The Montrose trip
It’s been really long since I wrote anything, again. I’ll start off this time around with my Greenhands course in Montrose. This course has a very vivid and entertaining history behind it, at least for Nakul (my colleague) and me. This course is compulsory for people who come on any rigs working for the service company, and thus was a requirement; otherwise we’ll be making a lot of people very unhappy.
So this course was for 5-days in the Petrofac facilities in Montrose, a small town around 40 miles south of Aberdeen. I was pretty excited to go to Montrose because that was the first trip that I’d be going to since I came to Aberdeen two and a half months back (not counting my trip to Netherlands). And since it was just 40 miles from Aberdeen, taking the train everyday for those 5 days was the best option, as the train took 40 mins. for the trip. So a pretty decent excursion I’d say.
The train journey was pretty nice. I took the unreserved seats, which are similar to the ones in the non-reserved bogeys in second class in India. But the trains weren’t anything like back at home. I luckily managed to find a seat, which was reserved for handicapped people, and so had a nice leg space to it; and that was my seat for the whole week while travelling from Aberdeen to Montrose. It was the case on the return journey also. The train was pretty fine itself. There was free wi-fi, a café, a bar and a cart carrying snacks (similar to the ones on a flight).
Montrose itself was no big deal as a town. And since I was not hoping for it to be something great (after looking at Aberdeen), it was no surprise for me. The course as a whole, what I learnt when I reached there, was totally useless, in a way. But I wasn’t complaining. A week’s holiday from work to go to a course in another town that is not that useful, I find it to be a nice equation.
I managed to find quite a few characters in the course with me. There were 12 people in all, out of which me and another guy were the only ones who were already in the oil industry. The rest of them were mostly shifting careers; and since this course was compulsory for people, they were bound to be there. There was this guy in class, forgot his name though, who had an amazing story as to why he was joining the industry. This guy is 42-43 years old, parents passed away in a span of 3 months in the past 6 months, wife left him, was canned from work after working in a distillery as a whisky blender for 25 years, and now just wanted to start fresh in life. Interesting. Another guy, the other guy in the oil industry, was another character in his own. He was an Arab from Oxydental, again don’t remember his name, was formerly in Qatar Petroleum, and was doing this course as part of his new job profile in the company. He acted like he was the boss of the world, a bit snobby, a bit of a superiority complex, God knows for what reason. By his behaviour, and his body structure, he looked exactly like Carlton Banks from Fresh Price of Belair. So that was pretty funny, the way he acted around.
On the whole at least I had a nice week, and I managed to see some of the Scottish coastline, which is pretty good. Plus I got some great pictures on the trip. So that was nice.
So this course was for 5-days in the Petrofac facilities in Montrose, a small town around 40 miles south of Aberdeen. I was pretty excited to go to Montrose because that was the first trip that I’d be going to since I came to Aberdeen two and a half months back (not counting my trip to Netherlands). And since it was just 40 miles from Aberdeen, taking the train everyday for those 5 days was the best option, as the train took 40 mins. for the trip. So a pretty decent excursion I’d say.
The train journey was pretty nice. I took the unreserved seats, which are similar to the ones in the non-reserved bogeys in second class in India. But the trains weren’t anything like back at home. I luckily managed to find a seat, which was reserved for handicapped people, and so had a nice leg space to it; and that was my seat for the whole week while travelling from Aberdeen to Montrose. It was the case on the return journey also. The train was pretty fine itself. There was free wi-fi, a café, a bar and a cart carrying snacks (similar to the ones on a flight).
Montrose itself was no big deal as a town. And since I was not hoping for it to be something great (after looking at Aberdeen), it was no surprise for me. The course as a whole, what I learnt when I reached there, was totally useless, in a way. But I wasn’t complaining. A week’s holiday from work to go to a course in another town that is not that useful, I find it to be a nice equation.
I managed to find quite a few characters in the course with me. There were 12 people in all, out of which me and another guy were the only ones who were already in the oil industry. The rest of them were mostly shifting careers; and since this course was compulsory for people, they were bound to be there. There was this guy in class, forgot his name though, who had an amazing story as to why he was joining the industry. This guy is 42-43 years old, parents passed away in a span of 3 months in the past 6 months, wife left him, was canned from work after working in a distillery as a whisky blender for 25 years, and now just wanted to start fresh in life. Interesting. Another guy, the other guy in the oil industry, was another character in his own. He was an Arab from Oxydental, again don’t remember his name, was formerly in Qatar Petroleum, and was doing this course as part of his new job profile in the company. He acted like he was the boss of the world, a bit snobby, a bit of a superiority complex, God knows for what reason. By his behaviour, and his body structure, he looked exactly like Carlton Banks from Fresh Price of Belair. So that was pretty funny, the way he acted around.
On the whole at least I had a nice week, and I managed to see some of the Scottish coastline, which is pretty good. Plus I got some great pictures on the trip. So that was nice.
posted by Yash Gupta @ 4:20 PM
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