Let us try again tonight...

New day, new possibilities to make it to Almaty. After a day full of drama yesterday, the conclusion is now that we lost one travel companion and we are one day delayed. The party of 4 eventually made it to Istanbul from Oslo last night (as one of the very few flights out of Gardermoen in the total airtraffic chaos, as Istanbul is one of the few airports not covered by the ash-cloud), and are flying into the glorious country of Kazakhstan tonight. Kristin is sacrificed to the big evil project monster (as her b2b did not arrive due to the ash and the closed airports), so we have to accept we will not have her great company during this trip. I will make my way to Almaty on my own tonight, meeting up with the others at the airport. I land at 01:40 and they land at 01:35. Then let us hope the BIG TRIP begins!!

Ash or no ash...

It is time to go on new adventures! The big Almaty trip is supposed to start today... but Mother Earth has not quite finished showing what she is good for. Let us hope the wind is with us, so the Icelandic volcano ashes will blow out into the Atlantic, and not in over Continental Europe. The airports here in KZ are all open, so it is looking good for Kristin and I. Let us just hope the other 4 coming in from Oslo will eventually make it! All fingers crossed!!

Ian is leaving us.. Well at least trying to leave us..

Over the weekend we had Ian's going away party. He invited for drinks at TGI Friday's after work. It was, as usual, a fun night out with the gang! Plenty of beer and vodka, and good people!
We do not want Ian to leave us, we will miss him so! The only good thing is that he will stay in Atyrau, and live in the same apartment block, but he will just be working for Shell. So we are hoping for many more fun times ahead!
So now it is just an angry volcano stopping him from leaving us, and coming back into KZ with a work visa with Shell and not Aker. We keep telling him, that he can not go, and even Mother Earth tells him he can not go... But he is not taking the hint…

Magic morning in Atyrau

This was the view out our window on the 11th floor Friday morning! The fog was so low that we were above it, we were up in the morning sunshine!

Back in town!

I made it to dry-land! Had a nice helicopter-ride with 11 very nice Italian welders! They helped me into my survival-suit, carried my bags and even gave me juice! Sweet!
Now it is time to go over to Renco and have some proper Italian pizza and great cold white wine!

An extra day on the Island!

I was supposed to fly back to dry-land today. But the Weather Gods did not want that to happen, my flight was cancelled. Yesterday two flight got cancelled (Kristin's flight got cancelled, but she managed to rebook to an earlier flight!), and today 8 flights have been cancelled so far.
So I am the lucky winner of an extra day on this "all inclusive" resort in the Caspian sea! I did bring some extra socks and underwear, so I am all set for an extra day. Let us just hope it is just one extra day, not two….
This nice little sign is posted above the sink in my bathroom. What does it really mean….

K and K on the island

It is unbelievable! It has happened! Two Ks on the island at the same time! Even in the same cabin! (well it must be said that Mr. Kristin was first put in 405 with a Per, but she quickly found out that the clothes in the cabin did not look like my clothes, so she went down to the reception, and sorted it out!)

Plenty of food and nice coworkers to take us out to dinner. We went "slumming" yesterday on the Caspian princess, and tonight we are going to high class on the Ravel, the vessel with the nicest dining room, they even have a lounge area with nice sofas for after dinner coffee and tea! Nice!

Mission Complete!

I now have fabulous earplugs, so I sleep like a baby! The little box with the white dots are my fantastic ear plugs, you just mold them, and put them in to cover your ear canal, and swoosh, you are in a silent happy place!

Well, actually I have to sleep like an unborn baby, as the bed is about 1,80m and my duvet is only 1,50m long. But not a problem, I have socks!!

And I cover the drain with a towel and a pillow, and the door with the extra duvet! Sleeping pretty well now!!

Today's Mission: ear plugs!

Today I feel a little sorry for myself. I did not sleep well at all last night! I can usually sleep anywhere anytime. But not in cabin 337 on the Ersai 400 apparently… Very noisy! 3 different "noises" kept me awake; toilet, dishwashing and door slamming! Since it is a boat, the toilets function using a vacuum. And it is usually pretty noisy, but this room is different, it seems like the whole vessels vacuum is echoed in the shower drain… very annoying…And 337 is at the end of a corridor, the floor below the canteen. And let me tell you, they clean and stack dished until 2 in the morning…And every time the people on the floor above exit and enter the vessel (every 5 min all through the night, as they work during the night, make food for the night shift as well) the door/hatch is banged shut. And that makes the whole room shake a little…So today's mission: EAR PLUGS!
I have a theory that I can make the shower drain scream less if I put some towels or pillows over it. So will try that. And I will also try to cover the 3 cm crack under the door out to the corridor with a duvet, and hope that will reduce the kitchen noises a little. Nothing to do with the door slamming, but if I can reduce 2 out of 3, that can not be bad!!
Other than that, I can report back that today it is rainy and stormy outside. Great day in general on the Island today…On my 10 min walk this morning over to the office vessel I considered walking backwards, as the strong wind was right towards me, but that is not so smart when you are walking amongst huge trucks and fork lift… pretty wet and cold, I made it to my desk only 3 min after 7, so not so bad after all!!

Time to go to the Island

It is time again to go out to the island in the sun. I will be going for a week this time, so I have my bag packed full of clothes and books! Do not want to do laundry, they apparently boil everything... And I must say, I have the best offshore bag!! Dark pink North Face bag/backpack, nice!!

Kristin will hopefully come out during my week, and if we manage that, there will be two Ks on the Island! It's a first for everything!!

This is what the island looked like in March! The vessel I will be landing on and living on is the vessel in the lower right corner of the picture! Ship o'hoy!