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.