Weekend Briefs

I've noticed a natural decrease in comments over the weekends - which indicates that most people use work as an opportunity to catch up on my adventures in Doha... so I've decided to only provide a short update tonight - plus I just got back to my hotel room after a dinner with my bosses and need to get to bed so I can wake up early to get back to RasLaffan again tomorrow.

My 3rd trip to site today was much more exciting, since I was taking someone else there for their first time - note that I'm apparently an "expert" after having 2 trips under my belt. After we waited in a line to get our paperwork stamped (can't wait to get my permanent badge), we had our car and bags searched for contraband... then we got to the entrance to the PMT building and I was told that my pass was not valid at this gate. So I drove down the road another 300 yards and tried at the next gate... no issues, so I drove on the main site road right next to the construction site, right past the other gate who denied me access (felt like "waving" at them) and after 30 minutes of security procedures we arrived at the new RasGas site offices. I plan to learn from our experiences today to streamline tomorrow's trip.

My accomplice this week is a 40 year veteran of project work and we got off to a great start today getting all sorts of data that we had previously not had access to. We're currently analyzing the project schedule and staffing plans (over 17,000 laborers at the peak of this project!!! Consider what it would be like to have 17,000 people all working collaboratively on one goal - incredible stuff). Then think that you have these people working almost 36 months non-stop to get these billion dollar facilities running... I definitely appreciate the process of turning crude oil and natural gas into usable products.

We also attended a site safety training session... we were the only management team members, the other 70 attendees were laborers who had spent an entire day working before coming into this enclosed room for safety orientation. I was very thankful when the instructor turned the window ACs onto max to help mitigate the ripeness factor. We then sat through a 90 minute presentation half in English, half in Filipino, that included some extremely graphic pictures of folks who didn't take safety seriously - examples include a man who fell 50 METERS to solid concrete, a man who got his fingers severed by trying to stop a full gas cylinder from falling over, and a guy who took a nap under a heavy work truck. It certainly made it's point. I now am familiar with the various alarms and site muster points, and know to stay clear of the acid gas injection unit because one breath during a toxic release can be fatal... no thanks! Best of all I got a sweet sticker for my hardhat... Lucky!

More fun stories to come later in the week - since I only have 4 more nights in Doha before the long trip home! Be sure to leave comments... even short ones so this is more interactive! Thanks to those who are consistently commenting - I think some of you should definitely pursue your own blogs so we can encourage each other creatively.

Music Video of the YEAR: "Baheb el-Horeya" by Karika ft. Mena w Nahla - instant hit throughout the Middle East - so I included a link below so you can enjoy too!
http://www.evertube.com/videos/watch/ek9amEYhJSE/karika-ft-mena-w-nahla-baheb-el-horeya.html - vaguely reminds me of another video - I'm sure that's just me though!!!

If you haven't called your mum - do it now before Mother's Day is over... let them know how much they mean to you.