Part four: Exams and Minor Migraines

As soon as I got back to the base, my boss told me that my password for the preschool entrance exam has arrived. The deadline was on the 25th of December. It came to me as a shock. I had about a week to get myself ready for the entrance exam. The exam consists of two parts, one on maintenance which was pretty much basic and everyone had to take it, and the second part was on coiled tubing. Pretty challenging shit if you ask me.

The next day I was shipped off to Daleel for a logging job. Apparently the coil broke while they were pulling out of hole. I was lucky to go there and witness the whole ordeal.

My room in Daleel ( 3 kali g Daleel, 3-3 kali aku tdo sni)

I got to stay in the clients’ camp while the boys stayed in the old camp. The new camp is really really nice compared to the old one of course.

The wireline tool. Using the lubricator to deploy their logging tool.

The next day we mobilized to another well and my supervisor told me to stay in my room and study since my exam was coming up in a couple of days time. At night they would go over some of the material with me which helped me a lot.

Muke girang gemirang da lepas test, behind me is the control panel. My night supervisor let me operate the unit!!

After 3 days of logging, I had to go back to Fahud for my entrance exam. I was feeling the usual pre-exam migraine that I had grew accustomed to. I decided to take the exam on the very same day. I wasn’t going to postpone it anymore.

Outside my room in Daleel.

Syukur, alhamdulillah. I passed the exam. And on the very next day I was – yet again – shipped off to the job location for some more exposure.

La la la la~ da mule rase malas sbb da abes exam.

Part Ketiga

The name of the location that I got sent to was the Frac location. They do a lot of fracturing (kasi retak2 skek wellbore tu, so minyak senang nak flow.. and lots of other things). Kauther. What a sucky base. I am so glad that my segment is not based there. Fahud is 100 times better. At least the rooms are more comfortable for learning, and living in.

In Kauther, I stayed in a boxcar container and it had 2 bunker beds in it and en suite toilet. It was rather stuffed and I pity my girlfriend (Nadwah) there who is based in Kauther since she is in the fracturing segment. So here I was on my day shift (6am- 6pm), happily saying hi (hi!) to the wellhead, and master valve. I was getting along pretty well aside from the fact that is was my 1st day of menses and I was pretty much ready to faint any minute from the sore fatigue I was going through. 4 o’clock came by.

The company men (client person, tuan punye well) came by and had a meeting with my supervisor. We continued rigging up the equipment and what not. And all the sudden he came out of the meeting room saying that the Kauther location had to go on standby for a week. 7 fat bloody days. I was running out of time for my school. ( In other words, I can’t wait 7 more days). I had to get to another job location.

Apparently the frac unit had 3 incidents prior to my arrival. All 3 involved trainees. They were pretty serious incidents too.

#1, a 1.5 tonne bag of chemicals fell down while the crane was trying to move it in midair. Luckily the trainee had no serious injury. He was in the field with me today.

#2, a BOP (something really big, tall, and pure metal) fell onto a trainee while she was trying to wait for the crane or something, now she is nursing her broken leg in Thailand.

#3, a trainee got some dangerous chemicals in one of his eyes and I heard that he is slowly gaining sight.

So Kauther is a pretty hot location recently. So I guess what the clients are doing is in their best interest.

So now, I will be sent to another location. (I only stayed on location in Kauther for my 12hour shift).

Back to Fahud.. and more unpredicted news~

Birthday Blues

Birthdays are usually pleasant and easy to celebrate. Throw a party, get a gift and write a card. Oh and don’t forget pictures. Lots of ‘em spontaneous pictures to capture our youth. But there is 1 birthday that I always seem to struggle with. My dad’s birthday. Like seriously, what are you supposed to get for the bread provider of the family?

The car you drive, the house you live in are pretty much all his. Ayah tak pernah mengharapkan ape2, but being the sarcastic prick he is sometimes, he’d go like, ‘beday ayah dpt card jer??’ Haha. Pengsan btol lyn klaka ayah lah.

Perhaps in the future, I will have enough to get you something that you have always wanted. Mesti sedih kan. Selama ni kalau birthday je, anak-anak mesti dapat ape je yg diminta. Playdoh hair stylist dolls, transformers, walk-mans, whatever.

And I can only ask you to wait a couple more birthdays more before I can get you something for your birthday. Oh bugger.

Hormones btol aku harinih.

Part Deux: Fahud Base

The base in Fahud is a really nice one. It is well equipped. Swimming pool, mess hall with great food (breakfast, lunch and dinner), gym, rec room for tv watching ( but I am not that much addicted to tv since boarding school), basketball court, the room is all nice and comfortable with water heaters and air conditioning. But of course, nothing beats Kemaman’s semi-D staff house that I stayed in. Har har har.

The location here are all very active (wellsites have constant flow of jobs, cleanouts, perforation.. etc etc) so in one week, all units can be out of the warehouse and on location. All the locations here are on land. So there is no trouble of bringing in trainees, boys or girls onto the site to watch, learn and participate.

I share bedrooms with May, this Thai girl I did my OFS-1 with. What a coincidence that we bumped into each other.

I stayed in Fahud (base ; the place where all the units go back to after a job, get their equipment cleaned, do maintenance, and tested) for a week because I didn’t have the h2s (hydrogen sulfide) training certificate. This is really bad. I missed so many jobs. I have to participate in at least 4 before I go for my school. 12 days man. What a waste. So I finally did my stupid 3 hour course in Muscat and am now on location!! Woohoo~~!

That, will be another story.. Seriously, can’t imagine how much bad luck I am having these days.

Part I. Journey to Fahud

I spent 5 days in the hotel and had no clue to what I was supposed to do. Of course that made my mom all worked up. Luckily I still had the email sent to me from Muscat. But then it was Thursday, the weekend here. Even for slb. After I met with the PR in Muscat office, he told me to get a bus to Fahud. Like seriously, a local bus? Is it safe?

I gave it the benefit of the doubt and acted on my own episode of lonely planet with 2 huge bags. Haha. Stupid. The bus broke down 35km to Fahud and it was me and this other slb guy stranded in the middle of nowhere ( I was superbly shocked and scared silly - any minute it would get dark.. and thenn??) haha. We were rescued to the base. ( I'll update more pictures soon, janji!)

Some handphone pics of the food I had in the hotel.

Buffet Lunch everyday. Oh sedap sangat morrocan hummous ke ape nama die. Like pan fried really good fish. I had it everyday. And all the other stuff. Like weird stuff. Cheese in spinach sauce, mutton this, mutton that, mushroom and beef ape tah. All very indian-arab cuisine. Loads of veggies I love!

I ordered Mediterranean squid.. ingt sotong goreng, mcm sotong goreng tepung. Haha. Mcm lauk sayo jek. Lawok tol.

My most favourite dish. Breadded hummous again. Gemok jgn tak gemok.. gemok..

I'll update later.

Love from Muscat

Its my 2nd day here in the Sultanate of Oman. They have checked me into Ruwi Hotel. Ruwi being the name of this area in Muscat, and 25 minutes from the airport. 8 hours of Gulf Air from KL to Bahrain, and another hour half to get me to Muscat City.

Buat lawak btol aku ni, I found out at 1am on Tuesday morning that my flight was at 1140am the same day and not at 1140pm. Crap giler. So I had to pack like a crazy person. I brought 7kg too many tp wadehel baya je la.

Tomorrow I am supposed to leave Muscat for the village of Fahud. I called the hotel reception and asked them if Fahud has telephone reception but I don’t think he understood me. I bought an Oman Mobile # for 3 rials. 1 sms to Malaysia is about 50cents. Better than me smsing using my maxis #.

The currency here is pretty high. 1 rial is equivalent to RM10. So my hotel room which for me would be about rm150 in Malaysia is priced at 60 rials per night. Do the math. It’s a freeking rm600 per night. Pergh!!

I don’t go out of the hotel at all. I decided against it. It’s too dangerous, especially since the locals don’t really speak English and I don’t know any Arabic. Plus I am traveling alone. Female some more. The arabs are so biggg here. Haha. And everybody wears the white tunic and hat. Rase mcm derang sume baru blk dari masjid or something. Haha. Kesian aku.

The food here is good, I like it. I sense a strong influence of Indian culture. In the food as well as the entertainment. Sume stock lyn Hindustan. The driver yesterday lyn house music bantai kuat2, and then lyn lagu Hindustan ape tah. Haih. Letih tol.

Esok pergi Faud. Cuak sehh. I will try to update if I get the chance.

Take care beautiful people.

Feeling Low

Jengga tanye. Dan ini jawapan ku. This is outside warehouse 29, my place of work. I work 6 days a week. One day entitled for rest. I sleep through the whole day. This preschool is getting a bit tiring for me. I enjoy the work, maintenance, learning lots of new systems and all mechanical stuff. But I have never been this low in my whole life. I have not yet been offshore.

The staff house is empty. I live there alone. I have no one to talk to. Its been like this for a week now.

I was supposed to do my review on nitrogen units today. But my boss suddenly left for KL for the rest of the week. Pretty sucky huh? So lamat lagi lah aku dpt appraisal. Mmg taik.

Tolong la cepat2 anta aku g oman. There is no future for female engineers in this company in this location. Bla bla bla..

Jauh Mimpiku

Jauh Mimpiku

Pernah kusimpan jauh rasa ini
Berdua jalani certa
Kau ciptakan mimpiku
Jujurku hanya sesalkan diriku

Kau ciptakan mimpiku
tapi ku hanya sesalkan diriku

Ku harus lepaskanmu
Melupakan senyummu
Semua tentangmu tentangku hanya harap
Jauh ku jauh mimpiku dengan inginku

- peterpan, alexandria

Kuala Belait

On 28th October I left for Brunei with Nicholas Moses. We had to go for our lab session there. Unfortunately the lab session was cut short since the lab techy had to go offshore. We stayed in the Swiss Apartment Hotel, Kuala Belait.

Kuala Belait apparently was at the end tip of Brunei, relatively from Bandar Seri Begawan. After landing at the airport, I immediately dozed off only to constantly find myself to wake up and see the same straight road ahead. Kinda like a bad dream. It turned out to be that the highway there does only consist of this one main road which lead from one part of the country to another.

Once we arrived in Kuala Belait, I realized that it took us about 4 hours from the airport to where we were headed!!

The place was kinda quiet. Most of the shops closed at 8pm. Nick and I ended eating at the same place for lunch and dinner. This cute western eatery which served really good food. I bet everyone thought we were there on holiday. Haha.

I'm bored. Obviously. Waiting is a painfully agonizing part of living.

Beam me up scotty, please.

plain stupid

he called today. the transmission was kind of rough. i could still tell it was him. he gave me a number to call. call me if you want to he said.

he must be just as crazy as i am.

i tried to call, but the number was too long. i kept getting the stupid lady who tells us that the number doesnt exist in the local system anymore. wtf.

i called people of knowledge. 103 they all said. telekom. where are you calling maam? i got through to ship to shores, which lead to an invalid 1-800 number. i called 103 again. more sarcasm from the operator. what was her problem?

i travelled the world with the house phone tonight. everwhere but there baby.

he called again.

wrong number luv, take this one. its a bit longer but i can try if you want. if i want. he has no clue how i am not holding up here.

before i broke down into unforgiveable tears, i travelled to the labuan port. ship offices in KL. you name it. half of his friends. stupid satellite phones.

he called for the last time.

its ok baby, i'll ask around how it really works. dont worry too much. hope you are doing fine. you have no idea.

i still have 2 slides to prepare for my stupid mentor.

stupid.stupid.

Where is my Root Radical

Oh what a stupid title. I miss my root radical. Whatever you may be. A serum. An antidote. Just gimme more.

I am having a really rough couple of days.

They cancelled my transfer to Duri, Indonesia and decided to put me in Oman. Godknowswhere la kan in the dessert.

My mentor is driving me nuts. Mama leaves for yemen on the 22nd. I am afraid I might not make it in time to see her. Shit.

***

Tunggu aku dengan senyum mu itu.

Into The Dark

We made a pact. It seemed reasonable. But it runs off the course we were taking. He's letting me go and leaving me with an all season pass. Come back anytime you are ready, he said.

***

It starts when he leaves on his ship. Soon.

Oh, sugar.

Like molten sugar in a pan, toffee. Cold water hardens it, to an almost freezing state and when the disarray is too much for the sugar to handle, it cracks. Clack.

That is how sudden gusts of wind makes me feel. Or simply put, when reality hits me smack center on my stupid forehead. All this while I believed that I had been walking in the dark guided well by my instincts. Perhaps God pities me and sends me small tokens of light to guide me along the way.

I felt that the fundamental of this ship was faulty. Dodgy even. We built our kingdom on principles of secrets. Tell me yours and I'll share you mine. Will you keep it?

Tonight I felt that I could not even bear to look you in the eye. Yes, I am avoiding you. You remind me that sometimes I feel what we have is so fucking fake. It is built on secrets mister. How else do you keep a secret other than telling more lies to those around you?

We argue in a myriad of language.

He speaks in poems. And I can only understand logic.
He claims he knows my heart. I question his presence.
He wants me to fall into him.

Sometimes there is no point in arguing with a believer.

***

"Sorry" like the angel heaven let me think was you. But I’m afraid…

Selamat Hari Raya, 2007

Pagi raya, Kampung Kota, Rembau, Negeri Sembilan.

Kebetulan je semua ade baju hijau. Sumpah tak tipu. Didn't plan on having the whole family present for raya.

Tapi thn ni tade duit raye. Sbb dah keje. And gaji tak masok lg. So budak2 busuk sume tak salam aku. Betuahh.

All in the Family. At last, a propper picture! All my previous raya pics looked like ashrul and I were newlyweds or something. Ha ha ha.

My cousins. Thanks to Paktidin sbb sudi jd cameraman yg spottinggg.

.:Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin :.

angel(s)

There is no such thing as an angel. But there are angels. In plural. More than one. Angels you meet and dance with in a song for two. When the song is over, the angel leaves and you feel the dread of being alone seeping in slowly through your skin.

I have slowly lost my belief towards the existence of an ultimate sole one. They come and they go. You had one yesterday and praised her. She was your angel, then. And when she is gone you go on a search for another. This one is different, you say. Every passerby of your life who once bore the angel tag shall always be considered as one.

He has a fascination towards angels. Deep, soulfull and passionately attracted to the purity of wings and what it symbolizes.

‘You are my angel’, he’d say to me.

‘...after all the other previous ones that failed,’ I’d retaliate.

***

Angel walks, angel talks, angel sings and breathes.

The Day Before Raya

I woke up. The fan is directly above my body. I tug at my blanket. Where am I? I shake off the remains of sleep. Sleepiness. I got up to get a glass of water.

Oh its this place.

The place where I wish I could fit in perfectly. But I am always shadowed by this other someone. Her. The cold morning shower made me forget about it for a while.

The drive to work this morning was scenic. He smelled of citrusy musk and aftershave. The sun came out to light the way. Look, its the sunrise, I'd whisper. He smiled back, not knowing what to promise me.

***

There are only 16 personnel today in the office. Half are already mentally visualizing the trip to Kuantan or wherever they call home.

No bosses. No assigned task. Sweet. Honey, take me home.

7th Day in Kemaman

I am now officially a field engineer trainee here in kemaman. It’s the fasting month so all the staff rushes home at 4pm. This isn’t doing me too much good cause the bus gets here at warehouse 29 at 5pm so that leaves me an hour to pretty much play around on the computer. Play. When there is so much more for me to read, study and complete.

I have a deadline of 2 months to complete my technical modules online and then if God willing, I will go for a training school hopefully in the UK. That, ladies and gentleman is my planning for the upcoming 5 months. I apparently work 6 days a week and get 1 day off for sleep and sanity. He he he. Tapi takat ni all the engineers tell me that for the 1st month of their job they took a whole month straight. I think I might do the same. Raya is an exception. I might celebrate it in bed with mr.bear or go to work and eat cookies with the other less fortunate guys.

Work here is rather random and very different. I am enjoying it a lot. The guys here are fair towards me, they don’t treat me differently just because I am a girl. Although the fact that I am one of the 3 female engineers here may be a factor to consider their willingness to help me. Tapi takpe la, asalkan tade buat bende salah ok la kot.

I think I am doing fine so far. Occasionally I would miss my parents who are here in Malaysia. I miss the comfort of home, the food. But in a few days time my parents will be leaving for Yemen and everything back home would be just the same as the one here in my crew house.

This has been a totally crazy emotional, mental and physical rollercoaster ride and I think its about to swallow me whole.

Fuzzy logic.

Orked Oren

Some pictures from a tahlil at Leen's place off jln U-thant. All my high school sweethearts!! Missing azza and g-bon. How we have all grown and what a mixture of professionals we will soon become!

yatt, zimah, wothen, leen, me + khair.

Wothen is doing her internship in Subang, Zimah has a year to complete her degree in Computer Science, Khair is a Marketing Exec in an IT firm (haha poor thing), Leen has 2 more years to go before boleh jd Doctor!!

Till we meet again, goodluck!

1957 Hati Malaya

Jengga and Fariz got 2 free passes each to go watch 1957 Hati Malaya because they both were such faithful Digi users. But she could not go and watch it herself, so I was the lucky one to take 3 others along with me to the -which turned out to be- a Gala Premier of the movie @ cineleisure .

Sebek sumorang pkai baju senonoh. He he he.

Free food. The ticket read 8pm, but really the movie was played at 9pm. An hour's gap to fill our tummies with free food. Sedap gile rendang ayam die. Abang with Gc.

A huge 1957 cake, Mama just had to go take a picture since she is a merdeka baby.

Abg took a photo with Rusdy, and the dude was like "You here to watch rush hour 3?" and abg replied, " Nah, I'm here to watch your movie"
"Cte ape eh?"
"Cte ni la.. (points to cake) cte kau nihh"
Oh sungguh malu abg tatau pon nama muvi sedangkan MC tu da berpuloh2 kali kut sebut nama Hati Malaiyaa nih.

Sempat amek gamba with Maya Karin. Cun abes la die nih. The movie was kinda heavy for me, I nearly dozed off. Very history2 textbook. Much about the conflict between Onn and Tuanku's approach to Independence. Kalau baru lepas SPM or PMR mesti aku lg phm kot cte ni. I got the essence of it. Which, for me is as good as it gets.

Nothing really.

Somebody came up to me and told me to stop worrying about everything all at once. And that added to the fact that I can't keep them all.

So many things are revealed to me everyday, and all I end up with are more questions.

How can I stop questioning if learning is supposed to be a never ending process.

I hate feeling attached to you. Fuck.

CONVO weekend!!

Happy convocation to me!! And praises to Allah, that my whole family made it to the event.

Thank you jengga for the bearbear.

And you, for your friendship and kind guidance.

And I know you will miss me, but we are all entitled to our dreams. This will be mine, ok? =)

In the name of love I have done more than terrible of things. I keep you secure and safe from all the shit I can give to the world. Eh, ape ni. Congratulations!! (haha)

Oh pastu the night before was the Graduation Dinner. Theme was batik and formal.

My mech gurls. Naz is with carigali, and sara will be working in INSTEP (don't ask)

Ni scandal jengga #12. Hehe. Da grad, jd aku mls nak kaver2 da kan cinod. Goodluck to all my friends. May Allah guide us to the right path and grant us strength for all that is right =)

And while I am at it, I am praying for a more fulfilled ramadhan..

***

Murder murder, she cried.

Dry Crackers and Cold Water

Promises of fine dining gets you dressed up in utmost sophisticated chic.

We talked empty phrases and laughed on cue. We talked, and talked. For 3 long hours. He showed me pieces of his past, and I showed, shyly, mine.

A spectator would sense that we were playing pleasing roles.

Instead all I got were dry crackers and cold water.

***

Happy birthday to a dear friend who is always in my head, you know who you are =)

Much love.

Littlest Things

Some things happen chronologically. You can't control it. But the pieces will fall.

Like dominoes.

Once upon a graduation, the little red ants made their way to the finish lines.

The sky was kind and blue. The horizon promised to never be the same again after this day.

Friends stopped by to bid their farewells. And family came to pick up the remains.

Life is like a box of swiss chocolates.

You never know when you have so much time in the world to do nothing and just be there for them.

But now, I am worried about security.

My friends say that they will always have my back. I never doubt them.

I will miss the happy moments!! Pray for whatever that lay ahead.
And whatever you do....

Keep in touch ya!!