5 more days!

PS: ENTIRE ENTRY IS INCOHERENT. Tired girl typing you see.... Lists of things that I would be doing when I get home: (1) Go Shopping!!! (2) Treat my family to a nice dim sum meal (3) climbing. I totally miss hanging out at the gym. (4) jog outdoors. I am getting very very bored with the gym on the rig. (5) Eat supper with my jc mates (6) watch phantom of the opera with sistas! (7) Eat jap food with my sistas! (8) catch a Friday night movie with sistas! (9) okie, I promised a movie treat for someone (10) hair cut hahaha... my 28 days countdown has became a single-digit, single-hand countdown. 5 more days! Although I really like my life out here, it's just different being able to walk on land, be around different people everyday and mostly importantly, feel safe. To continue from my last entry, one of the most important lesson I have learnt till date is being able to detach oneself from the situation. Emotions is just one of them. I am able to detach but sometimes the detachment takes a longer period of time to set in. If you are looking from a guys' context, they can do it way better than me. I am female afterall. For example, the chef who left. I am beginning to miss his food. Today, I felt like there is no variety of food at all. I had been eating steak everyday since he left. zzzz.... it's one of the better food served here nowadays. Today, they finally ran casing into the hole. It's probably the most dangerous thing I have seen all my life. If any equipment failed or a slight miscommunication occurs, someone will get injured or die. I am not kidding nor am I exaggerating. It's going to be another sleepless night for most people. The casing should run till about 3 or 4am. Might be called up to watch cementing then. zzz... my status of "day shift" has been altered to "on-call" liao. Just the other night, I had to spend one hour in a DSV meeting. hahaha... anyway, I am beginning to like this career more and more everyday.... hahaha.... it's really late. 9pm! going to sleep.... will update more tmr!

Of people coming & leaving

As of now, my dearest TOILETMATE, DOG and one pakistani had left the rig! YESH!!!!

my current toiletmate is back to a female. Stranger. Yet to find out her name.

Let me go on regarding my toiletmate. He is seriously f***ed up lah... this morning, he left me a "farewell" note in the toilet. He urined all over the toilet bowl and left stains there. *sigh* I hate him.

Together with the top 3 occupiers of my hate list (there's one more pakistani left though), my favourite chef is leaving the rig for good. Ya! I love to peep at him during my afternoon tea breaks when he cooks. Then he will give me that motherly shoo-off whenever he catch me peeping. hahaha.... I think he's quite cute too! aiya, so sad...

Then I came to this conclusion that people whom I meet on the rig, be it nice or spiteful, are eventually to leave the rig one day and we probably never meet again. It is really a very mobile industry where people literally come and go between the days. I shouldn't have any sort of emotional attachments to people in this industry at all. Like my first mentor Roger Dean, he was a very patient teacher to James and I. But this time it would be his last hitch with Premium Drilling liao... moving on to greener pastures. Then, the pretty-faced chef just left. And on Sunday, it would also be Sylvester's last day with Premium Drilling.

Haii... sianz.....

I hate my toiletmate II

I just got back from the doghouse. They are running some wirelogs into the hole, thus, the driller is free! Don, the driller on noon shift, was there. The first question he asked me when I went in was, " What's with the fingernails?" Hahaha... I knew immediately what he was talking about- My Toiletmate from Hell. Apparently, the toiletmate was in the doghouse with the company's man. The company's man was talking to Don but Don was looking at the toiletmate instead. After the toiletmate left, the company's man said,"Don't ask." hahah.... So now, Don is asking people about the fingernails. Let's see for the 2 hours that I was there, we asked James, John, Piper and Toby. The last 3 guys gave the same answers. He's a cross-dresser, he's gay, he's a billie-boy. wahaha... Why? Everyone notices the way toiletmate walks. He prances around like he's wearing high-heels. =P See! I am not the only who can't see him in the right sense. 3cm fingernails are TOO LONG to be safe offshore. PS: It was said that he types with the tips of his fingernails. =)

I HATE MY TOILETMATE!

Yes, he's a guy. A guy with ultra-long fingernails (3cm at least) , long hair (past shoulder length), long beard (past his neck). He's near my age, fat and disgusting! FAT meaning that his waist is bigger than his slouching shoulders, making him look like a complete GIRL from behind lah.... He uses my body foam!!! freaking hell, I only just realised it last night. It is impossible that I have so little left 'cos the week before, I still have more than 1/2 the bottle left for use. I have thi evil plan in my head last night. On the last day of my hitch, I am going to get oil-based mud, mixed it with my body foam and leave the bottle for him to use. Wahaha... I hope he gets rashes from it! He is forever LOCKING me out of the toilet. Ya, both side of the toilets had to be locked when one's in use. I got locked out 3 times yesterday loh....Can you imagine that I was at the brink of a stomachache? Thankfully, James taught me how to unlock the doors using coins. And he's speaks so softly till it's barely audible. He has been borrowing my company's camera for the past 2 days and he can't even speak loud enough for me to hear. You know, in that, shy, girly voice. F***ing piece of shit.....

He doesn't clean up the toilet after bathing lah! The entire would be filled with his long hair... brat! I have to be his Maria TMD, that's my toiletmate for you.

pollution and gross behaviour

The other I was sharing with James that I realised if I am really going to continue my career in the oil and gas industry, I cannot be as environmental-friendly as I want to be.

Let's face it. I am one of those Singaporean who was brought up not to litter the streets, not to spit in public etc.

What I see here is alarming lah... 'MUD' is a form of lubricating fluid that is used to for drilling and clearing cuttings. There's 2 types. The water-based ones and the oil-based ones. Currently, we are using water-based mud for drilling. The mud is said to be environmentally friendly once treated, thus, it can be dumped into the sea. But seriously, if I were to go by my conscience, I would be lying to myself. Just today, at the area where they dump mud and cuttings, I could see a thin layer of oil floating on the sea. It's just not right. Then we have people who throw cigarrette butts into the sea. *sigh* It's a sad thing to see so many things happening that I can't do anything about.

But there was something I could do about. I saw that DOG spitting tabacco leaves on the rig floor while working. In fact, once, the spit almost landed on James' face. I decided to put in a STOP card about him. Roughly, I wrote something like," Saw a Smith Operator spitting tabacco leaves on the rig floor. If he had some form of contagious disease like SARS, the whole rig would have been infected by now." He stopped talking to me after that. hahaha.... I must mention, he's an American. =P apparently, they don't teach health education over there.

Man, I am damn proud to be a Singaporean!

the people on the rig!

SEE HOW SLIM I AM!!! I lost 1.3kg so far!!! WAH LAU...I seriously miss the food in sg, especially chicken rice and jap food. Think people can easily this on my nic on msn. Oh. I miss home cooked food too! I am so tired of those western soup, give me clear soup ANYTIME man...

Paiseh for the lack of updates. Somehow I have been a bit busier lately. Currently, am doing quite a bit of paper, therefore the time to update.

Hmm.. let me introduce you to some interesting people I met on the rig so far.

The 1st photo above is my rig manager, Guy. He's been a really good boss and teacher to me in my 17 days on the rig so far. Very patient person. He broke his leg a few months ago so he walks with a limp nowadays. According to James, a lot of people think he's quite arrogant. Frankly, I see his arrogance as his confidence. He has my respect man...

The 2nd in line would be the John. He's the assistant rig manager. He's quite a cynic on the whole. My gosh, he's a gadgets FREAK can. Who can own a 62" plasma tv and 5 other tvs at home? Oh, he's the one who owns 6 cars at home. He eats once a day only, at lunch. He hates clear soup and anything with sauces... hahaha...

Darco, a croatian driller. I have spent of days trying to understand his eastern european-accented english. If you watch Big Fat Greek, you would understand. He's really huge, very very tall. At first, I used to think that he can eat me up anytime. SERIOUS. He's that scary. He's got this weird fetish with mommies (meaning prostitutes), particularly the chocolate type.

Oh.. I have to tell you about this weird quack from SMITH Services. James and I call him Dog. He's at least 55 years old with an extremely young girlfriend. When I first came on board, he was practically hitting on me in front of James lah.... Alyssa would call him a DIRTY OLD MAN. He spents most of his time surfing this 360 website looking for young girls to chat with and he even showed James some pornographic pictures of his gfs!! zzzz....

There's this HSE officer called LK. Wahlau, he's the drama king of the whole lot. He's really passionate about his job as the safety officer lah... everytime I heard him speak, I feel like I am going through some kind of emotional cycle with him....

2 Pakistanis from Sperry Sun. They are one of those I don't like. Big time slackers + angmoh-indian-accented english. Enough said... I had an exchange with one of them the other day. He was gloating about how good the banking system is in Canada. Pity, he didn't understand that Singapore is the financial hub in Asia. I just literally shot him down and he stopped talking to me after that...

We have a big snake on board too. And it's really fun to catch him slacking around. Everytime he sees James and I, he would get up from his position and walk away. Got once he caught James and I following him, I think he was really scared then. Could see his panicky expression at that instant.

Otherwise, most of the guys on the rig are pretty regular.... shit! I just got paged! going downstairs now....

got caught not for holding handrails

wah lau.. sianz... I remembered I promised an entry on the weird quakes I get on the rig. But I am a little busy to wright a lengthy entry. ahaha... have to book rooms for my krabi trip leh. I got caught not using handrails when I was going up the stairs from the galley (ie. canteen) by the company's man, GARY. KNS... we had a wedger. If I ever catch him not using the handrails, he will give me $50. On the other hand, if he catches me again, I am going to get fine $10. zzzz.... the mud engineer told me that he mentioned it during the evening meeting. *sigh* Tmr morning, I am probably going to get it from Guy liao... anyway, on a brighter outlook, I went up the to the derrick layer with john today! wahaha.... Yes I was 90ft off the ground. Oh ya, I am going to try to use the imperial nowadays because most of the oil industry goes by it. 90ft=30m. =P it may not sound high but it was very windy and shaky up there. I didn't take much photos though. hahaa

why am I working on a SUNDAY!!!

Sundays are supposed to be rest days right? No! not on the rig.I was just beginning to feel a little homesick earlier this morning. Boo-hoo... I miss home. =P I miss Fridays nights with my sistas, supper with my JC classmates, climbing with my playmate, going to the supermarket with my parents or just chilling out alone. I didn't realised that I have been away from home for 2 weeks liao, I thought it was 1 week only. I still have 3 more weeks to go. GAMBATTE SOPHIA!

But seriously, I am thankful that I have James here with me. He has been a good companion despite me suaning him most of the times. You know, you get to talk in the singaporean-way where people won't really understand. Like TMD, KNS lah. hahaha.... if we want some privacy and don't want anyone else to listen, we start to speak in chinese. Damn funny. We give people nicknames in chinese too! (just like in office) hahaha....

aiya, I think I have been thinking about home 'cos I am not tired enough. The last 4 days, I have been sitting beside the driller observing what he does and how he thinks. Charlie (a Filipino) does the morning 12-12 shift and Darco (Croatian) does the night one.

I have to go for the weekly safety meeting soon! I will tell you more about the kind of people I have met on the rig in the next entry! ahhahaah... they are seriously all kinds of weird case. hahaha....maybe if I can get them to post for pictures for me! ahahah

A more insight view of the rig

The rig floor.

That's where all the action is. The guy is guiding the connection between 2 drill pipes .

Doghouse

That's where the driller works. See his cyberchair! Damn cool right? hahaha.... nowadays everything automated liao. So you gotta have a bit of education to operate the system.

From the derrick floor.

The derrick floor is part of the drill floor. Just at the top of the drill pipes. 90ft from ground. James got to go up to the derrick and all the way up to the crown today. He should thank me that it was sunny today. Since I am known far and wide as the sunny goddess...wahaha


From the top of the rig floor. A plan view of DD2!

From the helideck.

hahaha...I am lousy lah. Since people take photo from the crown, I will take from the helideck. Siao siao...it's still 5 storeys high loh. hahaha... I was up there with James after dinner. We had a good chat. Frankly, I quite like rig life. Money is good, free food, free accomodation and you get to meet with people from all over the world. You work a good hard day in the sun, surrounded by nothing but the sea. That's life! I was just sharing with James about how 10 years back I would never have dreamt of graduating from university and how 6 months ago I would never have imagined myself on an offshore rig today. One of the many marvels of life. You think in 10 years time, I might become Rig Manager? hahaha... it's going to be one of my many dreams. But who knows.... I just found out the assistant rig manager has a flight of cars from mitsubishi to posche? When's my turn?!?! Man, I am going to work hard to live it all !!!

some pictures of the rig

Derrick. That's where the actually drilling takes place.

the catwalk that leads up to the derrick. That's where they transport the casing up onto derrick.

derrick view in the evening.

Excursion into the Lifeboat

J.Hebert and I-outside the lifeboat

The interior of the lifeboat

To orientate us around the rig better, Guy(rig manager) got us to go around to jot down the expiry dates of some of the emergency equipments. We manage to get hold of the Barge engineer, James Hebert, (yes, on this rig we have 4 James *rolls eyes*) to help us to locate the equipments. He hooked up the secure line for the lifeboat and we got into it. It's damn small but big enough to load 66 people which is insane. The manufacturer make the size according to normal human size. They never take into account that in the offshore industry, it's made up of guys with HUGE beer bellies. Zzzz.... freaking stuffy as well. Oh well, it's made in a certain 3rd world country which I decline to name. It starts with 'C'. =P J.Hebert really makes a fantastic tour guide. hahaha.... he told us quite a couple of tales revolving around life boat inspection. In fact, he is thinking of getting us into it when he does it within the next few days. Sounds really fun to lower the lifeboats for a little ride around the rig. Hopefully, I won't get seasick from it. hehe....

They are almost done with the fishing operations. Looks like they are going to start drilling again within these 2 days. The high pressure section. It's getting pretty exciting because in the high pressure section, the chances of blowout is a '1-for-1' meaning 50%.

Guy said that he will try to arrange for James and I get onto the rig floor or be with the derrickman! hehe.... Leon, don't be jealous!!

crawling on top of the air con ducts

wah seh. It was no joke that in the last 3 days that I actually got to do manual work. James and I got assigned to test all the gas sensor alarms at the weirdest corners of the rig, in the AHU rooms. *Faint* First time in there doing work. Frankly, the wires looked so dangerously till I thought I might electrocuted anytime. It was fairly easy at the top 2 levels of the port side. Wah seh, When we reached the bottom, the sensors were at the weirdest corner of the air duct. Right at the very top. And being way smaller than James, I had to climb on top of the ducts to take those sensor out for testing. zzzz...

James trying to act seh while fixing back the gas sensor unit.wahahah

I think it's the production plateform over there

Yes, the sea is really really beautiful from the rig! There are a number of rigs surrounding DD2. They will send the oil to this particular plateform for production. Heard it's the biggest one in southeast asia liao...

I can't have decent pictures taken from the rig 'cos I can only use an 2 megapixels intrinsically safe camera which doesn't have a stabiliser, flash, zoom etc. It's basic. Anyhow, on the 1st day of my tour, I actually got to see a SCHOOL of fishes can!!! It was an awesome sight lah! I could literally see the school from quite a distant swimming towards the rig.

I caught the sunset yesterday too! I was at the mud logger's cabin talking to a couple of them. Then came to see the fantastic sun set.

This is seriously a dream come true. One day, I am so going to work hard and hope to be like those super well-paid engineers on the rig. hahaha...one day....

accomodation view from the desk

ya, it's a bit prison like. Have sink in the room as well. I don't really like the idea of it 'cos somehow I always spill water on the floor one.

accomodation view from the door

It's pretty hall- 2- like for the accomodations on the rig. Just in a more constraint way. Double bunk, 1 desk and zero LAN points. It's 24 hours aircon, really really cold at night. Thankfully, I brought my track pants and jacket. oh ya, that long grey thing beside the towel is my overall. It's too big for me but it's the smallest size that they have in there. One of these days, will get James to pose with me ! hahaha....

ice-cream machine

oh oh.... I am having ice-cream everyday now! hahaha....there's hershey chocolate and strawberry at the side too!

Yes yes, they do have SATAY too!!!

haahah....look at James's burger and fries at the back. I nearly took everything that was given. Cannot finish my food again. hahaha.... in case, anyone is wondering. Yes, the diet coke was taken because of pure guilt from my huge apetite lately! ahahha

It was BBQ sunday!! *slurp*

DD2

DD2- Deep Driller 2. It is the name of the rig I am on and also the same one featured on the SG drama, The Peak. My chopper timing got changed this morning. Only boarded it at 1pm. I was on my own today. It was indeed a bit scary for me. Thankfully I am pretty good at "monkey-see-monkey-do". So basically followed what most people do before boarding the helicopter. Actually, I did feel pretty awkward being the only female around. I did feel like a vase in their eyes. It was quite an experience sitting in a big capacity chopper. Incredibly hot too! Oh, my overalls were too HUGE for me. *faint* Had a safety induction by the HSE coordinator. Met the few main people. James brought me around the rig for a tour. Really lost now. hahaa...Hopefully, it will get better tmr. Managed to meet the other female engineer on board at dinner time. She's a SHELL drilling engineer. Looks pretty nice. Hopefully, I will get to switch rooms to be her neighbour soon. hehe... otherwise, I think it's gonna be a bit hard to get connection everyday. There's only 7 LAN points for free access. kns..... I will try to update whenever I can. It's only 830 now loh... and I am so sleepy already. haii... shift starts at 6am tmr morning. Hopefully will be able to do something useful tmr.

Day 3 & 4

I have forgotten to add this to my first entry. But I am going to the rig with James. Yes, with ZERO female companion at all. It was an incredibily last minute change. Alyssa would attend a seminar in Brunei over the weekend and be back in sg on Sunday night.

okie! Good news first! WOOHOOOO!!!! I SURVIVED BOSIET! Yes, firefighting, jumping from heights, heli capsize drill, EBS (emergency breathing system) etc. ALL CLEARED! hahaha.... I suddenly feel like I am going to be best engineer in the world. okie lah. Cannot be complacent. some updates. The wireless access was down last night. Day 3 was incredibly boring. 3/4 of the time I was doing theory for basic firefighting. Finally in the noon, I was able to do practical. Navigated in the smoke house and using the fire extinguisher and fire blanket in the correct manner. I nearly screwed up the fire blanket part. The flame was seriously intimidating. All thanks to the wind! After all those, came back to the hotel and due to some miscommunications, Alyssa thought that she had to wear office wear to a seminar. zzzz.... Met up with 2 coursemates from BOSIET and we walked around town for a bit. One of them a HSE officer and the other jr field engineer. Got to know the field engineer better during dinner. *haii* He earns as much as I do. Wah lau. Sianz. I thought in Malaysia, the pay would not be as competitive as an engineer in SG. Okie lah. It was quite a cultural exchange thing talking to them. Day 3: Finally, I get to do HUET. Initially, I was pretty frightened at the prospect of an overturned helicopter. But thankfully, there's EBS. It was really difficult to breathe at first. But after a few practise dives it got better. Luckily, I didn't really panic for the helicopter part. hahaa... So yup, have cleared my course. Just arrived in Brunei. Be all READY to board the rig early tmr morning! YEAH! Am residing at this lousy hotel called Seaview Hotel. Be going out to explore a bit. Will upload pictures later.

Brunei- Miri Day 1 & 2

Ha! Anyone missing me yet? *looks around* YA! CANDY TAN! hahaha....don't worry girl, be back in sg to climb with you in 5 weeks. Oh did I see my sistas too!?!?!? Boo-hoo!! I am feeling a little homesick after my BOSIET course just now. Elaborate later.

Arrived in Miri in the evening yesterday. It was a long car transit from Brunei to Miri. And the worse is that, it is 90% lush greenery throughout 2 hours car ride. No wonder SAF send our boys over to Brunei for training. I saw a junior of mine at the airport in SG. Yes, he's one of those unfortunate NSFs coming to Brunei for training. ha! he's grown till so incredibily handsome and tall. hahaha...

Nothing really eventful. Alyssa and I decided to try the food at the hotel. Hahaha... chinese restaurant recommended by Leon. We chalked up a pretty high bill despite the simple chinese food fare that we ordered. Couldn't really care since we could just CHARGE it. =P

Woke up at like 445am this morning for BOSIET. There were like 5 other newbies to the offshore industry in my class. All fresh graduates with different portfolios. Technicians, data logging, field engineering and a geophysicist lao jiao.

Theory was incredibly boring.

After lunch, it was practical time. There's a mock pool at the training centre. The first thing we did was to learn how to use move between boat to the rig, then all of us had to jump into the pool at a 3 ft height. Subsequently, I spent the next 1 hour in the pool liao. Learnt how to swim using back strokes, swim in a human chain and finally learnt how to form a survival circle. All these were done with a 1m wave which I thought was quite tiring. I really can't imagine it in the sea siah... The ultimate jump was from a 5 ft height. It was scary lah. But I must be strong! Cannot let this kind of thing scare me! After that I had to swim to a liferaft. Nearly vomitted in there 'cos of seasickness. *phew* luckily, I didn't.

YOU KNOW WHAT! I must have develop some allergy to SUNBLOCK. I had a few small pimples popping out now. Wah lau. Damn sianz. I need a face doctor.

The course ended incredibly early. Came back for a shower then went out for a walk around town. There isn't much to see Miri though. I think I looked funny walking around alone. Invited some stares. You know, I realised that I always like to surround myself in my comfort zone. The moment I walked into parkson grand, I was very relief to see familiar shops like mac, kfc,giant, watson, body shop, vinci. I think I maybe feeling a little homesick. It's only day 2 and I am starting to miss the familiarity that I had when I'm in sg.

I hope I will cope well in the next 31 days! Gambatte!

Aiya, was quite bored in the car.

Mega Hotel

Other than our hotel, the other tallest building in the heart of Miri is Imperial Hotel. I am going to take a short walk there tonight!

View from Mega Hotel

It is a pretty dead town city after 9pm. All dark. This was taken the moment I arrive at the hotel. On the street at the right, there were actually people having a wedding dinner I think. Very 1960s.

Early Morning View at BOSIET

announcement

Yes! It's been awhile since I have last update. Zero cash so zero travel. =P blanketz's travel blog is still alive and ready to zoom off to another destination. I have found a dream job that has a chance to take me to all the exotic distinctions in the world, to the furthest corner of Papua New Guinea or to the deepest ocean in the world to look for oil. Yes, I am now a trainee well engineer!!!! My first 6 months on this job will take me to an oil rig (DD2) in Brunei. Can you imagine what I have read in geography at sec 2 is coming alive like 10 years later. I vaguely remember a picture of an oil rig in my sec 2 geo textbook and it became one of those many "things to do" to be able to work on it one day. It has never strike me that in my wildest dream that 10 years later I can fulfil this dream of mine.

I will be doing 1 month onshore and 1 month offshore starting 5 Mar.I will be leaving for brunei on Monday 5 Mar. Will travel overland into Miri for BOSIET- Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training. 3 days later will return to Brunei and be all ready to take the chopper to DD2. Frankly, I am getting butterflies in my stomach as I pack today. You know, it's really a lot of uncertainties placed on my plate now. Whether I will digest everything or get stomach upset is going to decide my future in this industry.

This is my first decent job. Hopefully, it will go very well.

Anyhow, I get a week's off-in-lieu after I finish my 28 days stinct on DD2. Gonna hang around in sg for a couple days, catch Phantom of the Opera and head off to.........

KRABI!!!!

I was supposed to go on a trip to vietnam for 8 days with my sistas. But all thanks to the repeated postpones of my 1st hitch, I can't make it at all.

Be at krabi from 12/4- 15/4. It's the Songkran festival then. It looked damn fun on tv where people just splash water at every stranger. hahaha...

okie lah. Just a short update. Will write again when I reach Miri. Oh. Do you think the whole Brunei would be full of Wu Zuns? ahaha... he's so cute loh....