Move along now

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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...

Sad face

This is it, yet again the end of yet another trip. Never gets any easier. Back to the stupid land of sand. Wonder when the hell I will be able to stop living/ working there and get a life in a proper country. Said it many times before, I don't hate my job. Infact I actually enjoy my work. I simply hate the people I have to work with. The same people who make the simplest task long and drawn out and refuse to see things in a reasonable light... BTW the still haven't paid us our pay increase since Aug till now. All in all we are looking at close to 2 mths missing money. A lotta my money is someone else's pockets. GRRRRRRRrrrrrrr. Fingers crossed short stuff makes it thru and sends us that ray of light.

Anyhow. For readers who remember the cockroach body count challenge I set when I 1st arrived here during this trip. The grand total is 135 roaches. YAY! I actually got around 100 kills outta 1 can of bug spray. Would have been a higher body count if I didn't take nights of, for example new years night etc.

Well, won't be back this way till Christmas time comes around. But wifey prob will be over here in the summer months while I'm off taking a type course in the UK. No point her hanging about entertaining my mum while I hit the books for 6 weeks. Once again I'll be living my life counting down to the days I can fly out. 6mths at my current estimate. Sigh, life is gonna be a drag with "J" gone till the end of Feb. Kinda sad ain't it that there is only 1 person in my whole work place I can get on well with.

Either way, tis a new year and new challenges await no doubt. Just gotta try make the best of it all. For now I'll just be praying we make the flight ok and when we turn up in the land of sand all our bags are there safe and sound and Avis manages to get me a hire car. Lazy gits never seem to have a car on hand even when I book in advance. Gonna be hard getting to work when I cant grab a lift off "J". Fingers crossed, touch wood it'll all be fine.

End is neigh... again...

Yet again another trip slowly draws to a close. Happy to say am making the most out of the last few days and have actually got quite a few things done in just a couple of days. A lil annoying that we actually spent a lil over my budget. Guess few would be surprised at that fact thou. I blame the consoles and games, well more specifically the Xbox 360. Games for it alone cost more than the Xbox itself!!! Bought prob too many games, but it is supposed to last me till November.

Had an interesting incident happen today whilst picking up wifeys contact lenses. While waiting for the shop assistant to pass them to her, a guy approached me and introduced himself. Then proceeded to ask if I was interested in being casted for an advert! I pointed out to him that It would have to be settled before Friday as I gotta be back at lala land by then. As expected it wasn't possible. Shame might have been fun, not to mention a few bucks on the side. Hmmm, bugger... should have asked him what advert before he moved off.

Oh was told by "J" that we have finally been promoted. Damn! Can see more arguments heading our way when it comes to pay. Even our pay issues since August haven't been settled yet and now I'm told that there is still ambiguity regarding the payment of our new pay scale. "J mentioned something about not working under our new responsibility's till our pay is 100% settled. Great... more conflicts and arguments. Exactly why I am growing to hate my work place more and more. Even the simplest and most straight forward of things is an uphill struggle. Sigh how I long till I can jack it in.

Wifey n I been talking about getting a permanent base. Prob here. Prices are certainly cheaper than ol'blighty. Plus it is a better country to live in, despite what many locals will have you believe. Thou if it works out this way I will miss the space of a garden, garage and workshop. The open spaces and neighbors who live a good few meters away from my house walls. Never been a fan of flats and apartments. But as it is always said you can't have it all. Just wonder when that day will be?

New year, clueless as ever.

Well another year passes and another one is here. How did I spend the 1st day of the year? By staying awake for 25hours... not a great way but at least the 25hours was entertaining and memorable!

Well I'm sure I'll have to actually work this year. But there is always hoping. Still waiting for the "magic call" even if it will be a real jobs worth for the few weeks after "the call" Stay is almost at an end and There are still an outstanding load of things 2 do. As always leaving it till the last moment... Just hope I can get everything I want in the suitcase and for it all to arrive in one piece when we get back.

Really hope this year will be a step toward some kind of predictability in my life. I pretty much know what is in store till early 2009. But after that is a total mystery. Sigh... also this year my RX8 is due for its 1st vehicle inspection. Just hope all will be well. Really wouldn't feel like a chore if only I drove her more. Shes a great car but thats the problem. I just can't bear to part with her! But all the signs are there. The age of a daily driven track car is coming to an end. Now is the age of the poor performance, fuel economy orientated box on wheels.

Oh yeah, something I would like to do more of this year is actually have better content in my blog. So many times when I can't sleep I think about a load of things and then think, hey this would be great to actually blog about but it all never goes further than that cos I doze off then all is forgotten. But maybe this year i should try to make the effort. At least then my blog will serve
me as a record of my thoughts in time rather than simply a record of history.