Open Diary - temporary lodgings on Flickr

this is how their fans perceived the Argentina team at the 2002 World Cup after they whimpered out.

I don't think they will suffer this time round.........

 

Friday Froth….

 

…skipping past Thursday which didn’t have a credible alliteration (‘ Thursday Thoughts’ was a wee bit over glorification for an entry title)

This entry will update as the day goes on….I’m debating whether to continue in notes format or do a referral to my Flickr site which at least means I can put up as little or as much as I feel like…. I’ll see how my mood goes. At least with Flickr I can have a picture as a starting point to bubble on about. I’ve made my OD ‘members read only’ when I’m offshore as I don’t want the next guy to sit down at the machine to check ‘history’ and see what I’ve been posting…I don’t want my colleagues confirming their suspicions that I’m an unhinged idiot.

 

That pre-amble has made the decision – Flickr it is and a big long ramble – as inspired by the Marvellous Mind-boggling Wisconsin Convenience Store Queen…(thank you very much, Tae, for that quiz this morning which made me late for my bowl o’porridge)

 

So it’s Friday morning, day nine of fourteen, the weather is mild and bright and I have a ‘to do’ list that would fear normal men, but I have a good tactic of hiding it in a drawer and ignoring it, then cruising through the day on whims and mood swings. It’s worked reasonably OK for the past 30 years, why change now?

 

Already this morning I’ve been part of the Helideck team to transfer an engineer from here to a neighbouring platform. Instead of our normal Super Puma ‘ North Sea Bus’ type of helicopter, it was one of those ‘whup whup whup’ Vietnam War type Flying Cement Mixers.

I’m now earworming to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, adopting a world weary Martin Sheen attitude and expecting Robert Duvall to appear with a surf board. The horror The horror.

 

What next…write up all the past couple of day’s scores on my world cup wall chart. Black ink mostly but do a wee finger pin-prick and put ’England 2 Trinidad and Tobago 0’ up in blood.

At least the Southern Neighbours were re-assuringly incompetent in their huffing puffing self-conceited way. A big hurrah to T&T for a noble display.

 

Better get some work done. .crank up the music…’Swordfishtrombones’ – that should keep the public away.. (sings / grumbles) …..

 

‘Rattle big black bones in the danger zone

there's a rumblin' groan

down below

there's a big dark town, it's a place I've found, there's a world going on

Underground…….’

 

Right, on with this stack o’work… ‘Tom Waits for no man, you know’…….

 

Later…….And I’ve rattled through a bit of Oil Platform Equipment Supply Administration, dealt with few Joe Dimwitts (thanks edna_million for THAT apt description) At times I feel more like a Social Care Assistant than a Materials Controller!

 

11 am…. Right, I’m going to quietly slope off , pretending I have some stuff out on deck to check, and get an early start on the treadmill – cut down the speed and have a steady run, aiming for a 4 or 5 miler… I’ll need music to stave off boredom….Nazareth ‘Razamanaz’ from 1972 should provide some upbeat momemtum…..

 

….but alas. As soon as I trudged up from the bottom deck to the Accomodation Block, I knew my wee leggies didn’t have the fuel to do an extended run. (the 8 flights of stairs soon reveal fitness levels) But I duly trotted out a 2 miler and then nipped down for lunch of bangers and mash. (the tatties were a bit over soggy – we seldom get the luxury of decent fluffy mash – but the sossies were suberbly savoury)

 

One thing is niggling me about my jogging stats is the duff read outs on the machines. On this current machine a steady easy trot sees me take 12 minutes to rack up a mile. Now, I KNOW at home in ‘real’ measured distances I should do that in 10 minutes. As I try to squeeze my runs into a sometimes physically busy ( typo’d ‘busty’ there!) day I should maybe regard 0.8 on the read out as a True Mile. How can these Hi-Tech machines not get programmed properly. On one rig there were 2 identical machines. I was able to do 7 minute miles on one, but to even attempt the same pace per the display on the other one would have burst my lungs, heart and other important bits.

 

One o’clock and back to work….. Work work…I’ve got a load of Electrical spare parts to requisition….can you feel my excitement?

Na, changed my mind…decided instead to do a bit of my Store Improvement re-vamp. This involves the brutal destruction of a few cumbersome steel shelf rig-ups, in preperation for replacement by super-duper plastic bins that I persuaded management to invest in. Anyway some vigorous hammering and bashing and demolishing definitely got my personal oomph up several notches. The Operators and Techs in nearby workshops had their own ‘nae much happening – chill-out peaceful afternoon’ siesta disturbed.

 

..up to the back of the store in a quiet moment and do my wee toe-touches, stretches and general floor exercises ‘daily dozen’ (which I manage about one day out of six)

 

..give Mrs F a call after browsing the Jobcentre website. She is on her last couple of days in the charity shop as her college course placement and then back for one week’s college completion and de-brief. If nothing else, the past few weeks have given her a sense of purpose. She was on a downward drift for a good while recently. It’s nice to have her chirpy. I noticed a short-term temp job as a cleaner in a Thai / Chinese restaurant and she’s going round to check it out…..

 

logon to the internet to check out the fitba score… I could really use a radio down here….

Argentina are giving Serbia + Montenegro a thorough rogering . The Argies are the Ken Fitlike tip for the trophy mainly due to the mean-hombre streak that they have moulded onto their abundant skill and cohesive teamwork. Victory could well come down to Who Wants It Most and these dudes are f***ing serious. And I love their classic jerseys.

 

Mexico v Angola tonight. What a great culture contrast. This makes the WC such a groove. Ginger beers, crisps and chocolate on order. To hell wi’ the consequences.

….and some more work tasks before a Watch My Dust exit at the back of six. Post up the Flickr link on OD at seven and leave some further impudence on various open diaries and prepare to have my mind boggled again by all youse good peoples’ miscellaneous doings….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Done