Traveling - it only took Four days!

It was 2 AM and I was woken up by the telephone just ringing its head off (if you know what I mean ) I said hello and it was like a voice over a thousand miles away telling me a taxi was on its way to take me to the airport. I had a flight booked to Australia in four hours.

Four hours I said to the voice but I only came back from Australia three days ago. I wondered if this was really a bad dream but the reality kicked in and I knew that it was real as it was my job. Sometimes that is the way things happen and do I really love traveling? So the day had started at 4 AM because I had to catch the early morning flight to Frankfurt but because of a technical problem at the airport (The door would not close) the flight was canceled and remained canceled until the next day. Up again at 4 AM and, this time, I got to Frankfurt OK but when I went to check in, it was the same story the flight had been delayed due to a technical problem - yet again!

I thought to myself another day another dollar and this is so typical for me as I love traveling. I think I must have spent about two years on standby and waiting at airports during my life but it is all part of the job. After waiting for another twelve hours, we finally got to the boarding area and as I looked at the plane we were flying in my heart raced because yes it was one of the new blood. Now everything did not seem so bad as here was my reward to fly in a plane that was only a dream until now and this really excited me.

The flight was not quite what I expected and I wondered where all the lovely leg room and beautiful friendly loving care had gone that I was supposed to get. Also, the flight was not smooth and quiet actually far from it and, to be honest, I was very disappointed and have no desire to travel like this again. I must just add at this point that I had an overnight stay in Singapore and then on to Perth and a few more hours in the airport and then finally on to Melbourne.

Fours days later

Fours days later and we finally arrived in Melbourne and I was so glad to get there I wanted to jump for joy but that would have been a bit silly I think.

The weather was OK but not quite what I had expected but I had a day to relax and calm down. I decided to go for a stroll into the town and have a nice cup of tea on the way. Typical English man. After a cup of tea, everything feels so much better. The town seemed to have a very quaint feel to it and I was not sure if it was me from being very jet-lagged or if the town was really like it seemed.

I ended up down by the waterfront and it felt very nice to be there as I was sort of recovering from my flights. I did not know if I wanted to eat or sleep or what to do, so I thought the best thing is to have another cup of tea.

After my tea and a couple of scones (well they were the Australian version of scones ), I felt so much better and continued my walk. I ended up at a very interesting looking building that was designed to bring the life from the sea as close as you wanted. I thought OK I will go and see how close to the sea it could be (that is just typical English playing with words)

 

 

Well, it was so big and so close I nearly dropped into hyperspace when I turned the corner and bumped into this big boy - Ouch!

 

It was a great experience and the building had been built really well and there were places where you could actually put your head right up into a glass dome that protruded into the water and that was great to see the sharks as they lazed by. I saw so many creatures that it was well worth the trip just to gain this experience.

The weather had warmed up and so I decided to head towards a park. I like to see what flowers there are as it is always good to take pictures of birds and bees and all that good stuff that one finds in a park. The only thing that seemed to be in this park was this lovely statue and we seemed to be alone apart from a few of the older generation wandering along without a care in the world.

Well, all this walking and wandering about seemed to stir up something inside me and a voice said well what about me, have you forgotten that we need something to eat. Right, I must go and find a place to feed my hungry friend so back towards the town we went.

I entered into a kind of shopping mall and found it to be very calm and relaxing without any of the hustle and bustles that one would expect. I was able to find exactly what I wanted right down at the very end which was a very cozy little cafe that had an excellent selection of seafood. I can still remember the taste as I am writing. Full up and feeling good I decided that it was time to head back to the hotel just to see if there was any information as to my departure in the morning because I had to take another flight up the coast so I could travel offshore to start the job. As always there was yet another delay and so I actually spent another two days just looking around Melbourne with was very nice and a good break before the work would start.

Day number Seven

It was all go and we traveled for the hotel to the airport flew for five hours traveled from the airport another three hours and arrived at the heliport where a helicopter was waiting for us. We then flew for another two hours out to the rig and straight outside to start work. There was a storm coming and the weather was very bad but the job had to be done so I spent the next twenty hours working full tilt to help get the show on the road. As always we had not a second to spare as we were fighting the weather and we had to get everything finished as we now had a weather window so someone was on our side.

This is now the best time for everyone on the rig and the results can be seen as we go through what is known as the clean up operation.

This was a very good well and had a good production but there was one small problem and this was that this particular well also produced wax. This was OK while the well was flowing but as soon as the well stopped flowing and things cooled down then everything turned to wax. Yes, that is correct as this was one of the worst wells that I had every encountered and there was enough wax to start your own waxworks!

Day number Ten

Everyone was just amazing by the amount of wax that this well produced and as you can see from the picture t looked a bit like ice cream.

All the equipment that we used had been prepared by fitting heat tracing elements and heating coils to all of the pipework to prevent anything from cooling down too quickly as everything had to be done with such rigid control and that was a job in its self.

The weather was also against us and the wind was blowing very strongly and it was actually very cold outside but we were able to overcome all the odds and do a job which was thought to have been impossible and so this made the newspapers as it was one of the very first wells ever to be tested way down under.

Day number Fifteen

Everything was done and it was time for us to rig the equipment down, pack it all away and wait for the next available helicopter to take us back to the beach.

We had only a few minutes to spare and as we piled into the helicopter I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew that I was on my way home and traveling yet again!

The trip home is always very quick and why this is I will never know why but by the time we left the oil rig to the time I arrived home was less than twenty-four hours.

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