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.

Out in survey area

Days 16 to 18, 21st to 23rd Feb 2009:

Finally, i'm out in the field and down in the lines. My first day out was with Mohd, the Recording Crew Manager (RCM). He's a Sudanese residing in Egypt and he somehow reminds me a bit of an African American. We left the camp after breakfast, around 9am.

Basically, he drove around and stopped at various parts of the line to show me some of the equipment and explained their uses. Some of the equipment i saw was the FDU (Field Digitizer Unit, the LAUL (Land Acquisition Unit Line) and the vibrator trucks. He explained how the entire layout was equivalent to a computer network as each FDU, LAUL and LAUX has their own IP address.

The vibrator trucks or vibes

Around noon, he took me to the recorder truck, where all the data is collected. It's also the monitoring and control centre for the vibes, for monitoring line breaks (meaning, a disruption in the ground network) and is basically the centre of communications for all that is going on around the survey area. It can get quite busy in the recorder truck and there's only two observers in there. When we were there, it was quite a busy day, with the VHF radios crackling practically almost every few minutes. Rakesh here, Rakesh there, Rakesh everywhere! I had my lunch there (lunch is delivered to those working in the field in tiffin carriers) or more specifically, Mohd's lunch as mine got sent to the wrong place. I was the only one eating as the observers were too busy to eat.

The recorder truck, the centre of all activity

After that, we were back in the lines. I spent the rest of the day following Syed (or Said, i don't know how to spell his name), a line supervisor as Mohd had other things to take care of. He's quite a nice guy as well and through our conversations, i learned that he has two daugters, one just born last month and that almost his entire family is in the seismic business. It was quite an interesting day just going around and seeing how he works. At one point, he helped one of the trucks which had gotten stuck in the sand by calling another truck to help pull out the other one. Finally, before the end of the day, he checked the line layouts in another block and found some mistakes. As he was off correcting them, i wandered around taking pictures.

One of the plants in the desert

A close-up of the plant's flowers

Tennis balls? Out here in the desert?

Look again. They're actually small watermelons

Camel tracks

On my second day, I was taken to the recording truck where i was to spend the day by one of the J.O.s (Junior Observer) called Azedeen. It was one of the bumpiest rides of my life. Basically, in the recording truck one observer monitors the network of cables and receivers to see if there are problem areas. He then gets the troubleshooter or J.O. (junior observer) to go there and fix the problem. He also instructs the layout crew on where to pick up the cables and geophones and also where to lay them as shooting progresses throughout the day. This was Rakesh's responsibilities. Gabriel, the other observer was concentrated on the vibes. He monitors the shots to see if they're good or not and basically controls when to shoot and when to stop. He communicates only with the vibe pushers (another truck that guides the vibrator trucks). It was a tough day for them as line breaks were popping up here and there, mostly in areas where the cable was lying on the blacktop (tar road; when i first heard the word, i went like, huh?) unprotected. On the other hand, it did give them time to sit back a bit and eat their lunches. I didn't bombard them with too many questions as i didn't want to get in their way and half of my time was also spent looking at some of the manuals. In fact, half of the day i didn't really know what to do so towards the later part of the afternoon, i explored the area around the recorder truck and took more pictures. By the way, did i mention that there were no toilets around?

Animal tracks. Wonder what made these?

Lizard tracks?

Desert rabbit/hare tracks?

I think these are mouse tracks crossing a centipede's tracks, perhaps

Today, i followed John (another RCM) who's a Canadian. The morning was just spent taping down the existing roadmats and laying more roadmats for other cables crossing the blacktop. I didn't do much, just helped to wave the red flag to slow motorists down as they worked on the blacktop. That was pretty much it for today. We got back to camp by 1pm and i spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work on my field report (and going, what...i have to write this?) and studying my CBT. Wonder what's up for tomorrow?

First week in Oman

Days 11 to 15, 16th to 20th Feb 2009:

I thought i was done with flying for the time being. Apparently not. One more flight to Marmul where the base camp is. Thankfully, i was not alone this time as there were two other crew members at the accommodation; Manish, the assistant project manager and Wanidi, a new journey manager. We left the bungalow around 12pm to catch the 1.30pm flight. I just followed blur-ly (if there's such a word) as Manish led the way.

The flight took only about an hour plus and we were at the base camp by 4pm. Wanidi and I were immediately given the safety induction and a short tour around the base camp. The facilities available here make life here comfortabler; they've got the basic ones like toilets, bathrooms, mess rooms and laundry (you don't even have to do it yourself, they'll pick it up from your room and deliver it back when they're done). They've also got an internet room and wireless throughout the camp (signal's weak and slow, but sufficient), a gym and recreation room and even a small bar to cater to the westerners. With the tour done, my first day here was pretty much finished.

The day shift here starts at 6am, so i was up by 5.30am. My second day here began in the QC department and there i stayed for the next few days. I observed how the QC was done through a few steps and tried my hand at parts of it. The checks are quite thorough and stringent. Basically, data from the field is recorded in external disk drives called NAS (Network Attached Storage) disks and they're brought in twice a day. They then load it into the system and make backups in 3592 tapes. Support data that includes navigation, observer logs and geometry/offsets are sent wirelessly and these data are checked for errors before being used to generate the geometry. Shots are also checked for bad shots, bad traces, etc. before the geometry is applied and the brute stack generated for the final check. I didn't really get into the details as a general overview was enough for my purposes. And so, i was pretty much free after two days in that department. I didn't want to impede their work, neither was i really that interested to really delve into the subject until i could really QC on my own as i figured it was unnecessary for my job scope to know that much. Call me lazy if you like, ha ha.

I've found that the people here are really friendly. They'll greet you and ask you how you are whenever they see you. I've also found that most of them have a really good impression of Malaysia. "Malaysia, truly Asia", was almost half of the response i got everytime i answer their question of where i'm from. Ahmed, an Egyptian in the QC department told me that Egyptians really have a high regard for Dr. M and everyone says Malaysia is a lovely country. Makes you kinda proud and appreciate what you have when they say that. Sure, people can complain about a lot of things but if you've never been to other poorer countries, you don't know what you've got. That's my opinion anyway.

Tomorrow, i will finally be able to go down to the line to see the acquisition in progress. I'm looking forward to it as i hope it will help me to understand land acquisition better. It'd be interesting to see how things work anyway. And i hope that i will finally get a topic for my presentation back in Houston tomorrow. Instead of just being given one, i'll have to think for my own on what would be suitable. I got one or two ideas, hopefully they'll be enough. With that, i'll stop here with a few more pictures i took today, including the one with the camel. By a stroke of luck, i saw them close to the base camp. Next time, i'll try to get close up shots, hehe.

Yes, those are tracks from my shoes inside the tyre tracks

Sunset

One of three camels i spotted heading towards the garbage dump. The men are not the owners, they're part of the workforce here

P.S.: My stomach is finally ok now, so don't worry Mom.

Valentine's Day

Day 09, 14th Feb 2009:

The day seemed to start well though i couldn't really seem to eat as much for breakfast as did in previous days. Little did i know that this was gonna haunt me later.

I had an interesting conversation with Cecile during breakfast as i found out she also had some offshore experience prior to joining CGGV. Our conversation revolved around the happenings at sea, the equipment and stuff like that. Kinda cool to know that there's someone else who had been on a vessel before in the group.

After breakfast, i went back up to my room to finish my packing so that i can keep the rest of my luggage in the office while we're all away for the field assignment. Being the blur sotong that i am, i brought every piece of luggage down and loaded it in the minivan, including the bags i was going to take to the field. Only after loading it in the boot did i realise what an idiot i was. Since it was already in the boot, i decided to just leave it there until it was time to fly. We then dropped off our luggage at the office and then i returned to the hotel to wait for the Youssif to come pick me up at 3pm (it was only 12pm by then) while some of the others went to WalMart again.

As i still felt a bit full, i decided to skip lunch. Youssif arrived at the appointed time and off i went to do some flying again. I checked-in and waited as the flight was at 6.25pm. Even though i was feeling hungry now, i only ate a bar of Snickers as i decided to wait for the in-flight dinner.

The time finally came for me to board and i was off on a long flight again. It was my first time boarding a Boeing 777 and the Emirates plane had an in-flight entertainment that was top notch, with a touchscreen and a whole lot of stuff to keep you entertained. When they dimmed the lights for flight, i noticed that the ceiling was created to simulate stars and it was quite cool.

Anyway, by supper i was starting to feel the effects of my stupidity earlier in the day. I started to feel bloated and lost my appetite to eat. I know Mom, i know...i should eat regularly. I guess long flights and me just don't mix as i've fasted lunch before with no repercussions. There was some major turbulence during the flight but thankfully i wasn't affected by it at all.

Day 10, 15th Feb 2009:

The plane arrived at Dubai half an hour past the ETA due to the turbulence earlier. I got off and started asking around on where to go next. Guess i asked the wrong people coz i ended up missing the connecting flight to Oman. Thankfully, they managed to put me on the very next flight which was about an hour later. Man, was i rushing about like mad. I have to say that Dubai airport is really really long...takes like forever to from one end to the other. By the time they booked me on the next flight, i had to practically half run to get to the boarding gate in time. Was also originally planning to call Eve to inform her about the incident but i didn't have enough time to get an IDD card to make the call. Fortunately, the guy at the boarding gate was nice enough to lend me his mobile when i asked and he didn't even charge me for it!

I finally arrived at Muscat airport at 11.30pm and was immediately faced with another head scratching situation, one concerning my visa. After asking around, i found out that i had to buy the visa for US20. Anyway, with that out of the way, i was finally out and looked for my contact person outside the hall. Noticing an Indian holding a piece of paper with the company's logo and my name on it, i breathed a sigh of relief as i was afraid he might not have waited. I offered him my sincerest apologies and explained the situation to him. Poor fellow had been waiting for nearly two hours by then. He then drove me to the crew's accommodation and i spent the night there, having no problems falling asleep.