Breathing Life...

The breath of life fills the lungs of this blog once more...
how long this breath will last, no one knows for sure...

so here are updates since july 4 2007.
boy, it's been DAT long...

went to bali mid july. dived for 3 days...
3 great days of diving i must say...
lots of fantastic, beautiful sea life.

saw a white-tip reef shark, a couple of sting rays, a couple of lionfish
(the fish dat the ndp character is based on)
a sea snake chilling on the seabed, a v small, almost transparent seahorse.

bali pics can b found here.
includes yummy eating at a few places mentioned on chubbyhubby.

after bali, it was back to sg and doing my part to contribute to 40 years of NS - reservist.
3 weeks of meeting up w ex-colleagues, ex-officers and catching up on gossip ard the squadron.

national day also marked the end of my rt, which i have been going since mid june.
which unfortunately, means dat i cannot go offshore for any jobs.
which, in turn, means i was drawing only basic salary for the last 2 months,
my last job ending on 31 may.

but luckily for me, the next day after reservist ended on 10 aug (fri), i was asked to fly to kuantan on sat to help an engineer out there who was having some problems w the equipment.
but due to some problems w the transport getting me from the jetty to the vessel out at sea,
i din need to sail out. so it was a 4 day holiday in kuantan. juz getting paid to relax and chill.

was in and out of the office and shipyard, doing small one-day long jobs until monday, 20 aug.
it was one of the most "exciting" day since i joined fugro.
was in the office on monday, knowing i'll b leaving for a job somewhere in the timor sea either tue or wed.

but lo and behold, the first news i got when i entered the office was "u're flying tonite."
and the next thing i know, the ops secretary was busy calling the agent, trying to get me on a flight to darwin. and would u believe it, flying to darwin direct from sg on jetstar is more expensive than flying to darwin via brisbane on qantas.

so i was confirmed for 9.20pm qantas (thank god), flying to darwin w a 3 hour stopover in brisbane.

this is the first time i'm flying qantas, and flying from night till dawn coz i arrive in brisbane at 6.30am. so i was quite intrigued by the little comfort packs the stewards/stewardesses were giving out.
included in the pack were 1) one pair of socks, 2) toothbrush & toothpaste, 3) blinds or eye covers or watever u call it (stuff u put over ur eyes to help u sleep), and a lanyard which i guess is to hang the pack with.

and finally arriving in darwin and getting my room at 3pm, it's time to plan for the day b4 i have to fly off to the barge which i'm on right now the next day. so plan includes walkabout the town area of darwin to get some toiletries and time in the casino which came attached to hotel.

casino time was fruitful, at least din lose money. and soon it was time to leave.
was picked up at 3.45am so dat i can make it in time for a 5am flight to dili, east timor.
it was a small plane w only one stewardess doing everything, from serving drinks, safety demostration, opening door, etc. but it was a short 90min flight. sadly, the sunrise was on the other side of the plane. so couldn't take fotos of the sunrise.

first thing i saw when touching down in dili were the white-coloured planes and helicopters on which were painted in large font 'UN'.
the next thing i noticed when the plane was turning ard at the end of the runway to taxy to the airport was dat the runway is right at the edge of the island. u can run off the runway and jump into the sea...

off the plane at the airport and had to check-in for my helicopter flight to the barge.
unfortunately, my hp and camera have been withheld by the company providing the helicopter service to the barge, so cannot take pictures of e beautiful sunrise i've seen today and the upcoming lunar eclipse.

the busy period of the job for me is over... been checking and starting up the equipment that had been set up onboard the barge and finally today is the day, everything is started, checked and running smoothly.

so i'll be rotting the next 40-odd, 50 days, trying to make 12 hrs pass quickly.

here we go... a fairly concise and rapid update from the last entry to today.
there're a few exciting things going on but i will not say until it's actually confirmed and all... :)

dat's all from me, folks...

enjoy urselves and take care !