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)

Wildlife Again .... just passing through Oman

What the F**K !! ....... It's a DUCK !!!!

Saw this duck in the water pit and I rushed to get a better picture but it took off. A lot of birds and animals head to the water pit thinking they can get a drink. But the water is these pits is very high in mineral concentration and cannot be drunk unlike the other 'mineral' water that we get in bottles.

Couple of days later the duck (still looking for water to drink) headed to the camp. There it was caught because it was too tired to fly anymore. One of the the Omani guys has taken it home to tend to it....... or so he says.!

Omani Wildlife again

Yet another fantastic insect of the Omani interior. Green this time

Saw another insect on the rig today though I am suspecting that this may not be an insect of the desert. It's green and I would imagine that it needs greenery to blend in. But it's so beautiful and because I saw it on my rig it is worthy of this blog.

Oilfield Riggers and Animals

Tools and Equipment that we Oilfield animal-loving Riggers have named after animals

Cat Head

The large cylinder on the side of the rig (usually spinning) that is used to lift items. A rope is wrapped around the cat head several times, and the friction of the rope against the rotating cylinder provides the pulling force.

Cat Line

The rope used on the cat head

Dog House

The steel-sided room adjacent to the rig floor, usually having an access door close to the driller's controls. This general-purpose shelter is a combination tool shed, office, communications center, coffee room, lunchroom and general meeting place for the driller and his crew.

Dogleg

A particularly crooked place in a wellbore, a dogleg commonly refers to a section of the hole that changes direction faster than desired

Gooseneck

An inverted "U" shaped section of rigid piping normally used as a conduit for high-pressure drilling fluid.

Mousehole

An opening in the rig floor near the rotary table, but between the rotary table and the vee-door, that enables rapid connections while drilling.

Monkey board

The small platform that the derrickman stands on when tripping pipe. Best job on the rig

Pig

A device with blades or brushes inserted in a pipeline for cleaning purposes.

Rabbit

A slang term for an internal drift diameter gauge typically used to check casing or tubing joints

Rathole
1. A storage place for the kelly.
2.Extra hole drilled at the end of the well to ensure that the zone of interest can be fully evaluated

3. Extra hole drilled at the bottom of the hole to leave expendable completion equipment.

Spider
A steel housing with a tapered bore which is located at the rig table. The spider is used to accommodate the slips to hold the drill pipe or casing

Now here are a couple of others that are more crude but certainly deserve a mention

Donkey's dick
A slim long rubber tube like bladder used on the inside of a pressure sensor
Also a long stout flexible rubber used on the end of logging tools as a guide in open hole (Ha!)

Cow's C*nt
The curved open area behind the hook on the travelling block. When I was a derrick man I remember being told to put my head in the cow's c*nt and pull on the horns (of the elevators).

I'm that there are more but these are a few of my favourite ones. (sung to the tune of, 'A few of my favourite ones' from the 'Sound of Music').

3° Celcius

Last night it was down to 3° Celcius and there was a stiff wind blowing too. Must have been one of the coldest nights I have ever experienced (other than one New Year eve spent with friends in Pune - but I was full of rum then) Boy was it cold! Now I know all you Canadians and Kiwis will say 3° C. is nothing. Remember, that you are geared up for this sort of weather, but we in the warm winters of the Sultanate of Oman are not. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not complaining. I love it when it's cold because one can deal with it by throwing on some more clothes but when it's hot, there's only that many clothes one can shed.

Greetings

Happy New Year Y'all!

A bit late-ish I know but in the words of the original Athanasius - "Better Late Than Never".

It was a fantastic 2007 Christmas for me because I was with the family this year. I got to Mumbai at 5 a.m. on Christmas day. Went home and got into the large giftwrapped box that was prepared earlier by Jacqui. Then Rithika was woken up and told that her X-mas gift had arrived and that she had to come out and open it. And as she opened the box I chose to pop out.

The look on her face was priceless. There was a mixture of fear, amazement and awe. Fear because the gift was alive and had moved...., Amazement because she saw that it was me......, and Awe ........ well.... I look at myself in the mirror and stare in awe. No shortage of vanity here (you might be thinking).

The New Year's party was a good thing till ofcourse the cops arrived and shut us down. But what was had was pretty good and was just getting better at the time of the intervention. Must find a way to prevent this from happenning again. Alas! if there only was a basement available I would probably have to be installing a laminate flooring every six months because it'd get danced out in that amount of time. And so for 2008, gays and gals here's wishing you ................... have a ball !!.....or two !!.... three if you must.

Even more Local wildlife

A goat in hand is worth two (or three) on the ground

And so the Gate Guard comes to work this time with 11 kids. Why!? you might be wondering .... and you'll just have to keep on wondering because I haven't yet figured it out myself. So far I get the feeling that he's hoping the other rig hands might want to buy them .... to eat maybe? But they are so tiny.. and so cute ... and all this on a drilling rig - My drilling rig.

I just love animals - especially when they're babies. I love (human) babies too, but they grow up to become animals.

Some more local wildlife (of Oman)

Up until now, I always thought Praying Mantis'....er... Mantisses .... whatever, were green till I came upon this little fellow - as brown as an Indian. This I suppose so that he (she?) can blend right into the predominant colour of the Oman Interior.

A Birthday In The Fields

"Ah!", you must be thinking, "Dinesh is celebrating his birthday in a field" and you are probably conjuring up images of a green grassy field with flowers and the like. One might even picture a fenced enclosure and cows grazing without a care in the world, or even an image of a bull in one corner of the 'field' eying the cows with a wicked eye.

But sadly, this is not true as the fields in question are the OIL fields of Oman. Yes this is the third birthday (that I can remember) spent in the oilfield. And here are pictures of the cake and the guys who stood around me and attempted to sing 'Happy Birthday' with total abandon and absolutely devoid of any recognizable tune whatsoever.

The BBQ in the sand and viceversa

And here's a picture taken at the BBQ. This was taken in the period of the calm before the storm. The first round of lamb was tasty. And the second round developed a lovely crunchiness to it (after the wind began to blow the sand all over) which helped to grind down the teeth a wee bit.



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Local Wildlife

Was out at a BBQ on the sand dunes of Lekhwair last night and This is what we spotted in the dune running around catching insects (that we didn't know were there). Had to get pretty close up to get this picture.

Now,is there anone who still thinks that I am afraid of lizards?

The Mad Hatter Rain-Dance

We had our second rain dance while I was home last time and talk about wrong timing because we had no rain during the entire party..........And now it's coming down with a vengeance.

The Hard Hat

We had a good time though, especially Jacqui who'd had one too many. The theme was "Mad hatter" and here are pics of some of the hats. You will notice that I have on a hard hat. And if you're not too shy, you may openly gaze at the hard body under the hard hat.

The others all had hats but have long since taken them off.

The Bridegroom Hat

The shisha smoking cowboy

The nesting Hat

The Aeroplane Hat - Dennison's invention

The Aussie Outback Fly scarer-off hat

The Shisha smoking Ghati

A little secret - I'm drunk after a very sandy BBQ out in the desert and I have to sleep now. So bye folks and good night.

Bahrain

Visited Dhiraj & Lynda in Bahrain last hitch and loved the place. What was interesting about Bahrain is that you turn off from one of the very mordern looking highways and all of a sudden you are transported into what looks like an old fishing village in Daman. All very quaint.

Also right next door to the villa was the swimming pool. Behind the pool was a large green field - it was all very beautiful. I was in the pool mornings and evenings for the duration of my stay there. The girls swim wonderfully and I had a great time with them. And on the last day I insisted on a swim in the evening and ended up reaching the airport for the 1930 flight at 1930 hrs.

Oh yes I did manage to get on the next flight which was half an hour later.

I'll post pictures later as they are not with me at the moment