11th June 2010

As I type this, am now sitting in the lobby of Sara Hotel, Labuan. Just had dinner at Malindo, next door.
Today was my first ever day offshore. And it was great..

Arrived in Labuan last night, and got to meet up with Deb and 2-year-old Demita. The little girl is so cute, and fun to read to and play with! Too bad I didn't get to meet her baby sister, cos it was late and she was already asleep.

Woke up at 5.45 this morning to get ready and to go the Asean Supply Base. Sylvester picked me up before 6.15am. Had no life jacket, so had to use the one provided at the FCB.

It's a 2-hour trip from Labuan to KNDP-A, the Kinabalu platform. Luckily I wasn't seasick!

Experienced loads of interesting things today:
Visited the Sarku Labuan Logistics Yard.
Offshore for the first time.
Viewing the new barge, Otto-3. Lunch in the Otto-3 galley.
Hanging out at the Otto-3 smoking zone.
Watching the "Toshiba" fish. ("Do you know why we call it the Toshiba fish?" "No, why?" "Because it's the fish in the Toshiba television advertisement..")
Being shown even bigger fish. ("That's not a big fish, that's a small fish. Once there was a whale shark here, the big one with white spots. Very big.")
Touring KNDP-A.
Hanging out on the platform helideck, watching the platform crane repair.
Climbed up to the platform crane control cab ("You're the first lady to climb up to my crane..today is a special day"), and even got to blow the horn. Twice!
Learning about the flare, and about the 2 pipelines, about platforms. ("Oil is always with gas. But gas can be only gas.. KNDP-A is a crude oil platform, but there's gas also.." and "Can you smell that? That's gas. Crude oil smells very bad." and even "See those two platforms? The Sultan of Brunei's.." "You mean Brunei Shell?" "No, the Sultan of Brunei." "You mean a company belonging to the Sultan of Brunei?" "His personal platforms, those two...")
Met so many nice and obliging people. Given a ballpoint pen when I didn't have anything to sign with. Given earplugs. Offered gloves. Given a hot drink. Offered lunch, and invited to take more food.
And gazing at the beautiful sea, stretching across the horizon all round. With platforms, rigs, vessels in the distance.

This is gonna be pretty hard to forget. A very good experience. Will post more and put up pictures when I get back to Miri, I guess. Laptop can't read the memory card format.

Am going back up to my room now. Another early day tomorrow.
Again, I'm grateful to have B's understanding.
Goodnight.