Today there are a lot of fish in the ocean. Small fish and big fish. Even sea snake was here. Witness a natural phenomenon, which is big fish eat small fish. In order to survive, small fish swam for life. Some even jumped out of the water, I guess it would get away from big fish’s ruthless attack faster? I have no idea. But based on the swimming speed I see from the platform, which is about 100 ft above the sea level, small fish would have no chance to survive. Well, there are plenty more small fish in the ocean, I assume the fish species will survive and go on breeding. That’s the equilibrium of our ecosystem.
Well, in real life, this same phenomenon happens all the time. There is a Chinese saying which is translated to be this. The winner will be the ministers, loser will be the slave. A lot of times we have to flex our muscles in order to survive, to get things done, to be influential, not to be intimidated by others and etc.
But as an educated ‘fish’, I hope we all can be reasonable in hunting our ‘prey’. Don’t simply ‘eat’. Eat only whenever it’s necessary. Lets be WISE fish. Hahahaha…
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Burning Hot Day
I’m on wireline deck on Magpie 3 drilling platform amidst Brunei water while writing this article. It’s 1.30pm in the afternoon. It’s such a hot day today. Feel the sun burning the skin. To make things worse, this morning the air was still. Without wind, the heat effect increased by at least few degree Celsius.
When looking out to the sea, it is bright all the way. Hardly see the sea-sky link point. Boat far away looks like it’s floating in the air. There are only few patches of cloud in the air, impossible to provide ‘shield’ from the scorching sun. As I started my work this morning, I was feeling heavy head and had the pre-blackout symptoms.
As much as for the bad things, there’s one good thing about this platform. It has this solar panel which we can use as shelter. It’s this solar panel that saved me from the cruel mid-day heat that reaches I guess above 40 deg C.
And while I’m writing, the air starts to chase each other gently, providing a soft kind of ‘bayou’ that soothes all of us here on the platform, physically and mentally. Wind is blowing stronger now. We’re all happy and it’s really a great relief not to endure in the burning heat.
Hopefully this wind has mercy and will continue to blow till the end of day. Tough life but only more challenges in life would make us grow up more and more.
When looking out to the sea, it is bright all the way. Hardly see the sea-sky link point. Boat far away looks like it’s floating in the air. There are only few patches of cloud in the air, impossible to provide ‘shield’ from the scorching sun. As I started my work this morning, I was feeling heavy head and had the pre-blackout symptoms.
As much as for the bad things, there’s one good thing about this platform. It has this solar panel which we can use as shelter. It’s this solar panel that saved me from the cruel mid-day heat that reaches I guess above 40 deg C.
And while I’m writing, the air starts to chase each other gently, providing a soft kind of ‘bayou’ that soothes all of us here on the platform, physically and mentally. Wind is blowing stronger now. We’re all happy and it’s really a great relief not to endure in the burning heat.
Hopefully this wind has mercy and will continue to blow till the end of day. Tough life but only more challenges in life would make us grow up more and more.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Boat Rideof my Life
Date: 14 April 2010
Current location: In the middle of the Brunei water on vessel Armada Salman…
Today crew boat departed a little later than yesterday, at 6.30am… went to Champion 7 platform, unfortunately the EOP there didn’t want to sign our hot work permit… that means we would not be able to work today… hahaha… too bad it didn’t materialize… there’s another EOP going to be at Magpie 1 platform at about 10am there to sign the permit… damnnnnnn… so we left for Magpie platform at about 8am…
The whole journey was rough… sea was rough today… when we approached Magpie platform, the swell was ‘unfriendly’… the boat Master decided that it’s unsafe to do boat to platform transfer… it’s basically not safe even for the boat to be anywhere near the platform… the current was just strong this morning… called the CSR / FOS in Armada Salman, and we called it a day…
The boat ride back to Armada Salman was even worse than coming to the platform as we were going against the tide… I was sitting on the boat rocking left and right, front and back… There was definitely one thing in my mind, that’s don’t throw up… Found a way to fight against sea sick, that’s to look up in the sky… when I only see sky, I feel like I was stagnant at one point… even though the body is still rocking, psychologically (I guess) I was more stable… yesterday when I look up the sky, I was saying to myself I couldn’t see any ‘shape’ of the clouds… today I saw bear, an old lady’s face, a young lady’s face, crocodile’s ‘mouth’, birds, a small duck that was trying to escape from a monster or some sort of big mouth creature… it’s been a while since I actually looked up at the sky… and it’s definitely a good feeling to be able to see all these again… haha…
Also there’s this bird that flew along our boat… it flew side by side with the boat, flew in front, on the surface of water, cross side to side in front of boat… it’s like it wanted a companion at the same time it was showing off its flying skill to us… it was like it’s telling us that it could fly much faster than we could travel with the boat… it has arrogant element in its style, yet we human just couldn’t stop admiring how elegant it looks when maneuvering itself in the air…
Boat ride duration: Journey: Armada Salman – Champion 7 – Magpie 2 – Champion 7 – Armada Salman
Total boat ride duration today: more than 5 hours…
While writing this piece I’m still on Armada Salman… that means duration on water for today – 24 hours… DAMN !!!
Current location: In the middle of the Brunei water on vessel Armada Salman…
Today crew boat departed a little later than yesterday, at 6.30am… went to Champion 7 platform, unfortunately the EOP there didn’t want to sign our hot work permit… that means we would not be able to work today… hahaha… too bad it didn’t materialize… there’s another EOP going to be at Magpie 1 platform at about 10am there to sign the permit… damnnnnnn… so we left for Magpie platform at about 8am…
The whole journey was rough… sea was rough today… when we approached Magpie platform, the swell was ‘unfriendly’… the boat Master decided that it’s unsafe to do boat to platform transfer… it’s basically not safe even for the boat to be anywhere near the platform… the current was just strong this morning… called the CSR / FOS in Armada Salman, and we called it a day…
The boat ride back to Armada Salman was even worse than coming to the platform as we were going against the tide… I was sitting on the boat rocking left and right, front and back… There was definitely one thing in my mind, that’s don’t throw up… Found a way to fight against sea sick, that’s to look up in the sky… when I only see sky, I feel like I was stagnant at one point… even though the body is still rocking, psychologically (I guess) I was more stable… yesterday when I look up the sky, I was saying to myself I couldn’t see any ‘shape’ of the clouds… today I saw bear, an old lady’s face, a young lady’s face, crocodile’s ‘mouth’, birds, a small duck that was trying to escape from a monster or some sort of big mouth creature… it’s been a while since I actually looked up at the sky… and it’s definitely a good feeling to be able to see all these again… haha…
Also there’s this bird that flew along our boat… it flew side by side with the boat, flew in front, on the surface of water, cross side to side in front of boat… it’s like it wanted a companion at the same time it was showing off its flying skill to us… it was like it’s telling us that it could fly much faster than we could travel with the boat… it has arrogant element in its style, yet we human just couldn’t stop admiring how elegant it looks when maneuvering itself in the air…
Boat ride duration: Journey: Armada Salman – Champion 7 – Magpie 2 – Champion 7 – Armada Salman
Total boat ride duration today: more than 5 hours…
While writing this piece I’m still on Armada Salman… that means duration on water for today – 24 hours… DAMN !!!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Offshore BSP Platform
9 days into this job... feels like one year already...
Am on Brunei Shell platform supposed to do 4 survey jobs... expected job duration: 10 - 15 days... we're now 9 days into this job, and we yet to receive program from BSP... communication breakdown big time over here... everybody is confused and dont know what's going on...
it was extremely boring at the beginning... let me explain why... first two days, we were standing by at hotel in Kuala Belait, Brunei, not bad huh... after that we had to stay on Armada Salman, kind of like a supply boat, at that time was parking at berth in Muara Port, Brunei... We stayed there for 5 days... the first 2 days i felt like no doubt, that was the most boring 2 days in my life... my goodness... nothing to do, felt like i was paralysed from head down to my toe... room was small and low, it was suffocating... food was ok but lost appetite when you just eat and sit and sleep every 3 hours for couple of days... and everyday standby, waiting for something to happen but never knew when it's gonna happen, that's the worst feeling...
after that I managed to settle down to this platform slow pace working lifestyle... now I dont really mind if the job drags on for few more days... more offshore days means more $$$ hehehe and also one step closer to my dreams in life... this morning after lots of huh hah huh hah among BSP (different departments) and us, hopefully we'll get something done by tomorrow...
and last but not least, Shell really sucks big time... I can't believe it was one time the biggest oil operator in the world...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Stubbornness for Survival
Stubbornness is unique. There are certain people that I know I would classify them as the most stubborn people I ever known. Some people are just flexible. However, sometimes in very desperate situations I would be surprised by how people react. Those I considered as most stubborn would become flexible and would do whatever necessary to get out of the hole. On the other hand, those I consider as flexible people they would just keep doing with what they’re used to do without the ability to change their mindset.
I will give an example here. My eldest sister is genetically a very stubborn person (so are we the siblings). She didn’t take any food supplements because she just didn’t believe in them. In addition even if she did, she would stop taking the food supplements when she felt the recovery reaction, for example, heatiness, go toilet more frequently etc. However, when she was diagnosed with NPC (nose cancer) stage 4 middle of last year, she would go for medical treatment, take medicine, and most importantly, she started to take food supplements that we have introduced her ages ago, and also lots of traditional herbal medicines. At that moment, she said that she had only one goal in mind, that’s to survive. She’s now still recovering but doctor has encouraged her to go back to work as this would do her good than sitting at home feeling like a sick person. She has returned to work since 1st March, 2010. Bravo.
There are few more cancer patients I know that would refuse to take anything else other than the medication doctor prescribed. They’re really not doing well. As I’ve seen how my sister suffers from the medical treatment for cancer and how she slowly recovers from it, the difference between her and those without any extra food supplement is obvious. Once of the side effect from radiotherapy was that her throat was badly burned from the treatment. It was too painful for her to even swallow her own saliva, let alone food. We had to grind the tablets into powder, mix with water and she would drink it for nutrients for energy and immune system.
I’m not going to talk more about the benefits of food supplement here. What I wanted to say is that stubbornness is actually the character of human being. It’s controlled by our mindset, the way we perceive things. If my sister would be stubborn about food supplement, I’m not sure if she would survive the radiotherapy treatment. Without food how can we have enough nutrients to supply energy to our body and maintain immune system to combat one of the most deadly diseases??? She had her mindset changed when she knew what she wanted to achieve at that particular moment, that’s to survive. Some other patients maintain their mindset to not take any extra supplements / traditional medicines and ended up either suffering in greater degree or they never made it.
We all are stubborn in a way or two or more but to me personally, when it comes to survival, we shouldn’t be stubborn blindly. As human being, we would be without personality if we are not stubborn (a good way to put it would be firm with our decision). But, we should have at least the wisdom as when to be stubborn and when we should have the mindset change.
I will give an example here. My eldest sister is genetically a very stubborn person (so are we the siblings). She didn’t take any food supplements because she just didn’t believe in them. In addition even if she did, she would stop taking the food supplements when she felt the recovery reaction, for example, heatiness, go toilet more frequently etc. However, when she was diagnosed with NPC (nose cancer) stage 4 middle of last year, she would go for medical treatment, take medicine, and most importantly, she started to take food supplements that we have introduced her ages ago, and also lots of traditional herbal medicines. At that moment, she said that she had only one goal in mind, that’s to survive. She’s now still recovering but doctor has encouraged her to go back to work as this would do her good than sitting at home feeling like a sick person. She has returned to work since 1st March, 2010. Bravo.
There are few more cancer patients I know that would refuse to take anything else other than the medication doctor prescribed. They’re really not doing well. As I’ve seen how my sister suffers from the medical treatment for cancer and how she slowly recovers from it, the difference between her and those without any extra food supplement is obvious. Once of the side effect from radiotherapy was that her throat was badly burned from the treatment. It was too painful for her to even swallow her own saliva, let alone food. We had to grind the tablets into powder, mix with water and she would drink it for nutrients for energy and immune system.
I’m not going to talk more about the benefits of food supplement here. What I wanted to say is that stubbornness is actually the character of human being. It’s controlled by our mindset, the way we perceive things. If my sister would be stubborn about food supplement, I’m not sure if she would survive the radiotherapy treatment. Without food how can we have enough nutrients to supply energy to our body and maintain immune system to combat one of the most deadly diseases??? She had her mindset changed when she knew what she wanted to achieve at that particular moment, that’s to survive. Some other patients maintain their mindset to not take any extra supplements / traditional medicines and ended up either suffering in greater degree or they never made it.
We all are stubborn in a way or two or more but to me personally, when it comes to survival, we shouldn’t be stubborn blindly. As human being, we would be without personality if we are not stubborn (a good way to put it would be firm with our decision). But, we should have at least the wisdom as when to be stubborn and when we should have the mindset change.
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