Where Should I Work in Future

WHere do you think i should work in future

Here or

Here



I dont think it is really a difficult decision

Life After The Desert Escapade

AS most people who read my blog, and that isnt many, can now get the impression i dont really like this place, to be brutally blunt this place is a miserable dusty dry dull boring prison camp and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone, the silly old buggers who spend their lives living here propping up the bar at the end of every night must have their brains boiled by the sun to think spending 44 weeks a year here is OK. I can honestly say that my experience here at the hands of my company has made me decide to not renew my contract that expries in a couple of months and not work in this type of contracting anymore, being told i cannot go home when i want was soul destroying and i sincerely felt trapped. This willnot happen again to me and my choices for future work will be far more selectively chosen, One important factor will be destination, I am only interested in working in nice places, like the far east, i have done some searching on the net and there is some projects going off in Malaysia and Indonesia and Thailand and even the Philippines, these would be a fantastic destination as I love the tropics with all the trees and wildlife. Another important factor is being able to take my wife with me, she has suffered also from me being away and why should i deny my wife the pleasure of travelling around, the money aspect is important but i would sacrfice money for a nice place and being with my wife. I have found a great website for searching as it is basically an agency that uses other agencies to put their jobs in a giant search engine, very nice as it compiles all the relevant jobs in one place instead of checking yourself in through hundreds of other sites, WWW.Oilcareers.com and i have applied for about 20 jobs but actually i am not really interested yet as i am planning to take off the summer, I have a wedding to go to in March in Florida and then i have to go to spain to get my spanish house sorted out and that could take all summer long, but when i sell it i will probably make some good money on it. so first things first, wedding, spain and then i may look for a job next christmas, sounds like a plan to early retirement.

Friday Outing to the Dunes

This friday i wasn't working and basically lost alot of money, to make things worse i agreed to have some fun and go out with a few guys to a beach resort about 50 Km south of Doha and probably have to spend some money. We drove down after lunch and found ourselves in a moonscape of desert and then an unbelievable string of refineries along the coast all towers and belching black smoke flare stacks. The road was diverted around the town of Al Masieed and on the road there were lots of large 4X4 trucks with trailers with quad bikes on them. As we approached the resort which was signposted for about 20 Km, we saw some huge sand dunes surrounding the place and just hundreds of kids riding quadbikes about like loonies pulling wheelies and doing donuts everywhere all along the roadside. We pulled into the car park and saw a quad bike/truck thing doing a two wheel stunt along the road in the car park, this was not only crazy but pretty dangerous as there were many cars driving about, this was only the start of the quad bike lunacy. We parked up outside the main gate and then watched as one after another of these rich qatari kids were trying to outdo each other burning donuts down the road including a fat kid with a balaclava on his head in the blazing sun, he looked like a suicide bomber and would have been shot many times had this been in Iraq, and i actually wished he had been in Iraq with the amount of noise and irritation he was causing us. It was so crazy at the entrance we decided to abandon the idea of leaving the car there and tried to drive away over the sand to the beach ourselves and within 50 yards we got bogged down in the sand, as we only have front wheel drive. we managed to dig out the front wheels and then push the car backwards until it was driveable again and then tried to get back to the road and the driver thought we was going to find some less bumpy section of sand to find it was the softest sand available known to mankind and the car sank up to the axles, we were screwed this time and as we were pathetically attempting to dig out the car again with our bare hands a local Qatari redeemed the whole nation by stopping and getting out a custom built tow rope and pulling us out of the sand, he did have the standard car for Qatar, a 4.5 L Toyota Landcruiser. We decided to pay the 50 Riyals and get into the beach resort itself as we needed beer to recover and we had to get away from the quadbikes. Inside was a sanctuary with a large hotel, bar complex with swimming pools and lawns and a quiet beach area without quadbikes roaring everywhere.
When we actually sat on the beach after the beers we could see and hear the quadbikes racing up and down the beach down the coast, literally hundreds of them down the along the beach and then up onto a huge dune that was about 200 feet tall, it was something i hadn't expected as we were so far south of Doha, but as there is nothing in Doha at all to do then this is where it all happens at the weekend. When the sun went down we set off for Doha and found the Ponderosa restaurant, for an all you can eat meal for 42 Riyals ( about $12), i stuffed as normal and ate more black olives than an normal man should, along with chocolate ice-cream with M&M's, i felt sick but for me that is pretty normal here. I got back to the camp at 9.00pm and felt ready for bed but something i ate just kept my head spinning I am worried my allergies are getting worse as i get older and i spent 2 restless hours in bed rolling about trying to get to sleep until i gave up and took my saviour, a valium tablet, i slept like a corpse all night and felt OK the next morning but what is it that if I eat a tiny amount of chocolate i cant sleep, life is a bitch and then you die

I am Leaving On Jet Plane, Dont Know When I Will Be Back Again

The Lyrics of that song are just whistling through my head in and out as i am in countdown to my leaving, still not exactly sure but should be less than 6 days as i have to leave before the other guy who is here also leaves. I was getting very nervous yesterday as the engineering manager told me they would need someone until the 15th of March and I worried it was going to be me. To prevent that happening I told my boss that i would actually quit before they would extend my stay any longer. I think I am not doing my reputation and good by making all the noises I have this last month while i was trying to get out of this miserable dusty hell hole. I am almost completely done with this contracting lark, I have been so pissed off about being told i couldnot leave that i was just wanting to quit to shove it up their ass. I hate being told what to do, so i have been scouting all the websites for jobs around the world where i could take my wife and it be a nice place to live, like Malaysia or Thailand or the Philippines or anywhere that would be interesting and easy to live without it being too hot or too dangerous or a miserable desert. The money doesn't count that much at the end of the day as i would just like to be able to go home at the end of a hard day to see my beautiful wife and little girl. but hell if things get tough next year i could end up selling ice cream on the beach. I am thinking of spending an entire year out of work and just trying to gather a relaxed frame of mind and then see what sort of job offers come around.

Big Bunch of Flowers for My Wife

I would just like to show my affection and love for my understanding wife who keep suffering all my absenses while i am away in Gulags around the world, she is a wonderful woman and deserves better treatment and perhaps this bunch of flowers will slightly make amends, I maybe home soon to buy her some flowers for our new house to brighten our lives together.

Camp Life and the Bar Room Antics

I have been in the camp 6 days now and it is as bad as any open prison system, the worst aspect is that it has zero entertainment, like no TV in room, no phone in room and no internet at all in camp. so when you arrive home from the jobsite, you have nothing to look forward to other than the four depressing badly decorated walls to stare at, or you can go to the clubhouse and get drunk, i have been taking too much of the latter as the former would turn me into that mass murderer i am trying so hard to keep within myself. The clubhouse is pretty basic, it has a bar, one large chiller cabinet for the beer, one large freezer for ice and chilling the glasses to
-273 degrees Celcius, that is how cold it felt the other afternoon, one enormous back projection TV and a few bar stools and some armchairs for the old farts who come to watch TV, a bit like the recreation room in an old folks home actually, other than it smells badly of smoke. So when you enter upon the said establishment you are greeted by one group of Brits who are sat at the bar on the stools and they are typical contractors, and a good bunch of blokes too, but they are of the more aged variety, and unfortunately for them they look like clones and sound like it too, they are all about 55-60 years old, all with either bald heads or shaven heads and bald or just shaven heads, with uniformly round fat facial features, this is where the clone thing comes into play, they all have what has been described to me by an american as having, Gin Blossom, that typical bright red face from years of soaking the liver in an excess of alcohol and in this case it is actually Gin.
I have been adopted as trainee clone and gin drinker, it is nice to be accepted so easily and it is the usual thing that all miserable gin drinking contractors like to surround themselves with other miserable gin drinking contractors, it is a club within a club, we all talk the same crap, like my unit is bigger than yours and i have installed more units than you, i have been to more countries than you and i am more miserable than you, also i have been adding in that i am more desperate than you, but after alot of Gin we all can laugh at the lame jokes and laugh at completely unfunny jokes and even laugh at the most drunken guy there as they cannot talk at all other than uttering a few words that dont make sense. This is contractor paradise and is all you can get here, i have heard the money these guys are making is terrible and why they are here is hard to understand, probably because they cannot get another job and maybe because the Gin is cheap, either way a life of 13 weeks here in the miserable camp and two weeks at home is nothing short of self induced torture and a wantoness to be miserable. I do not intent to end my years like a fat bald red faced clone, even though they are all good guys it is a nightmare i willnot accept

Life in Gulag Ras Laffan, Qatar

It has been a frustrating week here, i had been moved into the camp at site as i didn't have a regular driver to bring me to the site every day, i was deeply pissed off at this as the hotel i was using, The Ramada, was extremely nice and the food was nice and the bedroom was fantastic and clean. I had heard the old camp was miserable and bad, when i moved in i was surprised the find that they had put in lots of trees and bushes and it had lots of birds and a few cats so it felt quite homely and the rooms though small were clean, but the bed was tiny and the matress was hard as hell, the bathroom was primitive but functional, food in the camp is very average and little variety, so i still eat in the site restaurant as it is cheap and with great variety, so actually the camp isn't as bad as i had expected but it is regimented and if you miss the bus then you have to walk which i had to do on the third day in the camp, walking isn't such a big deal for me as i enjoy the fresh outdoors but here at the moment the miserable cold wind was tearing off my face again, and luckily it wasn't raining. It has been raining like the tropics here, pounding down for huge storms very often and even miserable and drizzly all day long just like England. I cannot believe how horrible the weather has been here during my first 45 days in this place. The last two days have been acceptable during the day after the sun has been out for a few hours but overnight and in the morning the air is chilly and even cold requiring you to wrap up warm, the rooms in the camp don't have any heating as you would expect so you have to make yourself some pyjamas to keep warm, i am using a T-shirt that has finally left the wearable area and joined the "for painting and decorating" area. my boots have finally decided that they are going to disintegrate while i am wearing them, with the insole falling apart into black grains of hard rubber powder that are ruining my new work socks.
This has all made me feel pretty miserable and i had a few days really desperate as the old camp has no phones and no TV and no internet, it meant i was cut off from my beautiful latin wife. i was writing desperate demanding mails to my boss daily demanding i be replaced but there is such a shortage that there is no one to replace me, I had thought about what i can do next contract year to get away from this horrible travelling and being away from my lovely wife. My company has other divisions it works for and i would love to be able to travel in the latin american countries as it is closer and i would have no jetlag and if i could work on maintenance job so i would only be away for much shorter times, i think i am going to try for a half time contract, they do a 700 hours a year thing and that would suit me fine, i dont need to work like a maniac anymore as my house is paid for. When you have suffered in a posting like this then you really have to assess what you want out of life, the job itself here has been so slow as to be not really any job at all, we had a few problems but a boy out of school could have done it, well almost.
I have a leaving date of the 16th but that is loosely termed provisional as if they don't get a replacement then i stay until they do, but they cannot keep me here indefinately once i have reached the 8 week mark then i can leave not problem. but i am getting worn out with it all, i need a long rest.

I am off to a wedding at the end of March in Florida and my wife is planning all activities like flights and baby sitters as we are planning on leaving the little girl at home, and i am really looking forward to going to the everglades to see some of those fantastic birds that they have, and the alligators and pythons that have started breeding there, should be great fun and i think i deserve it all.

Qatar is Like the Moon but With Less Atmosphere

The crazy country is going from bad to worse, the weather has been shocking at best but today has seen a new phenomenon that is going to be make me miserable. As we drove into work this morning before daylight as usual, i though that my eyes were just tired as all the colours of the morning daybreak were strange, but as the sun finally got up i saw the haze was actually real the sky was orange and even though i have been driving round on the site through 6 inches of sandy mud, we were in the middle of a light sandstorm. The wind has changed direction and is coming from Iraq and maybe they are having a real desert winter with lots of heat and giant sandstorms and the fine dust is now blowing all over this miserable desert here. It is now killing my allergies and i have been having multiple sneezing fits and my eyes are feeling all sore and gritty, maybe that is because i am still not really sleeping properly, going to bed really early and getting up in the middle of the night is not really good for my old mans constitution. So what am i to do to get out of this place, i am trying all the normal channels of communication so far, my manager and the guys on site, this is the normal route and so far it has failed, i did send my manager a " I am miserable and desperate" mail, when i found out that the camp i am being transfered to has no tv's or phone or internet ( not that i have got a laptop here ), i mailed him again giving him the " I am so desperate here that i am going to just pack my bags and leave on my own " mail, not sure if that was a good idea but i am feeling shitty and really miserable and so i have to let out my frustrations somehow. I think i have reached a time in my life where i need to change what i am doing, I found out the mail address of a manager in Tampa Florida who deals with guys working in the Americas and I asked about working in the Americas part time for a different division of my company, I need to have some escape plan to stop me feeling desperate and perhaps it will happen and maybe i will just go and be a beach bum selling ice creams in the Caribbean.

Crazy Comment of The Week

"If a man comes in with erectile dysfunction, it can be the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Andrew McCullough, a sexual health expert at New York University Medical Center

Quite obviously anyone on the tip of an iceberg would be seriously dysfunctional

I am a Kidnap Victim, Not of Criminals but My Company

I am starting to get very suspicious about how long my company is intent on keeping me here in Qatar. I demanded a replacement ASAP as i am about 4 weeks past my leaving date and even though i have complained and told everyone i want to leave, i can see nothing being done to replace me. I haven't handed in my passport for the leaving permit I have also been told that i am being moved into camp accommodation. This sounds suspiciously like i am being kept here for longer than a few more days. I am about to go postal and kill everyone in the office here just so i can go home and relax like a normal human being. I really object to being kept in the dark and have someone in the Office in Italy dictate to my agency when i am going to leave without having the courtesy to contact me first and ask if i wouldn't mind staying longer. well if the want to play dictator i am going to play serial killer and bury everyone in my domain in the desert and then hunt down the manager in Italy and nail him to a burning cross. This is what i am thinking about while the rain comes down again, turning the desert into a green carpeted giant bowling green as flat as you could ever need to play bowls. Global warming, i hope it makes everywhere warm including Qatar, it is miserable here still.

My Project Extension and the Miserable Weather

I was only supposed to be staying in Qatar for 20 days, when i arrived the weather crap and the whole city is a miserable construction site. So it isn't a nice place to be and even after i was told i was staying longer i felt miserable but not desperate about the crappy cold windy rainy weather. But 1 day before I was expecting to fly out of here, i was informed that everyone thought i was staying for 2 months and that i had no flights booked. This just about dropped me off a cliff, i felt like killing my project manager as he thinks i am a slave that enjoys working in shithole countries and enjoy having office morons telling what i should and shouldn't be doing. I had been comforting my beautiful wife with words about being home for the end of the month and she was complaining that she knew i wasn't coming back when i said and not believing anything i was telling her about my leaving dates as they always lie to me about it. To be really honest i think she understands these people more than i do.

I have told everyone i am severely pissed off about the extension and that they must replace me as soon as possible and that i am not going to tolerate any further extensions without anyone contacting me and discussing it with me first. I made such a scene in the office about the extension that the site manager had to give me a talking to about me saying i wanted to kill the project manager. He was saying the corporate bullshit like, we have to think of the company and we have to show the customer how responsive we are, i was trying hard not to laugh in his face as he sounded so pathetic. I also found out that once you have been here in Qatar more than 30 days you have to get a permit to leave the country, YES YOU NEED A LEAVING PERMIT, this is a stupid ruling, i am desperate to leave and yesterday the skies opened and rained like a bitch for about 4 hours and to the point it overwhelmed the hotel drain system and started flooding the bathrooms including mine, I was dreaming nicely as it was my only day off per week and i could just hear some slight pitter patter of water hitting a floor while i am asleep, and it got louder and louder until i completely awoke and dashed in to find water pouring in from the ceiling of my bathroom, this country is insane and i am going that was also, I am a celebrity get me outta here