A good but tiring weekend

Days 42 to 48, 19th to 25th Mar 2009:

Nothing much to blog on the class, we just continued on the fundamentals of processing Geophysics. The evening of Friday after class turned out to be a trip to the Memorial City Mall. Some of the girls wanted to go shopping for work clothes and i didn't really mind going so i tagged along. Ok, maybe tagged along isn't exactly the right word since i was the one driving...chauffeur would be more suitable. While waiting for the girls to finish shopping, i ended up getting a shirt as well. I got a couple of fridge magnets as well for my mom and sis.

After that, i had to send Su Yin back to her unit at Westheimer and took the opportunity to borrow her toilet as i was in need of one. After that, the 3 girls just took to chatting and i was stuck there for about 2 hours, watching tv while the girls chatted.

Saturday the 20th saw some of us going to the beach in Galveston. We started out a bit shaky, losing some time trying to find our way there but eventually we got there. The morning was a bit gloomy but thankfully the weather turned out sunny when we arrived at the beach. The guys just went straight for the water while the rest stretched out and enjoyed the sun. Later on, we had some fun burying Shangar in the sand and i really mean we had fun with the sand. I'll spare the details since i think i've already done enough damage with the photos i posted in Facebook, ha ha.

The beach, the beach!

Snacking and enjoying the sun

Fun with sand and Shangar :)

After about 3 hours at the beach, we went to The Strand, a famous street of sorts in Galveston. I'm not exactly sure what it's famous for, perhaps it's the old buildings but it wasn't bad. Got a couple more fridge magnets before we headed home at about 6pm.

A part of The Strand

Short carriage rides along the street for USD25

The next day, it was a trip to the rodeo. It was the very last day of the rodeo, so we didn't want to miss it. And there was more than one red face that day from the previous day's outing. Magda O was quite red or like a beetroot in her own words.

At the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, there were carnival stalls, livestock (such as cattle) on display and of course, the rodeo. I went straight from church to the place with Omon while the others all came together, so i didn't really see them until the rodeo started at 3.45pm. We spent too much time walking in the carnival area and lost the chance to view the livestock and browse through the merchandise in another part of the area.

The rodeo was quite interesting as we watched events such as bull riding, chuck wagon racing, calf scramble and mutton bustin'. Bull riding is quite a dangerous sport but there were a few funny moments here and there. Calf scramble was another interesting event as the participants (all teens) had to catch a calf. It was a charity event as scramblers who manage to catch a calf will get a USD1,500 certificate to purchase a registered beef heifer. They will then be able to care for and raise the heifer until they return to the Houston Livestock Show the following year for a special competition. It was quite funny to see the 28 teens trying to catch 14 calves; some wrestling was definitely needed and it was also great to see the girls having no problems matching the boys. Mutton bustin' involved kids clinging to sheep, kind of like a kids version of bull riding. The kids latch onto the sheep and hold on for as long as they can. The eventual winner turned out to be a 5-year old girl :)

The rodeo finished off with a rock concert by ZZ Top. Yup, i don't know who they are too (i think most Malaysians don't). They turned out to be quite old guys; the two lead singers had really long white beards. They're quite big over here, but some of the other Georisers like JB have also heard of them. Not exactly my kind of music, but it was ok all the same. Even though it was a very loud rock concert, Shifa and Su Yin actually managed to fall asleep, ha ha.

After the concert, we were almost ready to go home when Hannah asked if anybody was interested in going for a ride on one of the attractions at the carnival. Cecile, JB and myself volunteered and we all had a go at the ride, called Tango which was this contraption with an arm that split into three limbs that lifted its occupants in the air and spins them around. It wasn't exactly that exhilirating and it was a bit short but it was still quite fun especially if you're not going at it alone. I bet it cleared up Hannah's runny nose for a while, ha ha.

The board says it all

Carnival!

Bull riding

Calf scramble

ZZ Top doing their thing

Monday came again and i seemed to be extremely tired from the weekend's activities. Somehow, i still managed to make it through the day without embarassing myself. By Tuesday, i was fresh again and had no problems concentrating on the class. No more packed weekends after this!

Today, the housing management of the Marquis held a small welcome reception and dinner for all of us. It was a nice gesture i must say and i didn't need to cook dinner, ha ha. Of course, this also means that tomorrow's lunch will probably be a microwave meal. I wonder how i'm going to finish the chicken i bought...

A return to the world of simple cooking

Days 40 and 41, 17th and 18th Mar 2009:

Day 40...another normal day. It was St. Patrick's Day and i was supposed to go with some of the others to Sherlock's (a local pub) but decided to FFK at the last minute. Decided not to go as i didn't seem to be in the mood for it, not to mention that i was feeling a little tired. So, i just went back to the apartment and to my suprise, actually sat down for about an hour and a half doing my CBT (revision using a company program). Crawled into bed just a little before 11pm and slept quite soundly until the next morning.

Today, we continued our training on Geophysics Fundamentals. The next few weeks will also be focused on the data processing. And it looks like we'll be having a little test by Friday. Seems to be quite a few things to balance, between doing the CBT, trying to figure out what to do for the next presentation and trying to revise for the test.

We're finally on our own for lunch starting from this week. We didn't had to worry about lunch the previous weeks as it was provided. As i wasn't really prepared for this transition (due to my empty fridge), i only had 3 bananas, a pear and a cup of hot chocolate for lunch today. Everybody else packed theirs or brought instant noodles. I had already eaten that as part of my dinner yesterday so i didn't want to repeat that. Later after class, we stopped at WalMart for supplies and i got rice, some vege and other stuff needed to cook. It's been 3 years since i last cooked anything apart from instant noodles, the last was during my nearshore job in Ca Mau, Vietnam (where the other guys made me cook since they said i was so free). In any case, i managed to whip up a very, very simple meal for dinner. Never mind that the rice was just a teeny bit wetter than i would have liked it, or the egg was slightly overcooked, it was a good meal...to me at least. Now, i kinda look forward to cooking a bit more in the coming weeks, ha ha.

Simple indeed, but it feels a bit like a milestone of sorts :p

A wet and cold but good weekend

Days 36 to 39, 13th to 16th Mar 2009:

Friday the 13th. It has always been associated with a day of bad luck, at least according to superstition. Nothing much on this day. We just continued with training on the XPS database manager. We did get feedback on our presentation the previous day though, through a one on one interview with Francois. As i suspected, i was too fast as i used up only 9 minutes of the allocated 15. There were a few more areas i could improve on but otherwise it was alright. My field evaluation was also ok, thank God :)

As it turned out, it was also Lukasz' birthday. The Polish girls got him a huge bottle of bubbles (i don't really know what you call it, it's the soap liquid that you use to blow bubbles with) as a present it was quite fun actually. Later that night, we partied at his unit. The girls brought his birthday cake along with a birthday balloon. I left around 11.30pm as i was shutting down by then but i think some of the others stayed until past 12.

The birthday boy with his bottle of bubbles :)

Cutting the birthday cake at his apartment

Saturday, the day of the game between the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs finally arrived. It was a wet and cold day, like the 2 or 3 days before it. The weather was just right at the start of the week when it suddenly turned wet and cold around Wednesday i think, probably around 10-15 degrees Celcius and Saturday was no different. I woke up feeling like crap, with my stomach giving me problems and my whole body seeming to ache everywhere. I think it was a combination of the relatively small lunch i had the previous day, with the greasy pizza for dinner and the bacardi with 5% alcohol at the birthday party that did me in. I ended up going to the toilet a few times throughout the day.

Anyway, we were supposed to meet up with Alain in front of the Toyota Center by 6.40pm. All of the guys arrived early at 6pm (the girls had already left the apartments to go shopping after lunch). It was still drizzling and it was cold and there we were standing outside with no tickets to go in, brrrr... Finally, Francois arrived at 6.40pm with the tickets while i had to go to the toilet inside. We got in and some of us bought some souvenirs at the Team Shop. I ended up with both a red Rockets jersey and a cap.

The game started off a little slow but got more intense later as the teams were neck and neck though the Spurs did have the advantage. I shouted myself hoarse trying to cheer the Rockets on, ha ha. There weren't as many dunks as i would have liked to see but there were quite a few interesting events during the time-outs. I especially liked the one where the Rockets mascot threw cakes at 3 Spurs fans...it was hilarious but unfortunately i didn't catch it on camera as i was enjoying it too much. The night ended with a loss for the Rockets but it was still a good match and it was really fun.

The Rockets getting fired up

For a 3-pointer

On Sunday, i finally attended church again. I went with Omon, a fellow Georiser from Nigeria and we went to Lakewood Church. Now this is really what you call a mega church. The church building is the Compaq Center, which used to house sports teams like the Houston Rockets so you have an idea of how huge it is. According to Wikipedia, it can seat up to 16,000 people. Huge! It was interesting experience going there and it was also interesting to see about 3 or 4 people of which half of them (or maybe all) protesting against the church for what they perceive to be a fake church used to gain profit. One of the signs held by a protester read "Fakewood Church" and "Joel Wolfstein". I think we'll be going back there next week anyway.

Inside Lakewood Church

Later in the afternoon, i became a part-time driving instructor. Melanie had asked for my help to teach her to drive before she goes for the real driving course as she will be staying on in Houston for another 9 months after the rest of us leaves. Why? Just to save money, he he. If she can practice now, she won't have to spend so much on practising later on. Frankly speaking, i was a bit apprehensive and there were one or two times where she panicked a bit but overall, it was ok. Guys, please keep me in prayer for this ya :p

Not much to talk about today. It was about project management today and the most interesting part of it was when we were divided into three teams and given the task to build a house using some white cards, a pair of scissors and some magic tape and masking tape. The house had to have 2 floors and 2 ceilings, complete with a ridged roof and chimney. The first floor had to have 2 windows and 2 doors which could be opened and the second had to have 2 windows which could be opened. Another limitation was that the masking tape cannot be on the outside, meaning it must be taped on the insides. We were given 50 minutes to design and plan and only 5 minutes to build as many houses as we can. Two of the teams, including ours only managed 1 house while the other team managed to build 4. There's actually a lot more than what i'm telling here but i don't want to spoil the suprise, just in case any of you might actually go through it as well, ha ha. In any case, i learned a few things here, including the fact that i can be overbearing at times, ha ha. Quite an insightful revelation, that one :)

A new post...at last

Days 26 to 35, 3rd to 12th Mar 2009:

Finally, some time to put up a new post. It's been 10 days since my last post and quite a lot has happened. I won't go into too much details; i'm not even sure i remember that much.

I left the base camp in Marmul on the 4th without having much time to say goodbye to some of the people there, partly again from my last minute attitude. I decided to stay in and not go out upon reaching Muscat...a mistake i was soon to find out. Since my flight back to Houston was on the 7th, i decided to wait until the next day to go exploring. Unfortunately, i forgot that this was an Islamic country and it was a Friday the next day. I spent Friday morning online and was prepared to go out at 12pm only to be informed that the shops will be closed until 4pm. So i had to wait a while. After lunch, i walked to the nearby beach and found that some sort of party was going on. A lot of Indians around and quite a few of them were flying kites as well.

4pm came and i went on a mini tour with Bala, the company driver. He charged me 7 Omani Rials to go around (which was about RM70) but i guess it's a good deal, plus the fact that this would be my only chance to go around in Muscat. He took me to the Mutrah Souq, which was like a flea market of sorts, one of the palaces of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said and finally to a street that resembled Little India in my opinion because it was practically filled with Indians and only a handful of Omanis. One thing that i really found beautiful about Muscat is the mountains surrounding the capital city. Really spectacular and the evening sun falling on them gives off a slightly romantic feel.

Near the Mutrah Souq in Muscat

The Mutrah Souq

In front of one of the Sultan's palaces

The beautiful mountains surrounding Muscat

So, it was back to Houston on the 7th. Another long, long, long flight. I did manage to get some interesting shots on the flight back though and here's one of them:

Somewhere over Dubai

Somewhere over the northeast coast of the North American continent

I reached Houston around 4pm local time the same day. Most of the others had already reached the Hilton Garden Inn and i was one of the last for the day. There were 2 more coming in on the next day and on the 10th respectively.

On Sunday the 8th, we checked out and moved into our apartments at the Marquis on Briar Forest. We each had our own single bedroom apartments and man, are they nice or what. The apartment is fully furnished with practically almost everything. There's a kitchen with stoves, an oven and microwave oven as well as a fridge. We got a washer and dryer to do our laundry, cable tv, walk-in closet and other stuff. There's definitely privacy but i think it would have been more fun with two in a two bedroom apartment instead of just one in a single bedroom apartment. They had to split us up between the units at Briar Forest and the units at Westheimer as they were unable to get 17 units in the same place. We also got 5 cars to share among the 17 of us as well and it really helps to have a car around Houston.

Block 13, which is where my unit is

The bedroom inside Unit 1325 of Block 13

The kitchen

The living room

Anyway, the reason why i haven't been posting lately is because i was trying to finish up my report and presentation. The presentation was today and i think i did alright, though i was a bit too fast and finished too early. Instead of using up the 15 minutes allocated, i finished in about 10 or maybe less. I wasn't too nervous but my hands were freezing when i started to give my presentation. And now that the first presentation is out of the way and my report more or less completed, i look forward to Saturday the 14th. Houston Rockets vs. the San Antonio Spurs!

Topic...confirmed, laziness...also confirmed

Days 19 to 25, 24th Feb to 2nd Mar 2009:

Finally, i'm posting a new blog. Was just too lazy to post for the past week, not to mention occasionally having a little more things to do here. Ok, maybe only for a day or two.

The past week was divided between visiting a few more departments/sections, working on my report and presentation, and twiddling my thumbs. Yes, i have the audacity to mention that i still have time to sit around shaking leg (the nerve of this guy!). I admit, i haven't exactly been really productive and as usual, am regretting it. I've got two or three more sections to cover, then i'm done. But work on my report and presentation only started about two or three days ago and i wasted a bit of time. I'll be trying to finish at least a draft of both by Wednesday coz i'll be flying to Muscat on the Thursday and then back to Houston on Saturday (7th of March).

So, what else has been happening besides that? I spent the morning of the 24th with Mohd again, scouting for a new area to move the recorder truck to. Actually, i was supposed to go with the vibe pushers in the morning but one thing led to another and i ended up with Mohd. After he had finished scouting the area, he asked if i wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon with the vibe pushers but i was feeling too lazy by then, so i just followed him back to camp after lunch.

The 'nodding donkey'

The next day, i went with Mansoor, one of the line foremans. I suppose he's a bit old now though as his hair and beard are graying, but i won't hazard a guess since i suck at guessing people's ages. He supervises the line crew who pick-up/lay-out the cables and geophones. I spent only about an hour with him before he sent me to one of the vibe pushers. Originally, the plan was to spend the morning with him and the afternoon with the vibe pushers but since i pretty much already understood how they did things, i agreed to hop on to the vibe pusher's truck.

One of the line crew members picking-up the cable in the morning fog

The rest of the morning was spent with Abdullah or Abadi as his friends call him (since there were a few Abdullahs around). His command of English was just marginal but he tried his best to explain his responsibilities and how the shooting plan currently was. Again, there wasn't that much to fill up a whole two or three hours and i actually ended up napping for a while after the whole story was finished. I tried making small talk with him after that but i ran out of things to ask him too. Towards lunch, the vibes under his care were serviced one by one by the field mechanics and i got to get up close and personal with the machines. Since the vibes basically operate 24 hours, they have to be refueled and serviced in the field itself.

The DSD (Digital Servo Drive) unit inside the vibe.
This thingy here receives commands from the DPG (Digital Pilot Generator) in the recorder truck which tells it when to vibrate

One of the vibes being serviced

One of the mechanics got into a minor accident in which he ended up with a really painful and bleeding (rather profusely) finger tip. One of the J.O.s who was nearby was then called to fetch him back to camp to have his finger treated. In the mean time, Abadi helped bandage his finger. My lunch at this time was supposed to have been sent with Abadi's but it got sent to the recorder truck instead. So Abadi asked the J.O. for his help to pick-up my lunch. I decided to follow the J.O. instead, to save him the trouble of coming back to deliver it. Since he had to drop the mechanic off first, i ended up going back to camp again. Earlier i had asked Rakesh (one of the observers at the recorder truck) to arrange for my lunch to be sent with Abdullah's but i guess i didn't pass the message correctly which ended up with my lunch getting sent to the recorder truck. On the way back to camp, he sounded a little annoyed after the J.O. told him I that i was with him, saying something like he should have been informed first. Whether that was directed at me or the J.O. i'm not sure, but it was partly my fault anyway.

On the 26th, i visited the Obs Workshop. This is where all the electronic equipment is maintained and repaired. I wanted to talk to Ian (i think he's Scottish) as he is quite experienced but he was a bit stressed out with a network problem and was trying to sort it out. So i talked with Randy (a Filipino) and asked him about the stuff they do over there. Randy's quite experienced as well, though not as much as Ian as he had just been transferred to that department recently. After getting the information i needed, he passed me to Francis who is the supervisor of the geophone workshop. There, they repair or replace the many geophones that have problems in the line. Francis is a little Indian guy who seems quite old. It seems that all the supervisory level people are old timers in this crew. Not necessarily old, so to speak but with at least an average of 10 years of experience. So, he showed me around, explaining how they repair the geophones, or in half of the cases, replace them. I got one of the magnets inside the spoilt geophones as a souvenir (but you can see these things all over camp anyway). The rest of the morning, i spent looking at a manual in the Obs Workshop. Suprise, suprise...i found material for my proposed topic (which was still not yet confirmed).

A geophone string. That yellow thing with the sharp spike is the geophone and it can detect your heartbeat if held in your fingers

The next day was spent with the Survey department. It seems i caught Trevor offguard as Mohd forgot to inform him i was coming over. In any case, i followed one of the GPS guys as they went out to mark the vibro points (or VPs) and geophone string points. The guy i followed was another Indian veteran named Vijay. Again, after about an hour's worth of explaining and questions, i had nothing else to ask. I had to sit in the back this time as the passenger side was just filled with the small biodegradable plastic sandbags used to mark the points. The truck has a GPS antenna just above and a little behind the driver's seat so what he does is to drive to the location and drop the bag out of the truck. It has to be within 30cm of the mark, so there's quite a bit of driving, stopping and reversing to do. Sitting in the back, going back and forth and sometimes through bumpy paths, i couldn't help but feel a little dizzy and eventually fell asleep. Thankfully, he had planned out his course well so when he finished the second line we were only approximately 2km away from camp. He dropped me off around 1.30pm before heading back to finish his work for the day. I didn't really pray to God to send me back early but twice He delivered. He truly understands what our hearts desire, even though we don't voice it out. Don't get me wrong about the whole thing though, i do think that it's a bit boring doing what these people do out here in the field but it's even more so when you're just tagging along and not having to work with them.

My second day with the survey department was again spent in a truck, this time with Al (short for Alfredo, who is the only other Filipino in the camp) and Imran (a Pakistani). These guys map the routes for the vibes at night as it is more dangerous at night due to the darkness. Basically, all they do is do a lot of driving. They just program the GPS receiver, called a Garmin to record as they drive around areas where the terrain is more hilly or where there's hazards, such as structures along the source lines. Once again, i couldn't help but doze off after i switched seats with Imran at the back...sigh. As most of the area they needed to cover was flat, we were back in camp in time for lunch.

The next day, as Trevor was still busy sorting out his problems, i spent the morning going round camp with Keef, the British Chief Mechanic. It was supposed to be just around the workshop but it somehow ended up with him showing me around the whole camp. Among some of the places we dropped by was the junior staff kitchen, the junior staff quarters and even the make-shift mosque. It was also interesting to learn that all the used water (fr0m the kitchen and showers) and the waste was treated in two large tanks behind the camp. These tanks use bacteria to break down the waste before discharging it in the desert. And i was wondering why there were sprinklers in the desert...mystery solved.

Today, Trevor finally had a little bit of time to describe how the survey department operates. The morning was spent with him in his office. He even printed some notes for my reference. Later in the afternoon, it was a short interview with Steve, the Australian party manager and a short session with Stephane (a Frenchman) in the QC department. It's just amazing how all the crew here are so helpful, giving you the time of the day to answer your questions and all while they have their own work that needs to be done.

Well, that about wraps up one week's worth of blogging all in one post, ha ha. Tomorrow, i will be tying up all the loose ends before fully concentrating on my field report and presentation. It's high time i use a sentence without the word 'try' in it.