Offshore

I have found a routine which makes life pretty enjoyable out here on the rig. Firstly my system is now back under control after the initial wobble so that is great! Secondly I now go to the gym at 0415 to get a good session in while all is quiet and so that I can then have a sauna and shower before breakfast.

Work is good and I am slowly building key relationships onboard. Last night the welfare team had organised Bingo! I had 5 very average rounds while everyone else was winning and then unbelievably, won the main final round and got a prize containing a golf kit (Tiger Woods pc game, new golf balls, a Galileo scope to judge distance, a golf shirt, cap, a new parker pen to sign autographs [or legal papers in Tiger’s case] etc). Very nice and unpredicted result :)

The offline report writing and presenting work is pretty relaxed and definitely less stressful than on the Explorer.

Here are some of my new friends from Cameroon and Ghana. They work for Geoservices – monitoring the well and catching formation samples when they reach the surface.

Ange has been soldiering on at home as usual – managing many things at once and slowly growing a 18 week bump :) Unfortunately the nausea has not abated as yet but here’s hoping…

Chat soon.

Four exciting months later...

With Tim just having added a post (see below) I can't stay behind... It's been an interesting past 4 months and there's a valid reason why we haven't posted anything on our blog recently: we're expecting a baby!!

Quite a few of you will already have heard the news but for others it'll be the first time, so bear with me... We found out we were pregnant on September 3rd 2009 - a day I'll never forget!! It had taken us a while to get to this point, and we still can't believe that we're here!

Earlier this year we discovered that I have a blood clotting disorder, so for the first three months I had to give myself daily injections in my tummy. The injections resulted in the most amazing bruises, but they also helped ensure that there was good bloodflow through to the uterus and through the tiny little veins of our little baby.

I must admit that the last few months have been both very exciting and very scary.... oh, and the cause of much nausea. We prayed so long for this little miracle and are so aware that it's all so vulnerable. I'm slowly but surely starting to feel more relaxed though. We've passed the 4-month mark, our little girl (yes, it's a girl!!) is growing and is a good week ahead of schedule, and all seems fine. We also have an AngelSounds baby monitor, which allows us to listen to the baby's heartbeat. I find it very re-assuring and it's become a night time ritual for me to just listen to her for a few minutes before I go to sleep. The monitor instructions compare a baby's heart beat to the sound of "horses galloping" ... actually a fairly accurate description ;).

The pregnancy is not the only exciting thing in our lives in the last few months (though definitely the most exciting!!); in September, there was our trip to the UK ... We spent a few days in Aberdeen, just long enough for me to catch up on a few work things. We then flew down to London, spent time with our friends Antony & Alex, Craig & Tanya, and Nick & Sam. This was followed by a week in Portugal, together with Brigid & Rob, Caroline, Dan & Sacha, and Paul & Bee, to attend Bruce & Lucy Fletcher's wedding. What an amazing place to get married ... and what a great idea to make it a week of wedding festivities. Most people arrived only a day or two before the wedding and stayed until a week after (including Bruce & Lucy), so it was just perfect for everyone to catch up with each other ... we basically met at a different beach every day.

I wasn't feeling fantastic in Portugal (ever-present morning sickness), but we still had an absolutely amazing time ... which was sadly followed too quickly by Tim going back to the rig. The Angola project has meanwhile ended and Tim left a week ago for a 5-week hitch in Ghana on a new project (see Tim's post below). Better rig, better conditions, friendly people ... so nice to know he's on to a great project!

I'm meanwhile keeping busy in Cape Town. I have a few local projects on the go, including a small company for whom I'm doing a fair amount of facilitation work and some coaching. When you see a client regularly, you sort of start feeling part of their team, which is nice. Most of my time though is still spent working virtually with Exceed (no more air travel for me). On that note, the team at Exceed keeps trying to persuade us to move to the UK, so we finally decided to put together a little video for them that explains why we like living in Cape Town and prefer our backgarden over a stuffy office ... If you want to see it, we've posted it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LJW4wSJEAY

Tim will be back in Cape Town on Dec 29, so though we won't be together for Christmas, at least we'll be together for New Year. This year, we'll be in Zim, flying up on Dec 30, to spend a good week with Tim's Dad as well as Paul & Bee and the entire Martin family. Tim's aunt Rona is celebrating a special birthday this year, so we'll all be together on New Year's Eve, which we're immensely looking forward to. We were going to drive and take Gandalf with, but since traveling long-distance isn't really adviseable with the blood clotting, poor Gandalf will have to stay behind and will be with our friend and house-sitter Catherine for New Year's.

I'm very sad Tim & I will be apart for Christmas, but the good news is that this means we'll definitely be together next Christmas when we're a real family :). This year, I'm hoping to help out at our Church with reaching out to the community. It seems like the right thing to do and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Last bit of sad news: our friends Jason & Natalie and their family are moving back to Zim in less than two weeks' time. Though we're excited for them, we're very sad to have to say goodbye. They live "just around the corner" (also in Tokai) and I just hate the thought of no longer being able to quickly pop by.

For the rest, we're fine, healthy, and so much looking forward to the year in which our lives are going to change forever!

Hope this finds you all well ... love from Cape Town!

Living the Dream!

I took this photo in frustrated amusement at the amount of times I was having to run to the loo in my first 4 days on the rig :)

There was some bug going around when I arrived on the Eirik Raude so like several others; I found myself struggling to hold a meal for longer than 20 minutes! In the case of this picture, I had barely got back into the accommodation from the rig floor when I noticed a red light on the dashboard and had to dive into the nearest lavatory, simultaneously ripping off my coveralls and locking the door.

Apart from that 100% as my Dad would say! No seriously, it is a magnificent rig, especially in terms of leisure options. By that I mean that the gym is great with collocated sauna and 3 bathrooms. There is a sun bathing area near the heli deck which we are actually encouraged to use! and the cabins have much more space and luxury than the routine I had become used to on the Explorer.

The rig must be 80m by 80m and stands tall in the ocean at a depth of 1.5 km. It is a semi submersible and I have copied an illustration from the web to help explain. As you can see – it’s v stable.

It is tough being away from home but Ange and I are in touch a lot and of course we are both so excited about the pregnancy and developments there. I miss Gandalf as well but do get to see him on skype every now and then :)

Ghana is great – I have been very impressed with what I have seen and heard so far. I guess anything was going to be nice after Angola with all due respect.

Will update again soon. Love to all.

Looking back on good times...

It's July 29, almost August ... While living in the Northern Hemisphere (the first 28 years of my life), I used to love this time of year. Summer weather, long hours of day light, outings to Cultus Lake, a weekend hike camping in the mountains, waterskiing with the Jansens ... there was always something to look forward to. July/August is considered wintertime in Cape Town, but it's still not too shabby ... the underfloor heating is on in the house but I'm not sure why ... there's been more sun than rain this month and the temperature the last few days has been a very happy 23 - 27 degrees!!

Plus, even though it's winter time, this is the time of year, the lemons, oranges, etc fully ripen. The picture to the right is our very own little lemon tree. It was planted about 8 months ago and had over 100 lemons in its very first year of bearing fruit ... one of the branches even broke off under the weight of all those lemons. I was amazed. I've been giving loads of lemons away, but have decided I'm now going to have to bake a lemon meringue pie ... oh, and drink more G&T of course :).

Anyway, it's a Wednesday evening and I'm sitting on the couch typing this with Gandalf lying only a few metres away. Tim left on Sunday, this time for a 5-week hitch and we miss him already! We had quite a nice long break as Tim was at home for almost 5 weeks ... I came home a few days after he did, but we still had a good month together, filled with catching up with friends in SA and from the UK (see Tim's previous post). We loved having everyone around and finally feeling there was enough time to catch up with friends around the corner as well. This was Tim's first month at home that wasn't interupted by the Coaching Course, ChallengerWorld or other big commitments.

I know Tim has already told you most of the news, but I thought I'd also add my notes on everything that's happened in the last few months.

First, there was our amazing holiday in Mauritius.... Tim mentioned it briefly but it really was stunning!! We're not really the relas and lie on the beach types but thought this would be a good forcing mechanism... It was, but we still managed to fit in a whole lot of extras including a daily game of tennis, beach volleyball, massages, good food, waterskiing and more.I LOVED the opportunity to waterski again ... even better since the water temperature was a good 18 degrees - no need for a wetsuit! It had been at least 7 years since my last time waterskiing and I was so proud that I was still able to get up on a single ski first time around. It brought back so many memories and I just had to phone my friend Fiona (with whom I used to go waterskiing in Canada) straight after ...

May just flew by ... and June went even quicker! Tim spent June on the rig, returning to Cape Town on June 23, just in time for an Emerging Boks game with Sue and Nick Jermyn. I spent most of June in Aberdeen, and was home five days after Tim as I was on a workshop in England. I always love working in Aberdeen... but being in Scotland in summertime was even more special. As it's quite far up North, it really only got dark around 11PM and was light again by 3h30AM. I absolutely loved it! I'd work long hours, yet still be able to go for a run in day light. And waking up before 6AM with the day light pouring through the windows makes for a much better start to the day.

My last week in the UK was spent just outside Derby, England at an old priory converted into a hotel. Absolutely stunning! I managed to go for a short 5K jog every morning along narrow country lanes to the nearby little village. I do love England! The course was fantastic. I went with a colleague from Exceed to get certified in Insights, a personality profiling instrument that's based on Carl Jung's 8 personality types. I loved going in-depth into Jung's thinking and understanding the philosophy behind the Insights profiling system.

I managed to stop over in Holland for 4 hours on the way to Aberdeen to catch up with Gerrie, my best friend in high school and roommate in university, who I hadn't seen in 8 years ... and for 24 hours on the way back. In 24 hrs, I managed to see Pake & Beppe, Beppe, tante Liene, Hans & Marjan & kids and Dick & Janet, the boys, Annie and baby Froukje ... It was so nice to be able to see both Froukje and Annie in one go ... I tried to be there for Annie's birth last year but since she decided to make a very delayed entry into the world I missed her by a week...

July was amazing! Tim's birthday was the real highlight for both of us.

I had decided to get him a scooter, but getting it paid for, licensed and into the garage without him noticing wasn't the easiest job.

It was all worth it though. He was soooo surprised when his two presents were a set of keys and a helmet.... and there was a scooter with a pretty bow on it in the garage. We've since had a few fun trips on the scooter, the best one being when we went out to Kalk Bay on the scooter, had lunch at the Brass Bell, and walked around the antique shops ... it's fun to pretend to be tourists in your own city! (PS. for those of you who haven't met her, the person on the back of the scooter is Tim's mum.)

The afternoon of Tim's birthday we went out on a catamaran with the guys over from the UK and Tim's mum. Again, we wanted to do something special with the guys around and renting a catamaran seemed just the righ thing! It was only a 2-hr trip but we saw dolphins, seals, and even 2 or 3 Southern Right whales spouting on the horizon! Just amazing...

My birthday in Knysna was very special as well. The Knysna Oyster Festival is a special week on the Garden Route calendar. It happens every year and is filled with good food, wine, oysters, and sports activities. This was our first time though... We'd signed up for the half marathon, together with our friends Guy and Lois. Lois had arranged accommodation in Knysna and we all drove up together in my car. We went specifically for the Knysna half marathon which is quite a special event. We had to drag ourselves out of bed around 05h00 and drive to the parking area. There, we got into a proper mini taxi (yep... stereo on max volume, driving too fast, poor brakes...) to take us to the top of the mountain where we had to wait for 2 hours for the race to start. It was all part of the atmosphere though... We got there just before 6AM, still dark, cold, music going, fires everywhere, and a large tent set up where you could get hot coffee and breakfast. With over 7000 people in the half marathon, it was so busy at the start it took a good 6 minutes after the start gun had gone off before we even made it to the start line :).

The run was mostly downhill, not great on the knees, but great fun in every other way. This was on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, we had an amazing relaxed lunch - with lots of good wine - at a lovely place just outside Plet called Emily Moon ... we'll be back!! We headed back for Cape Town on Sunday after a quick but lovely visit with Ron & Barbara and John & June in Sedgefield. We arrived in Cape Town after a good 8 hours (2 hrs more than usual), all thanks to flash flooding due to 24hrs of uninterupted rain in Cape Town.

Since then, I've been very busy with work, mostly on Exceed projects but also with an increasing amount of CLC work. We did manage to fit in time to catch up with the Greens, the Holmes, and the Littlewoods... and of course a few nice walks with Gandalf in the forest and on the beach.

Gandalf gave us a bit of a scare being quite ill in June when I arrived back from the UK but after a few days of not eating and dropping a few KGs, I managed to get some medication down his throat (he doesn't enjoy anything that involves vet visits) and he got better almost instantly. He's since put on 4KGs and now weighs just over 40KGs. He's still a beautiful dog and slowly but surely growing out of his playful ways ... which our visitors are very grateful for :).

That's all from my side ... we promise to be more regular in our updates going forward and hope this finds you all happy ... and those in the Norther Hemisphere enjoying summertime and holidays!

x

ange

Ok it has been a while but the good thing about a blog is that no matter how long it has been since the last submission, there is always something there and something that can be added!
It is probably easiest to work backwards from where we are now in the middle of July. I had a wonderful birthday on the first: My wife presented me with a scooter which is something I have wanted for a while. It is a really nice Vuka Scooter which is big enough to carry both of us and has excellent acceleration as well.

At midday, we linked up with the guys who had come over for the rugby (British Lions v Springboks) at the Waterfront and went out into Table Bay on a Catamaran. Mum joined us as well and we were lucky enough to see whales, dolphins, seals and the sun! It was actually sun bathing weather and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to see in my 38th year on planet earth.

I mentioned the rugby; my great friends from the UK and Zimbabwe came to South Africa for the British and Irish Lions tour 2009. Nick Jermyn arrived on the day of the first test and watched it at Oblivion in Claremont. Dom, Nick Stocker and Damian + Maria then arrived in time for the second test which was at Loftus while Jase Way was added to the group for the 3rd test at Ellis Park.

We stayed at Sun Square Montecasino in Joburg for both weekends and had an absolute blast. Marc Truman deserves special mention for his organisation of pre match hospitality both Saturdays. I laughed more in those 2 weekends than I have for a long time and just had a thoroughly good time with outstanding mates. We caught up on news, plans and other friends; it was simply excellent – thanks guys

For Ange’s birthday, we went to Knysna and ran the half marathon which was great fun. Lois and Guy joined us for the weekend and we all had a wonderful time with great food, wine, conversations and an awesome after-party watching Prime Circle and the Parlotones.
As a present, I gave Ange a 3 day retreat at the Stellenbosch Hydro where she should be able to relax and benefit from expert advice on diet and de-stressing – a well deserved break from the busyness of her work schedule!

In May, Ange and I went to Mauritius which was absolutely stunning. We stayed at La Preskil meaning ‘almost island’ on the south east corner. The weather was perfect; we relaxed, read, water skied, played tennis and volleyball, ate like kings and queens and swam with dolphins – what more could one want from a holiday!!!

We Survived the Cape Argus!

Just a very quick update. It’s Monday evening and I’m sitting outside with Hans & Marjan, enjoying a lovely quiet evening. No wind whatsoever … Quite a different story from yesterday when Hans and I were riding the Cape Argus with winds gusting up to 60KM/hr… my fifth Argus, a full 110KM this year thanks to a detour via Boyes Drive, and by far the toughest ever!!

We arrived at the start, knowing it was going to be a windy day, but still shocked to see the wind had already caused havoc with the various branding that normally decorates the start area. All that was left were a few shreds of fabric blowing in the wind. Rather than the usual high adrenalin ‘pedal to the metal’ start, we found ourselves barely being able to walk once the start gun went… let alone get on our bikes. Even more disconcerting was the number of cyclists on the N2, cycling back to the start as we were busy conquering the first hill. We were in for a tough ride …

Luckily I had nothing to prove this year as I had decided to accompany Hans – a first time rider whose experience is limited to a daily 5K bike ride to work - and make this a fun ride (how convenient!). Well... fun it was!! Every hill was a battle, and we found ourselves having to pedal hard even on the down hill sections which are normally great opportunities to catch your breath. The best part was coming around the corner at the top of Chappies. Though it was a down hill, it was so windy, I’m afraid I would have been going backwards had it not been for the effort put in pedalling.

The good news was that the atmosphere was amazing as usual, I managed to see more of the scenery than any other year, and I even took the time to stop for a nice shoulder massage on top of Chappies. A first! The second piece of good news was that we managed to get to the finish in 6h56m … which was just good enough to get a medal (7 hours is cut off time) and certainly more than good enough for Hans to be able to cross ‘riding an absolutely crazy race’ off his list of Top 100 things to do. Not that it was on the list in the first place …

Full House!

Mar 1 - Sunday night. We hang our heads in shame for not having properly updated our blog in 2009... an indication of yet another busy year!

Last time I mailed I sat on the couch knowing that Tim would be gone for a full 5 weeks. Luckily, Exceed came to the rescue and I ended up working in Aberdeen from January 13 - 31. I hated having to leave Gandalf behind, but I loved the opportunity of a few weeks of work in an office environment, helping with the re-launch of our website and marketing materials. The weather in the UK was GREAT. It was around 5 degrees Celsius most days and just around freezing point at night. I went for a few early morning runs and loved the crisp cold.

As part of the trip to the UK, I also got to join Ian (Exceed's owner) for a 2-day workshop in Amsterdam, Holland. I had no official 'job' other than sitting in the back and observing, looking for ways to improve how we run this particular type of workshop. I had great fun as the hotel had messed up on a number of fronts and I, being the only Dutchie, got to fix it ... I so enjoyed being in a country where everything works smoothly and people are actually willing and eager to work with you and serve the customer ... a rare experience living in South Africa :).


While I was in the UK, Sue held down the fort (as usual) in Cape Town, taking care of Gandalf and helping us getting the various things done 'back home'. One of those things was Tim's bakkie ... it had a number of scratches and scrapes on the hood and bumper which couldn't be polished out and the rims were slowly but surely losing their alloy paint so I decided to surprise Tim by getting various things re-sprayed. Well, it worked! I arrived back in Cape Town a day before Tim. Gandalf was thrilled to have his mummy home, Tim's bakkie was looking great ... and our garden was infested by army worm. I'd never heard of these things before. All I knew was that the garden was literally alive with these green things and that the grass was looking awefully brown. It took some serious effort and very serious fertiliser with 'army worm killing ingredients' to get the lawn right again, but only a few weeks later it's pretty much there! Just in time for our friends, Hans & Marjan and their kiddies Meike & Jop, from Holland who arrived on Friday night and are staying for the nexst 4 weeks.

Anyway, moving on from the army worm ... it was so exciting to collect Tim from the airport that Sunday evening. This was a his longest hitch to date and the extra week was pretty tough on both of us. I took Gandalf with to the airport again, and he was equally excited to see Tim. He really sees Tim as his playmate - unlike his boring mum - particularly for walks in the forest when Tim tries to outsprint Gandalf ... easy when he was only 5 monts old, but impossible today.

We had a fantastic month together at home. I was quite busy with Exceed work (new website going live) and Tim had his coaching course and ChallengerWorld, but we still really managed to have some good quality time together. The two highlights of this trip were first of all the fact that after many many 'gruelling' assignments and a final 4-day course, Tim passed his final test (including coaching an innocent victim live in front of a panel of judges ... all this of course also being recorded on video) and is now a qualified Professsional Integral Coach. An absolutely huge accomplishment as well as a huge relief after a year of long, difficult, and intense assignments and course weekends.

Our second highlight was our 2-year wedding anniversary, which we celebrated by going to a lovely guest house 'Val d'Or' in Franschhoek. We spent two nights there, just to make sure we got at least a full day away from home. Having dropped off Gandalf at Tim's Mum on our way out, we arrived at our guest house around 6PM on Monday evening, but promplty had to turn around and head back home to pick up a few important things we forgot. We were back at the B&B by 10PM, had a lovely lie in the next day, followed by a massage, a dip in the pool, and a wander around Franschhoek. We spent our anniversary dinner at a lovely little restaurant in Franschhoek and shared a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion. We're so blessed!

Meanwhile, Tim is off again, but luckily only for two weeks this time. Plus, Hans & Marjan arrived the same day Tim left, so it's certainly making this hitch easier for me, with great friends around at least for the first week... I talked Hans into doing the Cape Argus with me this year ... he doesn't quite know what he's got himself into (a 109KM cycle ride with the mandatory set of hills along the way) but he's excited and we're just going to make it a fun ride ... very much looking forward to it, but anticipating some uncomfortable moments in the saddle since I didn't have a chance to practice at all this year!

Time to go ... work has been extremely busy with another busy week ahead. Between the work in Aberdeen and increased Cape Leadership work around Cape Town, it's amazing how busy we already seem to be again!

Hope this finds you all well, happy and healthy...

New Years Eve in Luanda

I thought you would appreciate this – a brief window into Luanda..

Above is the google earth view of the Annual New Year’s Eve 14km challenge run through Luanda (I heard about it on the 30th from someone in the bp Angola office – asked if anyone else wanted to enter – Ismar (Well Test Engineer) did so he joined me, and we went off and did it – starting at 1700 near the De Beers building and being collected by Tango Delta from the soccer stadium at 1900).

I recorded it on my new Garmin watch (amazing gift from my amazing wife) which really is the dogs bollocks – recording the exact route you take but also giving your heart rate, distance covered, speed, pace and ‘ahead/behind’ your virtual partner which you pre-set to the pace you think you can beat (similar to what you use with your bike)! My time was 1:08 which was OK, average speed 12.4 km/hr, average temperature must have been about 30˚C!!

As for the atmosphere and race management – unforgettable experience. To be fair the whole thing was pretty well organised – water stops every 5km and route clearly indicated – what’s more it was free entry!

The whole route was lined 10 deep with cheering (and some abusive) spectators - so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. We ran through some real back street slum type areas as the only white face in 100 runners (there must have been 5000 + runners who did it) which was interesting to say the least!

There were policia and militaria everywhere because this is a high profile race with an international field including some top athletes (I think the Ethiopians won as usual). The finish was pumping rap music at volume 20 and the organizers were throwing goodie bags out of a moving truck around the outside of the track with a pack of desperate Angolans fighting each other for the catch!

All in all – it was a unique experience and one I won’t forget. Great way to see out 2008!