Sorry if this post seems
like babble but it is a collection of random thoughts, notes, and events pasted
together (badly).
Food…………
The food is pretty ok
here. For breakfast there is a selection
of omelet’s, egg white only, egg yolk only and the whole egg scrambled (for the
traditionalists). Some of the food is
British based. Stuff like baked beans,
toast, stewed tomatoes, chicken sausage (which sucks), crepes and things like
that. The rest of the stuff is Indian
based and they have different cereals and things I have yet to muster the
courage to try. The milk here tastes
creamier than the moo juice back home and even the low fat version is
better. We have a wide selection of
fruit juices. One thing I noticed was
all of the liquids come in those boxy looking containers. No plastic jugs because this place is eco
friendly when they are busy stripping the natural resources out of the ground.
Lunch varies but there
is this pan of what looks like brown gravy.
All the warm food is kept under those red heat lamps so it is hard to
distinguish colors. For a few days I
tried to make myself believe that it is gravy but when I put it on my rice, it
turns into a curry based sauce that does not taste good (well, at least not to
me) and is actually yellow. I did this
drill for about 3 times a week for the first 2 weeks in an attempt to turn it
into brown gravy using my Jedi Mind Tricks.
The force is not strong with me.
So, one day, Ed has this brown gravy on his potatoes. I ask him “where was that? I didn’t see it.” Well, seems that in that very same I was
working on was brown gravy. The force is
strong after all, lol. We had gravy for
about 3 days straight and I put it on everything. Woo Hoo!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the other
night at dinner was BBQ steak and chicken.
Yup, real beef from a cow. Looks
like I won’t have to trade Ed to the Bedouins for the first burger that comes
along, lol. The cooks did a real decent
job and I complimented them. They seem
real pleased. I guess I should have
known, the locals have been cooking outdoors for centuries. Hopefully it wasn't camel dung charcoal, lol.
The heck with it, if it was dung, the
meat was still tasty. I have been eating
so much. I am a true life "sexy
bastard" (like Fat Bastard in Austin Powers, lol) and I am trying to slow
down on the grub. I started eating more
veggies and leafy stuff in an attempt to stop gaining weight. Recently we have been blessed with pork
bacon. Oh, glorious pork! Normally we have “beef bacon” that tastes
like jerky. The sausage is still made
out of chicken and tastes a bit funny.
Hot sauce cures all.
What I wouldn’t do for a
bowl of real Biscuits and Gravy! I have
offered bribes and anything I have of value.
And I mean anything. So far, no
takers.
We also always have soft serve ice
cream for lunch and dinner, with chocolate syrup. Mmmm Mmmm,
chocolate! Mental note: bring some Magic Shell on my
next rotation.
Actually I have found
that most of the food here is either sweeter or does not taste the way it
looks. We had some birthday cake in Muscat and it looked good but was
made out of a grain I am not familiar with. It tasted good but a bit odd.
I am getting fed up with
curry. Granted, I was always curious about how it tastes and now I can
honestly say I have had my fill, lol.
Good thing there is always goat cheese to offset the effects.
The other day, we had
these real thin fried or baked looking things and I tried one. Son of a
gun if it didn't taste like a little thin chiccarrone! Woo hoo! I
have been trying to watch my weight so I only had one. I am not sure what
animal the skin came from but I know it wasn't a pig. Now I am starting
to get little cravings. I have been
trying to "reverse Engineer" some of my favorites. We had
watermelon and there are always these little lemons. I mixed it up with
some hot sauce and some sea salt and viola! Lucas with watermelon.
Mmmm mmmm, it was good.
The lemons here have a lot
of flavor. They are small and real good. I am becoming rather addicted to them. I put them on my fruit and on the
cucumbers. Maybe I will try to offset
the curry with them.
The dinners are varied
and I always compliment the staff for the incredible job they are doing. When I leave, I am going to give them my
leftover toiletries and other stuff I don’t really need to lug around. I always say please and thank you and they
seem to appreciate that. I look around
and most folks treat them like servants.
That is not right. Most of the
infrastructure her is imported labor and we were told that they make a whopping
200 Rial a month. That comes out to
about $520.00. I wonder if they are
hiring, lol. The cooks are masters of
recycling. I notice that food that is
not too popular gets a return engagement as something else. No matter what, by the 3rd day it
is in the soup. Mostly the chicken and
beef but not so much the fish.
Tonight, there was a
celebration. There was a lot of
different food and the cake actually tasted like cake! The special occasion was that today is the
anniversary of the Sultan taking power.
They pulled out all the stops and set out rugs for people to eat
on. All the Omani wore their traditional
garb which is like a long Man Dress. I
have never seen more men in dresses since the time I accidentally walked into
that club in Vegas. It was an accident, I swear.
So, I asked somebody
what it was about and I was told this: “A long time ago the current Sultan give
his Dad (the previous Sultan) some food to eat.
He die. No brothers so he take
over.” Maybe I should not get my Omani
History lessons from a Bulgarian but what the hell, the food was good and I
bought the story. Granted it was no
Oedipus Rex or Hamlet but entertaining nonetheless.
Overall, the food
experience has been really educational.
I eat what other cultures have been eating for centuries and as all of
you know, I like food. Hey a body like
this doesn’t happen overnight; it takes long hours and dedication. I must say that part of the trip is well
worth the visit.
Ok, final offer, I will
trade Ed for a bowl of Biscuits and Gravy……
The People……….
Our work team consists
of Mark (Automation Head), Gopaul, Kiran and Irvan. Irvan goes by his last name because he is
from Indonesia and his first name is hard to pronounce for Westerners.
Mark is a really good
guy and he comes from Virginia. He is
very laid back and always defends his guys when they are in hot water. He has been really good to us and I enjoy
working for him.
Kiran is from
India. He is fairly young to be in this
stage of the game and has really good potential. He is getting married in a few months and it
was an arranged marriage. He has been
teaching me the nuances of cricket and apparently the game is just as popular
in India as it is in England.
Gopaul is Mark’s
go-to-guy. He used to work for Invensys
and has been exposed to many things all over the world. The reason this place attracts a lot of
Indians (not like me) is because it is only 3 hours away. Some of these guys are used to travelling to
further places so the thought of a short plane ride home is very welcome. Plus they make more money travelling. Still not as much as they pay Americans but
much more than they could make in India.
We get Tech support from
a guy named Srinivas from India.
This cat is definitely a ringer in the I/E world and if I had my own
company, I would steal him in a nano-second.
He is a hard worker and after a little bit of training, he helps us to
really get the job done. He wants to see
if he can get himself and his family to the US to work. I will definitely lobby on his behalf because
he stands out among equals.
Speaking of work, we
were told by an Omani that the Sultan wants 100% employment and the way things
look, he just might achieve that or at least really close. They figure to have the Mukhaizna Field
pretty much 90% Omani run by the year 2012.
Apparently at these
types of places there is invariably one individual who stands out and earns the
reputation of “Camp Man Whore.”
Mukhaizna has one and, lo and behold, I know the guy, lol. In fact he is related to a very good friend
of mine in and for purposes of not incriminating the person; we will refer to
him as “Jack.” Now I suspect the
revelation that I know Jack will further solidify some of your opinions that I
am a Man Whore or “used to be” or “used to hang out with them” or “used to hang
out with them and still would but I don’t have the time” kind of guy but I am
not.
The Camp Man Whore (CMW)
is the guy who goes to places like Thailand or Amsterdam as a layover on his
way home from a solid 28 days of work.
Has some “fun” (or other activities beginning with the letter “f”) and
goes home very satiated. This lifestyle
involves somewhat cloak and dagger techniques but in reality no one gets
hurt. Things like “it was a longer
layover” or “the plane had problems” to justify a couple of extra days travel
time. The second directive of being the
CMW is to try and introduce others to such escapades. Most guys here are married so the pool of
candidates is rather small but that does not discourage Jack. Oh no.
In fact he is very personable and is averaging a new recruit each shift
change. There are approximately 7, 000
people working for a bunch of different company’s here and he just spreads his
“gospel” to the other Ex-Pats as he finds them.
Oh, the stories I have
heard. They would burn the ears off of a
Pimp.
Note to self: Don’t take
the kids on vacation to a place called Macao.
And then there is my
personal favorite, Yordan.
Everybody calls him Yordie and he is Bulgarian (Bul-gay-dian). He is an Engineering Tech and is very well versed
about the I/E world. He likes to hang
out and tell us stories. In fact, he was
the one who gave me my Omani History lesson, lol. Once, he was supporting a job being performed
by some Omanis. He would check the
progress to report back to engineering and they took it as a sign of
mistrust. After a few days of checking,
they asked him, “Why are you so suspicious?”
He replied, “It is because I am East European.” LMFAO!
Another time, Ed wore white coveralls and Yordie was telling everybody
that he looked like he was from “Lasalamas” (He pronounced it like "lotsa llamas"). I asked Yordie where the hell that was and he told me “In New
Mexico.” He meant Los Alamos. There is an English teacher here and he is
married to a Russian woman so he speaks Russian. Yordie insists that he is “from KGB to watch
me.”
Yordie says that when
the Berlin Wall fell, all it did was open the world to 8 million inventors,
lol. They had to be creative in order to
get or make some of the basic things not available behind the wall, lol. I can definitely appreciate the mindset.
That’s all I got for
now,
Take care,
HJG
“It’s not hell but I am
pretty sure I can see it from here”
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