"Allatsea", on the road with Britain's most popular marine warranty surveyor.

On the run

Apologies, no posts for the last few days. It's gone a bit manic and I really don't do 'time management' very well at all.

The trip to Hull was fine, stayed in an Ibis, £39 a night and far nicer than the heap of pooh I stayed in (a Thistle hotel) near Aberdeen airport not so long ago and got charged £330 a night for. The tug was fine, the operators were lovely, hotel smashing and the trip there and back, hitch free. Thank you National Rail...for once. The only odd thing was that I was advised by numerous folk, upon my arrival in the city, not to go in the town centre pubs. They're pretty violent and horrid by all acounts. Hmm, makes you proud to be a part of this nation...not.

Back down sarf on thursday afternoon. Friday consisted of an eight hour risk assessment meeting at the London offices, dealing with the first 20 mono-piles installation. Blimey, 24 peeps around a table...at over a thousand pounds each per day (chargeable) that's one hell of a meeting. I have to say though, that it was interesting and threw up some very pertinent issues that had been over-looked until then. Seems they are worthwhile after all.

Sunday afternoon and am off to Esbjerg in a couple of hours, will be there until wednesday. Then it's down to Antwerp to have a look see at the Transition Piece fabrication yard and shuffle into a couple of meetings wrt to the loadouts and shipments to Flushing (Vlissingen). With luck I'll get away on Friday and back to the Planet Thanet.

We're short of people for the Fannit farm, could do with three mariners as of next week. It's up to our ever growing and sadly, pompous, HR department to deliver these human resources to the projects but they don't, they just don't deliver, at all, on this particular front. It's very frustrating and even more so when they send us emails, grandly announcing the arrival of yet more HR peeps or grander titles for the existing HR bods.

I'm told by those wot know about these things that exponential growth in the size and remit of a HR department is normally followed by the firm's inexorable route to 'belly upness'. I really do wish that the term 'Overhead' would be thought of a bit more by those that should.

Until then of course, let the gravy flow, overhead.

Thick and fast

A day at home and a report written (crikey, that's a result), dozens of calls fielded and arrangements made. The wind farm is really kicking in now and the work is coming in thick and fast.

Tomorrow it's Hull. Probably. I'll catch the train Norff and call the owners enroute. It may be Hull, or, it may be Grimsby if they can get a slipway booking. Exciting isn't it. I do live life to the full. Orders for two 'service vessel' audits have arrived this afternoon too, they'll get done next week, either by me when I get back from Esbjerg or by one of the other mariner types out of London.

Friday is still looking like a meeting day for the Risk Assessment bit and Graham says he'll cover the Monday operations thrashout with the contractors. They may well need a bit of thrashing but then again, that's the pessimist in me coming out. Or is it just plain old bad tempered grumpiness? Whatever.

Train tomorrow, cars are keeping on the driveway and washing on a Sunday.

Monday summary....

Hotel brekky...excellent, thankyou Golden Tulip.

Weather damp, very cold, grey..generally missers.

Taxi to yard, eyewateringly expensive but, on time and safely done. Thankyou driver. Went to the wrong Stemat office at first (why didn't they say they had loads) but a quick mobile call and all sorted pdq.

The barge was fine though acces was awkward and required undignified leaps and clambers to reach. Naughty really, it's illegal to NOT have a proper gangway rigged. On the plus side the tanks had actually been certified as gas free (blimey, that's an improvement) so I squeezed into 8 of ther blighters for a look see. All OK, rusty as hell, scale everywhere but no damage and no corrosion to speak off, not worryingly so anyway. Managed to take my eye off the long ball enough to fall through an open tank lid (I'd opened it!!!!) and banged my right knee which has been a problem for years so that won't have helped matters. Stupid eeejut that I am!!

Certification just about all there, will only have a few queries to raise, all very friendly folk at the yard so that made the whole thing straight-forward. Thanks chaps.

Taxi ride back to Rotters airport was unusally swift (but again EXPENSIVE, €50.00 for a 20 minute ride) and straight to the Panorama bar for tea and lunch. London called and gave me the meeting schedule for the week, groan oh groan, but at least I know where I'm expected to be this week, so far anyway.

Rotterdam airport is mainly used for charter flights to sunny climes. It's busy today but being that all the 'here we go here we go' brigade are Dutch there's no atmosphere of malevolence that I always feel at Gatwick and Stansted where the hordes of semi drunk, oafish and charmless Brits gather in their masses prior to proceeding abroad to terrorise the locals and other holiday makers. And of course, being Dutch, they're all much better dressed and affluent looking. Perhaps they're all taxi drivers?

Wotterdam

If only all journeys could be as pleasant as today's has been. I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. The plane, a modestly proportioned Fokker 50 was jam packed. I was sat next to a lad of similar (large) build and it was all feeling a bit crammed and naff and then we started chatting. Interesting chap indeed, the young girl  across the aisle, joined in, equally interesting, the stewardess overheard us mention the Cape Verde Islands (how we got to that subject I don't recall..) and joined in too, explaining that that was where she was from. It's only a 45 minute flight anyway but with all the chatting and stuff it seemed like about 10. Lovely.

No waits at all for  a taxi at Rotterdam and no shock (i'm used to the prices here, ouch) when the charming and friendly driver charged €30 for a 10 minute drive into town. Why are taxis in Holland so expensive? Eye watering!! Oh well, I should have caught the bus.

I'm in the Golden Tulip hotel. It's right next to the Maritime museum which is housed amongst the dock havens. The floating exhibits are impressive and visible from my window. Wonderful.

Tomorrow I'm inspecting a barge. I know the address of the yard, Quarataineweg 10, Haven 2642, I know the contact man's phone number. I can't for the life of remember which barge I'm meant to be looking at. Goodness me, memory.... what memory?

Lundunn Sittee

Sunday afternoon, London City airport.

Virtually deserted (passengers I mean), wonderful, no qeues, no noise, no hassle. It could almost, in a perverse way, be considered as joyful.

Maybe not but it's the best airport experience I've had in blighty.

The forecast for Rotterdam tomorrow say 'Rain'. Guess who hasn't brought a mac.

As I was saying

It's been a funny old week what with one thing and another. The root of my …....... mild yet tangible......chagrin. Well, being honest about it, it's probably my realization that I am essentially, on the work front, a bit on the lazy side. This year is going to be a busy one on the work front and the thought of it doesn't lay easily on my chest. What's a chap to do when all he wants to do is watch the cricket and sip chilled white wine... and some dastardly foreign owned building project wants hoops to be jumped through.

What do I say when they say 'Jump?'

'How high?'

All mopeyness caused by the above was however dispelled when the BBC repeated an episode of Rab C Nesbitt this evening. Wonderful heart warming observational comedy. A national treasure is wot it is....your honour.

Rotterdam on Sunday, back Monday night. Big risk assessment meeting in London sometime during the week, also a visit to look at the splendidly new tug 'Englishman' in the Northeast or thereabouts and a trip to Mistley Quay in Essex to see some pontoons that will be utilised for the Ramsgate loadouts and Sea Jack berth. The week after in Esbjerg, crane test witnessing and vessel inspections. The following week, it all kicks off, construction starts offshore. That'll be it then, until the end of 2009.

Five thousand tonnes of power cable to hook it all up is being built in Italy. It's got to be spooled onto a carousel (barge mounted) and then transported up to Blighty. Limitations on the allowable dynamic loadings on the carousel may (the naval architects are still working on this ) mean it can't ride sea conditions greater than Beaufort force 6. I can hear all you sailors out there laughing already. It's a bit naff for sure!!! It'll have to hop from safe haven to safe haven all the way and it'll take months if we're unlucky with the weather. Groan. There'll be arguments, there's no doubt about that.

Shouting match anyone??

Soggy

Well above freezing this morning, rain in the air, scudding clouds, nagging wind. It's wonderful to be back to normal on the weather front. Oddly it seems to have taken a lot of folk by surprise and they're dressed for dry cold conditions in very water absorbent kit. I'm one of them.

A large four legged jacket was being installed offshore India on Tuesday. On Wednesday it fell over a bit. Whoops. Who was MWS, well I'd rather not say. Who was the owner? It may well have been British Gas. Eeek.

City Best Kebab, just 400 metres or so from the office, aah, wonderful grub there. I visited it today, not disappointed either. £4 can take you to heaven and back. It's getting busier and busier too, as the months roll by. People are getting to discover the wonders that lay behind the plain facade.

Barge gandering in Rotterdam on monday. Will fly out on sunday afternoon and come back to Blighty on monday night, all being well. The forecast is for snow showers. Tank diving in miserable weather is, well, miserable. Can't say I'm looking forward to it but if you can't take a joke don't play the game.

Who'd a thought it

I'm writing this on a Samsung netbook, which is plugged into a 3 broadband dongle whilst sitting on the 1708 Cannon Street to Margit. Coo, who'd a thought it? Well not me, obviously judging by my childlike gushing wonder!! I may well be easily pleased but this takes the biscuit mainly because the netbook is so wonderfully little and yet the keyboard is virtually full sized. Cooo, again.

The office was verging on manic today. Didn't seem to stop for a second and yet got not a jot done, charge ably so anyway. GROUP were in town, that's the managers from around the world. They were all very earnest and there were meetings being held in every available spare bit of space. Hmm, hope they're getting it right. I'm a share holder and their decisions will decide if I'm to retire at 55 with a carefree financial future ahead of me or if I'll have to stay here until I'm 82 and still be penniless. I've a nagging worry which one it'll be :o)

On the warranty front it's gone daft again too. Short of mariner peeps. We're interviewing two next week. A proper one and one with a master's NVQ? Not Very Qualified. I may well be being a bit harsh but the interview next week should sort things out. That said, I'm not holding my breath. For years the various Mariner societies and organisations have demanded that our quals be more readily recognised by the other professional bodies. So to do that they allow the training and qualification route to be simplified and dumbed down (big time) to be more in line with that followed by a shop assistant or hair-dresser. It's bizarre and it's daft!!

London?

With a bit of luck and some get up and go from Southeastern trains, I'll get to go to Lundunn Tarn tomorrow and see the office chaps. Why I'm quite so keen isn't some reinvention of plodding allatsea (a 2009 Newyear resolution for instance) but more to do with the fact that I need some assistance with the TOW project and no matter how fancy a mobile phone or how fast (or slow in my case) your broadband, a good old face to face achieves a lot more when you have to read between the words....so to speak.

I actually got quite a bit done today, at home and work related. Good. I've only just stopped (it's 8 pm), and decided to reward my efforts with a large drop of mother's ruin. But....eeeek.......imagine my disappointment when I opened the trusty liquor locker to find that my trusted friend, Gordans, was very very absent!!! I'll have to ask Caz if there's any rubbing alcohol left in the medical cabinet. If that fails, I'll break the habit of a lifetime, (who am I kidding, the habit since the cold spell started) and wander round to the Westbrook Club for a swift half or nine.

Oh 0629 Margate to Cannon Street, how I've missed you these past days.

Quelle Surprise

Was it premonition or inevitability?

Trains from Fannit to Lundunn town are all cocked up this morning so I'm working from home. The telly's showings pics of near biblical catastrophe on the snow front from the very county wot I live in. Yet here in the arsonist's playground, there's not a jot of it to be seen.

Thank goodness for broadband and VPNs