Today’s inventory:
2 cigars – actually it’s more like 2 and a half but then yesterday was only one and a half…….. so it balances itself out really.
0 Units and $0 Dollars
Food – absolutely nothing of any note (or interest for that matter)
Weather – started overcast and still, by lunchtime it was phenomenally hot with a breeze that made it feel like you were standing in front of a massive hair dryer. One of those days where it’s a pleasure to be indoors ! It catches you unawares that sort of weather and it’s how you get to much heat without realising it. My colleague and I both had headaches this afternoon……..
Gym – sweated enough walking up and down the site. I am looking forward to going to the COB for a night before I fly out to Dubai just so I can go to the scabbiest gym in the whole world – how sad is that (or “who are you, and what have you done with Ian Gilby”).
Countdown – 6 sleeps to Dubai and 1 more to home
You deserve a photo so I thought I would put up one of our Health and Safety Manager hard at work – you wouldn’t believe me if I told you it was not even 0700hrs when I took it (the fat bloke is still leaning on his shovel !)
I started the blog today with the inventory because I have absolutely no idea what to write whatsoever and was hoping that by the time I got to the end of the inventory I would have thought of something interesting to write. I guess we will only know whether I have been able to eek out 2 pages when we finally get to the end.
I am sitting on my bunk in my room passing the day, which started badly and got steadily more boring as it went on. This sounds like a bad thing but believe me after the start, boring was better ! One of the problems here (and completely unrelated to my bad start to the day) is that you always seem to need a shower – every time you go out you get sweaty and covered in sand and then you dry out as you sit in your office or your room, and then you go through the whole cycle again, sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. But you can’t spend your whole time on site because you would go mad with the heat and the sand, and you can’t spend your whole time in an office because you would get nothing done – never mind going stir crazy !
Shifting dialogue at staggering speed, in a bizarre turn of events based on musical beds, I might well be back in the COB for a night tomorrow. I don’t really mind as I can go to the gym and it will make another day (or another sleep more like) go a bit quicker but I’m not likely to know until tomorrow sometime. It isn’t a big deal cause I will just pack an overnight bag and tidy my room here. There are a couple of bosses coming out to site tomorrow and they need to see someone here who will not be back until travel restrictions set in, so they will have to stay – and because there’s limited space here I will have to give up my bed and the next nearest one is about an hours drive away (when I say next nearest I mean the next empty one with 3.5m concrete walls around it and men with guns…….who speak English anyway). I should have called today’s blog “the diary of a Madman” because you must all think I’m mad but believe me, a change is definitely as good as a rest ! One of the primary reason for not minding this musical beds is that it will give the bosses a chance to experience the conditions here, which is never a bad thing – we usually pray for sandstorms and 60deg heat when they come out. They’re all Iraqi or Middle-East veterans but there is something particularly evil about where we are for any number of reason and it never hurts for them to experience that !
I had a bit of my past appear today, which was lovely. I had an e-mail from someone with a quick question about something from the previous project that I was working on. It was very strange to think about how things have changed in a little under two months, and it will be really interesting to see how far they have moved on in that time. They have been battling the forces of bureaucracy in an effort to get their three years of hard work finally ratified, signed off and started. I’m looking forward to seeing somebody, anybody actually, from the project, so that I can get back up to speed – you never know, they might need a Project Manager to help them mobilise !
I am in my usual position with respect to work, which those of you who either know me well, or are in similar situations, will understand and appreciate. I currently have a contract here to the end of December. I’m pretty certain that I will be back for six weeks in September and October, then back for two weeks in England. Then it starts to get a bit muddy after that. I’m pretty sure there will be some continuation here through November and potentially into December and if I continue the six and two rotation then that will helpfully take me to mid December and Christmas. After that, who knows ! I know from experience that my work, as a rule, takes at least two months to source, agree, start, work the first month and then get paid. Often the first month of that is covered by fees earned the previous month (are you keeping up with this ?). Christmas and January are always difficult times to source new roles as everyone is switched off for a bit (which is understandable).
So, in a nutshell, the problem will be securing a new role without being able to keep my normal networking going or to see anyone to discuss it, or to know when I will be available to start and so on and so on……add to that the depressed market back home in the sector that I have been working in and we have a difficult dilemma………..but I like difficult – it makes for interesting opportunities ! One thing I’m reasonably clear about though, is that after Christmas I don’t really want to be coming back here unless I have to. I think 6 months away from home is enough, especially in difficult circumstances – but as Tracey has already said, there is no point me sitting at home with no work, if there is work (and well paid work at that) somewhere else.
So my parting plea (having successfully filled 2 pages with my mad ramblings) is……Gis a job mate…..
2 cigars – actually it’s more like 2 and a half but then yesterday was only one and a half…….. so it balances itself out really.
0 Units and $0 Dollars
Food – absolutely nothing of any note (or interest for that matter)
Weather – started overcast and still, by lunchtime it was phenomenally hot with a breeze that made it feel like you were standing in front of a massive hair dryer. One of those days where it’s a pleasure to be indoors ! It catches you unawares that sort of weather and it’s how you get to much heat without realising it. My colleague and I both had headaches this afternoon……..
Gym – sweated enough walking up and down the site. I am looking forward to going to the COB for a night before I fly out to Dubai just so I can go to the scabbiest gym in the whole world – how sad is that (or “who are you, and what have you done with Ian Gilby”).
Countdown – 6 sleeps to Dubai and 1 more to home
You deserve a photo so I thought I would put up one of our Health and Safety Manager hard at work – you wouldn’t believe me if I told you it was not even 0700hrs when I took it (the fat bloke is still leaning on his shovel !)
I started the blog today with the inventory because I have absolutely no idea what to write whatsoever and was hoping that by the time I got to the end of the inventory I would have thought of something interesting to write. I guess we will only know whether I have been able to eek out 2 pages when we finally get to the end.
I am sitting on my bunk in my room passing the day, which started badly and got steadily more boring as it went on. This sounds like a bad thing but believe me after the start, boring was better ! One of the problems here (and completely unrelated to my bad start to the day) is that you always seem to need a shower – every time you go out you get sweaty and covered in sand and then you dry out as you sit in your office or your room, and then you go through the whole cycle again, sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. But you can’t spend your whole time on site because you would go mad with the heat and the sand, and you can’t spend your whole time in an office because you would get nothing done – never mind going stir crazy !
Shifting dialogue at staggering speed, in a bizarre turn of events based on musical beds, I might well be back in the COB for a night tomorrow. I don’t really mind as I can go to the gym and it will make another day (or another sleep more like) go a bit quicker but I’m not likely to know until tomorrow sometime. It isn’t a big deal cause I will just pack an overnight bag and tidy my room here. There are a couple of bosses coming out to site tomorrow and they need to see someone here who will not be back until travel restrictions set in, so they will have to stay – and because there’s limited space here I will have to give up my bed and the next nearest one is about an hours drive away (when I say next nearest I mean the next empty one with 3.5m concrete walls around it and men with guns…….who speak English anyway). I should have called today’s blog “the diary of a Madman” because you must all think I’m mad but believe me, a change is definitely as good as a rest ! One of the primary reason for not minding this musical beds is that it will give the bosses a chance to experience the conditions here, which is never a bad thing – we usually pray for sandstorms and 60deg heat when they come out. They’re all Iraqi or Middle-East veterans but there is something particularly evil about where we are for any number of reason and it never hurts for them to experience that !
I had a bit of my past appear today, which was lovely. I had an e-mail from someone with a quick question about something from the previous project that I was working on. It was very strange to think about how things have changed in a little under two months, and it will be really interesting to see how far they have moved on in that time. They have been battling the forces of bureaucracy in an effort to get their three years of hard work finally ratified, signed off and started. I’m looking forward to seeing somebody, anybody actually, from the project, so that I can get back up to speed – you never know, they might need a Project Manager to help them mobilise !
I am in my usual position with respect to work, which those of you who either know me well, or are in similar situations, will understand and appreciate. I currently have a contract here to the end of December. I’m pretty certain that I will be back for six weeks in September and October, then back for two weeks in England. Then it starts to get a bit muddy after that. I’m pretty sure there will be some continuation here through November and potentially into December and if I continue the six and two rotation then that will helpfully take me to mid December and Christmas. After that, who knows ! I know from experience that my work, as a rule, takes at least two months to source, agree, start, work the first month and then get paid. Often the first month of that is covered by fees earned the previous month (are you keeping up with this ?). Christmas and January are always difficult times to source new roles as everyone is switched off for a bit (which is understandable).
So, in a nutshell, the problem will be securing a new role without being able to keep my normal networking going or to see anyone to discuss it, or to know when I will be available to start and so on and so on……add to that the depressed market back home in the sector that I have been working in and we have a difficult dilemma………..but I like difficult – it makes for interesting opportunities ! One thing I’m reasonably clear about though, is that after Christmas I don’t really want to be coming back here unless I have to. I think 6 months away from home is enough, especially in difficult circumstances – but as Tracey has already said, there is no point me sitting at home with no work, if there is work (and well paid work at that) somewhere else.
So my parting plea (having successfully filled 2 pages with my mad ramblings) is……Gis a job mate…..
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