt paint! !!!

That gives an idea of the temperature in the dryer...

Am I glad I haven't put anything else to wash ya think? :S

REALLY unfortunate facial hair

There is a common theme of mustaches around here... everyone has them.. even some of the female employees :P
I better watch wash? my face carefully... maybe it's contagious... I hope not!

unfortunate facial hair

The George Clooney look-alike has grown a mustache, thus ending is look-alikeness... sad...

one woman show

This trip is turning out very productive for me...

Even though, operation wise, we're at a stand still, I'm getting loads of flying time, stretching bullseyes checks and GVI general visual inspection to the max. I practice skills, like flying while zoomed in, dealing with currents and vertical stability as in not bobbing up and down like a drunk bumble bee.

I'm also working the winch now, for launch and recovery of the ROV. After doing it a couple of times I don't need a live feed of instructions anymore and am running this show like a pro :P that is until I'll crash the sub in the flare boom.. but let's hope that wont happen... hehe

the smell of french fries in the morning...

guess what?! FFC fastfoodcook formerly known as bad cook is back!
The especially strong smell of grease in my bedroom last night introduced the news to my sleepy brain :S
The choice of nachos/pizzas/macandcheeze for lunch confirmed the arrival later on...

I'm outside now, and the french fries perfume still follows me around as it's been slowly embedded in my clothes for the past 8 hours...

The menu on the wall always underlines the "healthy choice" of the day... when those choices are baked potatoes healthy compared to french fries maybe? garlic shrimps swimming in butter and overcooked canned veggies aka corn and green peas! it makes you wonder where they've found their definition of healthy on the Kraft web site maybe? ...

On the bright side, some of the water pipes have been changed, so the cold water went from a dark pumpkin tint to a less threatening looking pale lemon :) still not gonna drink it though :P

woah purty!

There is nothing more beautiful than a sunrise over the ocean...

except maybe a sunset over the ocean :P

muh

Beautiful and sunny today, with whales frolicking around the rig all afternoon...

but they were gone by the time I came out for my night shift...

n.o.t. f.a.i.r. :(

home coming

On the departure list that just came out, I am schedule to leave on Wednesday August 26th...

if there is no fog and a place for me on the plane that night, I'll see ya in 2 weeks!
(and then it'll be less than 2 weeks before D-I-S-N-E-Y!!!!)

XD

<8)

When someone is better looking with his hard hat and safety glasses on... well.. it's sad really :P

ocd frenzy

Since it was pouring rain at 6pm, I decided to go do some modules in 148 that's our super cute and shiny new rov control van.

I got there and tried to set my laptop by the computer.. there was no space... the printer, the phone, wires, some speakers, a bunch of papers, the keyboard were all in a clusterf**k from hell, leaving about 5 square inch of work space on a regular size desk.

So I went in a reorganisation frenzy...

The computer itself was on the ground, propped on two foam blocks that were slowly dying away, so I made a metal shelf and fixed it on the side, under the desk 6inch above the floor. Then I moved the printer on the file cabinet, fixed the phone on the wall, and installed a wall pocket right by it for all the loose paper, found some velcro so I fixed the speakers on the wall too.... I made sense of all the wires and ty-wrapped them neatly at the back of the desk... and now I'm exhausted :P

The channeled Feng Shui has died down... I have plenty of space to set my laptop and work on modules.. but my shift is over... hehehe

I should have taken before and after pictures :S
I'm especially happy with my PC shelf, lined with rubber and all, it's a work of art :)

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy

I saw a bunch of jellyfish with their lights on :)
Two different kind, drifting by, with their own lil private disco show going on

They're pretty, but I like them better when there's a camera, an rov, 200m of tether and a pilot van between us :P
and there's no way I'd try bouncing on them! XD

fly flyyy flyyyyyyyyy

I've had 4 hours of piloting time today!!! woohoo!!!

Nothing was going on really, so when I got tired of inspecting the same stack over and over, I started zooming in on crabs and tried to follow them :P

They're UGLY!!!! I saw one hunting, trying to catch the tidily-shrimps running by, but most of them were just staring back at me well, at my camera with an air of "whatchoo think you're looking at dumbass?"

Trying to follow something that moves, when you're zoomed all the way in, is harder than it sounds... any little movement makes the screen go wooooooooooosh! and you lose your target. It's also stressful at first cause you think you're too close and you try not to squash the little guy... then you realize when you zoom out that you're actually half a mile away from it and nowhere near crounch point. So don't call Greenpeace yet, I haven't killed anything and have no intention to do so :P

countdown

4 WEEKS TILL....

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! XD

numbers game

I've been looking at a couple of condos I'd like to live in, right smack in downtown Montreal and some in the surrounding areas no more than 20 blocks away from the center of my universe aka corner of St-Denis/Sherbrooke st, trying to figure out if I could afford the price... under 250 you don't get much more than a closet and I need SPACE!!!!

Now that I have all the associated expenses figured out, the answer is.... I don't know!!!

I'm playing with numbers and it changes a lot depending on how I look at it... I do work only 6 months of the year, but I also don't spend a dime during those 6 months, for the simple reason that I'm in the middle of the ocean, away from any store, restaurant or coffee shop :P...

Also... do I want a duplex I can rent out so half my mortgage gets paid by someone else :P or do I want a condo with pool, gym and roof patio where I can meet people and have parties...

Since both options are about the same price I'm listing the pros and cons and what is my maximum bottom line if I still want to have a life like travel, buy clothes, shoes and gadgets... all those primordial things ya know...

And in that line of thought... I have a serious commitment phobia when it comes to tying myself down to a bank for 10, 15, 20 or 25 years!!!! that means I really have to keep a steady income coming for a quarter of a century though hopefully, with a couple of raise, I might reduce that time significantly...

what to do what to do...

I. j.u.s.t d.o.n.'t. k.n.o.w.!!!!!

staying in

A foggy and rainy day....

is a perfect day....

to stay in the control van...

warm and cozy...

and catch up...

on the godamn DVDs!!!!!!!!!
(that-no-one-updated-since-I-left-so-I-have-2-weeks-of-editing-to-do-arg)

new me

I figured the South Park me could used a new twist.. so here's me, wearing the proper PPE personal protective equipment but still manage to fell off the rig and am now swimming in the North Atlantic :P

ghost town

All the people who were here for the completion have left and since the rig is drilling, the POB personnel on board is at a minimum... which turns it into an eerie quiet place...

Last time I was here all the tables in the cafeteria were full and it was LOUD!!! Now, everybody could sit at a different table and there would still be some to spare...

HGR now stands for Henry Ghost Rig :P

Yay!

I finally made it to HRG, after a boomerang ride that's when the helicopter leaves St.John's on a foggy day, hoping it will magically clear out by the time we get to the rig, but of course it doesn't, so we can't land and we go back to St.John's, turning a 1h15 flight into a 3h uncomfortable nightmare... and 20h in a seriously rocking boat.

I wasn't even suppose to be on the chopper... but my custom made suit magically lots of magic involved in this trip :P appeared Monday night, so I had a message at the hotel (when I arrived at 1am) to be at the heli-port for 6am... deja vu all over again godamnit instead of at the harbour for 6pm...

So again no sleep, got in the chopper, took a 3h ride for nothing, waited all day and got on the boat with the rest of the suit-issues-people anyway... ironic...

Obviously, internet isn't cut off! :)
I'm just not allowed to talk about where we are.. which isn't hard cause the more precise I could get would be : water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

:P

going dark?

I'm leaving tonight... should be on the Goodrich by Wednesday...

if you don't hear from me for the next 3 weeks it'll be because they'll have cut internet access while they explore their big secret hole in the ground... I don't know if they have or not...

So see ya in a couple of days... or around August 26th :P

hop

I'm going back to St.John's on Monday... that was a short stay home but it's ok cause it'll be a lot of fun to work this time and all my friends are leaving town on vacations anyway :P ...

I will still be counting the minutes because when I go home next it will be time to go to

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!WOOHOO!!!!!!