The Curfew

One thing about the Girl is she lets me get on with things in my own terms, supporting them and enjoys seeing me be happy. Fortunately this includes my mid-week night out escapades. New York city is famous for being the city that never sleeps, and more than lives up to its reputation. I must admit that I probably am not hitting it as hard as I once could have, but giving it a good crack anyway.

In order for us to continue with a happy household the girl has decided to put a curfew on me – not one that I have to be home for but rather a curfew that admits my entry into the bedroom to sleep. Now while I am a big fan of our couch I am yet to spend a night on it, a streak that I am attempting to continue. There are a couple of factors that work against me: 1: My barmen like to keep me there until the wee hours past my curfew. 2: The NYC subway does not run a frequent schedule during the wee hours of the morning 3: The Doorman love to have a chat whenever I get home, one that I reciprocate at these times.

I think the Girl is now reconsidering this rule due to the fact when I come home my stealth like ninja abilities are not what I think they are. As soon as she wakes up and sees me, I have my captive audience to tell the many adventures of the evening too…

This is a photo I took on my way home – I’m not really sure why but I think it was to show that I was at the Subway station in plenty of time to beat the curfew. After mentioning this to the Girl she explained to me outside factors like that cannot be used as an excuse. I’m not sure this argument will make it to an appeal.
 

Fair well to some colleagues, co-workers and friends

Today I resigned from my company. I really had to read the sentence in my head a couple of times to grasp the whole concept. I am the type of guy that doesn't chop and change, which seems to be the rarity in this industry. This is the first time I have left a job for a reason other than "I'm moving to a whole new city" or the company ceased to exist (through no fault of my own I might add). The reasons behind this could be many but the overriding factor is money. "Money?" You may ask, "but you are all about the experience, enjoyment and familiarity." Which is entirely correct - except in this case. Today it is all about the money. The last week I have realised a few important points:
1. I am damn good at my job.
2. The learning curve on the boat is reaching its apex.
3. A comfortable situation is the bane of my existence.
The first one probably goes without saying - I am awesome at everything I do. You can do your research in my previous posts to find out how true this is so I won't quantify this here. The second has been on my mind for the last few months. While I believe that you can learn something new everyday (shit, the only way you can't is if you stay in bed all day, and guess what? You probably learned that you are one of those unique individuals who has no qualms about staying in bed all day). I still believe that the things you learn the most from are the unbelievably different situations from your everyday life. Spending 2.5 years on a boat that you helped build from the ground up and will eventually leave, is not something you think about. So it was without any fanfare that I quietly slinked away from the boat on my last swing. I spoke with my bosses and explained the situation. They were very supportive which made me feel my decision was the correct one and I truly hope we end up working together again or at least catching up so I can properly thank them for everything they had given me. To those who I didn't get to bid a final parting word, know that it was a pleasure to have worked with you and may you have the success in career and family that you so fondly had told me about, and thoroughly deserve.

Band or DJ?

I'll sum up the conversation about the next wedding chore as I remember it:
The Girl "Have you decided yet on a band or DJ?"
Me "Unless Eddie Vedder, Mike Patton and Dave Grohl actually do accept the wedding invite I sent them, we probably are not having a band."
G "What about George Michael?"
M "Well of course the same applies, as long as he is still getting his mail forwarded from the Icelandic address I didn't send anything to."
G "So a DJ then?"
M (after a brief pause of stunned silence) "You want someone to mix an iPod to songs we won't like? I would have to give him a list to make sure it was what we wanted. In fact he can just dial it in from home."
G (cutting me off) "So no DJ"
M "No DJ, I'll do the playlist and we can get the venue to play it for us."
G "I want final approval on the list and nothing from Star Wars, Indiana Jones or any cartoon series"
So we are on about our 27th playlist version. I'm sure we can compromise before the big day. Good news is I've managed to get some John Williams back on the cards.

An Unattractive Admirer

So on my way down in the lift today a rather friendly gentleman was commenting on my "toned calves." I was on my way for a jog so was decked out in my running gear. He told me again that he really thought they were impressive. I thought his fixation was a little weird but then again I am an impressive specimen. He tried to make some more small talk but we reached the lobby. He gave me a little wave as I put in my headphones and trundled off for my jog. It later occurred to me that this guy had been hitting on me. While not an unusual experience, albeit usually from people with less penis, it was a little disconcerting that he thought he was in my league (not to mention the fact how much is "gaydar" was off) as he was a rather old and wiry looking man. Now to clarify I don't really know how to judge the appearance of a man, but I am sure if I could he wouldn't make it on any list of mine.

The Cars

The first of my chores, the cars, was done in a couple of hours. The Girl did well not to diminish any praise for me even though the selection was limited to a 1929 Graham Paige, 1967 Daimler and a Kia minibus. We took the first two. This was before we realised the hotel and venue are about 30m apart from each other and the place we are going for photos is a 2 minute walk. Still I've always wanted to ride in a '67 Daimler even if it is for a total of 5 minutes.

How to Plan a Wedding from afar

Well sort of. It goes without saying that I am the type of guy that doesn't plan a thing. And when I do it usually changes to something else along the way. When I dropped to one knee for the girl it was always my intention to mention the whole "let's head to Vegas this weekend" scenario (why else do you propose on a Thursday night? To catch the weekend special) I was fully aware that the girl is the total opposite to me in regards to the planning but you can never underestimate the power of a sparkling diamond ring. So I’ll try and break this experience down to a few little posts of their own.

The girl still has her Grandmothers around so it was apparent pretty early that the Vegas option was out, but I still hang on to the thought of what would have happened if longevity was not ripping through her family veins. So we pushed the date out a couple of years so the whole thing could be planned to the second.

The G-factor also led us to realising that an overseas wedding was out of the question. I thought that offering them a first class ticket would change the deal - I mean really, they would be more comfortable than in a nursing home, but the girl was not to be swayed. As such we decided that we would make it more convenient for ninety five percent of our guests and have the wedding in Australia. The first question everyone asked me was were we getting a wedding planner? Seriously? A wedding planner? Not only was that a terrible movie (probably) but J-Lo can't sing, can't act, although doesn't require a beanbag when sitting on the floor. No wedding planner. This led to the planning to fall squarely on our shoulders. Our shoulders are the collective for falling on the Girl's. The condition of this was that I had to find the cars, sort out the music and turn up sober enough to legally get married. 

So we picked a venue, some hotels for our guests to stay in, a celebrant and the photographer all blindly off the net. This could be a very interesting wedding…

From the deepest, darkest depths...

We are currently on a job off the coast of Angola, at a water depth of 2000m (that's 6,500ft for my seppo friends). The depth makes it a little challenging due to the high pressure, time it takes to get things from surface to seabed and a lack of secondary crane (it only goes to 1500m).

Sometimes in this industry we get help from unexpected places that is always appreciated. Thus far though this would have to be the strangest help we had received:

This little guy came to help us with the tie-in of the umbilical.