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.