Shane Wilson

America; Gone but not forgotten

That is me finally hit reality again with rain being a welcoming gesture back to bonny Scotland. Eight weeks has come and gone and we have all said our final goodbyes to America (even though I was close to extending my stay). According to my mother the time has taken really long to pass however I have to disagree. Being back in the Houston and Newark airport drove back home how quick this trip has passed. To be honest, I do not think the trip has gone slow or quick; maybe veering onto the slow side.

 

Talking about slow let me introduce the American Airports. I will start off with a “Gaaahhhhhhhhh”. Now that is off my chest I will skip to my main boiling point in telling you that the Newark to EDINBURGH (yes that will come up later) is one of the most uncomfortable trips I have ever been on. I am so tired it’s not even funny; I guess the design engineers at Boeing have never come across the word 'ergonomics'. Although you will be pleased to read that I am using the time constructively to write what is probably going to be my final blog whilst on route. Quickly reverting back to the Edinburgh destination disaster, we were stranded in Houston for a good few hours with plane problems – quite disconcerting stuff on your last day in the USA. Thus time had come and gone in making our original Glasgow connection. Constantly promised updates with regards to the plane every fifteen minutes I sat back thinking it was a simple inconvenience which would soon correct itself – WRONG!!! Seated in the engine – it just had to be due to the excruciating heat where I was seating – the so called minor inconvenience stretched a good two hours. Again let me give a “Gaaahhhhhhhhh”.

 

Ok let me get the placement out the way. Overall, in my honest opinion, the placement was not what I expected or what I had hoped for. I think i will leave it there with the work side of the placement. The positive from the placement was the vast amount of great people I met and had the chance to get to know. I feel I have made a lot of friends which is always good especially incase I decide one day to take a cheeky wee holiday to Houston ha-ha! I can't be thankful enough to some of the employees at Wood Group for the hospitality; it was a pleasure to get to know you all or y’all, which is a bit more appropriate.

 

Now to the nitty gritty; the dirt; the bad stuff; the unmentionables; the news you all logged on to read! Well I will give you a sample after all I did sign up to the “What happens in Houston stays in Houston” treaty 2008. I haven't updated the blog in quite a while so probably a great deal has happened which I could have ranted about in my usual fashion but has unfortunately escaped my mind as I free up brain cells for the impending 4^th year of EEE (which I am scarily looking forward to).

 

Let me see ... I managed at last to get myself downtown for a peak at the big buildings. First impression whilst downtown, where is everybody? For a city that is 40 something miles wide which is probably five times the size of Scotland not many Houstonians like to visit Downtown. Do not get me wrong, there was a plentiful supply of cars just not many people roaming the streets (oh well, more space for me I thought as I began to take Michael Flatley riverdance steps down the 'sidewalk'). Again like a true tourist I was snapping away at the big buildings which have only gone to clutter my memory card. I did not get to see the whole of downtown – that would be quite a feat on foot. Instead I think I captured all the business buildings which are probably the most non-exciting part of Downtown but at least I have my photos.

 

Aside from that I actually do not have much to report which is quite disappointing. In my last two weeks I kind of fell ill to a wee bug that definitely hindered my last weekend in H-town. I had a friend visit me in the last weekend as well so on that front I was disappointed to have the illness hanging over me. Oh well, it was still great fun and I have many embarrassing pictures just begging to be uploaded onto facebook (to accompany the other embarrassing pictures I have of everyone).

 

Now that I am back in Scotland I have to warm up my Uni ‘hat’. I have two vital years ahead of me which I really have to put a whole hearted effort into. Then who knows what will happen; I might see my American friends quicker than they anticipated!

 

Thanks for reading and until next time, Goodbye!!

 

Shane

p.s. Who would have thought that they have curry in America?! Not only do they have curry they have enjoyable curry! A big thank you to Mr Blackwood and Mrs Holland for that one.

Two weekends ago!!!

I have honestly been a very busy boy these past few weekends but i simply must post.

Let me kick off with Austin - Capitol of Texas.

Austin was a great experience. We all arrived about mid afternoon and switched straight into tourist mode before warming up for the main occasion - 6th street action at night. In the blistering heat we managed to capture a few cool buildings that you just do not see in Sauchiehall Street. The first main attraction (only attraction really!) we all caught eyes onto was the Captiol State Building. All being frugal Scotsman, and one thrifty Australian, we revelled in that fact that entry was free!

Like every other Joe Bloggs i was snapping away at anything that remotely looked non-British and thus have a good array of photos to post (most of them are rubbish!) The Capitol building was pretty cool, maybe not a patch on that thing in Washington DC but close enough for us adopted Texans. Have a wee look off the building and the wee rascals that enjoyed Austin with me: -

If you want a closer look off the building, i know my sister will anyway, here is a better version: -

For me there was one awesome building that stood out in Austin. Unfortunately i did not get the best of photos but have a look anyway, it is pretty gangster: -

How awesome would it be to work on the top floor of this badboy? Pretty awesome me thinks.

Aside from that there is not too much to report on the tourist front. I will post one more photo of the Capitol building, this time the Jury bit:-

Austin was completely different to Houston. We were told that Austin was much more ahead of the curve than Houston and we kinda got that feeling. There is more of a buzz.

The city was quite nice. There was a lot of construction underway which was quite annoying but overall it looked a nice place to stay.

Prior to hitting the streets: -

Quite a wonderful nap got us prepared for the night ahead, a very wise idea. Austin at night equals awesome. I notice Grant has the best analogy for Austin, "It has the quantity of nightlife as Sauchiehall Street but with the atmosphere of Ashton Lane." I do not think i could coin a better description.

Later on in the night the street is closed off so revelers can stumble across the street in any wayward fashion, also a good idea. 6th street is where all the action is and where we stayed all night. There were a few cool pubs we went to but the highlight off the night had to be Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. We had been to a few pubs before hand with free entry but this one you had to pay, and I can see why. This place was packed. Seats wrapped round a main stage where there were two musicians on pianos giving it yaldy. It was a singing slash comedy act which was really good to see.

I would post some photos of the night out but i am under strict order to keep that confidential.

Austin was the weekend before the weekend past (scarily showing how up to date I have been keeping y’all). Since then i have been very busy indeed. Let me summarise and go into more detail another time: -

• In order it goes, one bbq and colleagues house
• Baseball game
• Another bbq/party at another colleagues house
• Road trip and stay over at Chris's uncle and aunts
• bbq on the sunday - i know, another one!!

Hope you like the photos.

Later Y'all

Week 5, a bit of 4, and prob a bit of 6 for good measure!!

Whats up y'all? Did y'all miss me? ..... I thought so! Yes I admit i am once again quite slow on thee old blogging front but i promise to give you a low down on all my activities from the past two weeks-ish. Therefore, you might see a couple of blogs in quick succession.

Where do i start? So much to write about! It has been a rather enjoyable past two weeks. Let me get some bullets points on the go to summarise:-

• The gang of us plus two lucky revelers (Simon and Claire) painted Austin town red
• Completed one week in ODL and now beginning my second
• Had a BBQ at the best house in Houston (Claires pad, it is soooooooo awesome ... jealous much?)
• Went to the cinema - Claires house again, i will reveal all!
• Went to the Ballgame ("take me out to the ballgame ...")
• Went shopping because it was tax free weekend!

God i love bullet points.

Anyway, let me give you the low down on my new home (no not Claires - yet anyway); ODL (Offshore Design Limited). I have now completed one week and beginning my second. Overall work has been interesting but again, slightly lacking on the work slash challenging side. Like WGPC, all employees are pretty busy and they have enough work coming in to last them a lifetime.

The American office specializes in documentation consultancy primarily for the oil and gas industry. Breaking that down, the kind of projects the business will work on will be the construction of detailed procedure manuals for start-up of platforms/well production/refining etc. It is quite analogous to a manual the final product that they deliver to the customer. Drawings of the plants and instruments etc (Piping and Instrument drawings - P&ID's) are given to ODL where from there will be broken down into smaller sections so procedures on how to run the instruments and what to do on initial startup can be documented for the user at the end of the line. It is quite hard to describe to be honest.

So far i have been involved in reviewing and amending a set of procedures for a client as required by them. This was simply a further revision to the existing procedures that was devised - thus, certain parameters were updated and new entries also recorded. This was quite interesting as it revealed how much effort goes into meeting the clients demands. We had a couple of meetings prior to sending the completed back to Aberdeen where they would go through a further quality control analysis before being handed over. I guess that is the key to good business.

Just today i have been working on P&ID's (fancy diagrams with a lot of symbols on it showing the distribution of instruments and how they connect). Although there is not any electrical items on these drawings it is still interesting and applicable to what i do.

Tomorrow we have an "Internship Review" with the relevant HR staff which shall be interesting. In this meeting i hope to secure a challenging and applicable placement at Alliance; the last place i go to.

I will give you all the banter i mentioned in my bullet points another time. Although to test the picture upload facility, have a look at one i took at the ballgame: -

America - You just have to laugh!!

Let me start off by saying that America is as good as it is bad. This might turn into a bit of a rant but i will try and be tasteful.

This week we saw the might of Tropical Storm Edouard wreak havoc across Houston ... I say havoc, i mean a bit of drizzle. It seemed the local Houstonians perpetuated how destructive this storm was going to be with one local especially, and I quote (Grant overheard this), saying "When we all wake up ... it ain't goin' to be the 'saaayme' uhh-huh, im goin' to get me some water mm-huh ..." with the appropriate Jerry Springer finger shake accompanied with it. When Grant told me this i just buckled. He overheard this at the most painful place in town; Walmart (it has a MacDonald's inside of it!!).

Walmart was an experience indeed. Never in my entire food shopping extravaganzas have i ever been so FRUSTRATED. The isles were a mass of zombies moving at an excruciating speed. It was like watching a slow action scene from a very poor film. Then there was the ques at the checkout! Aww the lines! I was so close to eating my food from the trolley due to the wait, i had never seen anything like it. True the impending havoc wreaking storm was on route but seriously, yawn. I bet that woman is sick now after seeing how much an anti-climax Edouard was - she has enough water to sink a boat! "Whats for dinner mam" ... "I told you alreadee boi, water mm-huh (plus finger shake)". Back to the sloooow behaviour, you think the impending storm might have kicked some life into getting their shopping done quickly (insert Churchill dog here). Maybe it did, but if that's the case i will not rush back to see an even slower pace. Bring on Tescos 100 mph speed junkies, the way it should be done!

After losing almost all hope in America's food supermarkets i have been sent a present from high above. Ladies and gentleman, I have Lurpak!! I am officially one step closer to home. The bread still sucks but this stuff is truly gold (and i think they know that after charging me $5 for it! - it should come with a free loaf for that price) and i am so glad to have it. I really thought i would miss it when coming over here but now that i have it i am the butter king. There is a local British section in our local Kroger - probably equivalent to Sainsbury's i think - which has some things but i cannot wait to DESTROY a bacon sandwich with HP sauce when i get back.

Right ... enough about Walmart etc other news. This week i sounded like one of those terrible, dreadful, embarrassing Pop Idol contestants with a scream that would put a teenage girl David Beckham fan to shame. Let me paint the picture. I come out of the shower all refreshed and smelling like a bed of roses. I scratch my pathetic beard and decided its time to have a shave. Still slightly wet from the shower I prepared to have a shave when i feel a slight tickle. Not paying attention I waved it off as a drip running down my back (first mistake). Continuing to prepare my shave i felt a further tickle so i decide to catch a view of my back in the mirror and there it is. The dirty, mouth sickening little beep of a cockroach was climbing its way up my back ... introducing the scream. Luckily I did not have Simon Cowell there to tell me that my scream was pathetic and probably the worst he ever heard but still i feel quite ashamed. Naturally the first thing i did was to go to the fridge and open a beer to top up my manhood. Annoyingly, i have now entered and probably will remain in the paranoid state until i get back home where i will be greeted by midges only. Haha, after the death cockroach there was one time where i lay on my bed to catch some shuteye. Little did i know there was some coins underneath me but i felt something tickle. I can assure you, i have never moved so fast. I bustled and all you could see was a one cent fly out of the bed and smash against the wall! I am bad, but not as bad as Chris. Tickle his neck without knowing and he unleashes some Jet Li ninja moves that have never been seen before.

There are other things that annoy me but i think you get the point. Plus i cannot remember them now and this post is getting long.

Anyway, this weekend i am shooting up (oh shoot, still need to go do that) to Austin with the gang plus a lad from WGPC - Simon, Australian and total banter. We are all heading up quite early on Saturday so we can do the tourist thing and then head out for a smashing night out. I am really looking forward to it because i have been told it is a rave. Before i go though i will make sure to top-up my steak levels because that is the Texas way - could tonight be the night where i do the 32oz steak challenge? Maybe not but i have to start preparing for that - I will need a cowboy hat and a flannel (for the meat sweets) before i attempt that badboy.

Right folks, sorry for the long message but we do everything bigger ere' in Texas.

Later Y'all

p.s. got my new laptop!! Pictures coming soon.

Week 4 - End of WGPC

First of all I will tell you all about work - the most important bit - before getting to any juicy American goss which will be on a separate post!

Well ... my two my two week stint is almost over at WGPC as well as my first month in America (I cannot believe I am officially half way!) Whilst I am sad i am half way through my placement i must admit i am quite relieved that i am moving to a different division of the Wood Group. I would love to sit here and tell you all of an exciting time i have had here at WGPC but the fear of being struck down for lying is too great a risk. Unfortunately i have not been challenged as much as i would have liked/enjoyed. Instead Grant and I have done the jobs that my temporary colleagues - I assume - put on the backburner (the mundane jobs they probably save for the interns!!).

The whole office concept is quite new to me also as i have previously worked in a more hands dirty approach. It is quite weird for me and truthfully, a bit too formal for my personality. You are stuck in a small cubicle only to be faced by grey felt walls in front of you - which i can only assume is the colour that sparks happiness!! Do not get me wrong there are the odd occasions where you can catch some banter but on a whole, communication is restricted. The air is filled with a small buzzing noise emanating from all the electrical equipment for most of the day - either that it is the sound of my depleting brain cells from sitting in front of the computer for the whole day. Amusingly on a couple of occasions i have noted people email each other about simple work queries rather than take those 10 steps to the next cubicle - maybe the grey felt of the cubicle is too attractive to leave. However, that is not the best bit; it is when two colleagues phone each other but you can also here the conversation in the air because they are so close! That makes me smile. Possibly i am not use to the office semantics but sometimes i feel like singing out really loud just to create a reaction - probably a bad one yes but still ... I think i can class the office as another learning curve. I am not sure if i come across unprofessional there because that is not the case at all, I am very professional. I just find it rather repetitive when all i can see is bobbing heads above my cubicle walls.

I cannot blame any of the employees at the WGPC office for the lack of work/learning opportunities. The problem is that almost all of their work revolves around the use of detailed computer programs that i have been told, takes a good 18 months to master. I do not think you could even attempt to 'crash' that in two weeks! Consequently for them to come up with work that does not involve too much in depth knowledge of these programs is a task in itself. Therefore, i can reason why we have been basically doing some administration work. There is also the reason that WGPC is a thousand miles away from Electrical and Electronic Engineering - another factor why i think they have gone easy on us. The only parallels i can pull are probably the office culture and the fact that complex computer programs will play a large part in my professional career (something i had an idea about before). At the end of the day (it gets dark) it is an experience that i can account for. It may have not worked out great here however, i have four more weeks across the two divisions i have been looking forward to the most so fingers crossed they are ready for me.

Later Y'all

Wood Group Pressure Control

I am on a roll now!

I am three shifts down at Wood Group Pressure Control. Let me give you a quick run down on what they do. Wood Group Pressure Control (WGPC) belongs to the 'Well Support' division of the Wood Group - the others being Engineering & Production Facilities and Gas Turbine Services. The Pressure Control is a further division with 'Well Support' being sectioned into three parts. The main area of interest for WGPC is the manufacture and installation of Wellhead Equipment and Flow Equipment - i know that might not mean a lot! Basically it is making large valves and connecting them together to control the flow of pressure. Below are links if you want a closer insight: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellhead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree_%28oil_well%29

The work so far has been very different from Houma. The office is more engineering based and more technical compared to the hands on approach in Houma. Work here for me so far has been quite sparse with me observing on more than one occasion. The work here is a hundred miles away from Electrical and Electronic Engineering which is quite disappointing and more fits the bill of mechanical/manufacturing/subsea engineering. A lot of the work is revolved around a very complex CAD program installed on the computers where all the valve assemblies are constructed/measured/sctrutinised  before being signed off and sent to the machinist for manufacture. Although WGPC has no electrical engineering i think i can pull some parallels and apply it to what i may be doing in the future. There is a lot of refinement and precision to meet a clients requirement.

Unfortunately this area of expertise does not apply to me nevertheless it is interesting and still a learning curve which can challenge me.

I will try and keep you up to date with the WGPC job to tell of any change.

I am off to give it Z's. Night.

New Orleans – Is there a better word than Awesome?

Hi,

That is me back in Houston now after an eventful weekend - sorry for the delay in the post. I will start off by saying New Orleans is awesome. Grant and I arrived in New Orleans about 5pm after finishing our last shift in Houma early - a rather large traffic que stole time from us - which gave us a little daylight to have a wee wonder about the French Quarter of New Orleans. The French Quarter was one of the lucky areas to brave the might of Hurricane Katrina leaving it virtually unscathed. This area is home to the famous Bourbon Street - the street that never sleeps by the way - where regular Mardi Gras and such like events occur. The street is home to many bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops.

The was a wonderful buzz to the nightlife with everybody pretty friendly and up for a good laugh. The Scottish accent seem to be an ice breaker which was rather unexpected - definitely welcomed - but refreshing as it made to an enjoyable night. Grant and I met a couple of locals and had a few drinks with them - including the famous 'Hurricane' and 'Hand Grenade' (they sound much worse than they actually are! - ive got pics of them). Aside from that there is not much to say about New Orleans, just that it was a really good night and i would definitely go back for a special occasion.

I took a few pictures so once i get my laptop all setup - waiting for one to come - i will dedicate a wee while to getting them up.

Later Y'all

Game Over at Houma

Time is up on my enjoyable time at Wood Group Production Services, Houma. Work was pretty easy going today and was finished off with a very nice lunch with a few of the workshop personnel.

It is quite hard to take in a lot of information in two weeks but i feel Grant and I have done a good service for WGPS. Hopefully we have helped them catch up on work and complete projects quicker. It has been an interesting stint. We did not delve too much into the engineering side of Measurement and Control - the main theme at WGPS Houma - which was quite disappointing but is understandable considering how complex it is! However, like i said, it has been interesting and personally has given me a bit to think about with regards to career path.

Grant and I travel back to Houston tomorrow that is after hitting New Orleans town. Since it is our last day and our flight does not depart till about 3pm we feel we have plenty time to take in the sights. The famous Bourbon Street is our destination and we have been warned by the awesome staff at WGPS that it is a riot and we will have never experienced anything like it before. I am really looking forward to tonight and a now that i have a digital camera, plan to take in a lot of action.

First of all i think i need to get a good steak meal to storm the weather especially with such drinks - as recommended by several people at WGPS - named "Hand Grenade" and the "Hurricane".

Anyway i will stop it there and promise to fill you all in about the banter we are bound to experience in New Orleans.

Later Y'all

Whats happening to the post

I have just noticed the crazy posts.

I think what is happening is when i copy and paste my story from word to typepad is goes a little mad and decides out of spite to wreck the layout.

I will try and figure it out.

Yee Hah to Where on Earth are we?

Let me tell you of the previous day’s frolics. I will split it into two parts; the good part and the bad.

Good Part:-

Not only did we get to finish work at about 11 am – after starting at 7:30 am – but we also had the pleasure of hitting the beach for a bit of crab fishing. One of the Wood Groups kind employees invited us down to La Fourchon to the beach with her mates for a bit of banter. What a laugh we had!! The ice chest was packed with beer and daiquiri – and ice obviously - cooling down to an optimal temperature. I had never had daiquiri before, it was rather splendid. I think the daiquiri was based on a white Russian but with chocolate sauce blended in. Thus, it was a much more interesting chocolate milkshake. Luckily Grant was the designated driver so I had the pleasure of entering another state of pleasure.

When we decided to go crab fishing my first thought was how many cuts am I going to walk away with? However, it would appear crab fishing is easier than I first imagined. Simply throw out a basket with a bit of bait on it and crabs magically appear. We had arrived at the beach a couple of hours late but combined with the other peoples catch and what we caught there was well over 200 crabs - and that apparently was a bad day!!

The beach was pretty cool. We were on the perimeter of the Gulf of Mexico therefore warm water, thankfully. The view was quite amazing, the horizon was completely covered in oil rigs - I had never seen anything like it even with working in the North Sea. There were loads and loads of rigs, pretty cool ... well to me anyway!

Now moving onto the bad part: -

Firstly, I think I have to make an amendment to my previous blog post. Houma is slightly bigger than I thought … infact it is pretty much HUGEEEEEEEEE!! Frankly how stupid of me, what they consider small we consider enormous! I hope you are starting to get a feeling to what the bad part is going to be.

Grant and I were both informed that the beach was out of Houma which was fine, although we did not gauge how far out of Houma it actually was. A trip I envisaged to be a half hour away turned into a cool hour and a half under direction (emphasis on ‘under direction’). Well on the way home – by our Jack Jones – the trip veered away from that cool hour and a half to an expletive four hour journey!! For all I know we had travelled to Canada and back again because this journey was epic. Thankfully I had a few to drink at the beach otherwise it would have been worse. We were so lost it was actually funny. I do not know what happened; I think it all went wrong when we took a random left and right. Ha-ha we crossed over the river and went up the wrong direction!

The amount of times we had to stop for directions was just crazy – not as crazy as the directions what we got given though. Grant stopped to ask one guy, who after giving some directions, told him to drive into the sun!!! HAHA, Grant and I were wetting ourselves. I went into a Shell garage – probably our sixth time of asking – to get directions. The hotel we are staying at is really close to a car dealership. Therefore, when asking for directions, at 9pm at night, I asked the clerk for directions to the dealership. Well I had to laugh when I was talking to this dude. He gives me the directions and then goes “DJ’Yall should probably know that the dealership is closed right now”. I left the garage with a twitch!

Once we thought we were on the right road it turned out we were a further 20 miles away from Houma. The drive was unreal. However, before you start judging us as complete idiots/nutters I have to reveal than the sign posting in America is non existent. There is nothing …. Nothing! The only signs they have is to tell you the road number e.g. LA 387 or LA 3807. It was just a disaster waiting to happen.

The radio station in Houma is quite ridiculous also. Grant and I have concluded that they only have one mixed CD that they can play to the audience. The amount of times we heard the same songs was equally as crazy as the drive home, thankfully some of them are classics.

For DJ’Yall wondering what the tunes are:-

Metro Station – Shake It

Paramore – That’s What You Get

Lil Wayne – Lollipop

That concludes the madness, take it easy y'all.