Author Archives: Clark

My laptop was almost stolen

At the airport in Accra, you go through security right at the gate. I went through security and did the whole routine. Took off my shoes, took out my laptop, put my bag on the conveyor, put any and all … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, electronics, Freaking Airlines, I hate it here, oilfield, travel, work | Leave a comment

I’ve been playing in my shop.

I’ve not had a lot of shop time this year. Part of that is from spending most of the year so far in Ghana, Saudi and Ivory Coast. Finally, I got home and coerced Margo into helping to make the … Continue reading

Posted in House, projects, Toys, woodworking | Leave a comment

When it rains, it pours

I got an email from Bossman asking if I had a valid visa. That is all. Five minutes later, he asks if I have a valid visa for Saudi. If I had list the drawbacks to my job, the top … Continue reading

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House numbers and mobile phones

Something that I see all over west Africa is houses will have long numbers written on them either on the door or near it.  They tend to be spray painted. They aren’t house numbers, they are mobile phone numbers. It … Continue reading

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It isn’t always exciting.

Just the parts I normally talk about. Last night, we went a place we call Blue Bar because it is painted a bright blue. I’m not really sure what the actual name is. We had curried rice, grilled fish and … Continue reading

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Some of you may have seen this already

A few days ago, we went to a French African Country & Western bar. The food was pretty terrible. There, we met X-man and Rastafarian Robocop. By met I mean they wouldn’t go away. From there, we went to a … Continue reading

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I keep forgetting I have a blog.

Last night, we went to the Cuban place with some guys from another service company. Some of them brought their local girlfriends. The conversation got turned to local animals and they started talking about how dangerous and aggressive hippos are. … Continue reading

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Saudi No Internet Super post!

I had no internet on the rig, so here is a collection of what I would have said if I’d been able to post. The toilet has no seat, so I’ve had to squat over it. Which is a bit … Continue reading

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Eating Cobra in Vietnam

Before we went offshore, we spent the night in Danang.  Since Van Dam was there and speaks Vietnamese, we asked him to take us to get some proper local food.   We went to a restaurant and had an assortment … Continue reading

Posted in funny, oilfield, travel, Vietnam, work | 2 Comments

Lonely days are gone, I’m a goin’ home

I’m leaving Vietnam tomorrow. The oil company was largely staffed by Russians. Which made things irritating. The Geologist asked about how much explosives I used, so I gave him an estimate. At which point he carved it in stone and … Continue reading

Posted in life, travel, Vietnam, work | Leave a comment