Crude issue - the next day

......And so through the night a couple of guys kept cleaning up the bird and below are pictures of a healthier looking animal. Also, the colours have come through so much better which has made it possible to identify this bird as a 'European Roller'. An earlier post also shows some of these birds which, apparently fly over Oman in spring time.

There were two of these European Rollers yesterday but today there is only one. The other one dissappeared during the night. May God have mercy on it's soul.

A Crude Issue

Back again but this time with a sad story to tell.

.... A sad sory in pictures: two birds saturated in Crude oil

Attempting a cleanup. Note the wonderful colours.

Seventy going on fifty

Hmmm! ... it has been a while - a long while since I last blogged. No! that's not true! To be fair to myself, I have actually read everyone's blogs during this time and so that should actually count for 50% (or more) of blogging. See, there's reading of blogs and then there's writing.

So much has happened since 26 Feb 2009 (date 0f my last post), but I just haven't been inspired enough to say much about it.

There is one event that deserves a mention - Mom's 70th birthday.

Mom's 70th birthday was celebrated at the banquet hall of "Shubangan" - a vegetarian hotel just off Carter road in Khar. The food was excellent and the a good time was had by all. Takeaways were potted plants over which the ladies went wild - literally! Mom was in her element and as usual was the life at the party looking and acting more like 50 than 70. Here are a few pictures.

15 Years

Got up at 0440 hrs this morning and when I put on the radio (internet radio - smooth jazz) the song that was playing - by Jeff Golub - 'Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got'. It's true! There is no woman like the one I got.

Happy Anniversary Jacqui!

Christmas is coming.......

And so here I am (still) in the Sultanate of Oman surrounded by vast expanses of nothingness..... loads of sand and two trees in the distance. In the wilderness of Oman there are no lights and decorations to remind us that Xmas is just around the corner till I saw one legendary figure that always makes an appearance around Christmas - Santa Claus - helping to rig up lines for the cement job....

Dream Run

Jogged non-stop all the way from Rig to Camp last night - ALL OFF 9 KILOMETRES.

Dream Run (7kms) here I come! .............

Half Marathon (21kms) the year after that .......

Someday I'll probably do the entire Marathon - 42 kms.
WOW! that'll be like going from Malad to Churchgate. Why not just take the train...one wonders!

STOP PRESS!

I can clearly remember at least three occasions that dad took me to his workplace to spend the day with him. Secretly, I'm quite positive, he hoped that I would want to take up after him if exposed to the trade. But the simple reason was that I was at home alone and could do more damage if left alone at home.

But there was one time when I almost caused a serious accident while at the press (Dad's a printer and so he works at a printing press). I was at the press with dad and he was trimming some books that had just been bound. He had his hands under the blade lining up the books and I - inquisitive man that I am - pulled a lever and the blade dropped. Dad realized what I had done and pulled his hands away in time. He was considerably shaken up at the time and scolded me severely. I'll never forget that incident and I wonder if he remembers.


Here's a picture of another son in his father's workplace. This driver brought his son in his trailer to the rig. Brought back memories!!

Thailand - more pictures

This is the Yamaha we hired for the day. Rithika and myself roamed all around Pattaya

Here's Rithika quite fedup with all the picture taking. All she wanted to do was get back into the pool



Outside on the Hotel Balcony - The view was fantastic



The View from the hotel balcony - 8th floor

Thailand

Diwali holidays have come and are almost gone and this time I have been home for the entire duration. So we decided on a trip to Thailand. Here are a few pics mostly of Rithika as Jacqui was off shopping and I was the baby sitter. And all baby wanted to do was swim. Here are the pics. Slow connection at home and so I'll upload some more later.

Trying out the new swim suit

Having a whale of a time. More like a dolphin actually with all the jumping et all.

Behold! .... The Father

SMOKIN'....!!

Me and some of the men smoking shisha - hookah - hubbly bubbly. Click on the picture to enlarge and get a bit more information.

Ring around the Crown

A week ago one of the men called me out quickly with the camera to take a pic of this 'ring' around the crown (top section of the derrick) in the mast .


At first I thought it had something to do with the sun being hidden behind the crown, sort of like the annular ring around a total eclipse, but the picture below shows differently. This 'ring' remained in the sky for about 20 minutes and then dissappeared. Mysterious!!


Now I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation to this phenomenon, but I haven't the faintest clue as to what it might be.

More .... much more rain.

And so I hear that it's been coming down somewhat fiercely in Mumbai. Sadly I am not a part of it as I am presently in the Sultanate of Oman where it is sunny.. and not in the context of it 'being a beautiful sunny day'. It is waaaay sunny, and prolonged exposure leads to all sorts of unhealthy problems. But enough about the sun, I am discussing the rain, the lack of it in Oman and the abundance of it in India. Just heard from one of the guys who got off the phone with his wife that it is also raining hard in Kerala.

What is funny is that there are people I'm sure, who complain when it doesn't rain and I know that those very people also complain when it rains a lot. In their defence I fully understand that they have to go to work whether it rains or not meaning that it's wet and clammy when it rains or it's hot and clammy when it's not.

Me.. I don't particularly complain when it doesn't rain because I get to do the regular chores and outdoor excercise like running and walking and generally stuff that cannot be done (sucessfully) while it's raining. Ahh! ... but when it rains .... I just love it! .......... granted ofcourse that running, walking and other forms of outdoor excercises and events are out.

What I do then is swim.

Rain Man

Very soon it will rain. Very soon I will be home. 7th June is the day that it is supposed to rain in Mumbai for the first time. I will give it four days more till the 11th because that's when I will be in Mumbai.

I love the rain and the fact that I was born in the rainy season probably has nothing to do with it. The smell of fresh earth, the change of colour of the leaves from brownish green to bright green, the taste of wet whitewash type paint -Yes! don't know why but I loved it - wonder if it had anything to do with the lead in the paint? I remember clearly standing at the foot of the steps, just off to the side so that no one would hit me as they came running down the stairs, and licking the wall and loving the taste of the wet paint - "What a nut!" you might be thinking.I love looking at the rivulets of rain finding their way to join each other and form a larger 'river' in which I'd float paper boats if allowed to go out and if not then I'd have to be content with the imagination that one of the many twigs floating down the 'river' was a boat.I love the sound of the rain and especially how cool the place gets. I love sitting at the window and looking at the rain coming down at an angle (because of the wind). The swaying of the branches, the cloudy skies (make great photographs), the way the water runs off the leaves and I could go on and on. And this is only about the Rain in Mumbai. The rains in Goa, Lonavala, Kerala - one could write separate books about.I must add here that my job in the oilfield allows me to totally enjoy the rain without any of the worries associated with getting to work in the rain, or getting to work on time, or getting to work with clothes in a shabby condition. But I'm sure that if I ever have to work in the rain, I'll rise to the challenge and enjoy it.

The European Roller - in Oman

Coracias garrulus - a buch of them visited Rig 33 today. At first when I saw one flying past with it's flashy blue and brown I thought it was a kingfisher and I was thinking, man! this bird is right out of it's element. Later I saw the bunch of birds sitting near the water pit and had a closer look at them and realized that it didn't look like the kingfisher on a bottle of 'Kingfisher Beer' and so it couldn't be a kingfisher. Just goes to show that drinking beer can be such a good source of information.

So anyhow, I looked it up and found out that this is the European Roller (scientific name: Coracias garrulus) which is native to Oman but sadly - let me quote from Wikipedia - "hundreds, perhaps thousands, are shot for food in Oman every spring".

Kerala Wildlife - Grey Headed Fish Eagle

This majestic bird (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) was hanging around the resort we stayed at in Alleppy. Saw it on two occasions. As the name suggests this bird lives on fish and the back waters surrounding Alleppy provide all its food requirements.

Also available in the back waters of Kerala is the currymeen fish that we ate on three occasions - very, very tasty and apparently not readily available in other parts of the world except in Lulu Supermarkets where it is available frozen to serve the Malayali populace of the gulf.

It's a bird...., it's a plane....No! it's MUNDU-MAN

Max and I in traditional wear - The Mundu (lungi). The warmer the climate, the higher it gets

God's Own Country...

....Is what the Keralites like to refer to Kerala as and it truly is a beautiful country. And so as promised here are a few pictures of our trip to God's own country.

Munnar. Behind us - tea gardens

Mattupetty Lake and Dam, pronounced Maa-too-pett-ty with all the Malayali accent you can muster.

Father and Daughter fishing while parked for the night on the backwaters

Rithika and Asha with the hills of Munnar as the backdrop

Holiday Plans

Have to do an extra week at work this time but it will be worth it because when I get home the exams will be over and it will be holiday time for Rithika. And so, we're off to Kerala for 5 days. One of those days will be spent on a Kettuvallom (House Boat) on the fascinating backwaters. The rest of the days will be spent in Munnar and Thekkady. Pictures will be posted.

Vulpes Ruepelli

'Ruppell's sand fox' or the 'Desert fox' as it is better known here, is another animal that frequents the Rig 33 camp regularly in search of scraps of food. There are other similar Omani animals that also frequent the Rig 33 camp - the men who work here, but the desert fox is the lesser of the two evils and a much more interesting subject.

This animal is supposed to be independant of water and generally lives on berries, fruits, lizards, small rodents and carrion, but here at Rig 33 this lucky bugger gets chicken, lamb and even beef sometimes. Pictured here he (she? I don't know as I didn't look) is about to carry off a bag of chicken.

Another Fine Specimen

Notice the form and line of the jaw, the grace and the poise...... Great isn't it? ..... A fine specimen

Now let's talk about the bird - This bird is known locally as the 'Hud Hud'. In English it is called the Hoopoe. This beautiful bird, I'm told, is native to Oman and this bird was passing over the Rig 33 when it looked down and thought to itself, "Ah civilization!" and decided to visit.

This bird has a crest that it raises whenever it gets alarmed. In this picture I am quite sure that it had just got a good look at me. Yes! Yes! I know that I am an alarming sight sometimes.

Some trivia about the Hoopoe:

The Hoopoe is on the Old Testament's list of Unclean Birds and it's diet of insects and worms may have been among the reasons why this is so. (see Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18)