Leaving Meal in Doha

On my first week back, I was invited to a leaving meal for Earnest and Senthil. We had a very nice Indian meal, and a few drinks, at the Chingari Restaurant, Ramada Hotel in Doha (we also had a meal there last Christmas). The picture on the right shows from left to right, Senthil, Vipul, Rahul (who had my camera for most of the night), Earnest and Jatender. The picture on the left is a group picture, with most of the people invited to the evening meal. Many thanks to Earnest and Senthil for the evening out, and wishing them the best of luck for the future. Earnest is staying in Doha, where he has lived for the last 11 years, and looking for a new venture. Senthil is leaving at the end of November, heading back to India for a few days, before returning to our Honeywell Newhouse office in Scotland.

I started the week sifting through 143 emails, as my remote access was not working during my break, so I let the emails mount up. Just getting back in to the swing of things here on site. Now relaxing and enjoying the day off, after a lay in, to catch up on some sleep.

Time for a break

Well, I'm on my way to yet another well deserved break ? While I am away, some more characters are leaving the project. The photograph on the left shows myself with Abdul (left) and DM (right). Both are on thier way back to India. It has been good fun working with these guys, so I wish them the best of luck when they return home. Thanks guys for your help with the Hindi language (even the naughty stuff!). On the right we have Matt, who is leaving for a year long break, with his wife, to Canada, starting with a season of winter sports in Whistler. He will then head for the Uk to work for a few years, before heading back to Australia. May see you around again on another project. I am now packing my flight bag, ready for my flight at two in the morning, along with Darren Brown, Jeff Allen and Richard Wells. See you in a couple of weeks.

One week to a well deserved break

Well, this is the end of week five, and just one more week to go before I head back to the Uk for a coouple of weeks off. We have had another couple of leavers this week; our Management-of- Change (MoC) coordinator, Mike Sharp, and IC Lead engineer, Thangaraj, shown in the picture, and now on his way back to India. Good luck to them both. As I have mentioned before, Matt Thompson is due to leave next week, taking a lot of system knowledge with him. As a result he has been handing some items over to me (as if I am not busy enough). So I have been getting up to speed with some of his handover material. My colleague Tom Evitts will be back on Sunday, so hopefully we can catch up with all our tasks before I leave Wednesday evening. Now the number of people on site is really falling, there does not seem to be as many social events going on, so things are quieter. Ususal Friday off - gym followed by lunch at camp, and chilling out for the afternoon. I am on-call until I leave, but with any luck, the phone will not ring! Time to chill! Bye for now.

A Quiet Week

Nothing much to report this week. There was a BBQ last friday evening, at the 5o5 club, but I forgot all about it. I have been kept busy this week, but nothing too exciting. Just walked back from the JK Camp mess hall, after lunch with Darren Brown. The walk back was quite slow, as Darren has hurt his leg. He has been limping around the office all week. Get well soon Darren; at least before you go for your break in two weeks.

No gym this morning. I woke up early, but felt so tired, that I decided to go back to sleep and recover some lost sleep. I got up about 10 o'clock, had a shower and went to lunch. Nothing too exciting to do this afternoon, so after completing this blog, I will probably chill out and watch a movie.

Picture shows the walkway between the POB and CCR (control room) buildings, with John McElveen from Honeywell Atlanta (unaware that I just took a picture of him), heading to the CCR to check out some communication issues for me. Well that's it for now. Later!

Technical Expertise Team

My self and Tom Evitts from Honeywell Atlanta, US, form the DCS Controls Technical Expertise Group, supporting Honeywell engineers, as well as Shell. Tom has just left for two weeks off, leaving me to cope alone. I have got some help, in the form of John McElveen, (in the blue t-shirt) who is also from Honeywell Atlanta. He is looking after the serial comms side of things, and currently helping me out with some PCDI comms, Safety Manager investigations. There is also another Honeywell Atlanta engineer, Charles, not in the picture. All three came to site a few months ago, together. The Atlanta office must be quite empty at the moment! This week I have started the process of taking over the "Asset model" here on site, as Matt Thompson, who has looked after it for years now, may be leaving at the end of October, and like most of our Australian friends, will be taking some time off and trecking around the world, starting apparently with a year in Canada. I have another three weeks out here before my next break, also at the end of October. I am looking forward to that. I will probably have to do some early Christmas shopping, as the next time I go back to the UK will be 22nd December. A bit late to start shopping.

Another week, another goodbye

This week Joe Tennant (picture), site supervisor, has left site after 19 months, and heading back home to Tampa, Florida. After a day at home he will be driving to his work base of Honeywell, Huston, Texas, working on the new Shar Gas project, which will eventually lead him to site in Abu Dhabi. He mentioned that there could be a site position for me there too, but we will see! There is a lot of talk about the Shar Gas project out here, but site work is at least a year away. I have been travelling to site with Joe since I started about 15 months. I wish him luck in his return to the US. Today is the first Friday morning that I have not got up early and gone to the gym. I decided I needed a layin this morning, so had a well needed extra two hours sleep. Just been to lunch on the camp, now it is time to check out some movies online. Bye for now.

Back for the Ninth Time

Been back a week now. I have just come back from the gym, after a 2 hrs 45 min session, so I am absolutely shattered, but I have managed to find enough energy to write this blog. I was not too busy at the start of the week, Tom (my Tech Expertise group colleague) sorted out most issues while I was on leave, so no big work load left to sort out. Towards the end of the week a few items came in, but these were managable. Things are cooling down here now, as autumn sets in; temperatures only aound the 40 deg C mark. This summer as a whole has been cooler than last year, when temperatures around 50 deg C and above were common. Also, the mornings are cooler now. There was a dense mist when I went to the gym first thing this morning. Things were uncomfortable when I got back to my room last night after work. The air con failed, and it was unbearable, but maintenance fixed it with an hour or so, and it is ok now. It just shows you that you cannot live without air con during the summer in Qatar. No new pictures this week, so I have added a picture I took of the view of the Qatari desert, from our new office building. I shall be heading to lunch at 11:30, and resting up and watch a movie this afternoon, and maybe download some music videos from Youtube, to my ITouch. Bye for now.

End of Rotation 8

All rotations have gone by quite quickly, but this one has just flown by. It seem like I just arrived a week ago, and already I am heading home for another two week break. Picture from Friday evening was yet another BBQ, this time to say goodbyed to two more leavers, Andie Green (grenn t-shirt), who is heading back home - wherever that is, and Marcus Bauer (gray t-shirt) who is heading back to Calgary, Canada, back to the Calgary Honeywell office. Good luck from all at the 5o5 Club. Well, time for me to go. See you in two weeks.

Office Relocation

Well, week five over and we have just moved to a new office location on the site. We are now closer to the process areas of the site, but the office is much bigger and far less crowded, as there were thousands of contractors, mainly from India in the old building, and the toilets and kitchens were over crowded. The new office is ok but we will now have to get a bus to go to the Control Room and to lunch. Picture on the left shows part of Honeywell office, the right hand picture is part of the panoramic view of the desert, from the office balcony. In the middle, Dynaneshwar, Vipul and me, relaxing in the new office.

Three weeks gone aready

It seems like I just arrived back here iin Qatar and three weeks have aready gone by. Perhaps because I have been kept pretty busy. We have had quite a few issues to investigate, as well as the usual short technical questions from the DCS team and Shell staff. I now have help. Tom Evitts has joined us from Honeywell Atlanta US - actually, three engineers from the same office joined us. This has made a lot of difference, because when I retuned from leave, lots of issues needed investigating. Tom has now gone on leave for two week, so I am alone again for the moment, but we now have most things under control. I missed last weeks Iftar meal, because I was totally shattered, after too long in the gym and by the pool. There is another Iftar tonight, so I shall try to attend this one, after a slightly easier session at the gym. I am about to go to lunch, on camp. I shall watch a movie after lunch, then go over to the Iftar later, after a rest.

Another Week, Another Leaver

This week Vish, IPS Safety support engineer from Pune, India, and part of our Technical Expertise group, has just left, to go back to Honeywell Pune. Vish had been on site about one year. He took the photos from my blog from last week, and has been travelling to work and back in the truck, with myself, Jan and Joe, for several months. Vish will be replaced by Darren Brown, from New Zealand, but based in the Bracknell office, and shown with Vish in the photo on the right. Over done it at the gym again today, after lunch I shall rest my legs and watch a movie, before going to an Iftar (end of day,s fasting) BBQ at the 505 Bar. We will be in Ramadan during the whole of August, so the bar will open after sunset.

Start of a new rotation

Just come to the end of the first week of my eighth visit to Qatar. Five weeks to go! There has been a few people leave site this week. Our good friend Mohamed, from Egypt, pictured on the left, has left after about one year on site. He is going back to Honeywell office in Kuwait. If you are reading this blog, Good luck Mohamed, it was a pleasure working with you. Keep reading this blog. I will try to make it interesting (activities allowing). Lead engineer Sudhakaran also left this week, going back to India. He is third from the right on the right hand photo. Also leaving are Ahmed from India (middle of right hand picture, at the back) and Leigh Hanson from Australia (not in photo, he said goodbye then disappeared quickly). Good luck for the future to all of them. Good luck also to Jan Van Berlo from Amsterdam (left of picture). He has just taken on the role of site supervisor, joining Joe Tennant from the US (right in the picture). I travel to work each day, in the truck with Joe and Jan, and Vish (the person taking this picture, and leaving for India next week). He can be in the picture next week. I just realized that I am the only Uk person in the picture! Well I am now going to take a rest after my workout this morning, as my legs are aching, and it is extremely humid outside today - although it was nice by the pool this morning! See you all later.

Home for a break in one week

I will be flying home early next Thursday morning, for a well deserved two week break, after 7 weeks in the heat. This will be the end of my seventh trip out here; five six-week trips and two seven-week trips. It has been an interesting week, with a variety of problems to resolve, and questions to answer. I also had to do a couple of presentations to a group of Honeywell DCS engineers, along with my IPS counterpart (for IPS engineers). C10 Lead and Site Supervisor Wissam Al-Nassari, left site for the last time, this week. He occationally reads this blog, so if you are reading this, "thanks for your support, when ever I had an issue, and I wish you the very best of luck". The pictures are of Wissam's leaving drink at the new 5o5 club. Wissam is the guy in the maroon t-shirt. Well one more week for me, and I can also head off to the UK, but just for a couple of weeks, before returning here. In the mean-time, I'm off to lunch at the JK camp.

The Last Phoenix BBQ

After months of hard work and using his room as a beer cellar, Joe (in the red t-shirt) has finally decided to close the Phoenix bar. We thank him for all his efforts and hospitality. John Cunnel, who cooked an excellent green curry last week, has volunteered to open his room at five past five in the evening, until six-thirty, and thus naming it the 5o5 club. All the beer etc. and the bench have been moved to John's room. I joined them for the opening evening of this new bar. The images show the final Phoenix bar BBQ, where Craig White (the big "Scott" in the light blue t-shirt) , who is leaving site in a few weeks, cooked up some great food. I have had a busy week implementing a new Asset model and Scope of Responsibility for the entire system, I will continue with this next week. I have also taken an extra week on call, but still no calls. What a shame! Next week will also be the last week for Wissam Al-Nassari, site supervisor and also over sees the Technical Expertise group (well duo, as there is only two of us at the moment, one DCS and one IPS). Wissam has been a great support, and we wish him good luck when he goes back to his home in Wales. Well time to rest after an active Friday morning off. Getting a Sun tan is hard work!

Starting and Leaving site.

This week was the last week for Sethu. Pictured on the left, the very popular Sethu worked in Newhouse on Shell GTL and has been on site for almost a year. He will be going back to India, and we wish him the best of luck. On the right is Janos and Manos. Janos has been on site for a long time, and is resident in Qatar. Manos (who some will know, I worked with in the UK), I think, has just completed his first rotation, and is currently on vacation. I have been supporting both of them in the simulation room. I have been to the gym as usual this morning. After which I had a swim, then laid by the pool for half an hour. I have just been to lunch at the JK camp, and now it's time to chill for the afternoon, before attending a BBQ at the Phoenix club. I may not drink, as I am on call again this week, although up to now I have never been called. So time to put my feet up once more.

One Year on site

Time really does fly when you are having fun in the Middle East (well during your two weeks off anyway!). Today I will have been on site one year. The time really has flown by. There is work for me here until March 2012, so I may not be returning to the UK until April next year year. Monday evening was Phoenix club member John Cunnel's birhtday, so he cooked up a couple of curry's. The Green Thai curry was one of the best I have had, really spicy and very nice. That was washed down with half a dozen bottles of Tiger beer. I also tried the Beef Thai Curry, which was less spicy, but still nice. All this while watching the England cricket matrch, live on Sky. Well now taking a post gym shower, before going to lunch, on camp. Later!

Back in the heat.

Did you miss me? Just finished my second week (of my seventh visit) back in Qatar. Not too much to report. My bathroom has been tiled, and my garden fence replaced, so I am slowly getting things sorterd out back home. The heat is returning, not quite the peak of summer, but just above 40 deg. C most days. So far not too humid either. I have been catching up with my work list, now I've got some assistance from Adrian Thomas, my list is coming down. I have been on Call Out in the evenings this week, but lucky for me, no calls. Technically it has been an interesting two weeks. I have had some questions regarding functionality of PID, Ratio and Split Range Controllers, so I have had an interesting time simulating these and confirming certain functionality. As you can see in the picture, Jatener is having a relaxing time, puting his feet up. Not really! He has been working very hard over the last couple of weeks, heading up the C6K team during shutdown, poor guy!. I had a good session in the gym this morning, to knock off some of that "two week break" weight. It's one of the Phoenix bar's members Birthday on Monday, so we will be having a Thai Curry and a few drinks at the Phoenix. I'll update you after the celebrations. Bye for now.

Almost break time.

Almost on my way, but before I go, just one more BBQ. This time celebrating Keith Burton's birthday. A good evening, with more than enough to eat (and drink). I will be flying back to the UK 01:45 Thursday Qatari time, hopefully arriving home about 08:00 UK time. Plenty of work around the house to plan. Have got somebody coming around to tile the bathroom, and somebody to replace a fence in the back garden. I think three of the Ozzies are coming back for one rotation, to help out. One, Adrian Thomas may be covering for me while I am away. Anyway, Looking forward to some time off.

One more week to go.

Just finished week 5 of rotation 6. One more week to go before I take a two week break from Qatari activities. Time has flown by this rotation. Perhaps because I have been very busy in my new role, with more responsibilities. John Cunningham has just asked me if I could do some call-out DCS support, so I could be even busier soon. Picture shows my new desk, now I've moved from the Hot desk area. The desk has my usual setup; three screens. Other pictures show myself and good friend Sethu, from Honeywell India, heading for the control room. Still a lot of road works etc., going on, on-route. Over did it at the gym again today, so I will be resting my legs, after lunch, while watch the Royal Wedding, from my room.

Another leaver, another BBQ

This week our Foundation Fieldbus team leader, Dominic, left site. so, we had to have another BBQ, this time outside of the Phoenix Bar (Joe's room). The rain has now gone, so we were safe. BBQ, beer and Manchester United vs Manchester city, live, a true lads night out! There was more than enough food (not to mention a room full of drink), inluding four to five inch Tiger Prawns. Lovely. I have had a really busy week, trying to support several different people. I am on my own in the Technical Expertise group, DCS side, at the moment; I took over from Serkan, but nobody has taken over from me! I guess things will just take a little longer to sort out. Well the weekly workout is working. I am now down to 76kg. I was 84kg when I first came here. It is a lovely hot day here on JK Camp today, so I am now going for a walk, buy a tin of giant Cashews, before going of to lunch. I might watch a movie on my Laptop this afternoon.

New Responsibilities

We attempted to have a BBQ for Serkan's leaving the project, but the weather had other ideas. We managed to cook several skewers of meat while watching lightning storms slowly approaching our party. Then suddenly, the heavens opened up. We ran for cover, taking the BBQ with us, but strong winds meant the rain came down at a steep angle and we all got drenched. After retiring to one of the cabins and eating the meat that was cooked, we decided to change into some dry clothes and hit the camp bar instead. Now that Serkan has left, I have been given the role of Lead DCS Controls Engineer. Serkan's hand-over has helped me get into the role, so now I am looking forward to challenges that it brings. Wish me luck! We all wish Serkan the best of luck. We have had quite a lot of rain over recent days, so I am hopiong that it starts to get warmer and drier again. I will be off to lunch at the JK Camp soon, and after lunch, resting my legs, after over doing it at the gym again this morning.

Its Getting Warm Again

So hot that my finger caught on fire. Well almost!
After a few months of warm (but not hot) days, and cool nights, the temperature is starting to rise again. It is mild when going to breakfast and high twenties by lunch time. The site flag changed from Green (safe) to Orange (low risk warning) this week. The first Black (danger) flag happened in May last year, so we will just have to wait and see what this year brings. We have had a lot of leavers recently. Most of the Ozzies have now gone and several Indians have gone back to India. Blair Trainor (our network guy) left last Wedesday and my colleague Serkan Yusuf is leaving this week. I have had a busy week, getting up to speed with Serkan's resposibilities, so that I can pick them up when he leaves. I have also been working on some PID control logic that we will need to implement on one of the systems. This was quite ineteresting. Anyway, lets get on with week 3.

Return to the desert

Already been back in Qatar for one week of a six week rotation. The first sour gas has just started coming into the plant from one of the two offshore platforms. The picture shows some of the gas 'flaring from the phase-one stack. Had a pretty un-eventful week. I was invited out for an Indian evening meal in Doha on Wednesday, sponsored by Shell. But I declined, as I had just arrived back on site, and needed a few days to catch up on some sleep. Also, I had already been to this restaurant. I have been working on a VB application this week, for Fast-Trending Data storage. I have also been supporting our "Steam System" modelling guys, and also the "Startup Team". Our BMA expert (Hao You) is back on site for a couple of weeks, so I may be supporting him. Also I will be working closely with Serkan, as he will be leaving in two weeks. Been to the gym as usual this morning for a couple of hours, then nipped to the bank to get a few hundred Riyals of cash out. I will be going to lunch soon, on the JK Camp, then resting for the afternoon.

Not so good a week.

Friday lunch time just over a week ago, I was starting to get a sore throat. So I went to the JK camp medical centre, and was given some throat Strepsils. The next day, things got worse, and the site medical centre gave me some more medication, and told me to come back Sunday if things got worse. Sunday morning I went back to the site medical centre, where I was sent to the Al-Madina hospital. They diagnosed me with very sore tonsils, flu and a fever, and gave me tons of medication. So in order to recover and not spread it around, I decided to go back to the camp. I pretty much stayed in bed for a week, just getting up for lunch, and topping up my medical supplies from the camp medical centre. Anyway, I went back to site this Saturday, but still not fully recovered, still got a cold, but the fever has gone. The picture shows a fraction of the total medication I have taken. On another subject, David Cameron visited the site, the week before last. I did not see him, but I did see an entourage of high-flyers, and a guy with a sholder camera with a few other officials, in the control room. Well now in to my final week for this rotation, and looking forward to going home on Wednesday night.

Interesting times in the Middle East

With uprisings taking place throughout the Middle East, and history being made, it is an interesting time to be here (for those of us that are safe). Qatar is not really affected, but there are demonstrations in every direction around Qatar). The nearest trouble to us is in Bahrain, just to the north of us, and also in Yemen, to the south. Here on the camp, had a few drinks and games of Pool at the bar with a few Phoeninx members last Thursday evening, followed by a long lay in on the Friday. I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks, as there are problems with the Steam system. So a team has been put together to simulate the Steam control on the OTS system, and correct the problems on the plant. This is very high profile, so the pressure is on! I have another two weeks here before having a two week break, so I am looking forward to that. Several people are leaving over the next few weeks, including another three of the Ozzies, and a few Indians. Serkan is on leave at the moment (another reason I am so busy), then comes back on March 5th, for his final rotation. Martin Brown has recently joined us, after 8 years at Honeywell in New Zealand. I will be going to lunch soon, followed by puting my feet up and resting, after another good session in the gym.

Rotation 5, End of Week 3

Another week gone by very quickly. Been very busy this week with some VB and Windows Scripting, for a Fast Trend application. Wednesday evening we (the C10 team, site management and some important Shell guys) went to the Al-Mourjan Lebanese restauraunt in Doha, to celabrate completing all Phase 1 and 2 integrations. The food was very good, and there was more than enough of it! So thanks to Wissam for arranging the meal. I over did my session on the exercise bike this morning, knocking up 82km, and my bad left knee did not thank me for that! Just come back from a brunch at the Phoenix bar. Had a bit of a fry up and a nice cup of tea to wash it down. Now resting my legs for the afternoon.

Barbeque At the Phoenix Bar

This Tuesday the Phoenix Club decided to have a barbeque (and a few beers) outside of the Phoenix Bar. Photo on the left shows Gerard supervising the barbeque, keeping it safe from intruders. At the barbeque, are Kevin Fegan, Dave Robson, Bill (non-Honeywell), Michael O'hare, Mike Langan, Daren Brown, Julian Cox, Norman Belton Gerard Brennan and myself. There has been a few rain showers here in January, and the rain did try to ruin our barbeque, but we persisted, and won out in the end. Already the end of my second week, five weeks to go, as this rotation I am doing seven weeks. This week I have been looking closely at OPC links, setting them up on my laptops and VMware systems. It has been quite interesting, not to mention challenging, but I have learned a lot about OPC interfacing, so it was worth going through the process. Just made my weekly trip to the gym for a two hour session on the bike. This afternoon I will put my feet up and watch "Knocked Up" on DVD.

Back in Qatar after 2 week break

Arrived back in Qatar last Saturday evening, 22-Jan-2011. Went to the Phoenix Bar (Joe Wegener's room) for a barbeque Sunday evening, with a few other Phoenix Bar members (basically, anybody who has donated some beer). There were a few mosquito's about, and one of them got me. I went to the site medical the next day, for some cream. They sent me to the Al-Madinah medical centre near the JK camp, just in case the swelling was not an insect bite. After three visits, the swelling had gone down, and I was given the all-clear. Kept busy at work this week, with a few issues to resolve. Went to the gym this morning, for a couple of hours. Off to lunch soon, and later this afternoon, another visit to the Phoenix bar, for a barbeque and beer, with the guys. Back to work tomorrow morning. This visit to Qatar (my fifth rotation) is for seven weeks, as there was always a four day period when neither myself, or serkan was on site. Our good friend Jeff Ng left site for good this week, back to the Uk for a couple of months break, before heading back to Australia for the foreseeable future. We wish him the best of luck.

New years eve in Qatar

We spent new years eve on the JK camp, at one of bars. We had a great night, seeing the new year in. Everybody was great. Most of us have new years day off, so we have some time to recover. Back to work on Sunday and then back to the Uk on Thursday 6th January, which I am looking forward to. See you later, and a very happy new year to you all.