Tired but happy

I've had a good few days. It is now the end of the weekend...and I am knackered!

Somehow getting back into the office and being drowned in emails that needed addressing really drained me, whilst meanwhile having to look after the Operations as Yvan was at the rig and is now at home for a week. All that, and Choochoo asked me to help him with some seismic interpretation...aaaah.

On top of that there were some meetings at work reviewing the results of an employee survey etc etc so basically I am being kept rather busy and if I didn't know any better I would be in the office from 8 till 8. But I am not on rotation and I know I would just blow a fuse somewhere on Day 4 of the week so it's not worth it.

Thursday, therefore, was hectic, especially as the rig had finally started drilling again! They even managed to finally finish this section and are now pulling out of hole before going back in to ream it: ie to scrub the inside in order to make sure it is clean and fairly smooth. After that the plan is to run a casing liner and cement that in place. Considering the rate things go here, that will probably take another 2-3 days, so nothing too exciting for the geologist, nothing like the last few days when we were looking out for indications of high pressure in the shale we were drilling. Basically we are approaching a high pressured section which needs to be drilled and looked after differently and we are not sure where it starts, as this is an exploration well. So eyes peeled! (but nothing showed up...)

Yesterday I could finally have a lie-in after coming in early for the morning meeting (rig call) the previous day and I slept till midday, after which I luxuriated in my book, which I finished. I was reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy) which ended up being pretty gripping.

At 3pm I went to see a French family who would like me to give their 8-year-old daughter some violin lessons. They live at the Regatta camp, which is a big expat camp not far from the office, where people from 10 oil companies (not us though!) can live. Apparently two of the Colonel's children also have houses there so the security can be unduly strict: they wouldn't let my driver anywhere near the place and I had to wait for the family to pick me up at the gates.

We got on quite well, the father works for Total, not sure yet what his wife does. The little girl, Celine, seems pretty enthusiastic and played quite well for one year of learning so I am quite pleased about that. I will be giving her lessons every Wednesday after work, and they have kindly invited me for dinner next time I go. They also arrived at the beginning of September so are finding their feet here too.

Having seen the Regatta I am actually quite glad we don't have access to it. The houses are not detached and don't have much of a garden. The place has a lot of shared facilities (pool, tennis courts etc) but you don't get much real privacy outdoors, and as a number of local people live their too you still need to be rather careful about what you wear (or don't wear in this case).

In the evening I went to Jimmy's 30th birthday party, which was well-attended and catered for by my maid-to-be, Annalin. She will definitely have to cook for me sometimes!

Today I got up at the ungodly hour of 5.45 in order to get into the office in time to do all the necessary reporting before the morning call. At 8.30 a bus was leaving the office to take us all to an family away day...I must admit I almost didn't go, not being too excited about hanging out with spoilt expat kids all day, but in the end I am glad I went.
It was lovely weather and the day was set in some public gardens with all sorts of play areas for children, and cafes and restaurants for adults (though these were closed but we got an alfresco breakfast and lunch :-) We had to do all sorts of team activities and the two general managers were set a few tasks of their own. It was a very nice way of getting local staff involved too and helped a lot as mixing felt much easier than, say, at the Company Iftar.

Straight after that, I went along to an ArcSoc (archeological society) meeting, to sign up and get put on the list. There I met several people from the panto as well as Glen from the LCM. It's nice to be starting to know a few people, and Dominic from panto invited me for a dinner party in the near future.

I am now pretty tired and need to get up early in the morning so am going to bed very soon. Theoretically I have the day off tomorrow as does everyone who attended the Away Day but I a) have to look after ops and b) am feeling a bit stressed after last week's deluge of scattered work, so I want to put some of that in order to start the week a bit more peacefully. I think I'll treat myself to a half-day though.

Oh, one final funny note from this weekend: the French family I just met are actually direct cousins of someone who used to play the bassoon in my orchestra in Mulhouse!! How crazy is that?!?!