Shane Wilson

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.

Houma, Louisiana … DJ’YHALL know what I am saying?

I feel I have to apologise for the delay in posting this blog … well to my sister at least since she took time out of her busy day to hassle me for a blog post! So here you go Donna ….

Move aside Houston, Houma is my new town for the next two weeks. Grant and I arrived around midday area in Houma and have been made welcome as if we were one of the locals.

Let me first paint you a picture, a very small picture offcoarse – I was always terrible at art.  Houma is what can only be described as a non tourist town and subsequently a part of America that most people back home will not be familiar with. Granted it does have quite a large WALMART but it is a very much scaled down version of Houston which is understandable since Houston is the 4^th largest city in America.There are only a few main streets where all the shopping/restaurants/car dealers lie with the rest comprising of housing and other types of businesses. Everything we want is a stone throw away (although you still need to take the car due to the blistering heat/humidity) which is convenient.

Work wise, Grant and I have been working like two machines! With slightly less quality offcoarse! We have completed two and a half days where we have been working on back panels for electrical boxes. We have constructed the back panels i.e. the layout of truncheon which cable will follow as well as space for interfaces etc (complex power distribution boxes). Therefore there has been a lot of tape measuring, drilling, metal cutting, plastic cutting, and careful placement. To prove that we have been working hard (well at least me) I have about 5 small cuts on my hands! Oh Yehhhhhhhhhhh.

I think the Wood Group employees feel some sympathy for us because they have planted us in the only air conditioned workshop while they work outside in the oven. We are not complaining because we are dryer than the Sahara desert. Well almost not complaining, unfortunately we have to endure a barrage of country music which is …. Actually the lyrics are quite hilarious and I am finding myself singing a few songs!! “I’m not a political man I watch CNN but I’m not quite sure about the difference between Iraq and Iran … Oh the good times, aww the good times …” If I start line dancing I know it will be time to return to Scotland !!

I think i will stop the blog about here because i will need to dedicate another small blog to the lingual banter we have been listining to! Later Y'all ..

Viva la Houston ..

So it is the second day in the Oven (also known as

Houston

,

Texas

) and I am starting to get my Scottish salmon colour suntan on the go! The four of us have all settled in and look like we have been here for years, as proved by our excellent navigation skills on the first day as we drove to the downtown shopping centre.

The company equipped us with a ‘mans best friend’ tool – an old school map. Roughly about the size of

Scotland

, the map will certainly keep us busy as we try to locate the local hotspots. Failing that we can contact our new driver, Amin the taxi driver. He took us down to midtown last night to sample the local amber nectar and soak in the local banter which was good fun. The view in midtown is pretty cool with downtown only a stone throw away with all its tall skyscrapers and fancy lights, it was pretty impressive. (I will take photos when I order my camera)

Amazingly I am still to have a Steak however, I can assure my viewers that I will definitely be having one tonight! My belly will not have it any other way.

Work starts tomorrow and I think we are all raring to go. Tomorrow will only be an induction so they are breaking us in gently. Then on Tuesday Grant and I will be flying to

New Orleans

as us lucky pups get 2 weeks of work in

Louisiana

.

Anyway, I think I might go get my feet wet by taking a dive into our swimming pool!! I will be in touch …

Still the night before ....

It is 3 o clock in the morning and i am still waiting for 9 am to arrive which, for those people who do not know, is the time of my flight!

I am sitting beside my good friend Tim and i can only see a green glow emanating from his jealous face.

I have finally bid goodbye to Glasgow and its unforgettable banter. I had a nice few pints with my close friends which was awesome crack before i mix it with the locals!

I wonder if they have Haggis over there? Just incase i get a sense of patriotism! Either way i think i might have fun convincing people that haggis is an actual animal that runs round the bonny hills of Scotland! Only joking, i am not that bad!

Right Texas ... Here i come.

The night before ...

Well it is finally the night before jet setting and i could not be more ecstatic, finally the day has arrived! Texas be warned because there are 4 Scotsmen coming your way!!

In typical male fashion i left the packing and ironing to the last minute (why do we do this to ourselves?). Having just finished packing now - after taking several tea breaks - most of my night has disappeared which has only gone to assist the arrival of the 11th of July! The bag has turned out much heavier than expected, either that or i haven't gone to the gym enough, but thankfully the bad boy has wheels so there will be no struggle getting it to the airport.

On the nerves side of things ... i am still waiting for them to arrive. On that front i think i am going to miss delivery as i have far to much anticipation and excitement running through me.

Luckily we have the weekend off before we arrive so i am swithering as what to get first; either the biggest steak i can find on a menu or a pair of cowboy boots to blend in with the locals!! I am sure there will be plenty things to keep me happy.

The first blog is starting to run off so i will bring it to a halt and save the best to later. Now i am going to bid farewell to my less fortunate friends with a couple of frothy ones.

Let the adventure begin!!

p.s. i would also like to mention what a wonderful job the Saltire team has done in getting me here. Not only did they choose me! But they have also strived to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible ... so on that note i would like to thank them for all their efforts.