Where you been Stevo?

Hello world!!

I thought it was time for me to send a brief update on my whereabouts and activities to silence those cries of "where are you?". However perhaps as you read this, you are wondering "who is this?". But I assure you our lives have crossed paths at some time or another. Hopefully I haven't been forgotten by most of you.

I think the last time I wrote I was talking about my last rotation in Sakhalin Island Russia. Last hasn't turned out to be last, but will get to that a bit later. Well, that was a while back now in December. I finished up there in mid-Dec, took a very long journey back to Perth with a severe case of food poisoning from my last meal behind the iron curtin, and enjoyed a two-week stay on the sunny shores of Perth.

A brilliant visit home to enjoy the Christmas spirit with my family. However it went quickly and soon I was back in the air again, heading to Netherlands to drop off my bags and pick up Mirjam, and meet up with friends Dan & Fi in New York. We enjoyed a week of American style living, a nice suite with a view of the Empire State Bldg and a lot of super-sized greasy American food. We celebrated the beginning of the New Year at Times Square, which was quite an experience. I wrote a lot on this on my website (see bottom) for your reading pleasure. To summarise, after a week there we feel in love with the place, but was burning a massive hole in the wallet so back to Netherlands we went.

However, shortly after coming home we got an invite from Mirjam's parents to join her family on a ski trip to southern switzerland. Since we were both in need for extreme sports, we didn't hesitate to say "yes!". We drove down, which was a lengthy 12 hour drive from Holland, to a little swiss ski village town called Grachen. We were lucky enought to be able to borrow an apartment from a friend of Mirjam's family, which was right on the slopes. We spent a nice 3 days skiing, spending time with Mirjam's family, and indulging in some Swiss culture = cheese.

Now, for a change I have enjoyed staying put for a while. I had a break from Sakhalin as I was in-between jobs and needed to get some compulsory Shell training under my belt. The entire month of February was completely taken up with an introductory course on oil and gas exploration and production. It was education and an absolute riot of fun. It was populated with graduates from all over the Shell world and I really got a good taste of working with all sorts of people. It was much like being aback at uni as the course was 4 weeks and involved lectures, exercises, group work and presentations. But slotted around that was plenty of social activities and a lot of new friends were made.

A really fun part of the training was right at the beginning, and was called "The Incredible Journey". This entailed forming a group of 6 people to take a trip from the Shell office in Holland to a village in Belgium. We were given this task at midday on friday, and our main goal was to reach this village by 9.30am on Saturday using at least 7 forms of public transport. We given an address to reach, a fairly tight budget and no more information. In addition, it was a competition and we were given a list of tasks to complete in order to win points. These ranged from having a sauna in an expensive hotel, to collecting as many different belgium beers, to having a meal at a locals house. Well, we had a really good time, ended up sleeping in a music hall in some small village in rural Belgium, and acutally won the game by completing the most tasks. It was a really good beginning to the course, designed to break down all communication and interpersonal barriers and set us up for 4 weeks of team work.

Back to Sakhalin.... I accepted a new position for another part of the project...this time more remote and more challenging. So my adventures in the Russian far east are set to continue for at least another 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, I remained in the Netherlands, not ready to head over to Sakhalin just yet as I was waiting on a visa and to align myself with the next swing (rotation). So I had a few weeks "spare" shall we say.

However, with my course finished, I ended up back in the air again. This time more locally than I am used to. I spent a few days visiting London office for the Sakhalin project, getting up to speed. The weather was great and I enjoyed catching up with Dan & Fi again. Then the following week I flew to Aberdeen to assist in their office on some work. And that brings me to today.

As for next week, well I'm taking leave as I have bought myself an apartment here. Rents are crazy in Netherlands, but mortgage interest is low, so I decided to buy an affordable apartment. So I've spent most of the past few weekends down the shopping malls and Ikea sourcing a house-full of furniture. Its good fun and nice to have something of my own soon. I get the keys this Wednesday and Mirjam and I are both very excited about the move. Its right in the middle of The Hague, so easy walking distance to the shops, restaurants and nightclubs.

And so next I head to Sakhalin start of April, to begin my new job and back to the month on-month off life. Looking forward to it.

So all is good, the cold is disappearing here and everyone is smiling a whole lot more. Summer in Europe is awesome, and the line-up of summer concerts are coming out. Plus, mother dear will be visiting shortly so I think the next few months will be chock full of sightseeing and good times.
Well that's it for my update. Hope you are all doing brilliantly and please send me an email. Also, come visit me if you're coming north, and if I'm not there, you can keep Mirjam company!

Cheerio

Steve