Week Three In The Tundra

Week 3 in the tundra, the job is going to shite. Everything that could go wrong is going wrong and as I am the site services manager all the engineers are looking at me for answers. I have been sending out misleading e-mails to distract everyone and hopefully I can keep doing this for the next 8 days. My flight out of here is all screwed up and I may end up spending three days in Seoul but that doesn’t have to be so bad. The worst aspect of this is that as this site is owned by the worlds biggest oil company I would have expected a very professional and well engineered project but what I have found is probably one of the worst thought out cluster f*cks I have had the misfortune to work on. I am not sure why this has come to pass but could be due to the accelerated timeframe that was used or the fact it is in Russia. Perhaps a crazy combination of people demanding the latest technology when simple is the best, this is what I call technical arrogance.
The weather is about as cold as I have ever experienced in my short life and I can say I really hate the cold, I have become a sun worshipper and I really hate the cold weather. It has been below freezing for the last week and it snowed over night two days ago and the ground has been permanently snow covered since, this is not even winter yet, I cannot imagine how bad deep winter can be. I will do anything rather than come back here, there is no doubt in my mind that I will quit before coming back here.

the first snow of Autumn and solid frozen ground for 5 days







I have been contacting every contracting agency to get away from this type of work and get back to a normal 9-5 in the middle east, I love the heat and sun and will prostitute myself for any amount to stay working in the sun. I have been contacted by an agency that is recruiting for the worlds biggest gas project in Qatar so once again I have a chance of getting out there on married status and with a free house and free car and free medical and free schools for the kids, sounds pretty good and it is for at least 3 years, that could get me near my retirement goal. Only 8 days to endure and I just cannot wait for the days to tick away, what a life to be wishing my life away.

Week two in the Tundra

Week two in the tundra and the weather has been pretty cold, the ground was frozen solid for 3 days in a row and the wind was just bitter, today is not as cold but it only a matter of time. A biting arctic winter is heading this way and I am not looking forward to it, inside any of the accommodation is perfectly fine and warm but moving from one place to another is a challenge as it is so goddam cold, I cannot imagine how cold -40C can be, perhaps it doesn’t feel any colder than -5C, or is that just wishful thinking. We had 4 hours of snow that didn’t settle and it was worrying as you never know if you’re going to get stuck here with the snow blocking the airport, then your visa is dead and you cannot leave for another month while you get your new visa, it could be a nightmare.

I have found out an old site contact is working in Malta on the construction of some modules and that sounds like a nice place for the next few years. Not sure that any amount of money would keep me here in this ice box. Another guy onsite has been offered lots of project work all over the world and he is recommending me to many people as he is a good northern lad and I make him laugh, that is enough for a recommendation.

Life in Gulag Cheyvo Russia

Well I have had a week in the camp in the Gulag Chayvo, Sakhalin. It is crap, I have been unfortunately put into the crappy drilling camp, no phone no internet, crappy beds and I have to share a bedroom and this is the first time in 15 years I have been reduced to sleeping in a shared room. No bathroom, you have to step across the corridor to go and pee in the middle of the night, I don’t mind disturbing my room mate as he is a snorer, his snoring isn’t bad but enough to keep waking me when he is choking on his slack soft palate. The food is average and it is 5 Km away so we have to get the bus, I am not allowed to lay in my bed in a morning as the bus leaves at 5.30am and I have to get up at 4.50am to have a wash and get my breakfast. This is torture, and I have 3 more weeks of it to endure. The weather is turning cold and we even had a few snowflakes dropping the other day and it was blowing cold. I have a holiday planned for Hawaii and this is the only thing I can focus on, everything else here is pretty miserable and depressing, nothing can prepare you for the negative sort of atmosphere that pervades all aspects of the daily routine. I am running like a soldier all day, making sure my schedule is on time as if I miss the bus I am screwed, not that I have much to do, I can spend time on the internet in the office but I am limited to what I can see as it is on the oil company’s network and is fire-walled for certain things like blogs. The guy I am sharing a room with is pretty good actually; he is a Brit from the north like me and very funny, but he snores and as everyone who knows me I am the worlds worst crappiest sleeper, I am so tired these days I am in bed before 9pm and sleep through ‘til 2am when I need to pee and his snoring is waking me. Please God you viscous bastard, tell me what I did in a previous life to piss you off this much. Buddha is a much nicer god.
So Hawaii on the cheap is the name of the game, we are going to stay at a friends house and he is also loaning me a car, woohoo, that is a $1000 at least. We are going to do the wilderness thing with lots of walking and beach things and some whale watching if it is the season. Hawaii is one of those places that has inspired me to travel all my life and I will once again be horribly disappointed and will be blogging about all the crappy aspects of it but who knows. Trying to use my Airmiles is pointless as they restrict the number of seats per plane to 5 I think and if you don’t book 12 months in advance then you cannot ever use the miles, what is the point you assholes, we have to use the miles sometime, or do they prefer that we get all pissed off and never use them. Jeez what is that all about, making it hard to use the miles you have suffered for to obtain.
We will see what the big boss has to say about me not having my room and if he offers me a permanent job in this God forsaken place. One good thing my first bird book is finished and I am now completing the second, of the Cayman Islands, I have found out it seems a nice place to go and pretty civilised so I may plan a trip to there if I can find the time and a friend who lives there to do it cheap.

Funniest Comment I Have Read in Quite while

"One of the saddest things I have seen in my lifetime has been the decline in Australian male culture," Austrailian writer put in a new book.

"Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags."

I was wondering if he was talking about himself, wish i knew what a metrosexual really was, perhaps i am one also

Around the World the Worng Way

I am once again at the mercy of airline food and crappy seats. I have flown 2/3 of the way around the world to get back to Sakhalin Island in Russia for my next instalment of the soap opera called “working for a living at the end of the world”.
I don’t know why my company thinks it is a good idea to fly me the wrong way around the globe but it must obviously involve the amount of money it cost, as the thought about how many nights sleep I lost and how my back feels really never came into the equation. I got here with all my bags but I did spend some time cursing in Seoul as I thought my bags had gotten left in Paris once more, the world’s worst airport. I also had to pay extra in Seoul for the flight as they couldn’t find my e-ticket, so my credit card must be getting to its limit.
Can you believe the nicest meal I had was a pot noodle with spicy sauce, and this was from the self service buffet. What is happening to Air France’s food these days, it all very average and not very tasty. The wine was rough as usual for French wine but I was feeling a little hung over as I had a few too many nice wines ( Chilean ) at a party we had at home the night before I flew, plus all the cake I consumed, far too much sugary stuff for my old body to endure.
Anyway I am here and the weather was very nice, again a surprise, lovely and sunny and fresh and I am hoping that this stays this way for the whole of October for my final trip and hopefully global warming is having its desired effect in Russia.