Tachi Diary

Forrest

2010-05-30T01:55:00.003+03:00

I used to run. I used to run ALOT. At its peak I would cover over 100KM a week. And it was only that far because to run more it meant using time up I simply didn't have. So to make it more challenging some times I would make life harder as I ran. Like carry a backpack with bottles of water in em, or hold stuff in my hands, even sing songs that were in the charts out loud for the whole distance. Also made a point to run in the afternoons and never to drink anything during the run.

Reason I got into running ironically was because to get out of doing work. I loved life in the army. The whole covered in crap, running, jumping, climbing trees, shooting n blowing shit up part. But the attending meetings, planing unit family events, pushing papers bit, not so much. Sadly the latter is very much the mainstay for an officer in a modern army. Then one day I realised that if I went out for a run, a really insane run, like 20KM or more people would just let me go. And I could avoid all the shitty boring stuff I hated for half the day. Lunch hits at 12, chill out n digest till 2, hit the gym till 3 then zip out for a run n be back in time for the end of the day at 5.

It was great. It was like, "you going for the CO's weekly meeting this afternoon?"
"Nah, I'm doing a 25km run, you wanna come?"
"Umm ahh, nah, its fine you go ahead"

Plus to run that distance it meant I could get out of camp and the route I ran took me past 3 junior colleges and a very trendy part of town. Somewhere along the lines I got hooked. Even after I left the army I kept it up. Though the distance was never anywhere near as much due to time constraints I made up for it by carrying up to 10KG of weight as I ran. Also at the time I was training for my rescue diver and divemaster license, so this definitely helped with the physical tests involved.

Then one day I just stopped. I dunno why. Suppose I just found I no longer had the time to go running, or when I did have the time I sure as hell didn't have the energy.Guess its apt then that in light of my recent history, time is something I have alot of. As such I've started running again. only been going a month. Sure as hell wasn't easy or enjoyable, sure as hell isn't a very long run either. Just crossed a bridge today during my run. For the past few weeks it was a case of "OMG I am going to die. My heart is gonna explode, my lungs are on fire, STOPPPPP"
To " w-o-w, this is boring... "

I know many suggest listening to music to kill the boredom but I just hate the feeling of wires flapping about, n some rubbery bung stuffed in my ears n the incessant pounding of my feet amplified in my ears thanks to the earphones. Its just nice to think that maybe some time soon I might be half as fit as I used to be. The words of Bruce Lee push me on, it was somewhere along the lines of "if your can't afford 10minutes a day for a run then be prepaired to spend alot more time in hospital during your later years"

P.S. Still don't feel up to writing down the full events on that fatefully January day.

Prodigal Son

2010-04-05T07:29:00.002+03:00

4 Months ago was when I was last on here. 4 months and alot has changed. For the better or the worse, who can say, at least till its conclusion is played out, that is. So for a recap, what happened in that time? For starters, at work I was placed up to take a fall and in doing so get fired. To be honest placed up for a fall makes it sound like some effort and planning was made to take me down. I wouldn't even think so much thought was put into it all.

What basically happened was managers at work fucked up an aircraft check, heads needed to roll, sure as hell wasn't gonna be theirs, so as the least liked member of the team (in the managers eyes) I was put up for it. Some shockingly poorly thought out excuses were given and with the scales heavily biased to the local managerial opinion, I was given the shove. Maybe one day when I feel like getting into it I'll put out a recap a-la Lost opening stylee.

Just prior to it all (and part of the firing excuse) I took some Christmas leave. Christmas in Taiwan. It was lovely. Stupidly, I didn't drag the stay out over the new year, which ironically would have seen me actually keeping my job! LOL. Strangely there was one evening in Taipei I had a strong feeling I was gonna lose my job come the new year. I was very undecided if it would be a good or a bad thing. I still am.

Post firing I've been to Brisbane for a few weeks, a mixture of business and pleasure. And a pleasure it was. The place is in some ways still very much caught up in the past, but in a very nice charming way. After that was a trip back home to the UK. 3 weeks, sounds a good while, sadly it was anything but. Now I'm back here, sweating it out in the S.E. Asian sun. Sitting about waiting for things to happen. How long will I be here? How long is a piece of string? Well to be honest I have been given the time line of 6-8 months. So if nothing happens by the end of this year I'll have to get a move on to plan B.

If it all sounds a bit vague what exactly I am supposed to be doing right now, its supposed to be, vague that is. But sure enough a plan is in place, just not a very quick one. But one that if it works, should be a very long term one. The reason for not really going into it is purely one due to superstition. So while I wait around, jobless, I have time, time to plan, time to take stock, time for blogging, XBOX, Dollhouse, Caprica, Hitchhikers Guide, BBQs, Android and all of the other things that make up my geeky and unstable life.

Slowly

2009-10-22T18:08:00.002+03:00

Past day or so been feeling pretty down. The reason why is pretty clear to me. Its here. I'm sick of this place. Sick of being at work all the time, sick of dealing with some of the people at work, sick of the country I am in. But looking at things compared to a year ago, I do admit things were much worse then. Work for a start has actually become more bearable and at times not too bad. So why the long face so to speak?

Best analogy I can think of is smoking. 1 stick wont kill ya, hell, suckin on a lite cig would do even less, but keep it going day after day after day and slowly but surely it'll catch up with you.

The fact of being here for over a year. And no clear signal as to when I will be able to take some time out away from this place. Not talking days or weeks here. Months. It will take at least a month if not 2 for me to get over all this. Home sickness I guess some call it. Only thing I really miss about "home" is my car. I miss driving it, I miss being in it, listening to it, I just miss it. Vast majority of my tiredness is just work. simply can't stand jobs in which you do few hours but many days. Personally I'd go all out to make the effort to spend a straight 48hrs at work if it meant I got 5 full days off. Mainly I simply need time away from here. By here I don't necessarily mean this country. Just maybe this state. See more of this planet before I pass on. Rather than wasting all these precious hours of my life at work.

12herue du Sepang

2009-10-19T17:30:00.008+03:00

A lil late in the posting or rather blogging but sorting thru the 6 gig of pics is something I really had trouble facing. But now tis done.

Went to a 12hr endurance race at Sepang circuit in early August. Wasn't really expecting to do much other than snap a few pics as the lame ass website never detailed what teams or drivers would be racing... Really gripes me when websites don't put essential/useful info on their pages but instead stack it with a ton of FLASH and useless filler. Anyway turned up a treat as some of my fave drivers would be racing as well as some well known Jap teams. Namely "Spoon" and "J's Racing"

Watching the Z4s of the Petronas team (M. Orido & N.Taniguchi) was excellent. Mainly due to the demonstration of real team play. 2 of them always staying together thru most of the race. Drafting thru the straights and on the turns whoever was trailing blocked for the lead so he could concentrate on the fastest line. Amazing they managed to stay relatively together thru the whole 12hours, claiming a 1,2 spot at the end of it all. Orido getting the top spot. Props go to the 3rd placers thou. The 911 GT3 from the Singapore Porsche owners club! Just amazed an owners club can get a podium finish in an international event.

In the 3rd class leader board, sadly the Spoon S2K suffered a DNF. They died half way thru the race. Thou "J's Racing" S2K fared better with K. Tsuchiya behind the wheel. Placing 2nd. Not bad for the JGTC retired drift king.

Only regret was not being able to stick around till the end. At about the half way mark the wife was getting a lil bored/cheezed off. Can't blame her really. Would have been cool to get some night shots as well as watch the checkerd flag come down. Well enough of the blabbing here are the pics.

Use it or lose it

2009-09-21T00:12:00.004+03:00

I should have blogged a helluva long time ago but didn't, laziness probably a prime factor. Well in that time my boss at work has changed and he's actually a nice easy going kinda guy. So life has been good. But as with karma, you can't have life too comfortable. Was told few days back that someone i don't really like working around will be on my shift. So back to putting on a front...

Just swapped ISP as the previous ISP started enforcing their 3gb (pathetic I know) per mth limit. So they throttle it back from the previous 256K-ish speed to something single digits... like maybe 5K or such. Even the Google landing page had problems loading!!! Big thanks to "L" for helping us make the switch.

On another note, thinking of taking up a perm contract here. I mean hey if I'm gonna be out here for about a year more I might as well go perm, seeing as the pay is a bit less than contract, but then factor in free/ discount flights plus leave and it probably ain't too different. Main factor for the consideration is the currency of my license. Having 3 types and 1 more on the way plus another in the near future. At the mo this lot have only decided to give me currency on 1/2 of 1 type. So if I don't get all the rest of em made current in the next year I will stand to lose em... That if anything will be the main consideration when it comes to signing.

Longtemps

2009-08-06T17:57:00.003+03:00

Been simply ages since I've been on here. Mainly because life has been somewhat hectic. For good or bad, I can't decide.

At least the 737 training is behind me. resulting in a pass. Just gotta wait a month or so for the certs to reach me. Also on a work note, 2 long time work buds (A & J) have finally packed it in here. Moving to pastures anew. Been a good long stint with the 2 of ya. All the best for the future n I'm sure we'll cross paths again. Working here without ya both is gonna be less smooth to say the least.

Gonna be headed to a 12hr endurance race this weekend. Not really expecting too much. Also not sure exactly how long to stay for... the full 12hrs is defo out of the question. Tried to get a list of the teams & drivers for this years event off the host venue website but true to the nature of this place only last years was available... At least the days itinerary was there... small wins.

Looking to the near future, life seems pretty packed out. Just thinking about it makes me wish I could lay in and waste away the day. I really miss days of not doing anything in particular.

Also sadly due to the shitty way work is now treating people I will be unable to go from my trip to Tokyo. As happened to another guy. Work can approve your leave and then with just a day or so notice cancel it and you will be expected to cancel everything and be at work. Lest you be found guilty of breach of working agreement and made to pay a hefty fine as well as get the sack.

Either way I'm gonna try to get on and blog out a bunch of stuff a lil more often. Real bugger not blogging much lately as there defo was good stuff to note down.

Simply Su-Pah!

2009-06-28T04:41:00.000+03:00

Don't really follow any sports, or any teams for that matter but if pressed, there is 1 team I would turn out to cheer for. And that's the RX7 team in Super GT, formally JGTC (Japanese GT series). Fortunately weekend gone I got to do just that.

Bought my tickets a month in advance, probably a lil enthusiastic, seeing as this race is held outside Japan, it doesn't really draw much of a crowd. Mainly cos no one here knows WTF its all about or what is going on. And that was certainly true. As on qualifying day, we drove up to the circuit and no one bothered manning the car park ticketing post.. free parking :D Not to mentioned parked directly opposite the track entrance gate as well as overlooking the live drift event in the front car park! Lack of enthusiasm from the local populous was an added bonus too come pit walk time. Enabling me to nip over he barrier and pose next to the RE Amiyama RX7. Also allowing me to fulfil my sordid fantasy of laying my grubby mitts all over that sleek rotary powered body.

Qualifying was very undecided in the weather dept. Opening with burning sunshine, then torrential rain. Later back to sun, then rain, etc. Snapped up a stack load of pics. Foolishly I decided to leave my Laptop at home. Believing my 6 gigs of card space sufficient. Meaning that by lunch time I had to hop in the car and speed home to grab the laptop & dump those pics before qualifying round 2 started. Sadly that detour to home n back meant we missed out on the 2nd pit walk. Which annoyingly was the pit walk with the race queens posing all over the cars... DOH! Oh, well. Not too bothered as earlier I had managed to get my Option2 mag signed by both the RX7 drivers as well as the god father of rotary tuning, Mr Amiyama himself. Again the lack of interest in the sport out here played to my advantage as all 3 of them were relatively unmolested. Seen footage of them at Fuji race track getting swamped! Best of all nobody even noticed Amiyama-san. Wasn't till I zoomed up to ask for an autograph that people looked over, even then they just thought it weird that I was getting so over the moon by having some old dude sign a magazine. As for the result of qualifying of team RE Amiyama? 11th, sorta to be expected with the 74KG of weight penalty they had to run with.

Race day. My God could it be any different! Place was jammed packed. Again the heavens opened up come morning practice. There was a nice touch to the days events. Something called the "circuit safari" Basically you get on a tour bus and get driven around the track as the GT cars zip about all around you. Some coach load of lucky buggers had the team ARTA Project NSX tailgate their bus. Some prime piccys there I expect. By lunch time I had had enough of fighting thru crowds of guys armed with cameras as they charged about jostling for prime shots of cars n scantily clad babes. So we retired to the car, for some air-con and refreshments till an hour before race start. The race itself was instantly heart stopping as I watched my beloved team spin out at the last turn even before their 1st lap. Landing them 15th, or 3rd last on the grid. Thou that only served to make it a more exciting race. Watching as the RX7 pushed its way up the grid to eventually finish in 3rd. Was initially dreaming of catching that checkered flag shot but I had to give up that hope when my final camera battery died at lap 43 of 54. Luckily thou 1 of the spent batteries managed to have enough dredges left in it to allow me a few podium shots before it gave up the ghost for good.

Really hoping I'll have the chance to be about for next years race. Especially as it will be the 20th anniversary of the Super GT and the organisers promised "something extra special for the fans"

Who's da boss

2009-06-10T17:35:00.002+03:00

Life as of late seems to never be short of throwing up surprises. At 6am today, considerably before I even awoke. I got a message stating to attend the morning Foreman's meeting. Courtesy of my foreman, who is currently on holiday. During the meeting I was informed another meeting would be held regarding the jobs to be carried out on the aircraft I was suddenly put in charge of. Urrgh another meeting.

Even before I could walk out of that meeting I got another message from my on holiday foreman. I had to attend yet another meeting regarding next weeks scheduled aircraft input. Y-a-y... another meeting.

The whole day was spent reviewing aircraft task cards, organising spare requirements and planning the restoration of a cannibalised aircraft.

Although it has not been said, to all intents and purposes I seem to be filling in for my foreman. As such, an acting foreman. Which means, attending lots of meetings and added responsibility. Responsibility that back in Europe would mean extra pay, but not here. Not to mention the thing I hate about all this the most... the meetings. I so HATE meetings. Hours slipping and what little achievement made is certainly not matched by the time spent.

Sadly with my foreman and the 2nd in charge both away on holidays till the end of the week. Tll then, guess I'm stuck in my current position. Sigh, just wanna go back to the the quiet unassuming life of a simple engineer...

Tired but pleased

2009-06-08T18:36:00.003+03:00

Again behind on the blogging cos life keeps throwing up surprises. Was supposed to be heading off for a new course which I had planned months back. Already had the thumbs up from every department. But 3 days before the start date was told in no uncertain terms that I would not be allowed to attend the course. Serious bummer seeing as I had already paid for it. Plus I only wanted to stick about here so I could do that course. So without the course, sticking about would be a total waste of time. What to do, what to do?

Times like this help can come from the strangest of places. My foreman who I've been at loggerheads with from the get go suddenly went all best friendy and worked out a way to get me on the course. I have to say as of late he has been exceedingly polite and friendly. I can at times only wonder if there will be some sort of price attached to all this assistance he is offering. Not to mention the thoughts in the back of my mind if this is all for real or is it the cover for some dastardly scheme. Either way don't want to seem like I am bitching or anything. Really do hope this is all up front and for real. Makes for alot less tension at work. Fingers crossed it keeps on.

Been on the course for a lil bit now and finished my 1st exam today. Hope all the rest are this simple. Takes the edge off, as the physical stress of doing it is enough. Have to get up at the crack of dawn for work and don't get to step thru the door again till after class concludes in the wee hours. So much so all I usually see of home is the shower room and bed.

Back in da club

2009-05-31T18:24:00.002+03:00

Well result has been out for a while, just been far too busy to get a free moment to blog it. To cut it short my contract has been renewed. Thou with a condition in place; I make more of an effort to work weekends. Which I still have misgivings about. Surely if I HAVE to work OT then it should be made into scheduled hours. But oh well, small price, and if they wanna pay me a wad of cash for doing weekend work no matter how unproductive, why should I resist?

I heard rumours that my foreman was giving a dressing down by the higher ups regarding my firing. I would really like to believe all of it but as with all stories I hear, I prefer to have my reservations on it all. It was also nice to hear how much confidence others had in my work and that those working with me were on the whole happy to work with me. Had alot of good feed back. Thou like the afore mentioned story I prefer to take only part of it in. After all you can't trust all you hear these days can ya?

Either way I will say none of it would have worked out the way it did if it weren't for friends. A real big thanks to all. Be it simply via a show of support or sorting out avenues for a job, should the worst have occurred. It was good to know I wouldn't be without some kind of work. Thanks to all of you. Special mentions to 2 in particular thou. "L" for getting things in motion, setting the stage and initiating the turn of the tide, yet again I am in your debt. And to Luvin. Had it all gone terribly wrong I'm sure your option would have turned things. Really appreciate the offer of assistance. Thou I would add that resorting to it could be likened to opening a walnut with a sledgehammer. Words can't describe my gratitude. Thanks again to everyone.

Punted

2009-05-20T13:05:00.002+03:00

Nothing like something boiling your blood to make you start blogging again is there? Was just informed that I will not have my job contract renewed due to "constant under performing & sub-par results"

Anyone who has worked with me I feel knows the deal. I do my job to the best of my ability, I pride myself that jobs I take on are done by the book and to the best of my ability and if that is not up to standard for some people then I am not sure those are the people I really want to work for.

When I started to type this post it was gonna be a million words long, the contents of which I am sure you can guess. But sometimes the best things are left unsaid. Those who I have worked along side, past and present, will have an inkling something here is amiss.

As it stands I would be out within a months time. I will of cause appeal against them, simply because I have paid up money for some engagements that last well into the 3rd quater of the year. So leaving so soon would not be beneficial. My agent is very cheezed off and has already started asking questions. But we'll see the outcome of the appeal. For now best start sprucing up that CV.

F1 poopy

2009-04-18T21:08:00.008+03:00

A while back a few work mates decided to go watch the F1 Grand Prix. Armed with their over priced tickets they headed off to enjoy a day at the races. As a bonus a well known UK funky disco superstar was holding a free after race concert. Things looked set for an excellent day out.

Arriving at 2pm they queued to enter the race circuit. But prior to entry had to surrender all food and drinks. So that once inside they would have to join the queue of literally hundreds to get food and drink from the 2 lone F&B stands in the whole venue. After an age of queuing the start of the race drew close, so off to the stands. Pretty good seats, good view of some of the exciting turns the circuit has to offer.

With the race under way, the petty annoyances of earlier on start to fade with the excitement of watching the best drivers in the world battle for 1st place. But then in true sods law fashion the heavens open up. No worries they thought; we specifically got tickets under shelter, so the rain should make the race more exciting. Wrong, the roof over their heads started to leak like a sieve and the rain was so heavy the race had to be abandoned.

Great... so the whole reason they shelled out cash and travelled all that way was now washed away in the rain... Well at least the free concert was still going ahead. Might as well drown the sorrows of a washed out race at the beer tent. The only beer tent. The beer tent where you had to pay to enter and then pay again to buy a beer. Y-a-y...

The time of the concert was still hours away. Which was handy cos queueing to get served used up those hours nicely. In the distance they hear the concert staring to fire up. Time to make a move and get some front row seats. Or should I say front row stands, as it was standing room only.

As they approached the concert venue they realised there were just 2 entrances for the hundreds upon hundreds of people. Oh, wait, no. Make that 1 entrance, cos the other entrance was for VIPs. More queuing. And its starting to get dark, and the concert venue is outside. So all the bugs and mozzies are creeping out in the cool of the evening. All having a feast on the hundreds of blood donors standing about.

Once into the venue the tonnes of people have turned the rain soaked concert ground into an ankle deep swamp. A swamp with treacle thick mud to rival Glastonbury. Rubbish and lost flip flops adoring the swamp at regular intervals. Looking to the stage they see the warm up act jamming away. Some local group, the likes of which you'd more expect to see down ya local pub then as a warm up act to a world class artist. Enduring with the torture, they waited till at last the warm up band left. Only to be replaced by some DJ, scratching up and mixin them records like it was ya school disco. Again they endured till the DJ finally left the stage. Surely it must be the main attraction now? Nope just another local musical hack. Standing there,with tortured ears, semi soaked in the hot humid night air, ankle deep in mud, bitten silly by mozzies, hungry, thirsty and tired, the clock fast approaching 11pm. They finally had enough and call it a day.

As they made it out of the venue and moved to the car park they hear the announcement of the main attraction taking to the stage. At nearly 11:30pm, and a 1 hour drive ahead ,they could care less. All they want is a cool shower and a cosy bed.

Lazy B-hach

2009-04-12T20:43:00.004+03:00

Been laid off work since Tuesday. Said there was nothing in the hangar for me to work on. But I'm being paid anyway so who cares. So did I do anything constructive during these 5 or so days off??? Pfffrt yeah right. TBH I can't even remember what I did during these days off. I think I went out and bought a toilet seat at some point... Also remember alot of PC, Internet, cable TV and gaming. Yeah alot of that. Till the point you know when you stare at a screen so long ya eyes get all blurry and fogged up but ya still keep going, chanting just 10 more mins...

Oh did a bunch of cooking these past 2 days. Really miss that. Mainly the cooking and the eating bits of it all. Been close to 2 weeks since I did any of it. Really wanted to get them brownies baked but alas never got in the mood for brownie munchin.

Past 2 days have been back to Halo 3 online. Thanks to Bungie and their multiplayer weekend, they've made online play free for the whole weekend. Guess they are drumming up the launch of the Mythic Map pack. At least I now know that online gaming in this country is a no-go. Ping is terrible. Constantly the laggiest member on the map. 1 match was totally unplayable cos I would die, and respawn... dead... and respawn... dead... etc... etc... SOOOOOO annoying. Guess online gaming here is restricted to stuff like Mahjong or Uno... FPS, not a chance.

Maybe cos of that I've moved back to quasi-ol'skool gaming. Been kicking it on Sid Meyer's Alpha Centuari. Wish I had Civ too... Been hankering for a bit of that as well.

Anyhoo, work beckons in 4 hours... better get some shut eye... Man Really dreading work of late... Becoming a real drag.

Poor quality

2009-04-02T21:42:00.003+03:00

Realised a bit of shocking news, for me anyway. While paying my rental car bill I noticed a reference chart on the wall behind the clerk. It stated the fuel tank capacities for the various cars they had. I noticed mine had a 50 litre fuel tank. I always thought it was a 40 litre.

Which after some quick mental math I realised mean the shitty rental I was driving about did a mere 8 km per litre of fuel... comparing to my RX8 which did 8.5km per litre! And this car is a total boat handling wise, totally gutless and totally laggy due to the auto transmission.

I know its a completely boring thing to blog about to everyone else but after being hammered by other car owners when they realise I drive a rotary. Their line is always how unreliable, fuel and oil thirsty it is...

Never had any problems with a rotary. And certainly can't imagine anything close to the issues thrown up with the cars here.

Really miss driving my car. Life here has been very "meh" as of late. Really have no get up and go. Still on the tail end of recovery and still in the throes of poor working morale. It is getting to the point that if I don't get some kind of type course or other reason to stay on or maybe even a shift to another unit, I think it may be time to pack it in soon. Money certainly ain't the best here. Working hours are too long but at the same time too little cos they subtract a good deal for breaks. Work is unforfilling and guys I like working with are few.

Genki

2009-03-22T21:10:00.002+03:00

Been off the blog due to some freak injury. Well its hard to class as injury as I never really did anything. Just 1 day my back started hurting for no reason, did nothing to strain it or anything such like. And as the days passed it just got worse. Till around a week had passed and I felt it was pain to the point I should really seek help.

The help I sought will give many the "well you were asking for it" stance. I went to a Chinese massage place that specialised in back problems, as highly recommended by a friend. In "skip to the end" style I am now reasonably back pain free so the massage guys did their job. But try to tell me this after the massage and I would have slapped you, had I not been in such excruciating pain. Pain so bad it took me 5 mins to wear a pair of sandals and so bad I nearly passed out while trying to wear my shorts. That same agony stretched thru 3 days. Leaving me unable to go to work due to it. Most of my 3 days were spent on my back. Those that weren't spent on my back involved me sitting, shifting constantly due to the ever present pain or shuffling about like the hunchback of Notre Dame, all done whilst having a very foul mood.

During all this time I had to be constantly aided for every task, from having a meal to taking a dump. And even at times getting up and walking. Hell even needed help to pick stuff up if I dropped it on the floor. Just made me feel this must be what its like to be really old... or disabled. Constant pain and frustration. It just destroyed anything I used to enjoy doing, reading a book, watching TV, playing my XBOX, cooking, surfing the net, blogging, etc. All due to the overbearing pain and general frustration I barely did any of during my time off work. Just lay on my back drifiting in and out of conciousness was how most days were spent.

All of it did have an over arcing lesson for me thou. To appreciate what health I have and to make the most of it.

Pick up required

2009-03-14T22:06:00.002+03:00

Just finished 2 weeks of night shift. Hence the lack of blog posts thus far. Way too shattered to do much save sleep. Too shattered to even eat. Just a bowl of instant noodles for dinner and a sandwich for a mid night snack. Guess all this has affected my mood some what too. Even lost enthusiasm for playing on my XBOX.

Plus the creeping reality that I might not be able to make it back to the UK this year is a lil disheartening. But still where there is a will. Just need something to kick start the optimism. Fingers crossed for some good news soon. Of the goals and reasons I came here in the first place, not a single one has been fully realised yet. Need something to show myself that coming here wasn't a total waste of my time.

Stuffed

2009-02-24T19:12:00.002+03:00

This was a long time coming. Getting my fill of this place now. This place is like a mezze of things to piss you off. On their own its no biggie but add em altogether and you're set to burst.

So lets see wats on the mezze menu. Lazy people, everywhere. From the guy at the supermarket, to the guys at the post office, to the guys on the hanger floor, to the managers in the big offices. Then a plate of boot lickers & slime balls. Never seen so many people so unashamedly sliming their way to the top and getting results from being such creeps. Even worse when you see all the guys who do work hard get constantly passed over. Then, self servitude. If it suits them well but totally screws you over they'll do it that way. Even if there is a simple way so that everyone will be happy they won't do it because of the 1st point, it's too much effort, they are lazy.

To be honest I was ok bearing with it all till very recently. When the company announced cost cutting measures and as such will not be providing me a flight back home in between contract renewals. Ironic as those flights cost nothing, cos they bung me on unsold seats so I fail to see how they save cash by not letting me have my ticket.

Also the people you work with makes a big difference in your life. Ordinarily I am happy being on my own and isolated, its how my whole life has been. With 4 days off to escape and forget about it all and feel refreshed. But not here, just a mere 2 days off, the shittiness of work is still very much in my mind on that final day off. So with no one to trash talk with and get my mind off it all, I start getting tired.

I dunno where I am going with this. I am simply tired of attending work with a bunch of dicks. Maybe its about time I packed it in and looked elsewhere.

DISCLAIMER: Sure there are good guys I work with but there are so few in the big picture. Its like tossing a couple slices of tomatoes on a krispy kreme burger and trying to say its health food.

Quacks

2009-02-23T20:51:00.002+03:00

I knew it went on. Or rather I had a suspicion it may be going on but to be confirmed on a sneaking feeling like this, is... a lil... lost for words really.

Chatting to "E" today he told me of a plane that was in last week. A bunch of engineers were swapping out an oil to fuel heat exchanger. Knowingly, "E" quizzed them why, they responded saying that the pilots noted excessive fuel was being used. So therefore the fuel must be leaking into the oil supply via the heat exchanger. "E" asked them how they came to that conclusion? They never really gave an answer, just assuring this was the solution.

Thing is "E" & myself know that plane has an internal fuel leak from the wing tanks to a dry bay inside the planes fuselage. Its an easy fault to find just open a drain valve that leads to the dry bay. If anything other than condensation comes out, you have a problem. When we did it the other day over 5 liters of fuel poured out. Highlighted it to the foreman, who yet again worked his magic and the plane was sent flying, labelled serviceable.

But that's not the point, the point is a fault occurred. But rather than search for the problem and confirm what was wrong they just pointed to the quickest "fix" and send the plane on its way. And when it comes back with the fault still there they just change another random bit rather than fix it, and its off flying again. Being a more experienced engineer who has seem more than me, I asked how does it ever get fixed. He answered, it just flys around the world with the problem, while guys randomly change perfectly working bits. It never really gets fixed unless its by pure accident or some one like us gets hold of the plane.

Even more lost for words when he assured me it wasn't just here. Most airlines are like that. No one ever diagnoses problems or delves into a faults history to really solve it. Just prescribe a placebo and let the next doctor deal with it.

Daisuki Sushi

2009-02-15T16:07:00.004+03:00

It's been a while since I made sushi, probably close to six months and it shows coz my skills are starting to suck. Really need to get back into practice again.
Just wished it wasn't such a pain in the arse to make.

Burnin Rubber

2009-02-13T20:05:00.001+03:00

Those who have met me will say I like cars. Those who know me will say I like driving. The latter is certainly more true than the former. With most of my driving life spent in generic wheeled boxes, as the nomadic nature of my job prohibits me from owning any vehicle that is half decent. My RX8 is an exception to that as I got that while still holding a normal 9 to 5 lifestyle. A relic of a time long gone.

But I still understand that learning the basics of driving can be done in anything with wheels. As such I'm making the most of my time driving these boxes. Concentrating on learning how to keep momentum thru the turns by lining up the corners correctly. How to make the most of the road surface available. Practising on keeping the car stable in the turns.

Thou all this practising on the corners is definitely leaving its mark. Blessed with the cheapy rubber these rentals are shod with, after just 2 months the strain is starting to show.

The run around

2009-02-03T06:59:00.001+03:00

Old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. With that in mind, this is how the company I work for describes themselves.

I came into work one morning to be instantly told that I had to drive to another airport to work. Whilst better than being asked to go home, it was till a pain. I mean why could they not just tell me a day or 2 in advance and save me a totally pointless 1.5hr, 130KM drive.

But I aint got it too bad when you consider "A" & "J" just came back to resume their contracts only to be told; but we weren't expecting you till next week. The company sent their agency an email 2 days before they left the UK, stating not to commence their contract till a week later. Of cause by then it was too late. Notice was far too little to change seat dates and inform all parties involved. So the company expects them to go to their rented housing and sit n wait for a week to pass. No pay or compensation for time lost. An extra week they could have spent at home with loved ones wasted. Thankfully in the end they agreed to start the contract date as previously agreed. But it was certainly getting blood out of a stone for that to happen.

Then there is what happened to "E". He had come in for a night shift. Part way thru that night they told him to go home as he had to work day shift at that other airport. So he goes off home, arriving home late that night. Do you think he is able to get a decent rest before the 6am alarm sounds?

Then most reciently, today. Working at the other airport on day shift. At 6pm I get a call TELLING me to get my arse in to my usual airport base to work night shift; which starts at 7:30pm. And when I flatly refuse the voice on the end of the phone sounds upset and shocked. And then proceeds to TELL me again to work. Like I didn't understand the 1st time. Work essentially a 24hr shift, for these cunts? Don't think so. I've done shifts close to 30hrs before but that was with people I respected and loved working with. Funny part to this particular tale is "E" refused to come in as he didn't fancy a 24hr shift and the only engineer due to work that night called in sick. So now they are stuck with a full force of mechanics but no one to direct them.

This place really has to learn to stop treating people like crap and thinking about others for a change. Its amazing how much extra you can get out of some one if you are just a lil polite and think about them when you make a decision.

Black sheep

2009-01-30T17:44:00.000+03:00

Week was frustrating and a pain. If this keeps up I'm definitely gonna look harder at leaving here. Which is not totally a bad thing as I really should get my arse in gear. Thing that really ruffled my feathers this week was having my hard earned OT money "taken away"

I say it in inverted comas cos legally it wasn't but let me explain n just form your own opinion. Every month I am allocated a minimum number of hours to work. If I do over that figure I get paid OT. If I do under, that minimum is what I get paid. So I work out a weekly average of hours I got to work to keep me on track to hit OT money. So far this month it was going pretty good. As every week so far I did at least 6hours OT. All except this week.

It was well known that there was no official aircraft for me to work on. So at the start of the week I volunteered to work on an aircraft at another hangar complex a short drive away. But the management decided to keep me at my current hangar. with no official aircraft to fix, rather than take my suggestion or move me onto another aircraft to assist as an unlicensed engineer or as a mechanic or attaching me to another maintenance dept, they chose to send me home. Come the next day, I had barely signed in to work, scarcely finished putting my stuff away in my locker when I was told to go home, no effort even to see what work I could do. In for a mere 30mins. But in a graceful act of generosity my foreman told me to clock in for an hour instead! Wow... what a nice guy... of cause this is the same guy who is not even bothering to make an effort to get me a job to do. Next day? Same shit again, sent home with just a few hours under my belt. By the following day I really could not be bothered to stay at work and try salvage my OT as I would have to clock 17 extra hours to get a reasonable number of hours above that minimum. So I was all up for going home. Which sure enough I was. And today I stepped into work fingers crossed for the same but as luck would have it, no chance. I had gotten my request which I had made at the start of the week and was sent to the other hanger from Friday till Monday. Hardly worth it, as it was just 2 days, but no complaints as that would allow me to skip night shift next week.

So to salvage my OT now if I still wanted to I would have to do in excess of 20 hours before sunday... Ain't happening. My working hours could have been so easily sorted this week if even an effort was made to get me any old menial task to do. Just no such effort was made. But I might add, that was just for me as the other engineers on shift were sent to different depts or working as mechanics... guess that tells me how I am viewed by my foreman. Also his comment I over heard seemed to show his disdain for me. Commenting that I had made no effort at getting my security pass sorted out. No effort??? Its not even my job to get it sorted... Someone else gets paid a wage to sort that out, so am I supposed to do their job while they sit about doing dick all? Oh wait, I suppose I am, after all it does seem to be what this company is built on.

Gorilliaz

2009-01-20T02:52:00.004+03:00

My 1st night shift in a long while. Was a little apprehensive of the workload as I was told this plane is covered in defects. Just shows that all these months here have taught me nothing. Most of the night was spent waiting for equipment to turn up. So most guys passed their time sleeping eating or watching movies in the crew room. "The Transporter" was tonight's prime time.

And when the equipment turned up I set about the job on my own. Didn't really need many people to do it plus I really didn't want to hold someone's hand thru the job. I rather have someone who knows what they are doing then someone I have to walk thru the job with. But later on in the job people decided to help. Which lead to the Chinese saying of "more help, more problems" As while I was recording down a reading from a test I was carrying out, I commented to 1 of the guys that the reading showed a system failure. Said guy then believed that tapping the gauge would some how give a "pass" reading. And when it didn't, he just tapped harder. And when that didn't work either. He decided to give it a good smack.... smashing the gauge... y-a-y... Can't carry on with the 3 remaining tests. Neither can we trouble shoot the failed test cos the gauge is broken... oh and its the only test kit in the whole company... well no more jobs to do tonight then...time to head home... So all in all was a pretty good night.

I know I joke about smacking things with hammers to make em work... which we, in reality do frequently... not many people take us seriously when we say there is a skill to hitting things with a hammer. Not just any old monkey can do it. Today was case in point.

Yorick

2009-01-18T00:47:00.003+03:00

A few weeks back I began reading a graphic novel called Y: The last man. A story about the last man on earth following a plague that kills only males, human and animal. Been a long while since I ventured back to western style comics. And this was probably an excellent step back. Thing that got me above all else as the story telling. Each chapter had a fresh take on things. Nothing ever grew stale. Every reveal to the main plot was totally unexpected. Bit by bit you started feeling so deeply for the characters. When the story finally draws to a close and the final reveal happens it was like a sledgehammer to my heart. Won't give away the ending but it was extremely sad. So sad it left me shocked, frustrated and depressed all at the same time. Making me think thru the story's end over and over. Secretly hoping another special edition episode would be issued. Just to say it didn't end in that way. Even the author had 2nd thoughts about ending it the way he did. He actually asked the other staff working with him if he should make a different ending. In the end he decided to stick to his guns and end the story as he originally wrote it almost 6 years ago. To be honest it was probably for the best. So many (almost) great stroies are let down by mediocre endings.

Apparently it is currently being scripted into a major movie in the future. Its pretty much a given it wont do the comic any justice. Thou if they made it into a mini series and just lifted it, 1 chapter per episode, it would surely work well. Really wish there were more comics made of this calibre out there.

Move on up

2009-01-16T19:31:00.006+03:00

Work here has always been an uphill struggle. Most of the mechanics are either clueless, lazy, demotivated or not at work at all. Which means the hard working few get lumbered with most of the jobs most of the time. Which makes me appreciate them all the more. Working on without protest knowing that their colleges will be sitting on their arses all day but still getting the same pay as them, yet they soldier on.

Add to that the distinct lack of certifying engineers. A measly 3 compared to other places where 8 is not uncommon and 20 not unheard of. Then to top off the cake, comes the icing... The management. Which will be today's bone of contention.

Narcissistic, dangerous and clueless. Lets tackle narcissistic first. Totally in love with themselves, they only listen or acknowledge others who love them as much as they love themselves. As far as they are concerned how could anyone not love em, they are sooooo great. They view anyone who ever tells em how reality is, as a heretic. Very swift with the "orf wiv iz ead" they are. As such whenever the truth needs telling, either a sacrificial lamb is chosen to report the news or they are simply told "yes no problem, will do" but instead, just do whatever. Unsurprisingly, those willing to work OT sucking those dicks and licking those cracks find themselves on the fast track.

And if there is 1 way to make yourself faster while on that fast track to the top, is being dangerous while you are at it. Like for example ignoring findings such as structural damage on areas the aircraft makers deem as a no damage zone. Or ignoring multiple structural failures of parts of the aircraft so the part is pretty much held on by the last threads. Just ignore it, concoct some BS to make it sound less serious then throw in a random maintenance manual quote to round off the report. Any quote will do, it doesn't need to be related, just needs to sound technical enough. With that done send the plane out to fly with paying customers.

Lastly cluelessness. Summed up well by decisions like the following genius call. If working on something like an air-conditioning unit takes 50 man hours then if we allocate 25 men to work on it, it will take 2hours...orrrrr if we double the manpower to 50 men it will take just 1 hour!!! Yes lets do that, never mind the access panel to work thru is just 2m squared, I'm sure we can get 50 pairs of hands in there. Below is an artist serialisation of a possible office encounter with the above manager types.

So what happens when several people with all those traits come together in 1 aerospace company? Things happen... things like the casual over looking of around 40 or so manufacturer and government issued tasks to be carried out on a single aircraft. Those manufacturer and government body issued tasks are more often than not all safety related. Good job on the quality dept for picking up on it and grounding the plane before anything horrifically (emphasis on the horror) embarrassing occurs. But it must make you wonder how so many important tasks get over looked. I don't know how it happened but I'll warrant specimens like the aforementioned persons certainly didn't help things.

Sell out

2009-01-14T19:34:00.003+03:00

The other half went thru it not long ago. Now its my turn. And much like her, its not the first time. Because of my chosen professional path, inevitably people have a certain image in their minds of what I do and the life I lead. There are of cause varying degrees of their projected flights of fancy but they usually have a very common under tone.

There is the usual image of being a lazy waster. The idea that we are there to cream the money and do as little as possible to get it. There are always the masses that become blind as a bat when we are running round like blue arsed flies. But become sharp as hawks when there is nothing to do and we are doing bugger all standing by.

Also hand in hand with this one with the above is,we get paid loads so there fore we should do most of the work. We get paid loads for a reason. Usually the company has insufficient man power or expertise and needs an instant fully trained work force. Factor in the reality that we get no OT pay, no public holidays, no annual leave, no sick leave, no pension, no medical, no insurance, no staff perks and to cap it all you can legally be told tomorrow your are out of a job... Not to even mentioned that our life is on a totally different continent. There is a reason at my age I can count my friends on 1 hand. I see my friends once a year, usually for only a few days. Be lucky if it's longer than a week. Don't forget same goes for family... Can you imagine only seeing those you care about for just a few days a year? Also your life... your car, your house, your belongings, everything that makes up your life, you will hardly ever see. Along with the ever present knowledge your employer need not give you more than a few days unemployment notice, you have to be forever ready to fit what little of a life you have left into whatever suitcase is at hand and leave the country. If you had a monetary figure you could place on all the listed terms and conditions, what would it be? I know for those who could assign a sum of money to it, it would probably be a figure close to what we get. I say close, cos in all honesty it should be higher. Your employers are basically asking you to put your life on hold for your working life, for most people that would be a good 10- 20 years. Surely the money must reflect that sacrifice.

For many thou a sum cannot be placed to such a sacrifice. And as such they have chosen their lot in life as have I. Like with all things is life, we are given consciousness and free will. Anyone can do what I do. It is not required to be privileged or special to do my job. All that is required is a choice to do so. There is nothing wrong with being envious. I get how people become envious of my earnings. It is the same feeling I get when I see them meeting up with friends after work, visiting the folks at weekends or even taking time out to work on the house or buy the latest home gadgets, taking a nice drive in their new car. But I have learnt to be content with my lot in life. I just wish others would learn that lesson too.

If only people thought about and considered the above points. They would be able to hear themselves when they say " but you earn so much, losing that amount is nothing compared to how much you earn" Basically saying to me, "your life, your family, your friends, the house you worked so hard on,everything you know, it's not worth as much as you think it is." Anyone reading able to see how its a bit of a slap in the face? I really hope you do, cos I am getting sick of hearing it.

Shysters

2009-01-12T19:15:00.003+03:00

Had a plane limp into the hangar on Friday with a fuel leak. Nice one for a bit of OT. Even more brill that there was OT on Saturday too. Nice boost to the lagging pay packet of the past months. Had the pleasure of working with "E" again. Job wasn't too bad, it was just long winded. But with the never ending cheerfulness of "E" by my side, just made the day so much lighter. Infact despite the set backs and lil surprises the plane threw at us I reckon we made good progress.

Was a bit taken aback when I stepped into work today to still see the plane sitting there. Was even more taken aback with the grilling that bordered on a bollocking. Which most undeserved. As everything had been pretty much in order when "E" and myself left on Saturday night. Term mountain out of a mole hill was coined for just such a situation. As expected was stuck back on the job. And as one would expect the plane threw yet more curve balls. Causing what steps forward I could make, step back. Also didn't help that the management threw out a few wild cards that required what few completed tasks that were done to be redone.

The real straw for the camels back came not from all this, but by those working with me. It seemed every question and suggestion was a stab at poking a hole. Or finding a slip up. And sure enough any lil inconsistency or mistake on my part was met with stern glares and much tutting. Jeez no one ever gets it right 100% all the time. Which was why I love working with guys like "A", "J" and "E". They understand that everyone makes silly slip ups some times and that is why we work together. To help cover up each others short comings.

Here is 1 example from today. Had to reinstall a very big panel to a wing. Big as in 1.5M x 0.75m x 0.5m. More to the point it was the front edge of the wing so kinda obvious it was there. But it wasn't fully fitted. 90% of the screws were not installed. In the official work log I had left an entry stating to install that panel. Just to receive a stern talking to that I did not specify the panel was only partially installed. Surely asking for someone to install a panel means it is not fully installed? So where was I going wrong. Was also given what for because I did not state where the panel to be installed was kept. I had written the location it needed to be installed to in the work log. Citing this I tried to explain surely the person would read where the panel needed to be fitted and find the panel on there. But no, they insisted anyone taking up the job would see no panel at eye level and abandon the job, so the panel's whereabouts needed to be specified. FFS...

Things like this make me hate my job somedays. People out to shovel shit on the closest person to hand and with a bloody great broom rub it in. Only to weave, duck n dive the moment anything resembling responsibility came their way. I totally lost count how many times they used the old " just do xxxx once we do that, it will be time for home... night shifts problem then" That attitude doesn't fuckin work. Cos night shift says the same thing. So nothing ever gets done. Everyone lunges for the quickest and easiest job and palms off anything that is a lil tricky for the next lot. I also hate the attitude of "we are inspectors, we don't get our hands dirty" which was going around today. 1 of them pretty much refused to walk up a set of stairs cos he felt he had walked up them enough for 1 day. Another actually called for a car to drive him about cos he didn't want to walk anymore. What the hell... God gave you arms and legs. If ya don't use them maybe He should take em back...

In case ya didn't guess... majorly cheezed today. Unfortunately it will continue tomorrow. Hence the blasting of steam. Lest I let loose with the safety off tomorrow.

Slow New Year

2009-01-06T07:12:00.002+03:00

New year has come and gone. And thou there is a definite lack of blog entries it is mostly due to bugger all happening. Work has seen an old face reappear. "E" has found his way back to the fold after several mths of absence. It'll be nice working with his forever cheerful aura about. And his colourful, quirky life stories. Classic lines like " As I sat by my friends bed side watching him die from a gunshot wound, I thought... I must get myself a wife" will always mark him down as one to listen to when his "grandfather" stories start rolling.

At home, starting to get sucked into my xbox again. After completing Fable2 I've moved onto Call of duty world at war now. God knows how I'll be able to do it on the hardest setting as I'm finding it difficult at a notch before hardest. On another gaming note been sucked into a certain game that exists on a social networking site. At its peak I was camping by the lap top to progress the game. But now... due to the limited size of my team, the game is somewhat losing its charm.

Also be making my way thru the Harry Potter series of books. Already steamed thru the 1st 2 books. Now mid way thru the 3rd. All in all not a bad read. Pretty easy going and nothing too complex or boring. Its always nice to see how the movies shape up to their book counterparts. Its almost like seeing the cut scenes when you read the book.

A Christmas Fable

2008-12-27T19:17:00.002+03:00

Well Christmas has come and gone. So how as it? TBH was hard to actually believe it was Christmas as my host country isn't really down with things J.C. related. So no lights or decorations in the streets. No carols playing in shopping malls. Not much of anything Christmassy really. Add to that having to go to work. Was supposed to be a quiet day but I jinxed it by bringing in my laptop to pass the time. Last minute an A330 came in for a maintenance check. But evening after work was nice. Went for dinner (xmas dinner?) with "L"s family. Lots of excellent stalls with equally excellent food. Wish we were told bout this place earlier. Can see us popping back soon.

Boxing day was cool thou, was let off at midday. Spent the remainder of it debating what game to shove in the XBOX next. As I had completed Gears of War 2 couple days back. Started off by shoving in Dead Space. Played thru the 1st few mins of it but ended up spitting it out. Good game and all. Everything you expect of a 9/10 game but it simply wasn't matching my mood. Stuffed in Fable 2. Much more palatable. So much so I'm hooked again.

As usual, playing a female character. Really paranoid of doing too much physical attacks in the game. Cos your character changes appearance based on your actions and what you make them do. Not keen on having a big hairy burly rugby player of a girl for a character. So sticking to lots of shooting people and casting spells. Sadly all the magic usage is giving me weird rune like marks appear all over my beautiful skin... Being boring thou and playing a goody-2-shoes... If I ever get round to a 2nd play thru. I'm defo gonna be a huge, repulsive, arsehole, bastard, ape of a man. Oh yeah... so much fun being a complete and utter bastard.

Once a fortnight

2008-12-09T20:41:00.004+03:00

I remember making a comment while at work today, while I was re accounting the exploits of my car with the snapped suspension strut. The comment was "I'm averaging a car every 2 weeks at the moment. Nearly had this car for 2 weeks wonder how much longer I'll have it?"

The answer was, not too long at all. Fate was nice enough to ensure my average remained true. As driving home from work that evening The following happened...

Stopped at a red light, shame guy behind didn't. Shunted me a good 8 or so meters into the car in front of me. More thru momentum than speed I reckon as his car had 7 occupants! The driver, his sister and her 2 kids, their friend and her 2 kids. His car was a Perodua Myvi. Hardly a big car. Don't think it was designed for 7 people that's for sure. Not to mention the guy was big enough to count as 2 people. Throw into it all rain soaked tarmac and the fact he had just started learner driver probation 2mths ago.

Guy in front had walked over to check on me. Said I was ok and asked how was he. He was ok and his car just had a dent in the bumper as I had suffered the brunt. He asked how I could be so cheerful in the midst of it all. Told him it was easy seeing as I was "A" ok after the smash and more the point, it weren't my car LOL!

Worrying thing was, soon after that the drivers sister rushed over to my car to see if I was alraight. After I told her I was, I asked how was her car's occupants faired. She said her daughter had a bit of a bump but was ok. After a good few minutes, her daughter started balling, so she slowly made her way over to see wat the fuss was about. Carrying the lil girl (5 yrs old) in her arms kissing her forehead. I asked again if everything was ok, she again assured me it was fine, just a bump it'll go down in a while. When I looked, the kid's head had a lump size of a golf ball. Looking at the cars windscreen I could see where her head had obviously hit, as the glass had a very clear impact point and spider web like cracks emanating from it. I kept telling her it wasn't really something to leave be and to get her to a hospital. Eventually she listened and got the guy I shunted to send her to her mums down the road.

When the cops finally arrived, so had my car rental company with the new car. Only real worrying thing was when we all went to the cop shop for the police report I had to sign the report which was in the native language, ie not English. The guy I shunted explained it all to me. Didn't really have much option so I signed it, lucky I now know thru guys at work it was all kosher. Was worried at the time as the copper doing the report couldn't work out my age by subtracting my birth year from this year. He got it wrong 4 times... He also totally messed up copying(COPYING!!!!!) my name and insisted my drivers license had expired as it said date of expirey 07 11 48. He had a tough time understanding it was 2048 and not 1948... not even the fact it was issued in 07 11 97 would dissuade him...

Anyhow water's under the bridge now and true enough it's been a car dead every 2 weeks... I'm on car 9 now... How long before this 1 goes, bonus points if you nail how it gets wasted.

Time off

2008-12-05T23:06:00.003+03:00

Well been 6 days since I was last working. Initially had grand plans to tour the country. Go places I have never been before. Experience new sights and sounds. Guess for those that know me, I didn't really get very far. Not to say I didn't get out at all. Visited a forest reserve near me but that was about it as far as touring went. Can't blame the Xbox cos it died (again) long before my days off started.

But that is not to say it wasn't an enjoyable and productive 6 days. Managed to get alot of things done around the home. Fixed the kitchen taps, toilet cistern, the patio & kitchen lights, the hallway emergency lights. Sand down and varnish the knife holder. Set up the home network and port forwarding settings. Install Norton & clean up on all 3 laptops. Weed the garden. Buy and setup a printer. Transfer cash to mums account in the UK. Change my bank statement delivery address. Set up a new handphone line. Repair the parquet flooring. Repair Wifeys shoes.

Also started doing cooking again. Realised precisely how out of practice I am on it all. Spent a good deal of time just relaxing around at home. Was nice to simply be able to take time out and enjoy the home.

Had a call today telling me I had actually passed the local aviation law exam. Meaning I can actually hold the local engineer's license in addition to my European license. Was pretty stunned as even thou I studied hard initially. I soon got bored and didn't touch the books for over a month. Then 2 days before the exam I tired to study but I was either too tired from work or just had no interest. Even during the exam I totally balls-ed up the written paper by messing up 2 of the 4 questions.

Would like to believe I am a total genius but honestly I feel still that the government set exam papers here are a total sham. As I know of several people who have a good track record of passing exams, studying like hell and failing. Ton the flip side. I also know of several people like me, doing jack but still passing. Its all down to your luck on which batch of papers you are put in. Either the pass tray or the fail tray. I spoke to 1 of the guys who took the exams with me. He had an insider in the examination body who informed him, he had infact passed despite being sent a letter of failure.

But hey, what am I complaining about. I got thru. Won't have to fork out more money on a retake. And having the local license clears up alot of headaches that arise with me working on the back of my European license. Smiles all round.

Crap Cars 'R' Us

2008-12-01T20:25:00.007+03:00

Out here there is a car manufacturing company. They used to sell cars internationally but they have all but ceased selling overseas because... well... they are pretty shit. Recently thou with foreign investment and expertise they have started selling overseas again but still doing pretty badly. Its only the rock bottom prices that shift any of them from the forecourts.

Here thou they are number 1. Number 1 cos the government slaps a big fat tax on all non domestically made cars. Other than being voted international 2nd worst car of the year by Top Gear few years back what exactly makes them so bad that the government has to intervene to make these cars sell?

Well Being here has allowed me to solve that puzzle. Been here 3 mths now and in that time I have been thru 7 of their cars. 1st car suffered a high speed tyre blow out. 2nd car road tax ran out, so that 1 was mechanically ok... well... engine was very sluggish for a 1.5... but anyway, 3rd car dead alternator, 4th car blown gearbox, 5th car ECU problems, 6th car... see below...

Driving home from work suddenly the front left of the car went all wobbly, unstable, clunky and noisy. Initially suspected it could be a blown tyre again so I pulled over to the side of the road. Got out of the car and had a look. Only to see the damage as shown below. Picture 1 is of how a suspension strut should look when installed. Picture 2 shows the view I got.

The strut had snapped off from its mounting (1) The now snapped off strut (2) only staying in place by butting up against the ring like bracket. Also the strut bushing (3) and upper bearing (4) completely detached. YAY for domestic quality.

Knowing that calling for the car rental company road side assistance could mean me waiting hours to be rescued. I decided as I was just 20km from home, if I took it easy, avoided the potholes & bumps and stuck to the slow lane I should fine. After all after being in a car crash where you've rolled onto your roof, losing a wheel doesn't seem so bad. Besides... pfffrtttt, ain't my car.

Sure enough made it home fine. But now the challenge of getting the rental company to replace the car. 1st the girl on the line said no one was available to deliver the car and could I wait till tomorrow. The after some grilling it changed to no one was available till 2 hours later & could it wait till tomorrow. Then it was if they left now they would be stuck in rush hour traffic & could it wait till tomorrow. Felt so much like I was talking to my mechanics at work. Work shy lazy MoFos. Guess I shouldn't be that hard on em as the work shy lazy MoFo-ness is a national thing, the norm basically. Gotta remember the saying "When in Rome..."

Anyway guy turns up with my replacement car. Which is now car number 7. Wonder how long this will last. Am getting pretty sick of changing cars so often. Plus its getting a killer on the fone bill calling those guys all the time.

Upon a star

2008-11-24T19:48:00.003+03:00

Our quest to have access to the internet at home is an uphill one. It still boggles my mind how a developer/ council can build a housing estate, let it mature for around 10 years and still not have every house hooked up to a phone line or not have the possibility of net access for every household. Its just beyond me. Also doesn't help that the national phone company seems totally useless at hooking people up. Just totally lost and frustrated on getting internet at home. How I wish SOOO hard that internet at home before Christmas will be a reality.

Also my 9 days off is fast approaching. Just this week at work to get thru and its time off for 9 days. YAY for no work and time at home but BOO for no income. Sadly cos its school holiday season here going further afield for touring is out of the question as every hotel seems to be fully booked. Such a pain being limited to day trips. Was looking forward to touring this country more thoroughly.

Oh well. best head to bed now, got 5 more days to get thru before I can lay in again. 5 days cos gotta work saturday. How sucky is that... work for 6 days in a week...

Still no surf

2008-11-19T16:55:00.004+03:00

Starting to settle into work finally. Getting used to the "not doing alot" style. Used to, but definitely not in to. Still enjoyed that window job on Monday. Started the job 1st thing in the morn, and before ya know its time to go home. Wish most days were like that.

Should have cable TV soon, thanks yet again to "L". My tab of debt to him is slowly piling up. So its 1 outta 2 things done. Sadly the more important Internet at home is not really materialising. Dunno if its down to pure laziness of the ISP sales people or incompetence by the governing body who plans out this countries neighbourhoods. Doubt if I will ever truly know. But fact remains. Net at home seems a long way off...

Also nearly time to renew my work contract. Was told I have to take a 9 day break before I recommence under the new contract. A little unexpected. I have the choice to fly back to the UK FOC if I so choose but not really an option as I ain't leaving wifey home alone. So more than likely will spend those 9 days touring my host nation.

On a side note. finally managed to return my car to the rental company. Took 2 days and lots of incessant phone calls on my part to make them get their finger out and swap the car for me. But pleasant surprise when they handed me the keys to a V6 as they were fresh outta the bottom of the class model I had. First time driving a V type engine. No real impressions yet. Maybe in time. A bit of a shame its FF thou. But probably for the best as an FR car will probably be a precusror to ensuing silliness on my part.

MAN I just want Internet at home that will makes things here SO much better... When dear God will it happen?

La revolution

2008-11-17T18:09:00.001+03:00

Car died this morning. Think the alternator is dead and thus not recharging the battery. Had to annoy "L" first thing in the morn n ask if he knew any guys staying in my locale who could give me a lift in. Cause he did... just that it happened to be my foreman who picked me up... by all definitions, my boss. Big thanks to "L" for the favour and "O" for drivin me in.

As for the dead car, rental company decided to do no more than just replace the battery... enough to last a week or so before it all happens again. Will call em up tomorrow n force them to give me a new car.

Other than that was a good day at work. Got put incharge of 2 cockpit window changes. Kinda amusing when I went to the parts store to pick up the 2 windows. Ask the guy at the desk for the items in question. He then moved over to have a look for it in a cardboard box around A4 sized. I then stopped him and reminded him a A330 cockpit window is pretty dam big... almost 1m squared. Also pretty dam heavy. He nodded and say he understood, then began looking thru bags of nuts, bolts and screws. He slowly walked back to me and announced... No sir... not there. Wow no shit, maybe if you tried looking in the box again, ya never know you might have missed it, might be under that lil packet of split pins...

When I did finally get it I set 2 of the trainee certifyers on it. Sitting there watching them working away at the window I realised my working life has come full circle. I started off this job sitting watching people work jobs, purely cos I was too clueless to be trusted. And here I am now, once again sitting watching people work jobs, purely cos I am not (supposedly) clueless and those doing the job can't be trusted. How Ironic. Well not totally true. The 2 trainee guys were pretty dam good. Heck alot better than a majority of the mechanics here. Few more of those guys around here, couppled with a 4 on 4 off shift and this contract would be lush.

Swings 'n round-a-bouts

2008-11-13T16:18:00.004+03:00

Spent the past week at a different maintenance base. Came to the reality that it is just where I am stationed that is so frustratingly lazy. Out where I currently am it certainly isn't as busy as everywhere else I have worked. Thou, that can be a nice thing. But more pleasingly, the mechanics actually get a job and carry it out. Not at top speed, but its better than the whining, bitching and bickering I've been getting at my permanent base.

Only real shame is this place is nearer the center of the city so traffic is a killer. I spend twice as long on the commute and twice as much on fuel. Plus this current place has a shorter working day and expects you to work Saturday. So basically the hours are the same but you only really get 1 day off. BIG downer.

So here is the trade offs. Pig lazy mechs, annoying boss but shorter commute, 4 toll road charges per day but less working days and more hours per day. Or good working mechs, reasonably peaceful surroundings, no toll roads, but longer drive in, 6 day working week and less hours per day. Pros n cons. Annoyingly they are both pretty squarely balanced. So for now prob just easier to go where ever the wind blows.

Did realise recently thru a chat with "J" that. The essence of our job is essentially as it is now. Looking at an Aircraft and finding faults with it, find out how to fix it, order the parts and set the mechanics on it. It will be a once in a blue moon thing to pick up the tools again as I did. Don't matter where I go. My essential job will be as such. Great job for alot of people I know. Stay reasonably clean and get paid a good wage. But still maintain that nothing beats working with your own hands and your own tools. Some things money can't replace.

Ravin old fart

2008-11-09T13:33:00.002+03:00

Well another year on this planet has rounded in my life. And now offically heading into the realms of being an old git. But flicking thru my previous posts, its abundantly clear I became a grumpy old man a long time ago...

Lately thou been grumpier than usual. Mainy due to too many hours spent at work and pretty much no hours on my Xbox. Thanks to it dying again for the 4th time. Yet again E74 message. All I wanted was for it to last out till Dec rolled around and wifey could pick me one up cheap when she goes home for a bit. As Xbox prices here are insane. Microsoft has slashed the price of them world wide but yet out here the price is above the odds. Added annoyance as I've just moved to a rather nice house. With a nice comfy living room for gaming. But I guess it's Gods way of telling me to work on all the DIY issues with the house 1st.

Got such a list of games to get & get thru. Dead Space, Gears 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Farcry 2, Portal Still Alive & Mirrors edge. List did include End war, Silent hill & Armoured core 4A. But thought it best to limit myself to games that scored above 9/10. Be too costly other wise. Not to mention not enough time in a day. Gonna be even less time if I manage to get onto Xbox live.

Still yet to unpack fully. On the whole its pretty much settled, just that there is alot of small things to iron out. Still yet to get internet and cable TV but those shouldn't as much of a problem compaired to the previous place.

Gentle words

2008-11-06T17:17:00.002+03:00

Today was an eye opener as to how people can get. Well just 1 really. It was also a good case study on how not to motivate people. To be honest for all the faults this place has, it still has its own pace and rhythm. Not a very fast 1 mind, thou with the right strings pulled it can be sped up a lil. And conversely with alot of yelling and rudeness it can sure as hell run alot slower.

Last week and this week at work has been a how to do it right session followed by a how not to session. Last week guys pulled out the stops to get the plane fixed. Sure it departed a lil late but all the serious issues had been dealt with. And everyone left work totally knackered but that was pretty much it. This week issues are being dealt with rather questionably and people are leaving work frustrated and pissed off.

Saying classic quotes such as,
"I'm not forcing you guys to stay back but I want 1 of you here till its finished"
(while someone was helping out) " Come on HURRY UP, stop wasting my time"
"My plan is to get the plane for engine runs tomorrow, that is my plan. I don't want you guys fucking my plan up"
"if they finish late (2am) I still expect to see them in the morning (730am), minimum rest period, no such thing, get them in"

Being rude is 1 thing, doing a questionable job is something else. Quotes like,
"some sand paper and paint over the top and it will be ok"
"I don't care what you do, just get it done"
" (regarding the fault) don't raise a rectification task for it, just leave it"
"why did you raise a defect card, you aren't supposed to inspect that area"

I write my blogs assuming that they will be read. I'm not silly enough to believe that who ever I am blogging about will never read it. If you are reading, please take this a subtle nudge. A little courtesy and civil mindedness can take you a long way. You might be amazed what a lil please and thank you can achieve. Also when you start steering your actions to falling in line with the wishes of management and not the safety of those who fly on your planes, you have to start considering if you are really in the correct job. Aircraft manufacturer inspections and tasks are in place for a reason.

Useless lil shit

2008-11-05T17:07:00.004+03:00

Feelin pretty shitty today. And for once, after a bit of introspection I kinda know why. Basically the overall feeling is... I suck, I am mediocre at best but on the whole not particularity good at anything. I rate myself as a pretty average mechanic and an O-K certifier. As a driver I am a "ride by the seat of my pants" kind of driver at best and on the whole pretty crap. As a gamer I suck. Either I play a game slow and safe, read as boring and dull, or I play reckless and get fragged by a bunch of 12yr olds.

The above is my default status. After many years alive I have learnt things about myself. 1 of them is that if left unchecked I can be a smug, cocky, gobby lil shit. So to avoid such things I keep myself down mentally. Constantly comparing against those I view as good at what they do. And at the same time dismissing any praise coming my way as some kind of mixup/ mistake. Thing is after so many years of putting myself down, it has become sub conscious, and thus a default. Only way I can keep myself off this self inflicted low is to, on a regular basis prove to myself that I am not that crap. It is also the way I try to make my lazy self improve everyday. Pushing myself to constantly be better.

Usually this involves completing some kind of personal challenge. The staples of which would be tackling a challenging piece of winding road or clocking a good lap while on the track. Or completing a game on its hardest setting in less than 24hrs. Or fixing a plane up to a good standard in a short time frame. And if its not 1 of those staples it would be doing something different in life, like a road trip or some home DIY, working on the car, building up a computer, you get the picture. Also my default state is self compounding. Meaning if I reach that state and instead of getting positive results put out, I start making mistakes and messing up, I am twice as hard on myself. In case you didn't guess today is 1 of those days.

Herein lies the root of my problem. Firstly I don't have a car here in which I feel safe pushing to the limits. Thus no way to mentally pick myself up that way. Also my xbox has died for the 4th time, so that avenue is out too. And as work is 5 days a week I don't have enough days off to try something different or do anything too taxing, so that won't do either. Only way I have left to boost my prematurely stunted self confidence is to essentially achieve a "good days work"

And that, right there is the problem. Everyday I leave work, I ask myself what did I achieve. Usually the answer is fuck all. Or at least fuck all compared to what I used to achieve. Ok so alot of that fuck all is due to factors beyond my control. But at the end of the day when my sub conscious gets that daily report and sees so little being done, it breaks out the mental bitch slap. It is actually starting to be quite a concern to me. Everyday I wake up and actually dread what I will encounter at work. The last time I had that same emotion in me I almost just stopped showing up for work. I say almost because, luckily I managed to get another job before I pulled a no show, so I handed in my notice instead.

With here, I keep telling myself its early days yet and to keep on, as things should take a turn for the better. But right now that shitty useless feeling is still there and with work looming just 7 hours away, its tough to see the bright side.

Do what, again?

2008-11-02T11:48:00.003+03:00

Mixed feelings about the week past. But regardless of it all it was certainly busy. Just about everything happening at once. Had a huge load of work on this week, plus my aviation law exam, signing my tenancy agreement and moving house all in 1 week.

Working loads is good for that bank balance but side effects include being sick n tired of work. If it wasn't for a certain person, even the cash incentive would have clocked it's limit. I still can't figure my feelings for working here out. I suppose, if you were genuinely work shy and apt at shifting responsibility, while having a natural talent for putting on a good show, this is the place for you. For anyone else this place could start wearing thin. I genuinely dread the part where I have to hand out tasks for the day. Mainly because I know only 20% will be done if ya lucky. And simply handing out those tasks via the official channels means even less would get done. Not to mention handing out a task personally invokes an old Chinese saying of "making you vomit blood" Here is 1 such dialogue from this week, enjoy.

Me: Could you please precharge nitrogen for all the hydraulic resovoirs?
S : Which ones?
Me: All of them.
S: All of what?
Me: Hydraulic resevoirs.
S: What do you want done?
Me: Nitrogen precharge.
S: But I've done it, all those ones... and those as well.
Me: Those are accumilators, not resevoirs.
S: What resevoirs?
Me: The hydraulic ones.
S: So what do you want done to the hydraulics?
Me: Nirtogen precharge!
S: on the hydraulic lines?
Me: NO the resevoirs!!!
S: Ok, which one?
Me:$£&"*£$ ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!

B'overed?!? Nah not really...

2008-10-22T17:08:00.003+03:00

Starting to realise how the attitude to my chosen profession is starting to change. When I started off, like all newbies, I was keen as mustard. I'd work on anything with wings and an engine. Starting off on small single seater aerobatics and the odd 4 seater composite. Few months later I was lucky enough to move on to the big ones. Granted they were 30 year old planes but they were jets and they were big. That was all I was concerned with. Happy as you like, I was.

But whenever a newer jet was brought in to be worked on and I didn't get a look in, it was kind of a slap in the face. Really fought to get mechanic time on those newer jets. Doing anything. It didn't matter what. Lubrication, panel removal, toilet tank draining, changing the wheels. Really didn't care. Just happy to work on a modern jet.

Now several years down the line I finally have my license and am qualified on 3 types of aircraft as well as several of their variants. And things have changed some what. At the current place I'm at, was recently asked to work on a plane which I was not qualified on. Supporting as a non qualified certifyer. Where as once, I would have jumped at it. Now I have no interest. Not no interest in a; I'm lazy kinda way. More of a; I really cannot be bothered kinda way. For some reason, even thou getting working experience on that plane could qualify me to apply for a qualification course on that plane later in the future, for some reason I really had no interest.

Really can't explain why. Doesn't make sense. More qualifications on more aircraft, means more job opportunities, means more money. Where did I lose my interest in planes? And more to the point. Where did I lose interest in the potential to grab more cash? Have I become too settled at where I am in my job?

Reason I believe is my move away from the tools. Being a certifyer and just telling people to do things and not experiencing the joy of taking stuff to bits, lugging up and down great bits of metal, even getting pissed on by various carcinogenic fluids had a charm all of their own. Being away from the intimacy of my mechanical love affair is starting to kill the love for what I do. Being forced away from the tools is slowly turning all planes to just another thing with wings and engines in my eyes. Boring and monotonous. No longer the mammoth wonder of human innovation they once were to me. Sigh... I just miss working with my hands... something not many out here will be able to sympathise with.

For now the logical push for money is holding my enthusiasm for working on other types of planes. Sadly that'll have to do as I think overall, my interest for planes is waining.

Wondering

2008-10-18T13:13:00.002+03:00

Well it died again. My XBOX. 1 stupid week was all it lasted. And we aren't even talking monster gaming sessions of old. Like 15hrs non stop. Just 2-4 hrs max a day. Hell some days none at all. Got it all fixed but can't help but wonder how long before it dies again. If only they sold the cheapy XBOX arcade versions here.

Yet again I am wondering if coming here to work was the right choice. After getting adjusted to work here over the past month. It is starting to seem to me that my greatest challenge everytime an aircraft gets put in for maintenance is getting the mechanics to do work. Not some fiendish fault with the aircraft or some devilish defect. Just getting people to work. I really have never seen people so workshy, lazy or childish than those out here. Eveyday I work with them I keep my eyes peeled for that 1 act of redemption. Forever telling myself, you can't paint everyone with the same brush. There will be those who are better. But even those that seem to be, they would be what I would consider as my base expectation.

With 1 of my long time colleagues making a move I am starting to question is it really that great to stay here? Gripes I have here are, the state of the workforce. The fact I have to pay for accommodation and transport to work. I have to pay for the admin required for me to start work. You get no extra money for having more aircraft coverage. Someone qualified on 4 planes is paid the same as someone qualified on only 1. I am expected to work extra hours. All those things are exactly what keeps people away from here. Oh not to mention the pay being half of what could be paid else where.

I know I certainly didn't come here for the cash but all those other lil gripes makes me wonder if I should have been monetarily motivated. Would have been less hassle and more rewarding.

Really dunno what I mean to say in this blog. Just a random rant. Maybe not enough XBOX time, who knows. For now just let time play itself out first and decide slowly. Bottom line I am not being overly taxed mentally or physically here. And I am saving a good portion of my earnings. So why the bitchin' ? Sadly, as always there is the yearning for more.

Lazy'n rude

2008-10-15T15:18:00.005+03:00

Tis been a month since I got here to work. But till now just how slow and lazy the work pace is hasn't sunk in. At first it was a source of amusement. The general disbelief at how little work could be done over such a large time frame but now it is simply a frustrating pain. I have always tried to give guys under or with me as easy a time as possible at work. But when crunch time hits I expect an added effort all round. A lil bit of give n take if you will. But here even when I give them the most basic of jobs. Jobs that anywhere else I would expect done in 30mins max they can take it in excess of 3 hours with 4 times the manpower I deem sufficient. Hell 1 job I gave them involved turning a handle in order to drain the aircraft's water tanks. Literally walk to a control panel and turn a handle, that's it... Took 2 people and 4 hours to complete. Then when a load of them were allocated 2 hours on overtime I decided to give them a job, but instantly they commented " can we do it tomorrow? Its almost time to go home" WTF man its the start of your 2 hrs OT. The fucking start and you want to go home! If thats the case fuck the OT go home now then. The previous line I actually stated in more polite terms in the presence of those incharge of the OT and those doing the OT. But then again those in charge of the OT (manager types) just exacerbated it all by finally saying that they should only do half the job but still claim the full 2hrs OT. Its not like the job was huge, any mechanic I have ever worked with would have taken 30-45 mins to do it on his own, don't even consider a group of 4.

Part of me trys to side with them and their predicament of being very lowly paid, hence the reluctance to work. But I think to anyone faced with it, dyed in the wool, work shy bone idle laziness is clear as day to those facing it. To me there is a clear line between work shyness and the protest against pay inequality. And out here the former is pretty clear.

Another thing struck me about peoples attitudes. Several instances and stories of rudeness come to mind but 1 by far stands out.

Was at a shopping mall last weekend and held a door open for the next person behind me which was a guy walking ahead of his girlfriend/wife. He walked thru and rather than acknowledge me or take over holding the door from me, so as to hold it open for his gf/wife. He completely ignored me and strolled thru fully expecting me to hold it open for his g/f wife too. Ummm don't think so... I let the door go right in her face.
"Oops... did I do that? I expected your other half to hold the door for you... oh well"
Yup, indeed, how very rude of me...

Whiny bitchin' scumbags

2008-10-09T16:44:00.004+03:00

Was a nice quiet day, the Monday gone. Was told during the previous week, it would be busy come Monday. But the aircraft was delayed so I hadn't brought any notes to study or stuff to do. So I tried to mooch about the other aircraft present in the hanger. Try learn stuff on aircraft I don't normally work on. But after pestering a few certifiers it seemed like I was starting to get in their way. So I happily retreated online, added to my blog and did a number of other web based poop, cos there was nothing else better to do.

Now 3/4 the way thru the day my boss comes to me and abruptly demands I stop surfing the net and get of the computer. Later he drags me into the office and explains that some one complained to the BIG BIG boss (who reamed him out) directly about a contractor surfing the net all day long and not doing any work. As I was the only contractor around it pretty much meant me. I did tell people if I could help out just let me know. Jeez, if you are unhappy with me surfing the net then tell me so face to face instead of keeping ya stupid bickering mouth shut and bitch to the biggest boss you can find.

I've worked in places with this kinda of attitude before and it has made me leave and never return. I FUCKING hate places with people like that. Got me so worked up after it happened I spoke to wifey and talked seriously about leaving if it was gonna be like this again. That is how much I hate working in places with people like that. If there is work to be done I'll do it, if not I will make the most of my time as I so wish. Not pretending to work or hiding away in some corner of the hangar. If anyone finds they could do with a hand I would be more than glad to assist. But I ain't trekking about the place asking every swinging dick if they need some help with their jobs. You know where I am, come and ask if you need me. Writing this now I have firmly calmed down and know it would be silly leaving over 1 lil bitch. Just gotta accept that no matter where you work in the world slimy lil scumbags like that will always be present. Its just the number of them varies.

Updates

2008-10-06T07:15:00.003+03:00

Managed to get a reduction on the rent. Yay, would be the usual response but somehow this time round its just a half-yay. As part of our negociation stratagy we listed to the landlord all the problems we had when we 1st moved in and still have. Our list was very comprehensive and lasted over a side of A4. So good was our list that the landlord instantly dropped the rent by 40%. But on the flip side was so worried by the number of things wrong with the property that they have decided to sell it, rather than keep hold of it. Let someone else deal with the issues. So wifey n myself are back to digilently house hunting once again.

Wifey's sis has flown back home again. Spent the past week sleeping on the sofa while they had the bed. Strangely I found I slept much better on the sofa than the bed. I put it down to 2 things. 1st, the sofa cushions actually give support where as the bed is a foam mattress, which is now the thickness of a piece of paper. Hence no support at all. 2nd, no dog on the sofa. It's bloodly hard to sleep soundly with this 4 legged, creature walking around on the bed and shifting positions all over the bed in the middle of the night.

Work today is awkward. My plane was supposed to turn up last night but as of this morning hasn't shown up. So once again I am stuck with sweet FA to do. And cos I anticipated work, I left all my study notes at home. So while everyone rushes about on planes I am not qualified on I am sat here doing bugger all, on my own. It ain't so bad doing sod all if you are in a group, but on ya own is something else.

Xbox is off on repairs. Should be back intime for the weekend. Just right to starton the back log of games. Should send my laptop off to be fixed too. Think its a hardware problem not a worm. As the problem of the "P" kep being pressed; I found if I open a TXT file and as the line of P's form, when I hold the Shift key it shows upper case Ps. So keyboard fault I guess. Pain in the ass. Laptop is less than 3mths old. More cash to spend on repairs. Dammit

Worms & kids

2008-09-29T04:27:00.000+03:00

On a bit of a low now. Wifey has left for home for 3 days so I'm stuck home alone. Not to mention my xbox is still dead with E74 message. And it can't be fixed on Microsoft warranty because Malaysia has no Xbox service center. For some reason I just can't get into gaming on the Wii. No matter how good the game, it just don't seem to hook me. And now to make things worse. On the evening Wifey flew off I thought I'd cheer myself up by watching the new Batman film on my nice big Samaung series 3 HDTV via my reasonably new laptop. But as fate has it the film file had some sort of worm embedded in it. Which is now in my laptop.

I have no clue how to ID it so as to find a cure. Characteristics basically are when you boot up for around 2hrs everything is normal. Then its as thou somebody is holding down the keyboard's "P" key permanently. So if you are in a folder you keep cycling to any icon starting with P. Or if you are trying to write a document, the moment you set the cursor to type on the page all you get is a page full of P's and you haven't even touched the keyboard yet! which means you can't enter anything that requires a password cos you can't type anything cos the moment you try to the password box is filled with P's. Now if you reboot your comp locks up as the windows startup screen comes into view, plus lots of loud beeping. Now if you shut down and reboot and arrive on the windows login to windows page you can't cos the worm just keeps inputting P for you. So you have to shut down for around 30mins or so for it to reset to becoming dormant again.Also I realise the intuition of not having pets is a truth for me.

Just spent 2 days alone with Ayumi and already feeling it's far too much of a drain on my time, effort. She's all fuzzy and cute and at times funny. But as with puppies, they crave attention plus being at home all day with the exception of the odd walk, she gets bored so quick. With that in mind I can only imagine the horror of having kids. At least a dog only lasts 12 years tops. Even then you could re home if its becoming that much trouble for you. But with kids...Man... You've gotta pay they way for close on 20 years and even then you don't hear the end of it. Not to mention the cost of em, or the pooping, n puking, n screaming, etc, etc. Dunno how true it is but someone once told me keeping a kid till it's 18 will cost you around US$250,000. Why... why do people have em? What exactly is the incentive to reproduce?

The Godfather

2008-09-20T17:37:00.003+03:00

Yet another chilled out night at the main maintenance base. Been working nights here for the past 4 days. Nice bit of OT. Usually just 1 or 2 tasks n then it was off home early. Excellent. Next week or 2 is gonna be a little hectic on the home front.

Firstly feeling rather disgruntled with the quality of housing we have been handed, we started to ask around. And true enough we have been taken for a ride price wise. Probably charged for 2x of what would be reasonable. So we are looking to move. But that is just 1 of several reasons. Another reason is that it may take at least 3 mths to get an Internet line. But it could take as long as 3 years as some guys from work have testified to.

Yet another reason is the bro of the person who set us up with housing. He has this habit of taking his sweet time to sort things out. Things like installing the air-con or fans. Or arranging for things like furniture or TV, etc. But when he finally gets round to sorting it out he expects you to be available when he pops round. Literally demanding you drop what you are doing so he can come round. All that aside thou is the more worrying side of her bro is this. The fact he likes to turn up on an unannounced social call and expecting you to fling open your doors and usher him in. Of cause normally I'd just tell someone like him to politely piss off but sadly he is well known in the area in having links to both the cops as well as the local mobsters. Last thing I need after work is a visit from Tony Soparano or a bunch of cops with planted narcotic evidence.

So we are on the house hunt. On the quiet thou. Lest Bro turn up on my door step in a foul mood. Also Wifey needs to fly home before her tourist VISA runs out. So most things will be on stand still till she gets back. When she is back thou her sis will be in tow for a short holiday. So even then she won't be at full admin capacity.

Man ain't looking forward to yet another stint without her around. Think this year is the year we spent with the most time apart. Must be close to 3 mths when you lump it together. Plus I gotta look after our dog and study for my exams. Gonna be seriously shattered if work springs OT on me. Great for the bank account, not so great for my energy levels.

Crack that whip

2008-09-17T14:18:00.003+03:00

Thoroughly cheezed off last night while on shift. Plan was this. Finish up the work on the A330 we had in the hanger. Send it for ground runs at 23:00. Straighten out last minute snags and kick it out to the terminal, shiny and new at 02:00. As with all plans it never went according. But the thing that pissed me off was that in anyplace other than here it probably would have worked.

There was just so much dragging it out, mincing about and dicking around going on, nothing got done. The 1 that took the biscuit was 3 guys who were told at 20:00 to put in a new seal, secured by 30 screws. By 03:00 they were still at it. Sadly I was not in charge of them. I would like to say it would be different if that were the case. Blame primarily lies with those 3 guys but not all 100% of it as the task master needs to bear some of it too.

I only started showing interest when the clock hit 03:00 as the aircraft looked in a state ready for ground runs but we couldn't as 3 lazy bitches were hanging out of a man lifter fitting the last 15 screws. So I asked their task master what was the deal and proceeded to stand with him watching them. I watched them botch and fumble about breaking sweat with every movement, dropping screws all over. But what lit my fuse was when I watched them finish screwing in the last 15 screws only to move back to the start and start removing those screws and replacing them again. By now I had to say something. Despite the task master saying it would be useless as they did not regard us engineer white boys as their in charge. Thus would not even pay us any heed. But hey screw it, if anything if would make me feel SO much better by yelling at them.

So I kicked off shouting at yelling and yeah they did blank me but raising my voice and yelling at specific guys even thou I didn't know their names seemed to work. When asked what the hell they were doing, their reply was that they were replacing any old screws with the shiny new ones they had in their hands. That really set me off and I had to launch into them. Summing it up I told them to just make sure a screw was in every hole and was tight. Then to get down and get out of my sight. Was pretty obvious that they were not used to such persistant yelling at by a white boy.

Thank God that they did piss off out the way in under 2 mins. Must add thou that those 3 are the cream of the lazy mofo crop. But it still bugs me a bit that the guy in charge of them didn't make any effort to get them in line even when the mincing got out of hand.

Bodies everywhere

2008-09-15T21:42:00.002+03:00

Walked into stores one day to ask why a certain item had not been delivered to me after a whole day of waiting. The guy at the desk politely enough punched in the part numbers and zipped thru a load of windows on his PC to find my missing bits. Then his phone goes. Picking it up, he yammers away in the local lingo then has a casual word with his colleague at the table opposite. His colleague turns around to the waist high cupboard behind his desk, opens it up, reaches in and rifles around a bit before turning around. Now I expected a folder or file, maybe a stapler... but no... he pulls out a guy! A full sized 5'6 bloke outta the cupboard. All bleary eyed, complete with bed head and newspaper print on his cheek. Stumbling to the phone the guy carry's on the conversation. And no one in the office bats an eyelid!

Again a few days ago I go into another office dept and being around 8 in the morning it is devoid of people. Now I just think it was empty because of the casual attitude that people here take to turning up to work. But upon closer inspection I noticed guys camouflaged in with the clutter under the desks. I mean proper sniper style camouflaged up. Some had packing foam over them others had on blankets that matched the floor tiling, some even disguised as newspaper stacks...

Hell later that afternoon I got into crew room and it was pitch black. You could not see a thing in the jet blackness. Flick on the lights and it was like a scene out of a bloodless slasher movie. Every available space was littered with bodies. Floor, chairs, tables, etc... All now looking rather annoyed that some berk had turned on the lights.

But those were just lowly minions. Hence the need for camouflage and hiding. In the offices with the higher ups I see guys collapsed at their tables, or heads hanging back in their chairs, mouths wider open, ejecting those Z's loud and clear for all to hear.

More sleeping gets done at work than work itself. Hell I think they sleep more at work than at home. Must be something in the air. Maybe someone is piping sleeping gas into the ventilation system. Lord knows. But it sure explains why the simplest task here like pumping up a tyre can take 5 men the best part of 6 hours to accomplish.

Fresh meat

2008-09-12T11:15:00.001+03:00

So starts a new adventure. New country, new job, new suprises. Work ethic here is going to need getting used to. Where as back in the land of sand none of the locals did any work and were never actually expected to work. Out here you are made to work them but none of them do. And those that do, do it pretty poorly. An example is a 10 hour shift to put in 4 bolts and connect 2 pipes... Of cause there are those that are exceptions to the rule. But they are pretty rare.

At home its a bit of a mess. House is very bare. Hardly any furniature cos its not been delivered yet. Also no TV channels or phone line or internet connection. Hence the lack of blog updates. Hopefully that will be all settled in the next week or 2. Also my XBOX 360 is DEAD!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRGGHHHHH! What am I gonna do??? E74 message. Could be a dead AV cable or as I suspect, a dead GFX card. Trying to get it fixed under warrenty by Microsoft out in Singapore but could be a problem as I don't have a reciept or know the shop I bought it from. As I got mine during a Tech expo. Gotta settle with Wifey's Wii for now. Got "No more heroes" pretty good Wii game, so thats keepin me busy for now. But then again I shouldn't be playing I got an air law exam on the 25th :( Oh yeah Wifey's got a dog out here now. But I'll leave blogging it to her.

All in all things are ok and as expected thou the local work ethic was a bit of a shock, LOL.

Rush rush

2008-08-26T22:02:00.002+03:00

Just 2 days left. As expected I've not done much of what I needed to do. So tomorrow starts the big rush. In my defence Royal mail messed up my schedule. Taking almost a full week to deliver a couriered letter. And upon delivery of the registered courier letter the guy didn't even bother to have it signed or anything. He just popped it thru the letter box... might as well have paid regular post.

Also spent a day round Greyboys. Had a great time karting at Thruxton. Managed to post a best lap at 54.1 was pretty happy that during the 2nd round I managed to post very consistent times. Shame I was still the slowest on the grid. Guess it's something to be said about driving thru instinct rather than technique and training. Just need to pratice... shame it will be a VERY long time before I drive anything note worthy again. Also a big thanks to Grey for helping me to transfer my xbox data to my new 120 Hdd and for the HDTV advice. Not to mention for letting me stay round etc.

Also completed mums security exam today for her because she keeps failing it (3 times already). Just couldn't believe she could fail them as much as she had. With questions like,

where should you keep your security ID when at work in a restricted zone?
1) in your wallet
2) in your pocket
3) on display at chest height
4) at home

The rest of the questions were pretty much on par. I just think she was just too lazy to read the questions. She has been like that in the past. Well got a long drive ahead not to mention lots of packing and other errands to run. Just 48 hrs till I gotta fly.

Lord knows when I will be able to get back online again. But safe to say it won't be in the UK. Prob KL or SG when I next get online. And so another adventure begins...

Not alot

2008-08-23T06:21:00.002+03:00

Suppose I better do a lil blogging cos I have no clue when the next time I will be able to get back online. Supposed to be moving off to East Asia on the 28th. So only a few days left here. Way too little time. Could have really done with another week. Every single day is filled with meeting some one or other. Still I have my bags to pack and things to tidy up at home but yet only half is done.

Plus Mum keeps wanting me to spend time. Shame I don't feel the same. Think I have only a day or so free to do all the stuff I need to at home. Guess Mum will have to share that time.

Not much to say on this post really. Just sad time passes so quick here. would have loved to drive my RX8 about a lil more and hang out with friends a lil longer. Just a pain that everything is on such a short deadline.

Fingers crossed and heres to hoping the next contract works out to be a good one.

Subarashii Crash-O!!!

2008-08-15T19:12:00.000+03:00

Now that I am out of the land of sand I can safely make the following statement.I have never had a single accident/prang/scrape/crash while at the wheel out there. There I said it. Cos you know how it is. If I said that even on my final day out there it would be SERIOUSLY tempting fate. Thou needless to say my car has had some damage. But all done to the vehicle while it was parked up and I was away from it. Like the fateful scrape that led me to becoming good friends with that charming American chap. Also sustained some stranger bumper damage and a scratched hood, but all done when i was no where to be seen.

Anyway nuff rambling bout pap. Here is the meat of the post. My grand collection of car smashes taken during my time out there. The locals sure have a talent there. SO many times I have look at those crashes n thought to myself "HOW??? HOW??? How is that even possible. I could have never even done that if I tried..." It almost makes you want to walk up to the driver, pat them on the back and say "Well done, well done"

Going home?

2008-08-14T05:46:00.003+03:00

Well its my last evening in this apartment. Been my home for around 2.5 years. Thou at the start it was always a temporary place. But the months dragged on and despite the less than desirable global location it really did become home. And now the time has come to leave. Not a surprising turn of events but what was surprising was how much I have actually become attached to this place. Almost had a tear squeeze past as I took a last look at the place. Especially when I saw Wifey's half drunk cup of coffee sat at her computer table. All the memories of the good times we had within these walls coming back.

All the memories of the pool parties in the early days. The hours spent watching Arirang and discovery before falling asleep on the sofa. Also the dear friends I've left behind in the building. I can only hope that I will see them again 1 day.

Carrying my bags out of the apartment I took 1 last look down the hall way of what was my home. It felt so sad that I will never see this place again. Standing in the lift on the way down I carved wifey and my initials in the lift door just as "V" and "K" had done when they left.

So used had I become to this place that as I left I didn't even think twice when I locked the door and drove to the airport with the house keys in my pocket. Just hope the watch man has a spare set or clearing up my apartment could be rather inconvenient... D'oh

Cunting Bastards

2008-08-12T18:31:00.000+03:00

WARNING!!! Long and swear filled post WARNING!!!

Well it was inevitable. Loads of people told me so, but I went ahead anyway. Call it pure stupidity, call it doing it my way, call it what ever you want to. Because when you come down to it, even I don't know what to call it. I suppose the best description would be called, looking for a good shafting. As that best describes what happened.

Against the overwhelming advice of EVERYONE I asked, I handed my notice in. As opposed to doing the normal, skipping the country n never showing up at work again. And here's how it played out for me...

Gave my month's notice. All seemed fine n good. Till my very last shift. 1st thing, got a told by the evil HR manager I owe the company money. Because I took more leave than I should have. To the tune of £800. Was not really surprised as they pulled the same shit on "J". Was ravingly pissed off but a little surprised since I was told I had to take 3 weeks unpaid in order to have enough leave to do my A320 course a couple months back. So how could I owe them time?

Needless to say I disputed it. So a further meeting was arranged 2 days later, as it was the on set of the weekend. So passed 2 frustratingly long days. Made even longer by the fact that my wife's & my passport which I had to hand over to the evil HR was still not back to me, despite being told cancellation takes 2 days and by now it was 5 days later. Methinks they are using my wife's & my passport as bargaining chips to force me into paying. But no proof, so what can I say eh?

So 1st working day comes. And the shit slowly works its way thru the whirling blades of the fan. Now they spring it on me that that £800 was a low figure there were rounding off. Keeping it lo because they were playing nice. Now because I have questioned their benevolence, they will start to work things out more precisely, starting by adding in a portion of my annual tickets as I had not yet completed a years work yet. So I said ok fine but still does not explain the so called days I owe them, plus I pushed for my right to a repatriation ticket for the wife n me. Which they obviously weren't having. So by the end of all that pushing and shoving I was now being done for £1100. Of cause demanding that if they were gonna do that I would insist they paid me all the pay they refused to give me even thou my contract stated I should be paid it. So again they adjourned it till the next day. Only good news that day was I managed to get our passports back by stating that the British embassy would be promptly called if passports were not swiftly placed in my hand.

So now comes the final meeting. Final more because today would be the day Wifey flies off and tomorrow would be the day I fly off so I can't really drag it out any longer. Now they call into question a bunch of other "owed days", plus the portion of my annual ticket, I now owed them the quite literally grand sum of £2,256.39.

HOW!!! HOW!!!!How did this get worked out you might be screaming, cos I certainly was.To keep it short n simple. Main thing they did me for was 8 days no pay leave I apparently agreed to take but got paid 4. Next, my annual leave slip said 0 days leave left but in reality I was told that the number was negative. Just that the company policy only shows negative when the employee leaves(a lil suspicious??) And the sum of money owed cos of my advance ticket allowance. Finally I had to payback 6 days leave because I took my 2008 leave allowance, but of cause 2008 has not ended yet.

And needless to say a big NO WAY from them to my duking it out to get the money my contract says I should have gotten. Sensing I was going to push this further, they casually mentioned that 3 weeks are in question following my training in Switzerland where they had no record of me being at work. Despite me signing in daily and having work I preformed stamped and signed by myself as well as counter stamped by colleagues, they, needless to say had no record of any of this. So if I wanted to push further they would bring those 3 weeks into play. But they weren't cos they were, I quote Evil HR man here, "being reasonable". BTW the sum they were going to push for was £7100!

SO I dropped it. Banked my losses at £2,256.39. Sure I could have taken it to court and disputed it further. But It was my wifes last day in country, and I still had moving and packing to do, and I am flying tomorrow. And If the lawyers came into play. It would drag out for a good portion of the next year, maybe even beyond before I saw any result. So if it played out in my favour in court I would get a bunch of cash. But on the other hand a big black mark by my name, lots of bad blood and a good portion of my free time in the coming year taken up by the headache of court proceedings. End of the day people around me know the deal and what is really going on here. That Is more important to me.

Still cant believe that when I paid the £2,256.39 sum. The local currency had some coins I had to pay. The coins came to around 6p. When the accountant counted the cash he made sure that 6p was in the envelope, as did the Evil HR. For Fuck Sake, penny pinching is supposed to be a saying not a literal act. But I suppose it does sum this lot up.

And people know the deal here. My Shift leader who I never was too fond of and really thought of as an arsehole to me has come right around and in sympathy granted me my final shift off work. That really has changed my feeling toward him. Goes to show a final impression is just as important as a first impression. He's alright in my books. Also in light of my situation it seems that the general school of thought of stealthily jumping ship has been reinforced to become the correct thing and safer thing to do.

Believe me I am spitting blood and foaming at the teeth over this. Every fiber of my being is raging over this Arse fucking I have been dished, despite being one of the only guys who has left the company by the book since it 1st opened its doors for business. But it's resentment, hatred and bad feeling like this that can consume you. Leaving you a grumpy bitter old man, swathed in an aura of negative karma. I chose to leave it be and put the money I paid out as the price of the A330/A340 course I recieved and forget about it. Live and learn, move on with your life.

Crash Pics

2008-08-09T02:31:00.010+03:00

Was getting a lift back home in "T"s car recently. Noticed his bashed up helmet from the accident lying in the back seat. Asked if I could borrow his lid for a while to get some piccys for the blog. As such got talking again about that rather painful evening. A few more bits of his ordeal were mentioned which I hadn't heard before.

Was kinda shocked to learn from his gf that the docs actually fed him out of date medication cos none what they had was in date. What was even more frustrating was that the meds could have been bought over the counter (I assume) cos his gf had a stash at home. Plus they chosen not to mention anything till his lips turned blue and his gf questioned them why.

Also he mentioned that during the CAT scan, despite not being able to move his arms to above shoulder level they grabbed his arms and dragged him on his back onto the CAT scan table. And when that wasn't sufficient to get him fully on the table they started shoving his arse in a bid to get him on. During the scan they were more fixated at the swelling in his stomach region. Not even bothering to check him for spinal injury, which I think... would be pretty high on the list in a bike accident. Bearing this in mind do you really think you should be forcefully shoving and dragging a fresh bike crash victim onto a bed? BTW if they bothered to look they would have seen on the CAT scan he had compressed vertebrae.

Also was relayed several stories of the disdain both him and his gf were held in by the hospital staff. Probably part (just a SMALL part) of the reason for the shitty service. It seemed to be the consensus that if you were riding a motorbike you DESERVE to be in a smash like this. Bike riding SCUMM!!! That's prob what they were screaming in their heads.

"T" also gave me a few pics of the scene of the accident and of his mashed Buell. Shame, his bike was definitely a fave outta all the bikes that I've seen. Its just the way it is so subtitle in how it went about being different. The integrated fuel tank in the frame, the hidden exhaust, the rim mounted discs. Was a engineering work of art to me. Only thing which I didn't quite dig was the belt drive... But... small thing on a great bike really. IMO shaft drive would have turned cool into sub-zero for me.

Remembrance

2008-08-03T02:19:00.002+03:00

Lately work has been pretty ok. Was given quite a few interesting jobs. Actually began to feel like an aircraft engineer. Started to think how typical this, life, was. Just as I start to leave I start feeling happy bout the place. Was even starting to wonder Y exactly I was going thru all the hassle of moving inot a new job, country, all for a few extra K a year...

Then today the reality of the reason slapped me in the face again. I checked my bank account. they had not paid me at all. Payday was 5 days ago. EVERYBODY on my shift and every other shift I spoke to had been paid, not just on time but actually 1 day early!

But because I am leaving the company next month. The admin decided to be super efficient and remove me already. Hence I recieved no pay slip and no money. Hell, my name has already been removed from all rosters and paper work.

So tomorrow morning, on my day off, after a 12hour night shift I have to go into the office and kick some ass to get my money. It always seems to be like this. I got to fight and bitch and yell for every penny I work my ass off for. Where as everyone else who slacks off and pisses about doing sweet F.A. gets twice the allowances I do and their pay is regular as clockwork. Why was I leaving again?

Feeling better?

2008-08-02T17:04:00.004+03:00

Its been said many times how Bad the NHS in the UK is. Well, as with all things on this Earth, there is always something worse. My work Colleague "T" recent life is testimony to that fact.

Around 3 weeks ago he was involved in that ubiquitous physical trauma called the bike accident. He was in the outside lane approaching a roundabout when the vehicle on his inside decided to swerve off at the 1st roundabout exit. Forcing "T" into the rear quarter of the idiots big ass 4x4. Surprisingly to me the driver was a Brit. Just goes to show idiot drivers come from all walks of life. The last things "T" remembered was landing on his head, ricocheting back into the air and then slamming ribs first into a lamp post. Injuries sustained were several broken ribs, a punctured lung, deeply gashed open knee, missing skin on his thigh and back and severe swelling on his legs, arms and face.FYI his full face helmet had 2 puncture holes in it as well as the jaw portion of the helmet broke clean off . The shell was so crumpled that the foam inside had come totally loose. And 1 side of the helmet had been scuffed all the way down to the inner foam lining. Helmet was an AGV. £250 worth of helmet, £250 well spent! So for all U bikers, real life proof, if you want your brains kept in your skull, an AGV will keep it that way.

Now the real trauma starts. He awakes in an old building, rusty steel supports poking thru the crumbling concrete walls, dried blood stains caked into the ceiling tiles. But the visual horror of the hospital was nothing compared to what he would face with the staff that worked there. I shall surmise in point form what he had to endure as story telling it is gonna be an experience on par with typing a novel.

1st.Xray staff FORCED him to lift himself off his bed and onto the Xray machine, bear in mind he was in a serious bike accident just a couple hours ago.

2nd Staff only decided to treat his deeply gashed open knee 7 hours later and only when his gf grabbed a passing doctor and forced him to treat "T"

3rd following the knee operation they refused to administer antibiotics, assuring both "T" and his gf that a deep wound filled with glass, grit and sand left open for 7 hours with no treatment had no chance of being infected.

4th In an attempt to stop the wound going septic following point #3 his gf tried for 5 hours to reach his attending doctor to get him to administer antibiotics.Doctor actually told her that giving "T" 2 panadol would be just as effective!

5th when "T"s attending arrived he proceeded to rip... yes RIP off every bandage on "T" to inspect the offending wound "T"s gf was on about. Bear in mind that scabs had stuck to those bandages! Guess he was pissed off at being told to do his job by a woman. Dispite the agony on "T"s face, he only stopped when "T"s gf yelled at him "if you even did your job you would know the operation was on his knee!"

6th Not being able to move. "T" was on his side unable to sleep due to the pain."T" requested the attending nurse to move him onto his back so he could feel more comfortable. Nurse refused, saying he would have to wait till morning.

7th no doctor during "T"s 5 day stay ever saw to "T" for more than 10 mins. And as such no doctor ever knew what work had been done on "T". So most of the docs ended up doing things over and over.

8th A VERY fat doc was checking on "T"s condition one day. Explaining to "T"s gf what he was looking for when feeling "T"s leg. Having finished inspecting "T"s left side he started to move over to "T"s right but the bed was a little too close to the wall. Thus the fatty didn't have enough room to move over to "T"s right. So after 5 secs of trying to squeeze into the gap he said "nah I'm sure everything is ok on that side too" and proceeded to walk away.

9th on the day "T" was finally able to transfer to a private hospital, they refused to release his medical paperwork to the new hospital, because they weren't happy he was leaving for another hospital.

10th Upon admittance into the new hospital as they gave him his sponge bath the nurses were shocked to find in his back were still stones and glass embedded from the 1st night of his accident. The previous hospital staff never bothered to wash him down during his whole stay.

11th Docs at the good hospital questioned "T"s gf as to the injuries to his ribs. She said she was told different numbers of broken ribs by different docs at the crappy hospital. Some said 4 and others as many as 11, as well as docs that stated any number in between. But at least all were said to be on the"T"s right side. So at least that must be right?Nope. The good doc said yeah he has 4 broken ribs on the right side but the xray also shows just about every rib on his left was cracked... So either docs at the previous place were too lazy to take a good look at the xray or had no clue as to how to read one.

Thankfully The new hospital "T" checked into was a million miles better.Also in spite of the injuries he sustained. 2 weeks later he was healthy enough to go home.

Up in the Air

2008-07-22T07:48:00.000+03:00

Man really been skimping on entries... Not really cos it's been quiet. Quite the opposite. It's been a sorta busy nerve racking past few weeks. Nerve racking cos everything proceeded so slowly.

Well here is where I'm at. For a start I've handed my notice in at work. My last day being the 10th. Strangely the people I thought would kick up a load of fuss, never did... Glad to see me go I guess. The stand in hanger manager did however ask why I was leaving. Answer I gave was that I was getting paid half the wage of all of my colleagues. Saying that after an 8 mth battle to get the same wage I am sick of getting told, "we're still looking into it". Frustratingly the stand in hanger manager then told me,
"Well if we adjust your pay to the same level of everyone else would you withdraw your letter?"

I almost yelled my reply back at him but composed myself n said, " If after 8mths of going thru proper channels to get my pay adjusted didn't work but the moment I hand my notice in, you guys hand it to me... do you really think I want to remain part of a company who behaves like that? I handed my notice in as a statement of fact not as a threat. I don't do threats."

With that he let matters be. Must add he was the only guy to even ask why, none of the other managers/ supervisors I'd handed my notice letter to even batted an eyelid. Hell one of them didn't even bother to open it! Yay! I am soooo valued. Thou creepily, the HR manager invited me into his office to question me my plans following my leaving. Just told him I was headed back to the UK to enjoy the summer time for a while n chill with the family. He kept pushing for my plans for work... I chose to evade the question. Especially with his PA in the corner writing down my every reply... alarm bells right there... suspiciously he even asked me if I wanted to move my leaving date forward I could n he would help... ummm don't think so U slimy bastard...

So far apart from my resignation, I also have my tickets back to the UK booked. Thou outstanding stuff still abounds. Still not got a confirmed job lined up. My bank account is still outstanding, still haven't arranged air freight for my stuff back home and still not yet sorted my work permit termination... Obviously the unconfirmed status of a job following here is kinda heavy on my mind... Hope the next few days bring good news...

Umms n' Errrs

2008-07-03T22:07:00.002+03:00

Life ain't never sraight forward. Now on the eve of packing it all in, cans of worms start surfacing. Making me wonder if I should reconsider everything I am about to do. The great gulf of wat ifs appears. Inadvertently no matter which path I take bridges will be burnt. Even if the affected parties don't know it. Cryptic I know but sadly it can't be make crystal clear public knowledge.

Best I can say is what readers already know. I hate this place, I hate this company, I want out. But no reason to get out just for the sake of it. Especially if getting out just means a longer more difficult road ahead. I would only get out if it mean better prospects.

But even when prospects are better I am torn between pure monetary gain plus lack of hassle and the chance to be close to where I would like to live. I have 3 avenues available to me. 1 facilitating the monetary gain. 2 facilitating where I wanna live. The monetary avenue is straight forward. Pick that one and life is straight forward, plus I earn 2X as much as the other 2 and without living expenses to consider. The 1st of the other 2 is very keen to have me aboard but sadly is a complete legal mine field, the other legally simple (and more lucrative) is totally non-responsive and has not fed back to me at all.

So the current path I am headed down is the least financially rewarding and has the most legal headaches. Sounds dumb don't it. Taking a step back and looking down upon it its obvious I should just take the logical choice... BIG money, no hassle...

But such is life that once you are sitting in the hot seat the logical choice never seems the right one... but then neither do any of the others...

Misery

2008-06-27T22:41:00.001+03:00

Stiffling heat, all consuming humidity, visual desolation... ahhh all too unfortunately familiar. Land of sand again. Well to be honest those weren't the first clues that I was almost here.

While transiting through the terminal, as I passed thru the X-ray security bit in the airport the queue next to me had a big Japanese tour group. And being a group, as they cleared the X-ray, they gathered on the other side waiting for each other. When I cleared the machine, I knelt down putting my boots back on and by this time the group waiting was about 15 strong with around another 5 yet to go thru. Whilst quietly waiting for the stragglers to join up a local official strutted up to the tour group leader. And very loudly, gruffly and rudely barked, "MOVE! NOW!!! MOVE... NOW! MOVE, MOVE!!!"
The tour guide politely said she was waiting for the other 5members to make it across. But the local guy just kept yelling, "You move NOW! NOW, NOW, MOVE!" A lil taken aback but still trying to be polite she stated her case again but all she ever got back from him was," MOVE MOVE! YOU MOVE!" accompanied by yelling progressively closer to her face to intimidate her, as well as the accompanying flailing of arms and gestures. Luckily by then the rest of the group had made it across. Allowing the poor girl to escape his wrath. Needless to say, even with the limited Japanese I do understand, the whole group weren't saying very nice things about him or his kind as they moved on.

So, this is how they behave to paying guests, tourists, which the government here is desperately trying to coax over. Extolling the virtues of the regional hospitality. As I said before, stereotypes came about for a reason. And this chap sure perpetuates it.

Anyhow, back to work 2moro. Yet another thing I ain't looking forward 2. Plus the appartment is caked in dust/sand/ powder... annnnd the fridge is bare and devoid of food, annnnd wifey ain't around, so depression, gloom and general sadness all round. Good to be back eh...

Stop messing about

2008-06-14T01:23:00.002+03:00

Finished my A320 course a few days back. By far the most chilled out, relaxed course I have EVER done in my life. To start off with I still paid attention in class and did reading up etc. But by the 2nd week that had already evaporated. And I spent most of the class hours watching Macross F and Deathnote for the next few weeks. And after school instead of revision or homework, hours were spent on my Xbox. I actually completed my 2nd playthru of Mass effect and Gears of war during that time.

This how an average day at school went. Breakfast at 7am. Walk to school for 8am. But as always, late, arrive at 8:15am. struggle for 5mins to stay awake thru lecture. 5mins in I give in and unashamedly slump onto the desk unconscious. 9am lecture ends. I wake up and flick thru my study materials. 9:30am, bored. I load up VLC with Macross. Midday, lunch time. 1pm lunch ends, I pick up my study materials worried that I really should do SOME study. I did pay alot of money for this course and if I failed it would really suck. I study till around 1:30pm. Can't take no more, load up Robot Chicken on VLC. 2:15pm, bored of Robot Chicken I look thru my study materials again. Slowly my head starts to rest on the table as I flick thru the pages. My head is now flat on the table, drool commin outta my mouth, eyes flickering shut, but amazingly I'm still turning those pages... 3pm everyone calls it a day, wiping the drool off my cheek I pack up and walk back to the B&B. 3:30pm, get changed and shower. 3:45pm, call wifey and prepare tomorrows packed lunch and tonights dinner. 5:45pm cook my delicious dinner of tinned beans, anti-pesto, canned tuna and instant noodles. 6pm eat dinner and watch The Simpsons on TV. 6:30pm Simpsons over I start to fall asleep. Midnight, I slowly crawl outta bed, guilty I wasted the whole evening, I fire up the Xbox. Load up Race Driver Grid, next few hours are spent saying, just 1 last race. Glance at my watch, 5am, no point sleeping now if breakfast is at 7. 6:45am brush teeth and get changed. 7am, breakfast, now go back to the top of the paragraph and read again. That is a typical day.

1 of the guys on the course commented he ran out of note pad space for his notes so I gave him my note pad. He asked if it was ok and where would I write my notes. Notes? I asked. The class let out a muffled gasp of astonishment. Looking around everyone had reams and stacks of notes! I hadn't picked up a pen at all thru the course! Started to get a lil worried and panicky. 2 mins later I began to care less, back to anime and sleeping.

Well as the age old English saying goes, "The proof is in the pudding" I scored 91% in the final exam. Beating others in the class who put in more effort than myself. Well, everyone put in more effort than me. It does often cross my mind how well I could do if I took my secondary school teachers advice. Of which she would always write in my report cards. "Needs to stop messing around and apply himself more"

Dino Day

2008-06-13T22:59:00.005+03:00

Oooops, typo error, should be dyno day. But a day filled with large reptilian creatures could be fun too... fun of a different kind thou. Met up with a couple of good ol' time mates a few weeks back. Was meeting them during the south coast new mini (SCNM) dyno day. And luckily they had enough slots that Tachi could join in the dyno runs and see how he measured up against a bunch of tuned supercharged minis. Plenty of cars turned out. Even a few non mini's. A very powerful German registered MK5 Golf, think it pulled around 360HP at the flywheel! Also a Japanese imported GT4 Celica pulling around 320HP at the flywheel. But unfortunately it could have made alot more power if the ECU was tuned properly. Fuelling graph was all over the place. Not very good at all.

Cos so many cars turned up, not surprising considering the bargain price of the dyno run, sleepy & myself were getting very swiftly bored. So for a good deal of the day we spent camped in front of a TV playing GT4 on the playstation. Also being away from the dyno was a relief for our ears. As you might imagine a bunch of tuned cars revving their nuts off in a small garage sized room can really be a killer on the ears.

But needless to say we rushed out when it was Greyboy's mini on the dyno. His was 1 of the pleasant surprises of the day as many of the minis had been under performing. Despite the comparatively light tuning Greyboy did to his mini it punched out a very respectable 225HP at the flywheel. Putting it on par with quite a few minis which had much more serious work done!

Then about 2hours later it was tachi's turn. It amused us alot that a huge crowd had gathered to see how he would perform. And all of them asking if what mods I had done and how much power would I expect. You could see the expectation in their eyes of BIG things. Large crazy numbers. And when I said, nope no mods, and gave a very low expectation of the power you could see the confusion/dumbfoundedness in their eyes. Just cos Tachi has a big orange D1GP professional drift banner and a couple of Project Immamura A'pexi stickers on him everyone expects a steroid fed beast of a machine. Come on he's not even got a turbo or supercharger and has just a tiny 1.3 liter engine! But Tachi pulled out a respectable 208HP at the flywheel. Especially since Tachi's ECU chip was still on his fuel economy setting. I didn't get a chance to work him into his performance mode. So there should be a little more (10HP or so)hidden back there.

B&B

2008-06-13T21:53:00.004+03:00

For the past month and a bit this is where I have been calling home. Not a bad place. I got a rather large annexe room. It was on the 3rd floor/ attic. Kinda weird having the window at the same level as the floor. I actually took pics with another cam but can't transfer those pics to the comp. And its pointless taking indoor pics with a camera phone.

Wifey would have loved it here. Mainly because of the 2 lovely doggies the land lady has. She even said we could walk her dogs if we wanted. Think she'll have alot of trouble getting her dogs away from wifey if that happens. Wouldn't put it past wifey dragging the dogs to sleep in the room with us... The surrounding countryside was beautiful. Well what little of it I saw during my walk into school. With out wifey around I really don't have that spirit of curiosity. Just have no drive to get out and do anything. Maybe next year if we get back here again we could explore the place further.

Freebies

2008-06-08T23:04:00.003+03:00

If things aren't absolutly essential or they are of a mediocre standard I rather just forgo them and opt for the cheapest lowest standard possiable. And how much lower can you get than free? Case in point, going on this A320 course has really cleaned me out. Not to mention the cost of petrol in the UK. So in the spirit of "every little helps" I managed to bag all this loot from mums before starting on my course. This would be what would feed me during my 5 1/2 week course. Yup, a daily diet of canned foods, pot noodles, biscuits and other assorted non-perishable foods, yum...

Well rest assured weekends will be punctuated with gorging of shell fish, lamb, bacon and the such.

Spot the Difference

2008-06-08T22:08:00.002+03:00

Should have posted these up when I first flew out. But as always laziness set in. Especially when posting up pictures is required. And as regulars know I defo need more pics to my dry, word riddled blog. So for today I offer up a pictographical comparasion of the Land of sand and the UK from the view of your average traveller flying in.

Truth forgotten

2008-06-03T14:23:00.003+03:00

Its hard to put into words what's in my head at the moment. But above all the sense of being alone. But then its always the way I've been.Just that when times are rosy its easy to forget the truth of the bottom line. But it is refreshing for the truth to be shoved in my face every now and then. Be prepared to stand alone, always.

Hard to explain my current state of mind without going into details. But I'll try to without implicating too many parties. Before I left to do my A320 course I spoke to who I considered, after several years of working together, a close colleague, "J". Who I learnt, had made headway into a contract I was very interested to break into. TBH due to the rate of pay it was not a very attractive contract to alot of people. But what interested me was the location not the money. I wanted to take the contract because it would mean I would be physically closer to family and friends. Meaning I could take a short 20min flight home every weekend. Before I left I explained to "J" my reasons and if he managed to make progress into the contract to remember me and put me in line for it. And so ends that chapter.

For the past few weeks I've been canvasing the contracting market. And by chance I managed to get a lead on the afore mentioned contract I was interested in. And thru the contract agency recruiter, I learn by chance that "J" was one of the applicants. From what I learnt he was all but on board, pending the visa for his other half. And having spoken to him several times while on the course, nothing was ever mentioned regarding the contract. The real kicker came while chatting to another colleague "B" who was on the course with me. Hearing of how "J" had submitted "B"s CV for the contract and not mine. And "J"s apparent reason for doing so? Because "B"s other half expressed an interest in visiting that part of the world the contract was located. So did "J" forget or ignore the more practical needs I had to take that job? You could say maybe "J" knew I had applied for the job, but it is very unlikely as when he submitted "B"s CV the recruiter had not even realized that "J" and myself were colleagues till several days later. I hope there are other reasons in play I am unaware of. I prefer to think the best of people.

But somehow he had totally forgotten me and my reasons. Choosing instead to put forward someone else simply because their other half fancied a bit of tourist action. Then again I will admit that I have not the facts from his side of the fence. But from my point of view it seems he has chosen to select "B" over myself simply because they spend more times over drinks than I choose to do. Maybe I should be more social in my approach to work. But that is just not me. I'm just not a very social person. It can take me years to become totally comfortable with someone. But that does not mean I don't help strangers with problems.

Not saying I'm shedding tears or losing sleep over the current situation. Infact years of being alone has already conditioned me to making sure I'm always covered. So its not like I've been put out by this or put at any disadvantage. This has simply reminded me of some basic truths which I have begun to forget. Thou there is the tinge of regret to realize others intentions toward me. To realize that despite favors I always gave freely, I am still easily forgotten. But it can only be a good thing to know of others intentions toward you.

Hesitation

2008-05-12T02:41:00.003+03:00

Been out on the job market today window shopping. TBH I shouldn't be window shopping. I should BE shopping. Quite a few tasty ones in Germany, Malta and Malaysia. But resistance to change kicks in. This happens all the time in all sorts of situations. Be it parting with cash in a shop, making a choice in a RPG or replacing suspect hardware. I should apply for them and see where they take me. But there is always the fear of what if I get no replies? Or what if they want me now but I can't cos of the course? Or what if I leave my current job and the contact bombs tomorrow? Makin that first step is always the hardest. Just gotta do what I gotta do. Sigh, I can be such a lil bitch like this at times, I hate it.

Like jumpin out of a plane. Might seem scary & un-natural. But it could be fun, never know if you don't try.

Content

2008-05-09T16:12:00.003+03:00

Back "home" now. Well home always is where ever I hang my hat. Was back at mums for about a week and she hasn't changed. Still doesn't listen and out to control everything. So yeah throughly annoying.

Already had my 1st week of the A320 course. Never been on such a laid back course! B4 the class started the lecturer stated the ground rules. Decide whenever you want to come in to start the class. Decide whenever you have had enough for the day n head home. Exams will never be on mondays cos it's annoying to worry bout exams over the weekend. Exams will also never be on a friday because on friday you'll probably want to head home before lunch. If you want to have a day off or not come in, then go ahead! OMG how lax is this course. Start when you want, finish when you want, come in when you want, study what you want. As long as you pass the exams its all good.

Certainly for me and "B" its good. Because we have already done 2 other airbus courses. And end of the day airbus planes are all pretty much the same. But for the other 3 guys on the course it could be hard as its all new to them and very little guidance is given. Which is now what confuses me on their behavior. If I was new to airbus planes and on this course and 2 guys there had worked those planes b4 I would be constantly buggin them for advice and instruction. but from those guys nothing. All you ever hear from all 3 of them is, how so and so is useless at work, how this other guy is an arsehole, and that other bloke is stupid, etc etc. Everything out of their mouths is work related and 95% of the time negative. If its not how crap their co-workers are its how shit their job is, how badly run the company is or how they should have never become an aircraft engineer. Then they start to whinge about how boring this course is and how they rather be back at work... Hang on weren't they bitchin bout how crap work was just a few sec ago??? Now they rather be at work?!? Wat da hell... Some people are never happy.

For me couldn't be happier, its 32 degrees in the desert now and everyone is workin their sweaty arses off but I'm here in the 21 degree warm British summer sun. Staying at a beautiful converted farmhourse, sippin Pimms in the garden and looking out over the rolling Leicestershire country side. Attending a laid back, in your own time course, at the end of which would make me employable to no end. YAY!

Only regret is, had I known the course would be like this I would have taken wifey here with me rather than ship her back home to spend time with her family & friends. Especially since the place I am staying at has given me a huge double bedroom with ensuite. Usual price of US$128 per night reduced for me to just US$46! She would love it. Lovely country side, lots of cute doggies & other assorted wildlife. WAH:( missin her so.

Goin' ome

2008-04-27T22:10:00.001+03:00

Well, in a lil over 24hrs I'll be heading back to the UK for my A320 course. 2 months back in the UK. Gonna be alotta stress. All cos of 1 person. Man I'll be happy once I'm away and at Sleepy's. Shame petrol has hit new insane highs. Preventing us from doing our usual drives together... Prob just me driving and him in shotgun...

Still packing away at home at the mo. Really pisses me off, the whole Emirates thing. My suitcase is 20KG and my dive gear is 14KG. Now had they not been complete CUNTS I would be able to kart everything back. But because they are complete CUNTS, I have to leave my dive gear here instead.

Just hope at the end of my course the CAA will actually issue my license to me b4 I fly off.

Emirates R'cunts

2008-04-23T21:43:00.001+03:00

Yes, CUNTS. That magical "C" word reserved for only the crème-de-la-crème of complete BASTARDS. Official. I hate Emirates. And if it wasn't for their cheap flights I ain't never gonna choose em. Hell anyone who has the usual conversation with me about what airlines are good, Emirates will always have a verbal bitch slap from me as being a bunch of untrustworthy bastards and thus no travel should ever be made on their stupid lying douche bag bastard planes!!!!

And what has me SOOOOOO fired up? Well when I flew out to this place in the sand I had illusions of good SCUBA diving. An illusion quickly shattered once i got beneath the waves. Promptly greeted by lots of dead coral, crappy visibility, heaps of rubbish and teeny tiddly fish... With that being the case I decided to lug my gear back to Blighty. And as anyone with SCUBA gear knows, it weighs a fair bit. But as advertised by quite a few international carriers. If you declare your SCUBA gear you will get a 10KG extra baggage allowance. And Emirates was one of these airlines who allowed this I found out at my friendly Gatwick Airport Emirates check in desk.

So all was good till a couple days ago when I contacted my Emirates check in desk out here. And told no such service existed!!! It seemed to be a UK/Gatwick only thing. So out here I would have to pay on excess baggage or go thru freight charges... WTF MAN WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!! So they entice you to bring along ya SCUBA gear then when you are heading home they lay it on you you gotta pay some insane excess baggage charge on ya stuff... Scheming BASTARDS. Yes, lots of acid spitting hate and anger spewing out here. FUCKERSSSSSSS.

And they even had the cheek to tell me to call the UK from here to sort it out myself as they didn't want to call the other "branch" So i have to sort out all this shit off my own back and pocket and still have fuck all be done by these lazy arseholes out here. Therefore nothing will have changed.

There ya go. Sum it up, don't fly with em cos they have an inconsistent, double standard of service, with lazy, incompetent staff. But maybe that is just here. But then again I expected alot more from such a trumped up international carrier.

Mish-mash

2008-04-21T02:00:00.002+03:00

Finished Mass effect. Hell of an ending. Well done Bioware. So now I'm left with no games to complete. Well strictly there are but I've played them to death and as such can't be bothered with that final tiny step to finish. So just going back over fun pick up n play games like COD4.

Got a solid job offer back in blighty. Shame... was hoping for a solid offer from other places. As with the UK the pay is never brilliant and once you factor tax into it, never seems worth it anymore. Plus SHE who shall not be named dwells in that forsaken land. Urrrgh.

Which reminds me, I'll be heading back there in a weeks time. Man all cos of 1 person I ain't really looking forward 2 it. Plus wifey is off home 2moro night. Man that 1 really crept up on us both. I should be snoozing now getting rested for 2moro's inevitable craziness that will precede her flight. But for some reason I just don't feel like sleeping.

Maybe its cos of 2 things that have made my night a lil more interesting than usual. 1st was the fact that the material planner dude on my shift actually went to Kingston uni. More precisely he was in my class! He was there on the exact course and class and duration I was. And we never knew till today after a casual chit chat. He even remembers Sleepy and a few others. He claimed he would have placed my face quicker if I had more hair... Yes i know, I'm gonna be bald soon. Just a matter of time till I break out the BIC. Anyhows, LOL really a small world.

Speaking of small world, the 2nd item. My ummm, how shall I put it...ummm, biggest fan?!? Blogged about me. Saying he saw me down the high street. And basically stalked me to see if it indeed was me. And from the vague look of it it was me but wat confirmed it for him was the way I walked, and carried my bag and shifted my weight. And the nail in the coffin was the choice of girlfriend I had draped over my arm. As quoted from his blog "those sweet, young, Asian things". Yup. must be me. OH NO WAIT. I just remembered I'm on the opposite side of the planet. DUH... Man talk about manifestations of the mind. But tis just creepy the way he spoke about those lil things like how I walked and shifted my weight n carried a bag. I mean jeez, just how much of me has he been paying attention to? I mean guys might remember wat beer ya like or maybe your fave sports team. And if they r very excpetional or very close friends, your birthday. But any guy that remembers those lil tiny things, just ain't right man, just ain't right. Urrrrgh just creeps me out thinking bout it.

Masses of effect

2008-04-15T12:05:00.006+03:00

As any avid RPG'er knows. Never stop a RPG mid way just to start a new RPG. Because as "we" all know if ya do that you will totally forget what the hell you were doing when you get back to the RPG you abandoned. Spending days sometimes going thru your inventory, trying to work out what items you were gonna sell. Not to mention trying to work out where you are on the map and what the hell you are doing there. Then lets not even get started on the quest list, what have you started and how far along are you in those partially complete quests? Months could ebb away before you figure out who you have spoken to and given what to... Anyway its a mess.

But I broke that rule as I have finally had my dungeon's fill of Oblivion. And having hammered through Rainbow6 Vegas, Half Life 2 and Ghost Recon 2 in a couple of weeks I am now left with just 1 game which I have not touched in my collection. MASS EFFECT. I know some people have been put off by the game due to the saturation style advertisement tactics Bioware employed. But out in the dessert there is none of that.

A lil fiddly trying to place a traditional RPG world of swords & spells into a sci-fi context. Plus they have thrown in FPS for the fighting bits. But once ya get to grips with it. It is awesome. Sure the graphics are very pretty even on a poo TV but the more important thing to me is the story. It's sooooo good. A great story that puts many a film to shame.Plus for all those Capt Kirk fans, you even get to get jiggy wit alien females, LOL! Been on this for a week now. Exploring every corner of the galaxy my starship will allow. Mmmmm more days of addiction lay ahead. Just don't remind me of the headache awaiting me once I pick up Oblivion again...

In my court

2008-04-11T17:59:00.000+03:00

It's getting to that point I have the urge to get out. To run to escape from this HOLE of a place. But as with all moves I've grown somewhat inert. Resistant to change or doing anything. Basically comfortable, indifferent and lazy all at the same time. Part of me wants to go because of all the reasons I keep bitchin about in this blog. Plus once back to contracting I get to earn a good deal more cash than I currently do. But on the flip side it will be more unstable. Every 6mths or (usually)less I will have to face the reality of losing my job, hell in some cases they can be as short a job as 2 weeks. Plus staying here is comfortable. I'm not pushed too hard. I'm viewed as butt lazy and useless so I have no expectations to live up to. So its an easy job if u discount the arseholes in HR and some of the people I work with.

But still its not the way forward. I can't live my whole life like this, I've gotta make a move. But when? When is the right time to make that move out of the comfort zone? Waiting for the right time could mean waiting a lifetime. Guess no time like the present. So my plan of action goes like this. Winding down my life here by moving back as much as I can when I head back to the UK for my A320 course. Then once that is complete. Start sending out CV's and applying for contracts.

Fingers crossed I will be able to get out of here before March 09. And that is a deadline. Move earlier would be much better. Granted stress is gonna be thru the roof for me. But in the end that bank balance should make it worth it... I hope.

Either way it will surely be a steep learning curve.

Minted

2008-04-08T21:31:00.019+03:00

Looooaaadsssaaa mmmoney!!! MMMMMMmmmm, fat stack of 20s. The smell is so addictive. No matter what currency it is, cold hard cash always smells great. And not just cos of all the coke and other drugs stuck to it. I've always wondered what it would be like to get my hands on 1 of those fat wads of cash u keep seeing in movies and shows. You know the ones, be it stuffed in a gym bag or neatly arranged in a black briefcase. Now I have had just a small taste of what it feels like.

But as is the universal truth with money. It always goes alot faster than it comes. And once I get back to the UK, pay up for my A320 course,my living expenses, the insane cost of driving my car, etc. I will be left with the more common sum of fuck all. Yup my big fat wedge of cash will be gone. Boo! Well just hope the A320 course is indeed the investment many claim it to be and will net me even more beautiful stacks of notes.

A lil short

2008-03-27T22:58:00.003+03:00

Shock!!! I've apparently been paid my 8mths outstanding money! But it may be a lil hollow. As the evidence I saw of the pay was on "B" account. So they might not have paid me at all. And even if they did, all our estimates put the grand total at around US$8000. But "B" just got US$5000. They didn't want to pay us the extra housing allowance we were due. Because they claimed that we still stayed at the same apartments and had not moved to more expensive accommodation therefore had no need for the extra allowance... Fuckers.
Well I'll check my account later to see if there has been money paid. In the futility of this place you have to capitalize on small victories. Cos if you don't very little optimism will ever remain in your heart. And as the old English saying goes,its better than a kick in the bollocks.

But still can't help feeling a little bitter when I learn of other guys with less experience and less qualifications getting as much as US$900 more than I am every month. Never seen double standards exist more blatantly than here.

Like old times

2008-03-21T08:50:00.000+03:00

Did a shift swap with "B" for tonight's night shift. "B" had a wedding to attend so would be rude to say no really. But man did he ever know how to pick a day to swap. Moment I got in I noted my name was heading the board for a A330 engine change!!! Ummmm, so that means I am in charge... Now I've done many many engine changes on many aircraft in the past. But then again since all the good'ol boys left and I was relegated to taking out trash and sweeping floors, I really haven't done anything close to that level for almost a year. Not to mention previously I was never incharge, just, in management speak, empowered. So its a lil different knowing now the responsibility rests squarely on your shoulders.

TBH, it was nice. A lil scary but nice. I mean it wasn't something I had never done b4. So from a technical stand point it was reasonably familiar territory. Had 1 snag where I asked a guy to pull some circuit breakers and explicitly told him to do it in the order written in the manual. And I even asked him again once he had done it if he did it in the order stated. He answered yes. But of cause he didn't. And thanks to that 2 other poor fellows were drenched in jet fuel as most of the fuel tank emptied itself when we disconnected the fuel line. Had that idiot just done as I instructed him very little drama would have occurred. Now I am not the sort of person to breathe down the necks while some one does a job. If I ask you to do something and you say yes. I am going to believe you. Because if I don't, I wouldn't even have bothered to ask you in the first place. I might as well do it myself if I'm gonna keep second guessing you. There were times during the engine change I had to reel myself in. I still had the military mentality in me. If I am still going, then I don't expect you to stop either. Had to remember this was civi street and not everyone can work intensely for 12hours without a 5 minute break or a drink.This was my only real problem. Organising who went on breaks and when.

At the end of the engine change, I was scratched, bruised, aching, sweaty, hungry, tired, covered in dirt, but loving it. Doing that engine change reminded me again that I don't hate my job. Quite the opposite. I love it, every knuckle scraping, back breaking, hydraulic drenched moment of it. I simply hate the company I work for. It was an even bigger honour for 1 of the mechanics to approach me after the job was done to tell me he had actually enjoyed that nights work. As he never felt pressured that someone was constantly breathing down his neck to get the job done. That he has never had a more enjoyable engine change, ever! Made my day as this is what I was aiming for if I ever made it to a certifying engineer. Running a happy, easy going work force, which produced top notch results.

On a side issue, since we still have not been paid our 8 mths back pay, "B", "J" and myself had started a picket line. Stating we would not certify any aircraft till we were paid properly. So all the work on the engine change had to be signed by the supervisor who spent the whole evening in his office. I just popped in at the end of the shift and lumped the paper work on his desk, then handed over to the next shift and off home. LOL.

In your heart

2008-03-20T17:42:00.001+03:00

Just had a meeting which typifies the way the company I work for acts and behaves. A few days ago "B" approached HR regarding the matter that we have been short paid by around US$150 every month since we joined at the start of 2007. And "B" had brought a copy of his contract which showed that this was indeed the case. But due to the fact his contract looked like it had been photocopied and it had no initial below it by the HR manager. It was tactfully put down as a fake. But "B" said "J" and myself had the same things regarding pay written into our contract. So HR manager asked that the 2 of us brought our contracts in as well.

So roll on today. All 3 of us arrived at the office and just as we were about to enter "J"s wolf like hearing picked up voices behind the closed doors of the office. Of the HR talking to the regional manager about "B" and his "forged" contract. Not a nice way to start. Anyway we knocked and entered. We set about showing our contracts. And if "B"s was debatable, then "J" and mine were about as genuine as they could come. Pristine as the day they were given to us. And each page was initialed by the HR manager and the final page was signed by, HR manager, recruitment manager and the regional manager. But still the HR refused to admit that the contract was true. So we challenged him to show us a copy of a contract we signed that differed from the ones we had in our hands. Frustratedly he flicked thru all of our files and in each one, anything which was contract like reflected the identical figures we had in our hands. So where was his mysteriously smaller pay packet he has been giving us come from? Not being able to find something to support his claims he took 2nd best. He gruffly said well, I don't have a copy of any contract that you guys have signed. Well I fail to see how poor filing on your part means us being penalised? We pressed the issue that this contract we all had and which is also validated by all the parties who signed should be what was to be worked off. But still he refused to pay us that extra US$150 per month we were due. At each turn trying to cite reasons why we should not be paid it but we each countered every 1 of his excuses perfectly leaving him no where left to run. And by that time even the training manager present was being won over by our arguments and was all for paying us. The HR manager stood firm. But now being disarmed by our proof, logic and reasoning he grasped for the last final straw. Holding back the venom, he hissed out, " I will not pay this, because I know these contracts are not the correct ones. They are not genuine. I am not accusing you, But I put it to you, in your hearts, you know... YOU know, what you have done!" WTF!!??!!!????!!! And with that he concluded the meeting.

On a side issue he also tried screwing me out of my leave too. Trying to badger me into signing a load of leave forms he claimed I put in but never signed. Lucky I referred to my shift roster. As 1 of the slips had me applying for leave for days where I was not due to work. And another slip had days duplicated on another leave slip. Basically double booking leave on a day. Applying 2 days leave for a single day. Jeez if you are trying to screw someone please try putting in a lil more effort.

The above incident is the epitome of what it is like working for these people. There are many other cases we been thru. But all on a lesser extent of the above. But still add up 9 or 10 of those lesser incidents and it is just as bad is it not? But still despite knowing all this, our supervisors are shocked when we are demotivated, difficult, indifferent and generally can't be arsed when it comes to work.

Tell me, if you walked in our shoes, would you not be the same?
P.S. We STILL have not been paid our 8months of outstanding pay.

f00s

2008-03-18T20:38:00.001+03:00

Working with incompetent colleagues is not a totally bad thing. For me, making the transition from a mechanic to certifyer was always a daunting task in my mind. But for me purely because the certifyers I worked with were always some of the best the industry had. All of them even if they didn't know the answers to a problem knew roughly where it might lay and where to start looking. Basically they always had some sort of an answer. And they always had a confidence about them, the sort that never gave you a hint of doubt about their diagnosis. And their work was about as good as you could ever get.

No surprise when this outfit started going sour, they jumped ship without missing a beat, back into other great paying jobs in the industry. Which leaves newbies like me stuck here to try learn with what little we have. And 1 of the guys I work with who has that air of I'm-so-fuckin-good. Turns out a lil less than great. As every time a problem gets tossed his way he always has this clueless pause. And then ends up taking the kind of steps I would. Not wrong steps, but after working which the aforementioned guys I always expected more of certifyer. And then there are times when he gets stumped at a problem. And in the back of my mind something vaguely remembered from a classroom pops up and I suggest it. He barely even acknowledges me. Then sometime later it turns out my diagnosis turns out to be correct. Cause by then he doesn't recall my suggestion. Then there are times I spot something I would grade as a lil anomalous but he assures me is all fine and normal, then proceedes to release the aircraft. Only to have a call 30mins later with an irate pilot reporting a defective system.

If anything working with such incompetents has boosted my own confidence. I've never really rated myself as anywhere close to good. But working with these people has made me realise there are a lot worse people out there. And thou I still do not grade myself as good yet. Maybe if I keep on, and keep trying my best to learn. One day I would be considered not half bad.

Trippin

2008-03-13T11:44:00.001+03:00

Last night shift, goodie! And bugger all work to boot, yay! AND my usually tight ass supervisor, 4hours into the night, told everyone to wash down the cars then go get some sleep,W00t!!! Don't get much better does it. Nope sure doesn't, things can only get worse. Such is the balance of nature...

Was asked head down the terminal at around 6am. As an engineer was urgently required to dispatch an aircraft. So got in the van and drove down. Part way there, as I rounded a corner I saw the airport security car. Who promptly began to flash me. So I slow down and pull along side him. Guy glared at me with the kind of face that visually spelt out "I am an Arsehole, slap me".

"Show me your pass!", he growled
Compliantly I handed it over.
"How fast were you driving?"
"I dunno"
"Do you know the speed limit for driving around the airport?"
"Yes, 20kmph", which is ridiculous! Even bloody roads infront of primary schools back home are 35kmph.
"This is not your private race track! You are not speeding around on your motorcycle! (cos all whitemen own fast bikes...)There is a speed limit here. How fast do you think you were going?"
"I really dunno."
"You must have some idea. So how fast do u say you were?"
"I-Don't-Know", getting somewhat tired of the repetition now
"Weren't you looking at your speed-o?"
"Errrr, no... I was looking out the windscreen ahead of me", he just wants me to state my speed because he has no speed gun to nail down my speed. So 2nd best is a verbal admission by the accused.
"And your security pass is out of date! 7mths out of date!"
"It is!?!?" with that he held my pass up to my face.
"Oh! I never realised it. I've always managed to get into the airport everyday without fail, never knew it was expired"
"Why did you not get a new one?"
"Cos I never knew it was out of date so I never asked for a new one, more to the point its HR's responsibility to handle pass renewal, not mine, and besides is it not your colleagues at the gates to check my pass every time I enter the airfield?" begrudgingly he conceded my point, but continued in that "I-deserve-a-slap" kind of way.
"Well I'm confiscating your pass"
"Ok"

It was then I noticed he had confiscated my pass with my neck sling that I had received as a souvenir from Zurich. So I asked him if he could just take the pass but return my sling. He looked at me quizzically. So I repeated myself. Putting on his sternest face to mask his cluelessness, like a virgin going at a bra strap, he tried to remove the pass from the sling's card holder. And like aforementioned virgin, he was unable. Getting a lil frustrated at his incessant fumbling and failure to heed any of my instructions to free the card, I tried to show him how to free the card. But as I reached for it. With his opposite hand he snatched it away and held it arm outstretched, as far away as he could from me. Simultaneously puffing his chest out and budging his eyes wide open at me. It was scene mirroring one of those times at school when a bully would steal some kids comic, then as that kid tried to retrieve it he would hold the kid off with one arm while holding the comic away from the kids grasp with the other.

"Look, mate. I just want to get my neck strap back. You can keep the bloody pass, its no good to me is it... its out of date." With that he relaxed and gingerly handed it over. FFS like I was gonna snatch it off him and run 1.5km to the nearest exit gate. Child... He now commanded me to follow his colleague, who had driven over to see what the fuss was about, back to the security office. Again he reminded me of the speed limit and not to dare to go over it for fear of a 2nd lecture. Rather tired by all this bullshit I sheepishly said ok, as he drove off. As I slowly pulled behind his mate, matey zoomed off in a cloud of dust!!! I glared down at my speed-o and I was bang on 20. But still his mate was rapidly dwindling dot in the distance. Frantically I looked round for Arseface to point out what his mate was doing, but of cause Arseface had gone...

When I arrived at the office the security manager followed thru the motions of booking me. Thou due to his poor English he gave me quite the scare. HE said to me,

"Because your pass is out of date. You are illegally on this airfield. So I will have to take away your pass. And you will never be allowed to work on this airport any more!"

WTF!!!!! I was a lil stunned by it! But after a 5 sec pause he added,"Till you are get a new pass"

At that point another security guy escorted in 2 more white faces. Immediately the supervisor's face dropped, knowing the day ahead which he would face with Arseface on duty.

Not money.

2008-02-26T16:44:00.001+03:00

Apparently a study by some clever bloke revealed that when we do our chosen job, money is not a major consideration. Other things rank above the cash when it comes to a job. Bluntly putting it, his study concluded that love of the job comes above the money you earn from it. This is not the 1st time I was told it. 1st time was told to me my engineering manger from my previous work place. He said you turn up here (work) every morning because you love your job. Not because the pay is excellent. Understandably, people in the room scoffed at his comment. But agin he reiterated his point. And I got thinking about what he said and to me at least, his point was firmly sold.

At the time I had just moved there after working at another place. And remember mornings where I just didn't get out of bed. Because I really disliked the place. Whilst at my previous place I would get in around 10 mins or so just to have a cuppa, or watch the tv with some of the guys. Even found myself staying at times up to 5hours after knock off time to help out when needed. It was a great place. Company was pretty poor (financially) but it was truly working as a real team, a family almost. Everyone, looked out for each other, covered up our short comings, it was just such a good atmosphere to work in. And when our company folded. We all moved out here to the land of sand together. Where again we were blessed with great workmates. Work itself was shitty but the comradeship was beyond measure. So many brilliant memories and times we shared.

Looking back now. With everyone gone and the current people in charge. I am willing to even take a pay cut if I could leave and have what I had before. Work to me is becoming a means to an end. Once that end is achieved, any reason for staying will be gone. And so I shall intend. Any time something frustrating, annoying, pointless, concerning, etc happens. I remind myself why I'm here. Doesn't matter that it is in reality an exercise in futility and a test of patience. In the bank, its hard cash and on paper its certifying experienced logged.

Alot of people I know disagree with the above statement. But think about it. If you worked with a totally useless company populated by evil/incompetent arseholes. And the pay was great. Yeah you would take the job, but for how long. It will get to the point when you realise. The cash may be great but a job is so much more than cash alone. You spend 2/3 of your lifetime working. A job with a great enviroment, sense of satisfaction and a sufficient rate of pay will be the 1 to get you to stay. Astronomical pay scales and shit company will keep you there a few months or a year or so. Never long term.

You DO a job for love. Not for money. My life has shown me this little realised fact. And I'm sure if you look closely enough you will find this in your life too.

Help... Please?

2008-02-25T09:14:00.000+03:00

Was called out to do a few repairs in the rear cargo bay of a A340 last night. Was a simple but long winded job. I had to replace some rollers. Some, being 34 of them... took about 2hours or so. Job finally complete, I shuffled to the cargo bay door, tool box in hand. Only to discover some bugger had stolen the steps I had used to get up here. So now I'm stuck. And as you can see from the picture its not really a height from which you could safely jump down. And being at the terminal building it's quite a trek from the hanger I work at so no point phoning for help. Consigned to my fate, as well as happy to waste time, I sat there. Legs dangling out the cargo bay doors. Wondering how long it would take to chance upon some help. Sure enough time passed and help arrived in the form of the catering truck and their occupants. The driver parked up his vehicle and started to raise the catering platform up to the level of the aircraft's rear passenger door. The driver then walked to below where I was. Me smiling back at him, finally a way off this plane.

He too, smiling, shouted up at me, " The passenger door is closed can you open it for me?"
A lil suprised that he seriously expects me to open the door for him while obviously being stranded in the cargo bay. But put it down to the local sarcasm/ sense of humour.
So I yelled back, "I can, if you can get me a set of steps?"
The guy gave me a silly, sheepish grin before moving off.

So I sat. Happily awaiting rescue. Yup, waiting, waiting, still waiting. But he never came back. He had taken my request as an amusing joke white men like to crack. And had moved off and gotten someone else to open the passenger door. As I could see guys moving from the catering truck into the aircraft. Great, back to waiting for who knows how long. After another long wait. I spot a load of the airline's engineering vehicles pulling up around 30m away from me. Engineers getting out, chatting to each other. So I start to wave to get their attention, no good, so I start to yell.

"Hello, yo! Help, excuse me!" All totally useless with the noise of jets landing and taking of, catering truck engines running, ground power units blaring away etc. Plus think my voice was too soft. Have you realised that yelling at people while trying polite is never as loud as when you are swearing and cursing some one? So changed my tactics.

"OI! Arsewipe, fucker! Shit bag, cunt! Fucking cunt! yeah you Arsehole!

And it worked! One of them looked round and started coming over. Of cause my 1st thought was, shit, he heard what I was yelling. But then I reassured myself all he would have heard under all the noise is just someone yelling, no distinct words picked out. Luckily this was the case as he smiled and asked how I managed to get in there without any steps. Before long steps were moved into place and i was finally out of the cargo bay.

Not a bad waste of around 2hours. 60bucks in the bank :) Tis the way I view work here now. Tis never time wasted, its just money in the bank.

There are some!

2008-02-23T22:21:00.001+03:00

Would you believe it, I've found the guy who scrapped my car!!! Wifey spotted a car whose colour matched the suspects paint as we pulled in from coffee last night. And true enough after a quick examination, the car had damaged which matched mine exactly. Same 2 parallel scrapes on his as were on mine. His car had my cars colour paint, just as I had his colour. As well as the damage on his car was at the sorta place you would expect for it to have been to cause the scrape on my car.

But then I did think, this guy ain't gonna admit to anything. After all it was almost a week ago. But then again if ya don't try then ya never know. So by chance as I was preparing lunch this afternoon, I spotted his car coming back home. Quickly I rushed downstairs to apprehend the guy. Got down just in time. As the lift door opened he walked in. Half a dozen grocery bags in his hands. Strangely he looked like a slimmer version of Clare Bennett's dad off Heroes. Same face thou. Without trying to sound too accusational I presented him my charges, followed by the evidence for my case. Once everything was presented I waited to the inevitable denial. But he actually agreed with me!!! Saying how everything certainly pointed to him. Especially as on the night in question he drove home drunk!!! After a good few minutes of apologising, he said we should sort out the insurance claim and repairs ASAP. On his tab naturally.

So this Thursday were are heading to the police traffic dept to get the paperwork done for the insurance companies. YAY, no penalties on my insurance. Just goes to show there are still some honest people in this world. Was gonna say responsible but, in light of his drink driving issue, I will probably leave that word out.

Walkers

2008-02-21T22:20:00.002+03:00

Seems like this company I work for might have finally gotten their comeuppance. Just yesterday all the Asian mechanic's, around 100 of them, headed into the work head office. And demanded a meeting with all the head guys. Head of the regional operation, head of finance, HR, recruiting, etc. And basically told them,

"We have all been on at you regarding our pay increase that was due to happen last June. The one we never got. Well, several other companies in the region are offering jobs to all of us, with a monthly pay which is US$400 more than you currently pay us. So either you increase our money to around what those companies are offering us, or we all walk"

Brilliantly timed. As work has just laid off all their contract certifying engineers. Those guys are massively experienced and trained personnel. The core staff here have not got enough people of their level to fill the voids. So having cut out their certifying engineers, they now face losing ALL of their mechanics. And if they don't sort out my colleague's & my, soon to be 8mth outstanding pay. We will walk too. Leaving them with an empty hanger filled with broken aeroplanes & evil managers.

Thou if history is anything to go by they will probably not have learnt anything for this.

Feckers

2008-02-20T20:08:00.003+03:00

Was supposed to blog this days ago. On my 2nd day off. The time of the incident but well wanted to get pics to go along with the post and with a sand storm blowing outside pics had to wait.

Basically some FECKER scraped his car down the side of mine. Must have occurred on my 1st day off. While I was tucked up in bed, recovering from my night shift. Some Arsehole drove his car down the side of mine. A parked up car. A parked up car, parked in what is essentially a desert. No road, no pavement, no nothing. You could park anywhere. There is a shed load of space for you to choose from. WHY park alongside my car. And why park THAT close that you hit it. IDIOTS. This is what I meant bout drivers here in one of my previous posts.

Whole thing was made even more sore as I pride myself at being an aware and careful driver. And to date it shows. Not gonna curse myself by saying it but comparing my motoring history out here with everyone I know, it is the only unmarked driving history. But not any more. And not through any fault of my own. Now I gotta search for a garage to do a good (i stress this word) repair job. And for under the rental car's excess fee of US$350. More hassle, more time wasted on my days off.

You may have noticed the green paint scrape lines down the side of my car. Now any green car pulling up downstairs is subject to a very through body work inspection. Thing is thou, if I do find this arsehole, I'm not really too sure what I'll do. Probably swear alot, but other than that I dunno really...

P.S. you can see the sheet of sand on my tyre from the sand storm. It's very similar to a snow storm really. As it it sticks to stuff just like snow does, but it's not as fun as snow... so basically sand storms suck. I HATE sand.

Impressions

2008-02-19T13:52:00.012+03:00

All countries I visit leave me with an impression. Something that instantly flickers into my mind when I think of that place. For example the UK, I think of rolling hills, winding narrow roads, stupid laws, grey skies & rain. For Switzerland I think, towering mountains, clean and pristine spaces, beautiful (physically) people. Singapore, gadgets, gleaming hi-tech looking buildings, superb food. Australia, chilled out attitude, WIDE open space, sports crazy people. You get what I mean. Well it struck me that this place has an impression all of its own on me. I shall go thru it, point by point, with explanation.

1st point is, Shitty quality. You know how you go to some cheap place like the "dollar store" by some cheap arsed product. You buy it and it is plasticy/ tinny, etc.. but it works. Not terribly well but it does. Infact all my purchases from "dollar stores" exist to this very day. All in working order. Granted I don't use em but they work none-the-less. For here I have bought things at a few tiers above the lowest as I wanted them to last a reasonable time but they have still busted at a fraction of the life of any of my other seriously abused purchases. Examples like the fried extension plugs, the melted wall socket, the bent mop handle, the mouse that worked for a day, my friends boxster whose transmission shaft fell out after a week, the other friend's cadallac which died after driving 200m from the dealership after purchase, my car with its mystery ailments after just 1 week, my all metal bbq set which melted(!), the trainers of which the sole detached after 2hrs of wearing them, the mop bucket which handle broke after 2 uses, the just built apartment we moved into only to have ceiling to floor cracks appear and sewage back up filling the whole 1st floor with raw sewage for a week, my neighbourhood which after 2 years living there still has no road or phone line or sewer pipeline. The plastic garden chairs that all (12) broke when people (regardless of weight) sat on them. I think you get the picture.

2nd point. Rude, incompetent drivers. I've seen more serious car crashes here than in my whole life combined. Heh, I should post all my crash pics I took out here. Several invoke the feeling of "how DID you manage it?" Also drivers here that have no clue what parking bay lines are for. Or those that don't know the purpose of a slip road. Or why breast feeding, using a phone and driving all at the same time is dangerous. Also the number of times people zoom up my butt flash and horn me out the way only to get ahead of me just so they can cruse at my exact speed. And the way they slam on the horn at you the moment the light goes green. Really the instant it turns green, your brain instructions to your foot haven't arrived yet and they are already on the horn at you. Also the same idiots that creep slowly forwards at the red light, only to actually stop(!!!) when it turns green, what's up with that?

3rd point. Loud and gaudy. Things in almost every shop has the most in your face colour scheme and/or design. The more visually offensive the more shops love to stock em. Clothes for example are hideous. Think of the era that style forgot, now add lots of gold, reds and greens. Even furniture is equally tasteless. Hideous and soulless designs. I can't explain it that well, but its just... when you go to shops here, baring electronics, there is nothing here that makes you think "Hey! This looks good, wonder how much it is" Everything just strikes you with "OMG who buys this shit?" And sadly when you look at the people around you the answer is in your face. In your face regardless if you want to see it or not.

4th point. Desolation. Space devoid of anything. Its an idea hard to convey but a very strong impression all those who have been here never fail to notice or forget. In most places on this planet. Leave a patch of dirt alone and few days later weeds or moss or something will pop up. Here, nothing. Just nothing. Even attempts at making this place green by the government is all for naught. Well partly cos not enough watering is carried out. But the desolation goes beyond the lack of greenery. It spreads to places to go or things to do. Unless you want to screw hookers or get drunk there is just 2 of what i would consider malls, all filled with stuff outlined in the 3rd point. And 2 cinemas... filled with loud inconsiderate people & screaming babies. And a handful of coffee shops. And the beaches you would assume would be nice given the blue seas, is infact murky with pollution from land reclamation and beaches are infact not composed of sand, but quicksand, a result as well of land reclamation. But that's if you can even see the beach under the mass that is the 5th point...

5th point. Rubbish. Literally. Refuse, trash, crap, etc. Nobody here has a concept of a bin. There are bins dotted about the place but no one knows how they work. Cos rubbish always ends up on the floor. Early in my stay here, I sat in traffic watching a guy sweeping the pavement. To my amazement a kid in the car infront wound down the window and heaped a load of crisp packets, apple cores and drinks cartons out. Right infront of the poor road sweeper. Almost to say, here ya go, just to make sure you don't run out of work. Even when I've driven miles out of the city and towns into the desert. Rubbish is everywhere! It is the middle of fricking nowhere. Literally miles from the nearest habitation but still its everywhere. And it comes in every form. Car batteries, cupboards, drinks bottles, sofas, propane tanks, tyres. Its just a mess.

With those impressions in mind. For those who know where I am talking of. If you want to visit, sure for a week or so, just for the experience. But in all honesty, save your money. There are plenty of much more enriching places this planet has to offer.

Take it away

2008-02-17T08:46:00.001+03:00

Few days ago as you might recall I went to speak to HR about our outstanding money.During that conversation at "B"s request I asked that we would be moved onto the same pay package that "A" was offered, once we get a years experience, just like "A" has. HR totally disagreed that "A" had the offer I mentioned about. And was quoted by HR that his "real" package offer was no where near that much money. A blatant lie in the face to myself as "A" had shown me the signed offer he was given from HR.

Anyway while handing over shift this morning to "A" he quizzed me if i had spoken to HR about his package etc. I said that I did. He looked somewhat cheezed off. And quickly explained to me that I shouldn't have. As HR called him yesterday afternoon. Saying that they are tearing up his offer and are gonna give him a much lower deal. WTF!!! Now is that a way of forcing people in line or what!?!?! All they are short of now is a few thugs to beat us into submission.

Small world

2008-02-16T08:47:00.006+03:00

Quiet night tonight. Just one aircraft at the terminal with my name on it. Did a simple repair job on the ailerons and then proceeded to kill time by hanging out in the cabin with everyone else. Picked up a magazine from one of the racks, just to browse thru. And as I flicked thru the pages a picture of a purple R33 caught my eye. I backed up thru the pages and looked again. True enough it was the same R33 owned by the guy who sold me my S13. By the looks of it, a load of work had been done on it as well as a load of money spent. Reading the article. The creditability of journalism was called into question as they quoted it as producing 900hp. Sure that is not an unheard of figure but in this place with the resources here I do rather doubt it. Even back in the UK 500hp skylines are few and far between. Also the fact this whole country has just 1 dyno tester. And I have my suspicions that the only dyno that car saw was the butt dyno.

For those not in the know a butt dyno works this way. you sit ya arse in the drivers seat. Plant your foot on the go faster pedal and then you say, "ohhhh, that feels like 5000 horse power!!!!" or whatever figure you feel is appropriate.

Now done with the mag. I got talking to the ground engineer. And of cause topic was on cars. He asked what I had I said RX8. He seemed to acknowledge it. Like he knew what it was. A bit strange to me as most people don't know a great deal of anything about rotary. He then said he had a RX7!!! A local with a RX7! I was sure "O" was the only 7 owner here. He then revealed that sadly his convertible 7 is no more. He then added it was red. Now it hit me it was the same car I viewed a year ago! I asked him if it was now sitting abandoned with some piston powered lump in it. He confirmed it! As we talked on about rotarys, he mentioned, while he was looking to get his 7 back on the road he talked to a young chap, who knew about rotarys, who lived at X in this country. And that guy claimed to have a few 7s as well. It dawned to me he was talking about "O" Told the engineer that he should have gone with "O" to get it fixed up, as "O" knows his stuff. Sadly thou this is all in the past and the guys he went with conned him outta aload of cash then admitted they had no clue how to fix a rotary, hence the piston lump in it. And even after the piston transplant they fudged the power steering or something cos he said it would only turn left!! So in the end those guys knew jack about cars anyway...

Just goes to show how much our lives can overlap with each other. whether we know it or not.

Good man gone

2008-02-14T21:17:00.001+03:00

Just found out today while working with "JM" that it is his last day with us. I was somewhat shocked as, even thou I knew all contractors had been served notice he was 1 of the few that it had not been served too yet. When I questioned him further. He told me that HR had sent out a sms to all the contractors with details for a meeting with regard to serving notice. But HR forgot to add his name in the sms list. So when he was not present at the meeting. HR felt he really didn't care so they would axe him 1st!!!! Hence why all the other contractors would go at the need of the month, but "JM" would go today! And even after he confronted HR about it, their attitude was one of, Oh? Sorry... well its a lil late now... oh well...

Arseholes. "JM" is one of the few guys I'm proud to have worked with out here. Learnt alot from him. Really sad to see him go. Especially at such sudden notice. Just so sad all the incompetent fools are held onto like gold dust but real gems like him are dumped at the 1st chance. All because they have a sense of pride in the work they do and the quality of their jobs is something the quality dept here (with their dodgy standards) can only dream of.

Well as with my blog, no names mentioned. So all I can say is "JM", you will be sorely missed. I can only hope I get the honour of working with you again in the future.

Anti-trust

2008-02-13T20:33:00.000+03:00

Went ot speak with HR today about our outstanding money. 7 mths in all. Talking around US$4000++. Every month they fob us off with some pointless excuse. The last excuse they used was that they did not know how much leave we had taken off in 2007. And asked us to fill in the days we were on course/ sick/ on leave/ overseas placement. They also showed us a sheet of paper with the days they believe we were off. Quickly it was pointed out that paper had to be wrong as how could all of us have different days on course when we all attended the same course.

So we filled in the forms with the dates we believe to be correct. Bear in mind the whole of 2007 is a long time to stretch your memory and pinpoint precise days. We had told HR that but they said they understand and to do the best we could. Anyway we handed those forms in about a week ago. And today at "B"s request I went in to speak to HR about how it was going. would we finally get our money or would it roll over to 8 mths...

And HR's answer was they are in the midst of going thru our sign in sheets for 2007. See what days we were at work. WHAT THE HELL! They have the time sheets, so they know exactly what days we were at work. So why waste all of our time by making us do a pointless form filling exercise? And now I bet they have found a bunch of days that don't tally with our sign in records. And then they are gonna accuse us of being untrustworthy. That we made up for days we were at work when we weren't. I can see it all coming.

I'm an addict

2008-02-04T16:31:00.000+03:00

Last Day off. 3 days whizzed by. What did I do? Played Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion on all 3 days... Think this qualifies as addiction. And yes I admit, I have a problem when it comes to RPG's, well good ones anyway. Ones with great stories. Xeno Gears is still the benchmark in my books. Its was not so much of playing a game, more of being in a well told anime story. Oblivion is a lil different as its more D&D, but story is pretty good too. More addiction right there. Been told Mass Effect is great on the story too. Urrrgh can see yet another addiction problem occurring once I O.D. and give up on oblivion.

So anyway trying to make the most of my last day by being away from the Xbox. For the most part anyway. Still my to do list remains.

Unpack luggage
Organize photos from last trip
Reinstall XP on failed laptop
Enter in outstanding work experience entries
Update CV
Install the recharge station in the hallway.
Fill out my Overtime slip.
Get the printer working again
Install and play with Mandriva, Ubuntu and SuSe linux versions (getting THAT pissed off with Microsoft)
Put up pictures in the house
Repair damaged camera bag

But as always in the back of my mind is the thought, if I do it all then I'll have nothing to do! Sadly it is a valid point in this activity drained part of the world. A point my laziness uses to full effect.

Move along now

2008-01-30T02:27:00.000+03:00

In addition to thinking of my professional life. It links to my personal life. Hard to keep the 2 totally separate. Especially since the amount you earn directly dictates the lifestyle you can live. And in my case where I live! Being totally honest about it. I don't think I will ever reach a point where I can return to a familiar place I can refer to as home without confusion arising. Not in the next 10 years anyway. The confusion I speak of is as such. If i say to wifey, I'm gonna get my ebay purchases sent to our home. She thinks, which home? Home in the land of sand? Home in the UK? Or home elsewhere??? Then comes what troubles us both. We both would like a place we can call our own. A place we can customize to our tastes. Where she can get the furniture she wants to have. And I can construct the home entertainment & computer infrastructure I need. All without the worry that 6mths down the line we gotta pack all we own into a bag and leave the country cos my contract has ended and the next 1 is in some other part of the world.

Only way round it we can see is to have a lil of both. To have a place we own. Like a base. And whatever happens that will always be Home. And still continue contracting round the globe. Wherever work is. Still looking at various countries we could call home. And all needless to say have pros and cons. All have that grass is greener factor. Sad fact of life is I ain't getting any younger. Really gotta make my choice in the next 5 years. Preferable to be sooner than later. Which all leads me to think how much longer am I gonna be in this country? And if not here where? There is no real answer I can give to any of it now. Largely I am a victim of circumstance right now. But of cause as sail boats are not totally at the mercy of the winds neither am I to my circumstance.

For now I'll aim for the courses that can best secure my future. And from there see how life pans out. But in making those moves, it means moving out of my comfort zone. I've become accustomed to working a set work pattern. Doing a set number of hours every day. Having a set number of days off. Having in reality what is actually a very secure job. Shit thou it is. I've become used to the predictability of it all. And of cause have become comforted by it. But just carrying on is only gonna mean a lesser outlook in the future. I've always tried to live life by being happy that if given a 2nd chance I'd still do it the same. Largely I am happy to say I would. And If I'm gonna make the most of it all. I've gotta start shaking things up. Going thru the troubles of getting out there, making an effort and moving ahead. Time waits for no man. And thou it is nice to take it easy and chill every now and then. It is just as necessary to get up and move things along. Hell if I just wanted to take life easy n chill I should have just joined most of my school mates n stayed in my home town, gathering on street corners and pubs every evening. Going thru the same motions everyday for the rest of my life. I've made it this far. Shame to get comfortable and waste what could have been.

A few pairs

2008-01-29T02:21:00.000+03:00

Forced to rethink my life and the way I'm steering it. Finally work is getting rid of all the contractors. So a lot of friends and people I have had good memories with are being moved on. And no doubt in my mind it is the best thing for them. Moving on to greener pastures. Getting outta here IMO can only be a good thing. Especially for the connie boys.

Which has made me think about where I'm headed. I've got some reasonable qualifications under my belt now. Reasonable in that I won't be totally screwed if I had to lose my job now. But not of the level where I feel comfortable that I can get a job I like where I like. Basically having a good set of choices. Not just the odd one or 2, followed by the what if I don't get it worry.

Problem I've realized is 2 fold. 1st is my personal mentality. I personally don't feel experienced or confident enough to be totally self sufficient. Confident that I can work in a place inhabited by morons and not be dragged down or bamboozled into their unprofessional methods. I want to be on a level where I know what to do, how to do it and if not then at least know where I can turn to in order to get the task done properly. Way to remedy this 1st problem is simple. Hang about with professionals and keep my eyes and ears open. Learn and remember what they do. Problem now is those I consider professionals are being kicked out. And all that is left is well... Lets put it this way. A plant can grow in compost and it can grow in sand. In both a plant will grow. But 1 plant will take a lot longer to reach the level of the other.

2nd is my paper qualifications. This is governed by 2 factors. Certificates, gained from attending courses and recorded time working of different types of aircraft. Time is in a way, simple. However long I spend in a company with said types of aircraft determines the length of time of experience I can place on my CV. Courses are a lil more difficult. The studying bit is the easy part. Hard bit is attending it. Firstly its finding a course you can physically make it to. Getting time of is a major problem. These things can go on for anywhere from 3 day to 2 mths, depending what you are trying to get the cert on. Employers look at this independent taking of courses in 2 ways. That it's great, cos they don't foot a penny. Just grant the time off and once you're back, they have a much more qualified employee, who they can instantly use. With no input cost to their accounts, save being a man down for the time you are away. The other way they can view it is. That it's dangerous. If they let you go on the course, you will be more qualified and thus will be more able to leave for another job somewhere else. Hence they would lose an employee. So they don't grant the time off. In my personal case, as many of you would guess, it seems the latter holds true.

I've got a short list of courses I would like. PW4000 engine course. Useful to complement my A330 airframe. A good short course, like 5 days. A320 airframe with CFM56 & V2500 engines. VERY useful to have. Tonnes of jobs around. Take your pick of Country to work in, pay to receive, hours to work, etc... B767 airframe with CF6 & PW4000 engines. Lots of budget airlines kicking around with them. Ever since Boeing stopped making em, they got cheap, hence lots of lo-cost carriers in Europe taking them. So reasonable amount of work.

Only short listed those as they are planes I have worked on for a good deal of time, hence I can get the courses added to my license without much problem. Of cause there are dream courses I would love to take. Courses that would mean total job security and in most senses of the saying, allow you to print all the money you want. But getting those kinda courses, you might as well speculate on what if you won the lottery.

It's Fine

2008-01-28T01:50:00.001+03:00

Yet again work has stunned me at the level of unprofessionalism. Everything I say it but every time they raise the bar on what is possible. Had to perform an inspection on some fuel pumps on a B767. As per the instruction of Boeing. When all 4 pumps were removed, 3 outta the 4 in my opinion were pretty screwed. I mean I've just been doing this for a good number of years, so what I perceive might be totally off the mark so I asked my supervisor for his opinion. According to him it was fine, not a fault in the world. Just fit em back in he told me. A lil unsure by the call I asked for a 3rd opinion. And their call was the same as mine. But again the supervisor,who has the final say, proclaimed it perfect. I've attached a couple of pics here for ya. See what you think? I'm sure even those without an engineering background will be able to add some input. See if you can agree with my concerns.

Sorry for the crummy pix, all thanks to my ancient 1.3mpix cam phone. Thankfully I learnt tat the B767 was gonna be grounded for 1 mth anyway as part of the structure of the wing's flap had totally delaminated and warped. And getting a new flap section here might take well over a mth. Kinda unbelievable cos at my previous financially skint work place a new one was delivered within 12hrs... But anyway thanks to this grounding I convinced the supervisor that ordering new pumps would not delay the plane if that was his concern. And his opinion instantly changed. No delay... ok.. change it. But as with all things in this place. Pump not available...it would need to be sent here from somewhere in the world. Could take how long? Who knows? Day, week, month, year?

I'm in Oblivion

2008-01-26T06:09:00.000+03:00

Getting flash backs of the good ol days back in Uni when we would lock ourselves in our room and game for a whole week straight. Only leaving the room to go to the loo. Even food was a case of what ever came to hand and for a good while what came to had was a bottle of BBQ sauce. Balders gate and Icewind Dale were the games. And now its Elder scrolls IV Oblivion. Started in drips and drabs while I was still on shift but now its full blow as I'm on my 4 days off. Done very little in real life. Infact realised I had not eaten in 19hrs because I am so hooked. Not done alot in the game either as this bloody vampire cure quest takes me all over the map and before i can complete the quest I get lumbered with a load more quest to handle. Total sucker for D&D and RPGs. Get a good one and its goodbye to reality. Hello to reclusiveness and paranoia that trolls, zombies and goblins are gonna break down my door or jump outta the shadows at me. And my back massager is now a greater mace of smiting +5, my bike helmet is a helm of divine countenance +3 and my food tray is a tower shield of fortitude +2. Really it is. And I'll pwn all j0 f00s that say other wise!

Whats this in my back?

2008-01-24T09:06:00.000+03:00

I was beginning to think a whole shift without anything bad going on was too good to be true. And I was right. 2 incidents in 1 night. Both really pissing me off and showing what a dumping ground this place is. Here's incident number 1.

Was sent to do 2 tasks on an aircraft. One was to change a wheel the other was to fix a thrust reverser. I did the jobs as requested. All completed well in time for the aircraft's departure. Before long the crew turned up and the Captain did his customary walk around inspection. I was somewhat surprised as the captain approached me and asked if I was aware that there was fuel coming out of a particular drain mast. I was totally taken aback as the drain mast he pointed out to me I knew that it was totally unacceptable to have fuel come out of it. As it indicated a fuel leak in the aft fuel tank. Was a pretty bad leak too. 1 drip a second. That's 14400 drips for a 4hr flight. Didn't know what to say to him. But I did tell him I'll check if my shift engineer knows about it. With that he left. But then returned less than 5mins later. Telling me all 4 engines were low on oil. 3 litres per engine. Felt really embarrassed as I rushed about topping up all the engines, even more embarrassed as at that moment bus loads of passengers arrived and stared at me as they boarded the plane. I just don't know how to tell the crew that I'm just given 2 tasks to complete. A bunch of other guys were supposed to ensure the things they spotted were dealt with. But obviously those other guys weren't doing their job. Pisses me off so much that my face has to be the front of such a messed up outfit.

Incident 2 really showed me the true face of this place. An aircraft had to be put on jacks so the landing gear could be inspected. A specialist had be called in to do the inspection when the aircraft arrived. That time happened to be at 2:30am. Poor chap drags his ass outta bed and into work to do this inspection, but can he? Hell no. Why? Cos the jack we are provided does not work and the back up jack only works as part of a set, and we don't have a set. How about borrowing the jacks from the main store? No, they were sent away for repair last night... So we totally wasted the poor guys time. But this isn't the issue that had me fired up.

The guy (big-ish manager type) is pissed off and rightly so. He kicks off at our supervisor saying this is the 2nd such incident and he is pissed off at all this time wasting. Our supervisor replies by saying that its not his fault and that the problem is out of his hands as he tasked an engineer to see to it that all the equipment worked before the plane turned. That the engineer was supposed to get the whole job sorted and ready to go before the plane showed up. And it was that engineers fault things turned out this way. So decide to ask the engineer in question what exactly he was tasked with from the supervisor. The engineer said he was only told a plane was coming in with an undercarriage problem and that was it. As little and as vague a briefing as you could get. Ahhhh, there goes a text book execution of the infamous "stab in the back" manoeuvre. Now this whole cock up is the fault of a poor engineer. Still oblivious of the dagger between his shoulder blades. And the supervisor? Blameless as blameless can be. And the added kick in the bollocks? The supervisor gets promoted... starts his new managerial position next month.

Great drivers

2008-01-23T08:03:00.000+03:00

Had an amusing run in this evening on night shift. Was driving around the airport, getting to an Airplane we had to work on when one of the airport traffic enforcement car's swerved out from a junction in front of us. Causing "T" who was at the wheel to hit the brakes. Sending us to a screeching halt. "T" was absolutely enraged. Immediately his window came down and all manner of hand gestures waved from it and the appropriate words yelled out as well. "S" who was in the car tried to calm "T" telling him it ain't worth it that these traffic guys are always tanked up on a power trip and could make life difficult if offended. But "T" just wouldn't let up. Sure enough the traffic car stopped and wheeled round along side us. His window came down. And the conversation went as follows...

"T" "What the hell were you doing? You don't just cut out in front of people! It's not just you who uses the road!"

Traffic guy, "All you people. All like this. You come over here, we teach you how to drive. And then you think you know everything, think you know it all."

And with that he wound his window back up and sped off. All of us sat in the car lost for words. Dumb founded. Teach us how to drive??? OMG if they taught us how to drive we'd all be dead a long time ago. These are the same people stack their cars once the slightest curve in the road presents itself. The same people who breast feed their babies and talk on a mobile phone whilst driving.

So Long Bob

2008-01-20T06:58:00.001+03:00

Well past 2 night shifts were a pleasant surprise. Was given a load of non-boring jobs. !st night was repairing a A320 Nose leg. 2nd night was carrying out e full servicing of a A330 engine. Been such a long time since I did such tasks. In all honesty, around a year. Almost felt like old times again. Almost because, the people aren't here.

Finally on my 1st set of days off. Been looking forward to them for so long. Have so many things that need doing. For a start our suitcases haven't been fully unpacked yet. But so far the days have been productive. For a start I'VE SOLD BOB!!! YAY!!! Bob is my S13 Silvia which I bought when I 1st arrived here. Filled with the fantasy of making the use of the super cheap fuel and tyres this country had to offer to perfect my drifting skills.Sadly the reality of the lack of good roads to practice on hit me early on. Then came the problems of a history of poor maintenance, coupled with the hot weather, high humidity and sea breeze. All a recipe for mechanical disaster. Bob's trademark characteristic was for him to spring up totally random problems. None of which were necessary related. For example 1 day it would be a failed door window motor. Next it would be over fueling. Then dead spark plugs. Then power steering failure. Then exhaust gasket failure. Then turbo oil feed line failure. Then fuel line rupture. Then the boot wouldn't open. Then the battery would die. Then the fuel gauge would fail, etc, etc... Think you are getting the picture.

Thou I must add what lil enjoyment I did get from this car was indeed fun. For a start it was my 1st step into turboed motoring. All my cars have always been N/A. And as a drifting platform it was very good. Great feedback, easily controlled and easy to predict. Can see why it is so widely used in drift competitions. But personally to me it feels a lil like cheating to use a silvia in competitions as its so much easier to drift than many other cars. I was at 1st hesitant to sell him as he started 1st time when the buyer came to view. But once I sold him I was a kinda glad to hear that the following day when he owner drove Bob around a while Bob emptied his fuel tank thru a burst fuel feed line. Ahhh, the curse of Bob strikes again. So glad I'm rid of him. Gonna sound like an arse but glad he's someone else's problem now. But I did tell the owner to let me know how Bob turns out once he's finished fixing him up, as well as let me know how many problems Bob throws before he's 100% fixed.

No effort required

2008-01-14T17:40:00.000+03:00

Nearly walked outta work today. I woke up late, not surprising since the past month or so I've been used to waking up at around midday. But anyway I rush in to work and receive the kind of yelling at one remembers from school. They played on about the fact I was late yesterday and now today. I explained that yesterday it was cos the flight was late and how was that my fault. I tried to press home the fact at least I turned up by saying,

"Hey I made an effort, I didn't stop I came straight in after my flight, I was awake for 30hours or so but still made the effort to come into work as soon as I could. Could have easily just stayed at home and rested. Figured that some effort was better than none at all."

Their replies, the both of em, was "Shouldn't have bothered coming in yesterday. No point putting in any effort if you are gonna be late."

I was almost stumped for words at their reply and asked for a reconfirmation of their statement. "So you rather me make no effort at all then regarding yesterday."

"yes", was their short and simple answer. Was so close to saying well I'll head home to bed now then seeing as I only put in some effort by getting in late. But probably best doing what I did and just walking of and starting work. Fuckers...

Well that I'm reading as the go ahead to not put any effort into any of my work if I can't get it all 100% then...

Get the feeling that anything that goes wrong or is not right in anything I do it's my fault. Airline has no spare parts, I can't do the job, their answer, he's lazy. I can't carry 6 engineers in a car with 2 seats, their answer, he wants to waste time driving around. I can't complete repairs in time cos the aircraft is totally FUBAR and people keep "borrowing" my equipment and I'm on my own, their answer, he's incompetent. The last one probably the scenario for todays later events.

Was supposed to lubricate all the hinges and actuator moving parts on the aircraft tail. I started it in the morning at8 but it was still only 50% complete at 6pm. I contribute the following factors for the delay. Close to an hour to locate not broken air hoses so I could use air tools. Around 70% of the screws being seized in the holes, thus requiring to be drilled out or some other removal process.3 instances of drill bits getting broken off in the drilled hole(done by the companies listed metal worker, not me), being hardened steel they can't be drilled out, instead the screw head has to be ground off. The guys who own the lifting equipment coming in at 1pm to demand their stuff back for close to 2 hours, how am I supposed to work on something 20 meters in the air without lifting equipment? Also working alone for half the job. Add the fact it rained, monsoon style for an hour and work does not provided wet weather gear,plus I don't feel safe standing in a bucket 20 meters up in the torrential wind and rain with no safety harness. And toward the end of the shift(after 530pm) working in the dark. Those are the reasons I couldn't complete it all in time,thou I'm sure they didn't see it that way. Sure they forget the fact that everybody dodged the job at the start of the check because they knew it would be difficult and left it till the very last shift. Seeing which poor sod ended up with it rather than deal with it themselves.

The "master" said I could have done the job faster if someone sat in the cockpit and held the tail's position to maximum right then no panels need to be removed to do the lubrication. I had to explain to him yes that work work for lubricating the hinges but how could you access the actuators,which are sealed in the tail? How is he the #1 on shift when he can't think that out? Also had to ask him if there was the locking tool to hold the tail in the right position, rather than have someone hold it in that position. He said they didn't have that tool here. Well no way in hell am I putting my hands in the dependence of someone holding their right leg straight on the control pedals for 30mins. The moment their leg gets tired and buckles, that hydraulic tail surface will have no problem severing my hand as I work away at the hinge. Bear in mind the guy making these suggestions is the same guy who today moved the tail's control surface around for a good few minutes while I was next to it. Nearly knocking me off the tail, falling 20meters to a painful end. Then asked me if it was ok. Surely you ask 1st then you go ahead not vice versa. Suppose he never noticed the warning tags I placed on all over the cockpit that I was on the tail...

Had a worrying reminder about our comments not to fly this airline. Everyone had said it so often to everyone they met that it seemed to be getting to a jokey saying. But today Was reminded it was deadly true. One of their aircraft had come in from Paris with a fault... One of the engines thrust reverser's had deployed while the plane took off. To reiterate, that is one engine wanting to push the plane backward while the others want to go forwards,whilst the plane is in the air. Don't think I need to explain how that is unsafe. That exact incident has caused the loss of a couple of aircraft to date. No survivors on either crash I believe. What made it more worrying to me was the wife and me had flown on that exact plane once before...

Crap 2 b back

2008-01-12T23:54:00.000+03:00

Well back in the sand box. And it is as shit as I remember it to be. The lovely heart felt greeting given to me from my shift leader made be glad I made the effort to come into work straight after landing. I can't place my finger on what it was that made me feel so appreciated, the way he asked why I was so late, or why I bothered turning up if it was this late, or the tone in his voice,or was it the mocking grunt he greeted me with, I don't know, so many to choose from. Kinda pissed me off too the way he blamed me for not being contactable because my phone number was wrong. If I was soooooo un-contactable then why was the assistant shift leader able to get hold of me. As well as a number of other workmates?

But as with all things there is news. News being whilst I was away another bunch more people got fired/ let go/left/etc. And oh-how-coincidental, all of them were people I enjoyed working with. Also now we have to swipe in when we arrive at work. I hate work places where u have to sign in. Was a lil taken aback to see air force one rolling by me on my 1st day back. But apparently Georgie boy is in town, God knows what for. Well the King closed down the whole city so Georgie could drive through unmolested. How thoughtful...

Also now rumors abound about new type courses coming our way. A320 and 737, old and new gen apparently. Well its nice to think about and hope for but something else if it will actually happen. Either way tomorrow will be my 1st full day at work since getting back. I'm sure it will be as crap as today just longer. Truely is a case of same shit different day...