A little bit about me......

G'day.
I'm having another quiet day at work so I can tell you a little about myself.
I work on an oil rig in the Ozzy desert.
Here are a few pretty pictures.....

We always seem to have magnificent sunsets out in the bush.

My rig from the only hill nearby.

My rig again from even further away.

Notice the isolation.....

So, what do I do.... Well, I'm a Senior Mudlogging Engineer. Huh?

We are out drilling exploration oil and gas wells, and it is my job to grab the cuttings that come to the surface, wash the mud off them and bring them into my lab and look at them under the microscope, to see if there are any oil or gas bearing sands.

I produce what is called a "mudlog", which is a running visual chart of the well, including the lithologies that we drill thru, the r.o.p. (rate of penetration-how fast we drill down) other drilling perameters and most importantly any gasses that we get to the surface.

It is also my job to monitor for safety, let the drill floor know if we get any signs of a kick (you know the olden day movies that have an oil well that suddenly spouts oil out of the top of it, well that is called a "kick", and it usually comes along with a massive fireball, death, destruction, pain etc etc....)

I do a few other bits and pieces as well, but I think you get the general gist of it.

We are on a fly in fly out rotation. It is supposed to be 2 weeks on and two weeks off. Right now we are so flooded with work and lack of people that we have been on 2 weeks on and 1 week off for a few hitches now. (Hitch=your two weeks on. Eg, last hitch I did almost no work!)

All I can say is that it really really sucks. You're out here doing 12 hour days for 14 days straight. Then you practically have a day travelling home. You end up only having about 6 days at home. The first day you usually spend sleeping cos you're so stuffed. Sigh.

Oh well, that's enough of me complaining. There is alot of good stuff from this lifestyle. If I do get on the rotation of 2 and 2 again, it means I have 2 weeks at home every month, to do with what I want. No need to go into the office everyday, driving thru peak hour traffic etc.. The pays ok too. Not massive like most people think. (We are officially the lowest paid out here - our union is trying to change that!) But what you have to remember is that while we are up here, we don't have to put fuel in the car, buy groceries, pay for water or electricity etc... All those little incidental things that add up at the end of every week. Well, the simple fact is that there is nothing up here to spend your hard earned cash on. No shops, no pubs. No Pubs! Yes, this is a dry rig, that means no alcohol. At all!

So, that's work. The guys are all really good, and there are some benefits of being the only girl on an oil rig. Not what you think! You Sicko!

No, I meant that I get my own toilet and shower block!

I've only got 4 days left out here. Then I'm having some annual leave. I get a whole two weeks off this time. Yay! I can't wait. I'm in a local theatre group, and our show is on in the theatre starting mid august.

I love theatre, movies, singing and dancing. I miss all that being out here. I miss my friends and most of all I miss my little puppy "Trippitaka". Trippi for short. One of my girlfriends is looking after him this hitch. He usually goes into a kennel. I know I know, it was never supposed to be this way, but life happens. But I was lucky because I found this really old couple who used to run a massive kennel full time, but now in their retirement, they have an excellent setup where they only take the odd little dog. And they take such excellent care of him that I would pay twice as much as I do already, just to see my baby looked after so well. He gets a little bit of extra loving.

Unfortunately, last hitch, Brian had a heart attack. I think he's going to be ok. But I thought that his wife probably wouldn't want the hassle of looking after Trippi for a little while. Hmmnn.... I always new it would happen one day, the thing is, is that they're sooooooo old! Oh well.

Ok, so that's a little bit about me. I have to go and pretend to do some work now. Talk to you later.

Cat.