La Paz

Hi again,

Now i am in an internet cafe in La Paz. Arrived safe and sound. And having a really relaxed time here, starting to get comfortable in South America. More will follow later, just to make you a little jealous: Next weekend, from friday to monday, i will enjoy this carnaval.

¡Hasta la proxima!
Ç¿?ñ
CGA

Lima

Hello there,

Not much to write, just a short update: I took a flight to Amsterdam and from there continued with a 13h flight to Lima, Peru. Now i am here at the airport, waiting six or eight hours for my connecting flight to La Paz, Bolivia. Lima looked impressive from above, i mean, it is big, as far as one can see.
I also saw a beautiful sunset, sun going down into some hills on an island on the horizon. Other than that i am tired but excited, waiting for my flight. Looking forward to three weeks of meeting friends, speaking Spanish, and generally enjoying life in South America.

Right now sitting in an internet cafe at the airport, sipping Inca Kola =)

Cheers.

Zombie

28 Days Later.
30 Days of Night.

Both titles of horror movies. Zombies, vampires. I had more of that. I
mean, i had 35 days on the rig. 35 days of doing night shifts. With at
least once a week having to stay up for 24 hours or more. I haven't
literally turned into a Zombie or Vampire - those fairy-tale creatures
don't really exist, remember - but i guess i got close.

First it took more than a week before i saw the sun again. Not because
it wasn't there, but when i got up it was already dark and at the end
of my night shift it was always way too misty to see the sun. I was
told that it eventually came out during the day, clouds opening up
etc. but i had been asleep at those times. I only got to see the sun
when i had to stay up way past my shift time. Which happened, as
written earlier, about once a week or a bit more often. Still, i
didn't see beautiful sunshine during those 35 days at all. So i felt
all the more relieved when we finally got word that we could take the
chopper to leave the rig. Was in the late afternoon, so with all the
preparations to be done to finish my job there i was staying up all
day - my usual sleeping time. Also, to be able to get into a normal
sleeping rhythm after coming back to town i wanted to stay awake. When
the chopper finally came at about five PM there was beautiful sunshine
all over the water. Check the pics. I realized that i hadn't seen such
sunshine in more than a month. What a waste of lifetime. Well, but
that was the last time.
Chopper ride back was uneventful, i managed to get a seat with enough
legspace for my feet so no pain and other than that was reading a
book. Earplugs in, protective headphones above them, noisy still. Good
to concentrate on something else like the content of a book.

Oh yes, and about the picture with me and the local guy: What a funny
little fellow. He was the geologist on site and showed up as soon as
we were using more tools and hence took more complicated measurements.
I had to print him logs and send data once during my shift. Funny
thing is that he didn't speak a word English. Just Chinese. So i
printed the logs, brought them over (15m walk across the deck) and
emailed him the data. Then he came over to our unit. Started talking
and gesturing with his hands. I smile at him and say "well, that is
very good to hear but i do not understand a word of what you are
saying". And then i guessed what he might want from me and tried to
help him. Funny little fellow. I asked him if i could take that
picture. Made him smile, and of course he wanted me to email him a
copy - or at least that's what i was guessing from his gesturing. He
was also the only guy on the whole rig that i explicitly went to for
saying good-bye when i left. I wish i would've been able to understand
what he told me after i waved good-bye :-)

And for all the German speakers: Yes i really thought it was quite
funny that there were so many people on that rig running around with
hard hats that had "Team CACT" written on them...hehehe.

Cheers
CGA
-in travelling mood, time to get out and around the world.

Futurama

Interestingly enough: Most people who will read this are in and around
Europe. Here it is already 2008, back there it is still 2007. The nerd
in me is happy. So far i've only seen this from "the other side", when
calling my aunt in New Zealand, and she was already in the new year,
me being back in Europe still in the old. She still got to the new
year six hours before me, though.

Other than that not much to write about. I'm still sitting on an
offshore oil platform, working through since December 9th. They made
nice efforts to make it more endurable - for tonight's dinner (31st)
they had a special buffet similar like what they did on the 24th.
Today it was lobster time. Nice. On the 25th there was a "lucky draw"
show. They had one box with all the names of people present on the
rig. When your name was picked you had to come to the "stage" and pick
a paper from a second box. That paper told you what your price was.
Some people got socks. Other people got 'better' things. If you got a
better prize you had to perform something - some had to drink a coup
of milk or vinegar or two bottles of water and then do a little
exercise.
I didn't have to perform anything but still got a 'medium good' prize.
A swiss army knife. Very nice. It looks like it is a real Victorinox,
if not it's at least a good copy. Too bad i already have a better one,
bought in Switzerland in 1993. The one i got here has a few functions
less hence it is a little thinner. And it came in a nice box, also
including a Victorinox peeler and table knife. Very nice gestures of
the rig team, i gotta say, putting up a show and everything. Right now
i'm still stuffed from dinner (call it breakfast if you like, i ate it
just after getting up, doing night shifts, remember).

New year's eve, a time when people like to look back and think about
the future. And i got lots of time to think during this boring job.
Enough is enough. Even if it is just a number, new year being a
randomly assigned date (e.g. the Romans started the new year with
Julius, i mean, July, no? I'd check if i had proper access to
wikipedia), i still like 2008. Seems like there will be some changes
happening in my life, for sure some interesting times.

__________________________________________

And of course my job kept me busy throughout the whole of January 1st
and prevented me from blogging this "from the future", i mean, from
2008 when it was still 2007 in Europe. Well, well. At least i made
some calls back to the old year before all the stress started.

Anyways, the future is bright and interesting even though we never get
to see anything else than the present ;-)
so a happy new year to you all, whenever you may celebrate it (hint:
when we next meet might be a good time),

Cheers
CGA