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.