Full moon on the rig...siighh...

Has anyone seen a full moon reflection at a calm sea surface ?? If you haven't, I can vouch it's serene and beautiful. Especially in a quiet pitch black night with no light but the stars and the moon. The reflection are so serene, I can just watch and enjoy the view for at least five full minutes. Yes, five minutes from 24 hours in a day. Imagine that!! How I forget to enjoy what the earth can offer.

Just stand there in the middle of the heildeck where I can find less light on a rig and wonder the natural beauty. Pity, I still couldn't block the background light and high level noise from interference though. But that's as good as I can get right now.

Rover Trail

It has been long due since the last time I did hiking or just took a long walk in the nature (forest trails or mountain). It has been my ambition as well to revisit my interest in this nature activity especially this year, since this country I'm working at the moment offers plenty of rain forest resorts, and I have plenty time for my own now. Also...I have 60 plus plus vacation days not yet taken, and believe me, I will definitely cut them by more than half this year. Backpacking to all these rain forest national parks in Malaysia will fill up most of the agenda. Of course, I will drag my husband along to accompany me, and for sure he will happily oblige :)

Browsing for activities that the various national parks can offer, we (my husband decided to be proactive in this matter) found an interesting rain forest just one hour drive from KLCC. It's actually a research forest, but nontheless. It's still a rain forest in the proximity of the city. Good stuff!!!

So called FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia), located in Kepong, is the closest rain forest I can find in KL proximity.Me and my husband have visited it once, and I believe so many to come in the future. It has several trails that I can try at weekends if I'm to stay in the city. A big soccer field surrounded by thick forrest is one of the feature that interest my husband. Great place to do weekly exercise like walking, a little bit of hiking, jogging, and other sports with fresh and clean air. We're planning to play badminton there once in a while just for fun.

Canopy bridge hanging from tree to tree as high as 30m off the ground can be visited also for those interested in viewing the forest life from up there, but it's limited to certain days only.

Rover trail (it reminded me of one rig in particular) is one of the longest trail it has to offer, as far as 5kms. Not too long, just nice for short exercise. You can walk down that trail until the other end in about an hour to two, depends on your pace. The canopy bridge entrance is in that trail as well, so in saturdays I bet the trail is quite congested with study tour students.

I remember when I asked my Malaysian friends if they have visited FRIM before. Most of them will reply me with a positive answer, but long long time ago, such as when they're still in elementary school :) I don't blame them, but it's such a waste not to visit the beauty of a rain forest just close by our home. I believe I will keep coming to this Rover trail just to get a lungfull of fresh air in the depth of a forest in the middle of the city.

I can use this as my physical preparation to climb Kinabalu Mt. if the chance arises. Maybe some time this year if it's not too fully booked yet ?? A friend of mine told me that it's fully booked until the end of Q3. Yare yare....

Semi vs Tender rig

Now I know why we can feel the rig movement due to the heave more on a tender rig compared to a semi (semi sub or semi tender). It's due to the ballast control. I knew that a semi sub rig like Ocean Rover and semi tender rig like West Alliance or West Berani has a ballast control, to compensate the heave and minimize the rig movement. But I've never realized that a tender rig doesn't have any ballast control. So that's why it's sooo different.

And that's why also, in West Berani and West Alliance, they can use an access ramp (bridge from tender to platform) which is convenience, with spiral stairs and sorts, because the rig movement is minimal. The same reason also why on a tender, we cannot use those kind of access ramp, but a widow maker, or so we call it, which is a lot more dangerous in bad weather where the heave is very high. Due to lack of ballast control from the tender, the rig is moving accordingly to the heave. In that kind of situation, I prefer to stay on the fix platform, eventhough the accomodation and food is down there on the moving tender.

Watching the tender movement from a fix platform will give you a chill on how this thing can move. Just like a boat on a rough weather. It doesn't care how big is the tender, it will still move violently. And imagine you have to climb a ladder down to that kind of moving rig. Or even jump. Man...I really hope I will never ever come across those kind of rig again.

Life on the rig now

I finally experience how my life is, to be working on the rig not as LWD engineer. For sure, it's a lot less physical work, and different work pressure.

Before, I really hated if we got a tool failure. All these LWD stuffs have lots and lots of electronics. From the downhole tools, to surface sensors and computers. All are prone to failures. And whatever you do to make sure that everything will be running fine, but electronic failure can happen any time, slowly or in a sudden, and for sure unavoidable. That's what makes it stressful, and that's why we have back up for every equipment.

Once we get downhole tool failure, that's it. A lot more additional work to do. From preparing the back up tools, paperworks, troubleshooting the failure, etc etc.

But since I'm no longer an LWD engineer, I have not as many to worry. The most equipment that can fail on me is my laptop, and to have a backup for that, we execute the software in two laptops. If you have read my older post about my new laptop, then that's exactly the laptop I'm using to do my job now. Powerful it is since this software we're using to execute geosteering job really need a lot of processing capabilty and also a lot of memory.

And not as many to worry it is, that I can actually write here when we just experienced a tool failure and currently pulling the drill string out of the hole to change the tools. If I were still an LWD engineer, I will definitely be busy doing something else. My only concern now is that the job will get delayed for at least a day or two, which also means again that I have to spend more time on the rig. Fiuuhh....

Back to West Alliance !!! Oops...

I've never thought I will work again on the rig after my last several months enjoying office life. But then here I am, currently working again on one of the rig in offshore Malaysia.

To my interest though, I have a completely different job role this time. It has nothing to do with tools and surface systems or how to troubleshoot them, but everything to do with the measurements that the tools give us and how to interpret the data to geosteer the well to wherever I want!!! Hahaha...no...that's not exactly how it works..but it is true in a way. The client will give us an objective and I have to look at the data closely to make sure that the well is being drilled to the right target. So based on my interpretation, they will decide where to steer the well. Cool huhh ?? High responsibility though, and not as simple as that.

Anyway, my coming back to the rig this time has sent me back to West Alliance!!! Hehehe...ok...maybe I should correct that statement. The rig I'm at now is actually West Berani. But the design, layout, and everything is exactly the same as West Alliance. So for me, it's like returning to that rig, except that this one is only 6 months old. Very new and clean. Such a nice rig. I remember, I quite enjoy working in West Alliance back there in Balikpapan. Not only because the nice accomodation, but also at that time, we have a fix D&M crew that made us quite a solid team, and somewhat fix schedule which allowed me to plan ahead my plans during days off or vacation. What a life!!

Despite of the type of this rig which is a tender (hayyaaa....imagine how far you have to walk back and forth from the accomodation to the logging unit to work or from the unit to the accomodation just to go to the toilet!! More than hundred meters!!), I really like the rig design (somewhat more stable than other tender, or was it just because the weather out here is calmer?? hmmm..), the bridge design to the platform (or so called widow maker, because normally it will have a vertical ladder made of rope or steel, and we have to climb that up to get to the bridge to cross to the platform. In a bad weather, climbing that ladder is such a challenge, I wish I will never ever have to climb that blasted thing in the future. So dangerous, that the 'widow maker' term is really appropriate. But in West Alliance or West Berani, they have a convenient stairs and bridge that is just perfect and safe..hehe), and offcourse the nice accomodation, although in West Berani, the room's floor are not carpeted. Too bad indeed ;)

Anyway...here I am again on the rig. Just for a short hitch mind you, and no physical work need to be done except climbing the stairs, and walking back and forth unit-accomodation. No more going up to the rig floor, no more loading batteries or radioactive source, more $$$, but also more responsibility. Somehow it always comes hand in hand.

@offshore South China Sea

Relocating to KL

Relocation....what I hate most of this process is the packing and unpacking. Eventhough it will all be handled by the relocation company, but still..it gives me headache. Especially to rearrange all my stuffs in the new house or apartment. Well...I will just take my time to rearrange all those stuffs. I have nothing in a hurry, except that I want to get it over with. Fiuuhh....

But this moving process is a good way to recycle my stuffs. All the stuffs that I rarely use will definitely left behind. In my case, since I have to empty my previous house, I'll just probably leave the proper ones to someone who might need them more than myself, and throw the unproper ones. Then I have an excuse to buy a new one!! :)
Excuses...excuses...

But what I have dreaded since the beginning came true, like it or not. I have dreaded that my books are beginning to climb the hills. And became a hill they did, once my husband and I collected all the books we have on the floor. I've always knew that I love buying books and reading them, but I've never thought even once on what I will do to those books when I have to move. Well..I definitely won't leave them behind. The thing is, will I have enough space on my new apartment for those books ??? Hmm....I'll have to manage that one.

The blasted thing is, eventhough I have found and practically moved to my new apartment in KL, and a brand new apartment it is since I'm the first tenant after they finished construct the unit, and a huge apartment it is compared to other apartment (apartment wise of course, don't compare it with a house), I still haven't manage to pack and move my things from Kemaman. The process really depends on my company's deal with the cheapest relocating company, and imagine how slow it is just to get the best deal. I have waited two weeks and no action has been done!! How much longer they will take, I have no idea, plus I have no choice.

Well...que sera sera...they will finally come to a point where they get a good deal with one particular relocating company, and I can start moving my stuffs. I just hope it is soon...

@havoc house in Kemaman

My new apartment in KL

I'm so excited to move to my new apartment in KL. Well, theoritically, it's not mine. My company lease it for me. But I have the right to choose under a certain budget. Doesn't matter, as I got mine now.

It's a brand new apartment called Seri Maya condo in Ampang area, approximately 5 km from KL centre area (KLCC, my office, etc). Since I have a car already, it doesn't really matter for me. Plus, there's an LRT station just opposite the complex, so it's really convenient to get to KLCC, my office, or even KL sentral station which is the hub to get to KLIA airport, or other part of Malaysia via train (if any, but so far we can only go to just around KL area), and also to Singapore. I wonder if there's any train to Thailand. If not mistaken they have, but I need to clarify that one.

Anyway, back to my excitement. This apartment unit I leased is pretty cool. Compared to other apartment I've seen so far, it is the biggest (1800 sqft). Three rooms, one terrace, one spacious living room with cool modern but simple interior design, bathrooms, cool kitchen and not to say all brand new electronic appliances, I can't wait to stay there.

Hopefully, I don't need to relocate again before two years. The longer, the better. I really hate to redo all the process. Finding a house/apartment, pack, move, unpack, rearrange my stuffs. I will definitely cross my fingers....