For some reason this song has been running through my head for the last couple of days. “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson is a classic country song by a classic country singer (he’s from Texas). At 81, he’s still going strong. 🙂
PS- If you want to sing along, the lyrics are playing along at the bottom of the video. 😉
Looks like I’ll be leaving soon after all. I was not expecting this at all. Not that I’m complaining. It’s always nice to be getting off work and going home. 🙂
I’m now busy trying to get everything done I need to do before leaving here. I have a room-mate so I can’t get in my room til he gets out tonight. I need to get in there to get my seamans books to have the captain sign me off.
I’ll have to get up (even more) early in the morning to pack. I have to put away my hard hat and coveralls somewhere in case I come back here. There’s no way I can fit that stuff in my carry on bag which is all I brought with me this trip (due to helicopter weight limits here).
It seems I always have too much to do and too little time. I’m already making plans for my time off (or trying to- it’s very hard to plan anything much when I don’t know how long I’ll be home for).
I’m really hoping to be able to get down to Panama this time. 🙂
I got that cool ‘Year in Review’ email from WordPress about my blog. I see in my reader that a lot of other people are posting about how their blogs did through the year. I’ll probably make a post like that too. I thought it might be a good idea to post a review about some of the things I did this last year and what I’m hoping to do next year.
I got off the DS-5 Jan 9 and had a couple of weeks at home. As usual, I spent most of my time at home catching up with paperwork and projects around the house. I also had to take care of some medical things.
I had recently signed up as an ‘energy consultant’ with Ambit Energy (I’m always trying to find SOME way to earn a living without having to spend time at work), so I went for some training in Houston with my friend and sponsor. I still haven’t managed to actually sign anybody up myself yet (I don’t know many people who live in Texas that I can talk to about it and I usually forget to bring it up til it’s too late). Contact me if you’re in Texas and want to save on your electric bill! 😉
Ensco DS-5 (ex: Deep Ocean Mendocino)
I got to relax a little bit and visit with some friends but then it was time to get ready to go back to work. I left for the DS-3 on Jan 29. I got off there earlier than planned (more on that in another post later) and got to go home for 1 night. Left the next day to join the Ocean Alliance.
Ocean Alliance
That was nice. I got to see a lot of old friends from when I used to work direct for Oceaneering on the Performer. I wrote a little bit about that hitch earlier. I really loved that job and the people there. I wish they would have kept us all overseas. We really were like one big happy family.
When I got off, I had almost 3 weeks at home. I made good use of it. Besides the usual catching up on paperwork and household issues (restock groceries, pay bills, fix sink, fix toilet, etc.), I got to go to a few interesting events. Other than my usual Tuesday night Campaign for Liberty meetings, I went to a Sail La Vie meeting and then went out sailing with them the next weekend. I made it to the Houston Rodeo. I found the Houston Maritime Museum the next morning. It’s small, but definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
We dealt with the rain at Surfsides St Patricks’ Day Parade. Everybody got soaked but we all had a good time anyway. Plenty of green beer and Irish whiskey helped out with that! Texas A & M in Galveston had a WISTA meeting where they had a nice presentation and the cadets were full of questions about working with DP. I stayed in Galveston overnight and went to Moody Gardens before heading home the next day.
I was aboard the Deepwater Pathfinder March 26th- April 7th. Then home a few days to get ready for my trip to Korea for another travel writing and photography workshop (with GEP).
That was a fantastic trip! I met so many wonderful, interesting people. In the workshop and before, when I was wandering around on my own from Incheon to Busan to Geoji to Seoul. The only thing that could have improved the trip was if the Sewol disaster had never happened. It was a very sad time for everyone in Korea.
I got home from Korea May 15th and immediately started getting ready to go to work for Ocean Rig. I really preferred working for the agencies as I had been for the last few years, but with Obamacare fixin’ to screw me royally if I didn’t bow down and buy into that humongous scam, I had to suck it up and take a regular job. I’m still not sure I did the right thing. I just hope I can find a way to move out of the US SOON, so I can escape that trap!
Anyway, I got put on the payroll May 26th and then started running around with more errands for work. I had to do some things before they’d allow me to actually go to work for them. Shots, paperwork, photos, more paperwork, etc.
They sent me to the Basic Safety Training course (again!!- I’ve been certified to teach that course) and wouldn’t listen at all when I told them it was NOT required and they were wasting their money and my time. Since I hadn’t even stepped aboard one of their ships yet, I figured I had better just suck it up and go to the class AGAIN. USELESS! AS ALWAYS!!
A total waste of their money and my time, just as expected. But, I figured I should at least give them a TRY before I quit. So, I had to suffer through one MORE class that I’ve had (more than once) that was totally un-necessary. They sent me all the way to Aberdeen Scotland to take the lifeboat course. I’ve been a lifeboatman since 1979! NO need to re-take that course, but they insist. In fact, I’ve found out that they insist that we all re-take these courses every 2 YEARS!
I’m wondering just when, exactly, are we EVER going to get the time off we are all working offshore to earn?
So I left for Aberdeen on June 28 and went straight to my first Ocean Rig vessel as soon as the course was over. After a couple of days on the plane, I made it to Luanda and then flew right offshore to my ship. They sent me home on my birthday, so that was a nice present. 🙂
I got home July 31 and left again for another ship Aug 12! Not much time to even catch up on sleep, but that’s pretty much all I tried to do that time. I did make Shark Night at Moody Gardens and my Tuesday night political meetings. 🙂
Skyros from Aug 12-Sept 12. Not a bad hitch. Nice ship, nice crew. I was still glad to get off tho. 😉
I got home from the Skros Aug 12 and since I was due to have approx 28 days off, I scheduled a couple of things. I finally got to work on one of my rental houses. We’ve been trying to get the rotten wood and siding changed out for about 2 years now. Termite damage. I’ll have to tell you about the major project that’s become! I spent a week with my maintenance gal and another helper cutting out the damaged wood and replacing it with new. Now there’s only 1 more side of the house to do and it will be finished. At least that part of it. 😉
When that job was done, I left for the Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas conference in Las Vegas. I left a little early so I could have an actual vacation for a couple of days before the conference started. I love to learn all they have to teach us about how to move and live overseas, but it does get a little overwhelming sometimes. I like to have a little time to just chill out, hang out at the pool, play the slots, etc.
I got home Oct 6th and due to dept for the Olympia Oct 7th. I was ready to go (barely) but for once the gods smiled on me and my visa was delayed for days. Yes, I was ‘on call’ and checking my email constantly, but I got to spend a whole extra week at home! 🙂
I left for the Olympia Oct 14 and spent the next month aboard. I got home Nov 7th and spent the next few days arranging appointments I needed to renew my USCG documents. Then I had to go to the fast rescue course required by my company, so I spent a couple of days in Galveston. Hit the eye doctor, dentist and hairdresser before the weekend so I could leave again Sunday for another course.
I spent the week of Nov 16-21 in Baltimore at MITAGS for the Leadership course. It’s newly required by the USCG to keep my license due to STCW 2010 amendments. It wasn’t a bad week, it just gets old spending so much of what is SUPPOSED to be my vacation time taking redundant (VERY expensive) courses that never actually teach anything useful.
I got home again about 0300 Saturday morning but too tired to do anything that entire weekend but hang around the house and catch up on mail and email. I was hoping to be able to go sailing, but just couldn’t motivate myself enough to get out of the house that day. 🙁
I heard from work that I was requested again on the Poseidon, so I got a little extra time off. I used it to go to New Orleans for the Workboat Show. I was in New Orleans from Dec 2-7. I got home after midnight Sunday and so had to catch up on sleep again on Monday. I had that whole week to just hang out around the house and rest before leaving on the 15th for the Poseidon. I’ve been here ever since. 🙂
So, now you’ve got a pretty good idea of how I spend my time. At least, the kinds of things I do when I’m not at home. Which is most of the time, as you can see from this post. 😉
AP PHOTOS: Dramatic New Year’s moments worldwide
I’m stuck out here on the ship for at least another week, so I missed all the festivities going on at home. This article was the best of what I saw for the worldwide celebrations of New Years Day.
I hope some of you got to see some of these fine fireworks. Does anyone have any good stories or photos to share?
We had our doubts that Santa would find us out here. All the way out in the middle of nowhere. Offshore Angola, actually. It’s a long way from where most of us call home. But, even tho Santa may have encountered a few problems along the way, he DID finally show up. 🙂
Anybody from Frankfurt? I’ve got a 10 hour layover here. Is there anything worth doing in that timeframe here?
I’m at the airport again (lot of time spent here lately). I got my visa at the last minute for me to be able to make my flight today, so spent the morning rushing around trying to finish up last minute things around the house.
I’ll be spending the next 30 hours (minimum) in the air (or airport). I expect they will send me straight to work when I get there. I’m really not sure how they expect anyone to do a good job after being awake for 45+ hours.
Anybody have any ideas on that?
Do you work someplace where they don’t allow you to start work unless you’re awake and alert? What happens if they tell you that you could have slept on the plane? Anybody out there that can actually sleep on a plane (in anything but first/business class)?
There is actually a law out there that says we (mariners) are not allowed to go to work unless we have had at least 6 hours of REST beforehand. That was put into place because the investigators realized that the REAL cause of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was FATIGUE. NOTHING to do with the Captain (except that he should have insisted that his crew got some rest before departure- but we’re all just slaves to the companies now). 🙁
Fatigue is always at the top of the list, #1, 2 or 3 of causes of ALL accidents!
In the 20+ years since that law was passed, I’ve only ever heard of ONE company abiding by those rules.
ONE. 🙁
I’ll try to get online on my layover in Frankfurt. If I can’t, I’ll catch up again here when I get caught up at work.
I just got back from a trip to New Orleans. I was there for the WorkBoat Show. I always try to spend some extra time there if I can. It’s such a great city to just hang out in. There’s so much to see and do and it’s such a creative place.
I saw lots of really beautiful Christmas decorations. Here are a couple of the Christmas trees for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle.
I went to New Orleans for the WorkBoat Show again this year. I stayed over a couple of days to just chill out and enjoy New Orleans. It’s such a great city to hang out in. 🙂
I did try to check around to see if there was anything especially interesting going on. I checked online and didn’t see anything unusual. I had thought about going on another walking tour or going to the WWll museum, or the Pharmacy museum. What won out in the end was sleeping late. 😉
I had just got around to wandering out of the hotel and I heard the drums playing. I had to find out what was going on. I’m so glad I did. 🙂
I followed my ears down the street a couple of blocks until I ran into the crowd lined up along St Charles street and the parade marching by.
It was so neat. I missed out on the beginning of it, but I was still in time to see a few groups of dancers, majorettes, and marching bands. The riding club and their little miniature horses were SO cute! So were the little girls all dressed up in their sparkling outfits, tapping their way down the street.
Floats carrying bands playing Dixieland jazz and Santa-hatted, bead throwing locals were interspersed among the dance schools and high school marching bands. Santa and his dancing elves brought up the rear.
And tho I think for some reason the bikers weren’t in the parade (technically), they didn’t let that ruin their fun and they had their own little parade right after the last musical blasting car passed by.
Nowhere like New Orleans for a party! 🙂
I had hopes of getting a little rest after the first day of the Workboat Show, but that didn’t happen.
I went back to my hotel fairly early Wednesday, but made the mistake of stopping in the lobby and ran into an old friend. I wound up staying there with some new friends from the fishing side of the maritime industry (they don’t usually come to this show- it’s more focused on the oilfield). We hung out til they closed down the bar.
In the morning, I got over to the Workboat Show in time to meet my friend who was there especially to check out the “Military to Maritime” job fair. We had some lunch first and then went to see who showed up at the job fair. They had quite a few booths. A good variety of both inland and offshore boat companies (Kirby, HOS, Chouest, etc) and land based support (Stuart & Stevenson, etc).
I was surprised to see that they weren’t all mobbed all afternoon (but then I left by 1345). With all we hear on the news about the levels of unemployment, I would have thought there would be a much larger crowd. I think they need to advertise the job fair better. It really wasn’t promoted like the Show itself is.
My friend actually got a job while we were there so he had to take off. I stuck around to talk to people and try to figure out how much hiring they were doing and get some specifics. The USCG was giving a talk about how to get started in the maritime industry, (specifically for members of the military), in a room off to the side, so I went in to see what they had to say.
After the presentation, it was just about time for the WISTA tea. I’ve been to a couple of them before as a guest, but I joined WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) as a member this year. I haven’t really done anything with them yet, but they do have some good programs. I love the tea, it’s such a nice atmosphere.
After the tea, the Show was pretty much over for the day, so I wandered over to the French Quarter to see what was happening over there (there’s ALWAYS something). 😉
It was really nice. The fog was just coming in and it made everything look so atmospheric. You could barely see the ships on the river, but you could hear them coming.
Now it was time for the party at the old JAX Brewery (sponsored by some of the companies at the WorkBoat Show). I had missed some good ones the night before, but I was going tonight! I met up with friends from C-Mar and Oceanwide (I worked for both of them in the past).
They had a fabulous (free) buffet and a great band for dancing. They rented out the entire place so we had room to spread out and the balconies if we wanted to smoke. Lots of people were dancing with the band.
We closed that place down and then hit Bourbon Street. We had a great time. I know I actually went home earlier than some others did. I guess I just ‘cain’t hang’ anymore. 😉
I drug myself out of bed again Friday morning and made it over to the Convention Center just in time for the seminar on ‘Training for the Mariner’. There was a panel of speakers representing different training providers and other interested parties (but very obviously NONE representing those MOST affected- the mariners).
I was hoping to hear some regards for the mariners who are the ones being forced into taking all this ‘training’, but nope, that didn’t come up. I was disappointed in the panel, it seems the focus is going to continue to be on more and more ‘training’ (most of which is going to be held on shore, at our expense).
I spent the rest of the day wandering around the show. I hung out with my friends from Oceanwide some more. Saw some other friends from Texas A&M. Stopped by a few more booths to say hi and see what they were doing.
I got to try out all the latest DP systems (that is my main interest now a days since I’m working as a SDPO). I also got to play with a tiny little ROV. That is a lot harder than it looks, but I think it would be a pretty cool deal to work with one of those too.
I was about ready to check out and it was a good thing, since they were taking down the show everywhere around me. 🙂
mini ROV by VideoRay
I hope I can go back again next year! There’s always new stuff to see, more interesting people to meet, and old friends to catch up with. 🙂
After a VERY late night, I drug myself out of bed to check out the WorkBoat Show.
I didn’t really plan on staying up half the night, but I saw on Facebook that a friend and travel writer was going to be in town for a ‘comp trip’. I had met her at a travel writing workshop in Boston a couple of years ago. After messaging back and forth on Facebook before leaving home, we agreed to meet up here in New Orleans after she finished up her work.
Turns out, when I went to meet her, she was in the middle of dinner with the whole group of writers involved on the comp trip. It was an interesting evening, for true! 🙂
I got back to my hotel about 0200 in the morning, but for some reason I just couldn’t sleep. So it was pretty hard to get up and out. Once I did, I walked over to the Convention center for the WorkBoat Show.
In the same Facebook conversation, I learned there was another writer (and fellow blogger who I met at the same workshop) coming to town for the show. We planned to meet up too. The first thing we wanted to do was to hear Capt Phillips. He was the Keynote speaker.
Remember the Maersk Alabama, the American flagged ship that got attacked by pirates a couple of years ago? Tom Hanks played him in the movie? Yep, that Capt Phillips. He gave a good presentation and we got to ask questions and afterwards have pictures taken with him (I skipped that but my friend got hers done).
As the presentation was ending, I spotted another friend of mine from Kirby Towing. We stopped to say hi on the way out. That’s what I love about these events. I always wind up meeting so many of my old friends. It’s great to catch up and hear what everybody’s been doing. 🙂
I had a couple of hours before the next presentation. My writer friend was doing an interview with a guy from the Deadliest Catch, so I went to wander around a little bit and ran into some other old friends.
Father Sinclair and Doreen from the Apostleship of the Sea. They always have so many good projects going on to help the sailors and the maritime community. Sinclair still sails, but he somehow finds the time to get involved with all kinds of important stuff.
I went to the presentation on mariner health issues. I picked that one since I have a lot of concerns of my own about how the medical standards are getting harder and harder to meet and are being used to throw a lot of us sailors out of our jobs. It seems a lot of the companies want 50 years of experience in a 20 year old body. 🙁
Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the convention center and checking out some of the things there that I’m especially interested in. The latest DP systems from Kongsberg, MT, L3, etc.
I met a few more old friends. Hope to spend some more time with them tomorrow in between all the other events. 🙂
I’m off to New Orleans this afternoon. I’ll be there for a few days. I’m going to the WorkBoat Show. I try to go every year if I’m not offshore at work.
This year they’re having a job fair. I mentioned it to some people last year. I’m really glad to see they listened (I’m sure I’m not the only one). I think it’s a perfect place to have one. So many of these offshore companies say they can’t find the people they need to go to work. So many good people out of work. I hope it’s a success. 🙂
It’s being marketed towards military people, but I think it would be open to others too. Might take some talking? I’m not sure. This is the first one I’m going to where they’ve done it this way. The actual show is open to all and is FREE if you register online before it opens tomorrow. You can do it from the link (above).
Well, this is it. The last assignment for the Photography 101 Challenge. It’s Triumph.
I thought about this one a lot. I really can’t think of anything I have photos of, to show the idea of- “triumph”-other than the fact that I actually managed to FINISH this challenge. I even somehow did it within the time frame they had set for it.
For me, that really is an accomplishment. Usually I fall so far behind in these things I never manage to complete them and it would be months too late if I had.
So I decided to make another gallery of some of my favorite photos from the various assignments. Here they are…
If you like any of these and want to see more of the original post they were featured in, you can search my blog for the words at the bottom of the photos (double, moment, solitary, etc). 🙂
It’s almost over. In fact, I think it is officially over. But here’s my post for Day 19: Double of the Photography 101 challenge anyway.
Here’s my post for Day 17: Glass in the Photography 101 challenge. I haven’t really been out to take pictures. Too busy trying to catch up on other things. But I found a couple of good ones on my computer (I sure WISH I could get the darn thing fixed!!).
I took these last time I was in New Orleans. I went on a plantation tour one day. We went to Laura Plantation and Oak Alley. I’ve never been on one of those tours before. I thought it was interesting how different they were, even though they were both built to do the same thing.
I liked the contrast in these 2 shots too. One is very old and also practical. The other is brand new and really serves no purpose other than decoration.
Here’s my choice for the Day 15: Landscape challenge.
I took it when I went out to Las Vegas for the Freedom Festival. I took a side trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. I only wish I had more time. It was an amazing trip!
At first I thought it said movement, but then I saw it was really moment, but the assignment (Day 13) is still to play around with blur and movement. I think there are a lot of ways to interpret this one. 🙂
I’m still stuck in class all day and it’s way too cold out here for me to go out (and I have no transportation either), so I’ve been picking out old photos to try and illustrate the themes for the challenges.
Here’s a photo I took in New Orleans last winter. I loved watching this couple dance and listen to the band play in the street. New Orleans is really great for this kind of thing. 🙂
It’s not really blurry, but I hope you can get the idea of motion anyway. The couple was really dancing up a storm (swing, jitterbug, etc.), the musicians were all tapping their toes and swaying to the music and everyone was having a great time.
I didn’t think to buy a CD from this band, I wish I remembered their name. But I did get one from another one that was playing further up the street. Here’s a post I did about that one. Check it out, the music’s worth a listen. 😉
I tried to find some of the photos in my computer so I could ‘finish’ the task for the other day. To look at these buildings in Black and White. I did look on my computer, but for some reason, I couldn’t find all the photos I used (or I couldn’t get them to a place where I could change them into black and white versions).
Here is what these same photos look like in Black and White. I didn’t change anything else. I probably could have made these look a lot better if I had the time to play around with them and edit them even a little bit. Let me know what you think. Which versions do you like better?
I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉
This is my choice for the Day 12: Architecture assignment.
Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a slide show. I do really like to take pictures of interesting architecture, so I have a lot of these pictures. 🙂
The assignment was to think about lines and shapes and to try and go monochromatic, but I just didn’t have the time to mess around with editing tonight and have to get up too early in the morning to think about it. I do think most of these would work nicely in B&W. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I’ll try and see if I can change them. If I can figure it out, I’ll post it. 🙂
School. UGH! It takes too much time! 🙁
If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you think I should have just stuck to one style of building (modern, art deco, temples, etc.)? Or one location (New Orleans, Thailand, Chicago, etc.)? Or do you like the large variety? Do you like the post with the gallery, or do you prefer it when I have all the pictures just all sitting there?
I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉
This is my choice for the Day 11: A Pop of Color assignment.
The assignment talks about “paying attention to how color affects your images.”
Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I kind-of took it to mean photos where the use of color influenced the feeling or mood of the shot. Or the color just really made the whole photo stand out.
If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)? Do you think they fit the theme? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you like the post better when I put the pictures up like this? or in a gallery where you see them one at a time like the one I did for the post on the “Natural World“?
I’m at the airport again. I’m heading to Baltimore this time. I’m due to arrive there after midnight tonight and then will start the Leadership course at MITAGS first thing in the morning.
This is another one of those classes I am required to take in order to keep my job. This particular course is a new requirement. It came with the STCW 2010 Manilla amendments.
Yep, I thought I was FINALLY finished taking these (stupid, totally un-necessary) courses when I finally got my Masters license. But nooooooooo,
Not even 6 months later, the officials of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) came up with a half dozen MORE courses to saddle us all with. This is all in order to improve SAFETY out there on the ocean.
I’m still waiting to see the proof that all this shore based training has done diddly squat to improve safety offshore. So far, I have not seen anything to say that it has.
For example: Leadership. Who thinks leadership is something that can be TAUGHT? If you think it CAN be taught, do you think it can be taught in a week long class?
I’ve heard the military is good at producing leaders. I know they spend a lot more than a week doing it tho.
I’m not sure leadership CAN be taught. At this point, I think its more innate to a person. A part of their personality. I suppose it can be learned. I would think it would be more easily learned by observation and practice. I think that would be much better effected on the job, on your boat, with your crew than in any week long class.
Well, I’m stuck here all week regardless, so will have to wait and see what they teach us and what we learn.
I’m FINALLY catching up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 10: Mystery assignment.
The assignment talks about playing around with lighting to create a mysterious atmosphere. For this challenge, I felt like going a different direction and just showing an object that is mysterious in itself (at least to me- I’m sure the Korean people will know exactly what these things are and will probably think I’m pretty ignorant not to know).
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the famous seafood market in Busan and took tons of pictures. I love going to the market in foreign countries. The things they have on sale are so different than the things I see in my local supermarket. I never could figure out what these things are. My best guess is some kind of sea squirt. I do know the Koreans like to eat them. 😉
Anybody have any ideas?
I’m curious (but no, not enough to try eating one). 😉
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 9: Warmth assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the market and took tons of pictures. I chose these to represent warmth for a few reasons: the soup/stew was physically hot, it tasted hot, it was full of hot spices, it also included the hot stove and hot coals, and the warmth of the Korean lady. 🙂
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 8: Landmark assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the Busan Tower and took tons of pictures. I was lucky enough to be in Korea during the celebrations for Buddha’s birthday. There were dozens of these traditional paper lanterns set up here around the tower and other places around town.
Sorry to say, it was also a very sad time while I was there and lots of the usual festivities were cancelled due to the Sewol ferry disaster.
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 7: Connect assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the Busan Tower and took tons of pictures of these locks. I was told it’s kind-of a tradition that when couples decide they want to ‘go steady’ or get engaged, they come up here and put these locks up to show the world that they’re ‘locked together forever’. 🙂
I couldn’t decide on just one here. Which one do you like best? Why?
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my photo for the Day 5: Solitude assignment.
This was a little easier for me than the last one (bliss). I don’t normally take a lot of pictures of people, but I do sometimes catch them in a photo if I see something that just happens to catch my eye.
I took a lot more than usual people pictures on my recent trip to Korea. This was taken in Busan back in April. I’m not sure why, but this is one of my favorite pictures from that trip. 🙂
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my photo for the Day 4: Bliss assignment. 
This was a hard one for me. I had a hard time coming up with an idea of how to represent the idea of “bliss” in a photo. I had an especially hard time since I don’t normally take a lot of pictures of people.
Then I remembered my recent trip to Korea and these photos of Buddha. I was in Korea for Buddhas Birthday celebrations (this picture was taken in Seoul). I’m not religious, but I thought I remembered something about Buddha and it related to the idea of bliss. Buddha and nirvana, right?
Some of his statues make him seem like he has discovered bliss (maybe not this one tho).
No internet!
I got home last night after spending the last couple of days in the air.
I was so glad to get home. I was SO tired.
But there was a HUGE pile of mail inside my door. I could hardly get the door open. So, once I shoved my way inside and then got my luggage in the house, I made a cup of tea and sat down on my couch to just chill out.
I picked up a pile of mail and started sorting. While I did that, I turned on my computer so I could see if I got any emails (of COURSE I did! I usually get at least 100 a day!). My computer turned on and it said it was connected, but ‘no internet”.
WTF???!!
So, I’m at the library trying to catch up. No place is open to call about my problems at home and I’ll be stuck in the FRC course until late Wednesday. So, I might not be able to get back online til Thursday EARLIEST.
Do I know now how addicted I am to the internet? YES! 🙁
I heard from my personnel coordinator that I’m due off here on Thursday.
I’m waiting to see my travel arrangements before I make any plans.
It looks like they usually send flight arrangements earlier than this, but since I’m still in the pool, I’m not sure exactly what to expect. I’m definitely looking forward to crew change!
I think I’d better send a reminder tomorrow morning. 🙂
Have you ever been so happy and excited one minute, only to be plunged into the depths of despair the next?
That’s what I saw happening here a couple of days ago. It was supposed to be crew change day. The 18 happy people who were due to get off after spending 4 weeks at work here were wandering all over the bridge in excited anticipation.
When the chopper finally arrived (at it’s usual time), they rushed to get their life jackets on and finish their turnover with their reliefs. As the minutes passed by, I saw more and more anxiety on the faces of those who were supposed to be leaving.
I had the forward camera zoomed in and aimed at the chopper. There was a problem. It was swarming with orange coveralls. Our crew, trying to track down the cause of the trouble. The pilot had noticed an oil leak on landing.
We do have some VERY skilled men on board here. They’re experts in what they do. Plenty of good engineers, hydraulic techs, electricians, electronic techs, etc.
Within 5 minutes of the arriving crews disembarking the chopper, our ships crew was up there with the helicopter pilot, looking everywhere for the source of the leak. I’m not sure what they found (I’m just a DPO here and not ín the loop’), but the decision was made to fly the chopper back to Luanda with only the pilots on board.
What disappointment I saw then. So many happy faces were now completely turned around and sad now. 🙁
We had hopes they would send another helicopter that afternoon to pick up our departing crew, so people were still hanging around with their fingers crossed, but 2 hours later the word came that the replacement helicopter was cancelled. (They have a rule that if they can’t be back at base by 1700, they will not leave).
AARRRGGGHHHHH! 🙁
Now we would have to find someplace to put all those extra people for the night. Not such an easy thing. We’re already almost always running fairly close to capacity for bunk space (just like every other rig). We just managed to find room for everyone without having to sleep together. 😉
Everyone at least got some rest before going home. The leave-takers were in a better mood after a few hours of sleep. In the morning we got the good news that there would be an early flight. The chopper (NOT the same one) would come out just to get those people they had to abandon here the day before.
YES!! The smiles were back!! Everyone managed to get off and new flights were arranged to get them home from Luanda. Hopefully everyone got home OK and their plans were not too badly disrupted.
It’s bad enough to spend 3-4 days of your owed time off traveling, which is the way things normally work. It’s really bad to have to spend any extra time at work. Most of us work offshore for the scheduled time off, not for enjoyment of the job itself. It’s hard for us to accept losing even 1 day.
I guess most people would think we’re so lucky (and we are, really). They see we work 28 days on, then 28 days off. They don’t really see that we are stuck here and working 12 hour (minimum) days, 7 days a week until we’re due to go home. Most people are pretty run down by the time they’re due off. Because of that, most companies have limits on how long you’re allowed to stay offshore before they force you to go home.
I’ve tried to figure out which schedule is better, working out here with a month on/month off schedule. Or the typical American schedule of an 8-5 workday (not including a couple of hours-unpaid- driving time), with weekends and holidays off. Lucky to get a weeks vacation once a year.
It seems to me we still have the better deal out here, but it’s not nearly by as much as you would think.