Well, I must be slipping up as I think it’s now over a week since I made my last journal entry. It’s been a busy time. Let’s see, I finished working in the office on Thursday and travelled home on the Friday. Most of the weekend was catching up on jobs around the house in preparation for going offshore. We did take some time out on Sunday as it was Dazzle’s birthday. We had a leisurely day, I made her breakfast in bed (the less said about my incident with the carving knife the better!) then after a little “personal time” together, I gave her a card and present. The present may have been a bit more of a surprise if the credit card company hadn’t called to ask why someone was using my card in Brazil, but at least she didn’t know what it was, just that I’d bought it before I left Rio! In the afternoon, I got the grass cut for the first time this year then we managed to get a little pruning and tidying up done in the rest of the garden. Monday and Tuesday I tried to finish all the other jobs around the house to try and make things a bit easier for my still recuperating wife, but as always I wish I could have done a bit more. Wednesday I set off at 4:30am, taxi into the airport, flight to Amsterdam, then Oslo. There we had to have a 5 hour wait before our last leg to Stord. We arrived at the hotel, literally, right behind other guys who’d left Aberdeen 6 hours after us! The flight from Oslo to Stord was interesting though. It was in a size 2 puddle jumper (32 seats!) ant the scenery was amazing, as most of the journey was over snow covered mountains and even a glacier. (not convinced it was worth the boredom of the 5 hour wait though!) We had a meal in the hotel (set menu for the boat animals, starting with cream of cauliflower soup yuk!) and as it had been such an early start, I just went straight to bed! The next day we all joined the boat as it arrived after it’s transit from Brazil. After getting a handover from my opposite number, I tried to get some sleep as I was going on to night shift, but I only managed a couple of hours. Since then I’ve had two night on shift and my body clock is starting to get used to it again. We’ve been really busy, and will be for the next few days as we have a lot of modification and testing work to do to the system as it has been idle for almost 6 months. At the same time we’re also trying to mobilise other equipment for the first project, so it’s all keeping everyone busy and one their toes. Hopefully, once the rush of the next few days is past things will settle down into “operational” mode and I’ll get a bit more time to try to keep my journal up dated a bit more regularly.
