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.