Quick Life Update 11 - For months now

Salam wbt and hello all,

Oh my gosh..it has been a while since the last update. How long? Months ago.

I never forgot the blog, but it has been quite a busy times for me. Not all the time busy, but it is a mixture of the hectic and low time for me. Whenever I got time and free, I did not update the blog. Instead I did another things and keep delaying in updating my blog.

For example, got back the rig and at least one day available or free. I will go see movies, eat good food, sleep, window shopping and cooking. I will do things that I won't be able to do at the rig. In terms of updating the blog, I will be like, "No problem, I will update it at the rig". Then, actually at the rig I will be so occupied and exhausted. 

So, while I still in the writing mode, let me bring you up to speed what has been going on with me up to now;

Vacation in Malaysia

I had three week vacation, starting from end of January until mid of February. I just went home, relax. I did not travel to anywhere. Attended the weddings, catch up sessions with some old friends. On the second week, I removed the wisdom tooth. It was a surgery which lasted ~45 minutes. I did the check up two days after I arrived in Malaysia. Then, taking into account the food at weddings, good food at market, my mother's cook, me and my mother decided to come back one week after to do the surgery. Towards the day, I was scared. Should I or should not I remove it? My mother said, just remove it. And I finally removed it, after thousands time cancelling the surgery for the last 3-4 years. I did not feel any pain due to the local anesthetic (2 injections!!!). But! The sounds were scary, "Kruk, krak, kruk, krak" continuously. Three deep cuts were made to my gum as this wisdom tooth was so deep. Once removed, the doctor stitched the wound and I came back on the third week to remove the stitch. At least 3 days to stop the bleeding, the blood was really thick red and I did not even have the gut to check my mouth in the mirror. Once the bleeding stopped, and less painful, I started eating like normal.

Me at Genting Highland, before decreasing my wisdom level.

Other than that, helped my mother to organise the house. Since last year, I planned to renovate the front of my mother's house, which is always her wish. I allocate her some budget, and she organised it accordingly. She looked and interviewed several contractors before selecting any of them to do our house. We also bought some items like lightings, surveyed the mosaic, bathroom items. Funny thing was also, we roamed around our neighborhood to check out the designs for our house. We took pictures, and for me, people might think that we were planning for burglary. Towards the end of my vacation, we rearranged the cupboards to make some spaces for the renovation in the front area. The contractor also started send the items like sand, wood, cement, steel and placed them at our house.

With my sistah at Aisyah's wedding

All in all, I had a quiet vacation. Just relax at home, and it was alright.

That's my mother checking on the stuff

I came back last week

I traveled back to Doha last week, Monday, 12-Feb. Instead of asking my mother to send me to the airport, I took a taxi. I don’t want to trouble my mother to drive early in the morning. Besides, the house renovation started on this day.


Two days of quiet at Somerset, and then I showed up at the base. Managed to fast several days to cover the day I missed in Ramadhan last year. Then, I will need to cover another 10 days for the one I missed last year although I already paid the kifarah. I am using this not busy time to replace them, InsyaAllah. I went to rig GDI-1, did the rig up and came back to Doha. Only one MWD left there, Ahmed Al-Risi. This will be Remote Operation (RO) job, so no need to MWD at the wellsite.


Since I came back, I did nothing. Just roaming around and started studying for ADN-ECO school. Yes, finally I will go to this nuclear school in April. Therefore, need to learn and understand the modules.


Now, I am just staying at the base. A lot of engineers came in, loan as well as transferred. Also Malaysian engineers came in. The activities supposed to start being crazy, for some reasons, many rigs got delayed. When things are not busy, actually I start thinking maybe they will start laying off people. Hehehe…and I had some issues with the top guys, and I probably one of the candidate to be removed. My brain can be so negative sometimes. :)

 

Somerset

Did I tell you I moved to a new hotel, Somerset. Basically, all the International Mobile employees are staying there now. Somerset, it is a service apartment. One apartment, it has three huge bedrooms. I was the third person to come to Apartment 601. Then, after one week, I requested to move another apartment. There is one lady that was bitching around the smell of cooking. I fried eggs and she started to bitching the smell. Also, scolded me for using her cooking utensils. The thing is, she put everything together with the hotel's stuff. She should have fuckin tape her things with her name etc. I don’t like her from the start, although I don’t talk much with her. Surprisingly, she smoke in the apartment and never washed her dishes. I cannot order food every single day you know and I need to live with freedom. I know from the start, whether I can tag along well with somebody or no. It is a gut feeling. Then, fuck it. I reported to the HR and finally moved to another apartment. I am happy.


There are a lot to update. I will see you in the next entry hopefully soon.

 

Take care and Salam w.b.t

 

P/S - It is getting warmer here in Qatar. Summer is approaching. FYI, this is backdated post :)

Random Updates :)

Salam w.b.t and hi all,

 

It has been a while yeah… I am a bit busy for the last 3 weeks since I got back from vacation. I have drafted the part 2 on my New Zealand vacation, but what I haven't done is to upload the photos.

 

The entry will not be meaningful without the pictures, right? So I decide to keep it as a draft now, instead I am making another entry :)

 

Have you guys watch IT and Kingsman? I watched IT with my sister back in Malaysia and watch Kingsman when I was in Doha after vacation. The IT movie is scary but funny as well. It is a very awesome movie, I would say the best movie I ever watch in 2017. I have been telling it to all my colleagues at work, but not interested to them. 

You will float too

Then Kingsman. I personally think the first Kingsman is way much better but did not regret watching the second one. It is good to watch except some of the fighting scenes are too fast to watch. With some background music and it makes me dizzy a bit. Hehehehe…. However, it is fun to watch and shows part of London, black cab, Hyde Park etc. I walked in these places and watching it in the movie created smile on my face. 

 

I miss United Kingdom or Scotland to be specific; the greenery, mountains, hills, buildings, accents, train, weather, jackets, trees and streets. The prices of the clothes, food, groceries and others. I complained how boring is the place but it does not mean I don’t like and miss the places.

 

One thing I miss a lot is the warmth of people back in Aberdeen. The little and sometimes silly talks I had at work with my friends. All the pranks we made to each other. Yes, we pranked each other. Hehehe…tied our coverall, paste on the locker, tied shoe laces together, hid the shoes, and many more.

 

Anyway, past is a past.

 

Right now I am at the present, trying to motivate myself to move on and find the beauty at the present moments.

 

Thank you to those who read my blogs, and leave comments. I appreciate it if you find my blog is useful, again, thank you.

 

I do not update much on Facebook or Instagram. If I do, I will write an easy stuff, but blog is the main medium if I want to pour my heart out :)

 

If I haven't update my blog for quite a while, please do not think I leave my blog. I might be so occupied with all the works.

 

I think that's all I have so far. Take care and see you guys in the next entry.

 

P/S: "Do not worry, I am a Muslim". That’s when I started to worry. I will share my experience regarding this.

New Zealand Trip Part #1

Salam wbt and hello all.

How are you guys been doing? I hope you all are doing fine. I am doing quite awesome honestly.

I just got back from my vacation in New Zealand. It is a great place really and beautiful as well.

Stopping at Lake Tekapo

I think I will create at least two or three entries regarding my trip to NZ. I planned for a vacation in early of July while I was in Doha. I did not know where I want to go for vacation, but I want to go for a travel. I haven't travel for quite a while so I was so thrilled to go for an adventure. Hahaha...

Waiting for boarding the plane - Air Asia

I don't know for sure how I can get in touch with my very old friend, Nabila but I call her Paan. Maybe I saw her quite active on FB sharing stuffs then I asked her straight away her holiday. She said end of August until early of September, around 2 weeks. To me, that's about nice time. 2 weeks in NZ and another 1.5 weeks in Malaysia.

Paan, so down to earth person.

Then, the process of getting holiday approval and planning for journey begun. I just planned my travel to NZ and Paan planned for things to do there. All I told her, I want to travel all over NZ and do bungee jumping. Doing the jump has been on my mind since I was a student but I had limited resources back then. Hehehe....

There were doubts initially whether I will make it or not as the journey will be nearly 25 hours involved of 2 hours transits at many airports. The chance of missing the flight is high and also I had concern about the jetlag and affect of long travel on my body. I don't know, as this will be the longest travel I have taken so far.

View while tramping on Hooker Valley. Yep, that's the name of the place.

Finally the day has come. I was downmanned from the rig early morning of 22nd August.

Phewww... From the plan, I should start my travel on 23rd August from Doha.

23rd Aug, Original plan => Doha - Jakarta - Denpasar - Brisbane - Christchurch

Actual plan => Doha - Jakarta - Denpasar - Malaysia/Rumah emak - Melbourne -

Christchurch

Eating Nasi Lemak while waiting.

Delayed flight from to Denpasar, led to miss flight to Brisbane subsequently unable to make it to NZ. Also, being alone in Bali at night was quite not good experience as the same taxi driver kept tailing me around. And, limited options of flights/routes from Bali caused me blurred/lost as the next flight to Christchurch is in the next two days.

Well, I don't want to stay in Bali while waiting. I don't feel safe being alone in Bali. Thus, I bought ticket to go back to KL straight away.

Get on the flight go home, thinking maybe this is not my time to visit to NZ. At home, my mother/emak encouraged to not to cancel the plan. As she knows I was so excited for the vacation and there will be none there to accompany me if I want to come later as Paan will go back for good. Finally, rebooked the flights. This was on 24th August. (Ah man...money money money. I need to work harder once I finish the vacation)

On the next day, I started the journey to NZ. It was exciting and nervous as well. My mother sent me to the airport and packed me homade Nasi Lemak. Huhuhu...

Alhamdulillah I safely arrived in Christchurch on 26th August at 5AM. Paan picked me up from the airport and went to her place. The road trip will start around 10AM as she will need to pick up the rental car.

Feel like crying looking at this view, so pretty.

So, there were 7 of us and she rented a SUV. It should have a bigger car like Estima or van but we made it work regardless. Hahaha...

We managed to squeeze everyone into this awesome SUV, believe it or not. This is brand new car, 0 KM.

The plan was to travel on South Island first then go to North Island.

I think I will write the itinerary in Part #2. It is quite long entry if I want to put everything here together.

In the meantime, I upload pictures on my Facebook. I just used my phone and pictures shared by others. No fancy gadget as I don't have one. Hehehehe...

Glenorchy, in Queenstown.

Alright guys. See you in the next entry.

Take care and Salam wbt.

P/S - I am glad I went home and collect my winter jacket. It was freezing cold in NZ although spring already started.

Mother - Daughter

On one fine day, a young lady called her mother as usual.

They exchanged stories, asking their wellbeing, about siblings, work, weather, food, house, and other things normally shared between mother and daughter.

Then the mother asked the young lady, "How is your friend?".

Silence fill in between them.

The young lady knows which friend her mother asking about.

Without waiting any further, the young lady said, "Mother, he is not a good person. He has a hot tempered".

The mother surprised and asked how does she knows if he is an ill-tempered person as the lady just know him.

"Mother, I know and I can see it. If he could not control his emotion as well as his words at this stage, I wonder how he will be ever controlled himself when we are together?".

It may sound dramatic, but we can see what happened to the women around the globe today. On newspaper, on TV, community, and within the family itself.

The young lady continued, "Who knows, some day he will start putting his hands and foot on me. I don’t want that".

Her mother remained silence.

The young lady continued, "Mother, I am sure there will be a good person out there, it is a matter of time. Do not worry about me. I don’t want to be hurry on this matter and later of the day regret of my choice, which will be too late. I am sure you also want the best for myself".

Lastly, the mother said, "Yes, I definitely want the very best for you. I pray the best for you every time on every single day. I am not worry. Just take care of yourself first".

The lady gave a relieve sigh, smile and laugh.

Because she knows at the end of the day, if she takes care of her parents and family first, she knows a responsible and good person will come and take care of herself later on.

Therefore, she tries to put all the worrisome behind and live the moment with good memories.

Nice work place ever!

Salam w.b.t and hi all,

How are you guys doing? I miss updating my blog with useful contents. Hehehehehe…

For the last couple of months, most of the contents are about me whining my life. Hahahahaha….

I am doing very well here. Look forward to the adventure coming up in the next couple of weeks. Actually, it will be in two weeks. Jajajaja…

I am at the rig at the moment, called GDI-2. It is a land rig. I worked at this rig before, so I know the crew here. To be honest, the current location of this rig is the best so far. I love it so much, it is right opposite to the beach.

Yes!!! You read it right, BEACH!

When I was assigned to this rig, I did not know about the location of the rig as per usual. Actually, no one knows until we physically arrived here. We were like, this is the best place ever.

My cabin door is opposite to the beach. See the pictures below. My colleagues after finish their shift, they went for swimming. Most of the rig crew were also jumped into the sea and swimming while we are drilling.

See the beach here. Lets name it Dukhan beach. Lol!

I walked along the beach few days back. I want to jump into the water so much, but I don’t find it appropriate. On top of that, I don’t bring a proper long and loose shirt, as well as many eyes will see me. All here are males ya, FYI. Other reason is I work from 6PM to 6AM, but most of the time I will finish at 7 or 8AM.

It is summer here, so from 7AM up to 6.00PM, you will never want to swim in the sea. You will be like a boiling egg. Hehehehehe….

It is really good here. Well so far you are reading a good part.

When I arrived here at the rig, I was working like crazy. I did not sleep nearly ~36hours. Rig up, prepare the tools, BHA pick up, and run in hole, start drilling.

Normally they will send 4 crews, two MWD and two DD. Since the Remote Operation (RO) will cover day shift, so it will me the MWD doing night. Luckily, the other two crews were really smart and helpful. We did all the physical works you can imagine, and it was a worse situation.

Tired, at the same time still need to work like you are fully capable giving 100% of yourself.

I cannot describe the feeling I felt at that time, but I was so ready to walk away with the RO keep complaining, shouting, critize at me. Nothing good I have done to his eyes. One time, when we finished drilling the 12-1/4" section, lay down the BHA, backloaded the tools, and prepare pick up the 8-1/2" BHA at the same time. Mind you, this happened at the same time.

I was so tired, and senior scold me for the stupid thing. I know if it is serious, I will admit my mistake and learn from it. BUT! For the little stupid thing about removing the wooden pallet to put the tools on it, I won't take it easy. I have many other things that is much, much more important than this stupid thing. At that time, I finished the tools programming and that’s it! I dropped everything and off I went to sleep. Mind you again, I haven't sleep nearly ~20 hours this time.

It was so exhausted. I left without saying anything. Then of course in the evening, it gets back to me. I admit my mistake, but my patience was over. Totally over.

Anyway, we were all good after that and he advised me. Not shouting at me, which I accept it. We all know each of us was working more than we should, so tolerance is there.

I am not scare to walk away really, when things are out of control. I have nothing to lose. I have nothing to scare off. I am sure if it is not here, I will find a better place. I know this is not good behaviour, but I will do this when things are too much. If you are in my shoes, you will understand me. :)

We are 3-4 days away before finish the drilling. Rig down, and leave the wellsite off to Doha. All the crew does not feel like leaving, so DDs were trying to slow down the drilling. This place is too good to leave. Hehehe… It is great here.

I love it here.

I need to properly organised my stuff, my mind, my life and all. It has been all over the places lately. For the last couple of weeks, I am struggling to focus.

Hopefully by going for a vacation will give me a break and time to refocus and think the forward plan.

That’s it guys. I will write again soon.

Take care and Salam wbt.

P/S - Hello readers. I love it when you guys just randomly dropped me an email, message, and comments. I appreciate it if you find this blog is useful for you guys. Thank you very much!

Hello peeps

Salam w.b.t and hi all,

How are you doing? I am doing fine. I am offshore at the moment, first time offshore in Qatar. On Al-Khor, Shell jack-up rig. Ocean is calm, but the temperature is so hot. They announce the heat index from time to time, the range of the temperature is between 49 to 56 degree C. It can be hotter during the day.

It has been crazy for the past three weeks. I have been planning to update the blog many times, but I was pretty occupied with the jobs.

Exhausted as well.

I managed to go back to Doha on Eid. I did not go anywhere, I was sleeping and rest as trying to adjust the sleeping schedule. Then, on the very same day, my manager asked me to come to the base on the next day to prepare the basket tests. Then, next day I was planned to go to another land rig for rig up with another MWD, Berik. I will do the rig up and leave Berik to run the job alone. There will be Remote Operation support and I will go back to the previous rig I was, GDI-4.

Ok, that’s cool. We arrived around 4PM and started the rig up. The heat was so crazy, and at 5PM I was sitting at the corner and about to black out. Immediately I went to room, wet my face, threw up, heart beats crazily and I could not open my eyes. I laid down on the floor for one hour with headache. It was like a punch hitting my head. I was so scared that I might be unable to wake up.

Then moved to the bed, slept. Around 6PM, back to normal and continued rig up and preparing the equipment. We rigged up and finish around 5.30 in the morning. We were so exhausted, and Berik, he looked like lost sometimes. Well, I understand because exhausted, heat, and unplanned rig up. He is the man with the plan, and when there is no plan, he kind of lost. I know this rig, so I led him.

At 8AM, driver came to pick me up to go back to Doha. In the evening, got another message to go to another rig, GDI-1 to do the setup and teach the loan guy about the job. Ok, fine. I departed to the rig, and came back to Doha in the afternoon.

After that, I managed to get three days of rest without any disturbance. Treated myself with good foods, watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and sleeping. On the fourth days, I felt weird as the managers did not call or email me. I was so kind (LOL), went to the base to say hello and ask them, "What's up?".

Went to the base, did the basket test and I was told by another manager I will be going to the rig in two days. He gave me 5 minutes pre-job briefing and I don’t know a heck what the job was about. I said, I am supposed to go back to the GDI-4, that’s what my manager told me.

Long story short, I was sent to the rig, I am currently at. I don’t really like it, although the food is really good.

The reasons are;

1. I share the room with another Shell's female personnel. The room is very hot, and the A/C is working, but it is always like that since it is summer
2. No hand phone here, leave it on land
3. Health and Safety is quite strict compared to land rig. I have been working freely on land, and then I need to limit and control it here. Basically, be more safer
4. New client for me, and a lot of things I need to learn and their SOP, bla bla bla
5. On land, if I want to come back to Doha, I can push my manager to relieve me. I can go to the supermarket, and walk around the rig. Here, I need to wait for helicopter and I cannot randomly say, I want to go home
6. I made friends with the rig I was at previously, I know the crew and what they are doing. I call them by their name, and they know me. Here, I am a new crew and I need to break the ice

I am an introvert, I don’t get along easily with people at the beginning. It takes time to know people, and after that I will be fine.

It is quite calm now, we are drilling. I arrived 5 days ago and the last two days, it has been crazy. Anyways, I hope it will be good now.

On another note, I will have my vacation in Aug-Sept. I will go to New Zealand visiting friend and see places, and I just bought the flight ticket two hours ago. It is going to be a long flight. From Doha to Christchurch, in total around 28 hours with three transits. Erm….I hope I will be fine. Then, I will go back to Malaysia. That’s the plan for now, details, I will think about it later.

When thinking about New Zealand, I already feel excited. Hahaha…will see. Anyone wants to join me, you are welcome.

That’s what I have so far.

I will write again later, take care folks.

Keep me posted if anything.

Salam w.b.t and see you all next time.

P/S - Nothing to P/S

Quick Life Update 10

Salam w.b.t and hi all,


How are you guys doing? It is been a while since my last entry. It has been quite hectic and crazy for the last couple of weeks.

Before I proceed, Salam Ramadhan to every Muslim readers :)

After I got back from my short holiday, I stayed in Doha for three weeks, approx. I did not go to the rig, only to base. Since not many engineers available in town, it was quite busy for me as I will need to complete my workshop training. I did basket tests, prepare the tools for load out, as well as preparing for the EMP school. During this time, I would day it was a "honeymoon" time for me. Sleeping, eating, shopping, and chillout in town.

 Krispy Kreme, Villagio Mall

I departed to Abu Dhabi on 13 May and came back to Doha on 26 May. This flight was the shortest flight I ever taken in my two years with SLB, around 40 minutes which I am so glad. The EMP school was two weeks and it was alright. Most of the D&M Engineers said this is the toughest course ever for this segment, but I find it was not that hard. It is just a lot of works, theories as well as practical. In my opinion, preparation is the key. Anyway, I learned a lot and I passed. Grade does not matter, as the application of knowledge on the job is much more critical.

Flight leaving Abu Dhabi

Certificate of completion the course

All the FEs of the class

I came back last week, and I tried to keep a low profile. I did not go to the base for the first weekday, and another trainee, Areej told me that my manager, Kulwinder was asking about me. Actually he knows I am back in town, it is his way of saying, "Why is Siti not here???". Hahahaha….the next day, which was last Monday, I showed up at the base.


Since last Monday, we had calibrations back-to-back. At first, it was supposed to be three calibrations then suddenly an additional calibration required as it was urgent tool. I took turn with Areej to do the calibration with two seniors with us. Basically, two persons are required for calibration and I came with Kamlesh (Senior) on the first day, then Areej with another senior came on the next day. It is summer here and the temperature can be up to 50 degree C during the day, therefore we started in the evening around 5 PM. We finished around 12 midnight. For the urgent tool, me and Kamlesh did it during the day yesterday and it was roasting.

Today, I came to the rig. My manager told me about this last night, and this morning I departed to the rig. This is my breakout job, and Kamlesh is here with me. From the plan, he will leave me alone to run the job after we do the rig up. He does not seems convince I can lead the job. It does not offend me, because I feel the same as well. I don’t feel confident at all, plus, I haven't been to the rig for nearly 1.5 months. Hahahahahaha….But one thing I can tell you about myself is, I will never feel confident if I don’t do it myself. I cannot just wait for the right moment of confidence to kick in, I will need to chase for it.


This is my first Ramadhan in Qatar. We are starting to fast around 3 AM and break our fast around 6.20 PM. The good thing is, everyone is aware of the Ramadhan month and summer. So, they are trying their best to be accommodating. When I did the calibration, Kamlesh kept saying, "Ok you can go have a rest after this", "Go to sleep", and others. The staffs also aware and asked me to go inside of the building instead of standing outside. Since I have been working with Kamlesh most of the times, I told him, it is alright for me and not to worry. If I feel tired or too much, I will break my fast but I will try first to fast.


The weather is so hot here, and windy plus sand. Also, we have been warned about the sightings of snakes and scorpions. The HSE officer casually said, "Before wearing your safety boots, make sure turn it upside down just in case there is a snake inside it". I was like, "Man, are you kidding me???". But that’s true. Another personnel said he came across the snake on the ground, and its colour is brown and when we look from distance, it is like a rope lying on the ground. I don’t feel excited about it.


I told my mother that I will probably not come back for Eid, which is sad as I was planning to go back. I asked my mother if I am selfish and does not care about family, because sometimes I can feel I am a selfish person. She said she understand that I need to secure my job as I have been fighting for this job for many years. It is time for me to prove myself through this breakout job. Therefore, once I am finish with this job, I am planning to take couple weeks off and go back to Malaysia. Although some people said, you should travel around the world since you are working with SLB and has a lot of money. Let me tell you something, distance grows a heart fonder. I will travel, but now, I could not find a suitable person or group I can tag along with.


Actually, we are free now as we are waiting for the crane availability to offload our equipment. The crane is pretty occupied and we could not do anything apart from waiting, waiting and waiting. I was thinking if we can rig up at night as it is very hot during day and I will be fasting. So, we will see how it goes. I drank coffee and just standby if we can start working tonight.


So, that is the update for now. I will write again later.


Take care and Salam w.b.t dear readers.


P/S - "Last Hope" from Paramore has been my looping music for the last two weeks. Listen to the live version of it, it was so good.