в сибири

I'm here!
It is 9.15 and I have some free time...something tells me this might not happen very often in the next month. So I thought I would make the most of it and write a post-really not sure when I will next have time.

After an early morning pick-up for the trip to Heathrow, my two giant bags and I checked in successfully at the BA desk and I was free to enjoy the BA lounge, which I must say is rather nice, and serves a good breakfast. The flight went smoothly, and the weather was lovely with clear blue skies much of the way. Once I had finished marvelling at just how calcareous all the fields were, we started descending towards Moscow and I realised that the place was, in fact, covered in snow (doh!). The sun was low, the sky cloudless and I could see all the furrows blanketed in a thin layer of snow-what a lovely welcome.
Arrival in Moscow was a lot nicer (though colder-about 0 degrees centigrade) than last time-thank goodness I managed to avoid Sheremetievo! Domodiedovo is a lot more modern and pleasant to arrive, but that did not prevent me from having weak knees while standing in front of the passport control lady...however, no problems there, and I sailed straight through to the luggage area, then onto the arrivals hall after a brief encounter between a customs officer and my "bodybag" cold weather gear carrier.
The transfer to Vnukovo airport went smoothly and I only hit a hurdle at check-in: I needed to pay for extra luggage weight and they only accepted Rublei. Luckily, "пожалуйста, где банкомат" did the trick-thank goodness for last-minute extra Russian lessons :-)
In the businees lounge at Vnukovo, I met up with my friend Alexey, who was rather surprised to see me there!! Apparently, he has been promoted temporarily to Lead Geologist following someone's move. So I need to report to him-good job I know exactly how he works, thanks to G180!
We flew together to Surgut on UT airlines-nice service in business class, and I even managed to ignore the rather loud vibrations during take-off and landing. On the plane we met Viktor, a senior driller, who went on to help me with my giant black bag, and Alexander (Sasha), a new wellsite geologist, who carried my large red suitcase (which appeared to have been mauled by a pack of hungry wolves at this stage).
I have already learned one lesson: no more than one bag! I am lucky that, as a woman, there always seems to be someone to help. But this is actually a concept I need to get used to, along with always being offered the chair even when I have just arrived in a room and others have been waiting (much) longer. Oh, and not being breathalised. I need time I think-my automatic reaction is that it really feels wrong.
The plane arrived late in Surgut, which means that we only arrived at the hotel just before 2am...and minibus pick-up in the morning was scheduled at 5.25...Alexey insisted on going for a beer to introduce Sasha and me to the job and gave us a very formal introduction for 40 minutes...I think he is loving his new position :-) I escaped at about 2.45 and caught just under 2 hours' sleep before making it down for the minibus to the station. Again, thank goodness people helped me with the bags, which were a nightmare to fit into the cabin on the train. But we all got in safely as the train stays in Surgut for a while (which apparently is not the case in Salym-sometimes 40 seconds...but let's not think about that now) and after a little while we (Alexey, Ravil and Vitaly) all made up our beds and fell fast asleep. We were woken up later by the train attendant in preparation for arrival, but the train then had to stop for almost an hour. I was in the corridor gazing out at the snow which had just started falling, when I saw 3 men and a dog in bright jackets walking along the train tracks knocking at them with hammers and changing some pins in them (well, the dog didn't actually have a jacket, or a hammer for that matter). All very reassuring of course.
We finally arrived in Salym village, where the temperature was -8 degrees, were picked up by a minibus and headed to camp. After a long process, some garbled Russian attempt and Sasha's help I got my pass and we arrived at Base Camp. After lunch, we spent the afternoon sorting out HSE induction, medical induction etc etc . It was also handover time, and I had a quick chat with Mike (my back-to-back); also saw Misha, who sadly is leaving SPD today-I was looking forward to working with him. He wanted to change and asked for a Rijswijk posting but only got offered a local contract, so now he is joining Statoil. Don't get me started.
Had a chat and dinner with Gilles, the Team Leader, who is a pretty friendly frenchman! I have eaten pasta with a meatball twice today, but it was not too bad.
Time for bed I think...by the sound of it things will be really busy in the weeks to come, with large amounts of everything to learn, so I should try and start with a fresh brain...
Till next time then, from a very snowy (40 cm now-it has been snowing all afternoon, as a welcome present I imagine) Siberia...