RUN!!!! The horror... Save your lives if you can, the end is near. Snow!!!! In Madrid! Just watch the news on tv in case you are too afraid to look out the window! We are all going to die! This is a strange phenomenon, that is causing chaos all over the city and the country as well. I am afraid communication networks may be down soon... From Madrid I can confirm that the rumors are true. There are at least 5 milimeters of snow, and the forecast is that it will melt and dissapear... we are all doomed. If someone read this this message, please pass on the word, we are trying to gather food and survivors (same thing, really) in Madrid. I have managed to speak to a group of scientists to try and find an answer to this strange phenomenon. They say there is a name to it... winter.

I went yesterday to visit my uncle and cousins and niece... well, that´s what I told them. I really wanted to see Noa, my cousin´s rabbit. She´s cute, isn´t she?

This is an epic photo. The first Coriolis sensor this size in the North Sea, when I was working on Ensco 101 offshore Denmark. I thought you may like it.

I asked MiguelMan to take my camera with him and take a few shots of the sea and Den Helder before we took the helicopter back to shore. The last photo is a spy ohoto of the Navy of the Netherlands in Den Helder.

Many people ask me very often what do I do exactly on the rig, what my job is. Well, until september last year I worked as mudlogging geologist. Now I changed positions and I work as data engineer. I am not sure what that is myself, but it is kind of making up information for reports nobody reads or care about. To illustrate both jobs, there are some photos here.

Due to great success that the appearance of MiguelMan and Sidekick in my previous post, they are back. I asked MiguelMan to please come over the unit during his lunch break to take some photos for his fans. Fortunately, Sidekick was with him, and they agreed to pose for me. They had been for a few hours in Afganistan kicking some American butt over there and giving the farmers a break. It was very funny, when MiguelMan arrived he was drinking kefir that the sheppereds presented him as a token of appreciation.


The Driling Duo in one of their classical poses.

Beleive it or not, Sidekick has not seen The Matrix.

But MiguelMan has. He used his special laser vision to create the greenish look on the picture.

If the screen would be 3d you would see that cool Matrix rotating effect.
One though sexy super-heroe.

Hulk Hogan in his prime could not have beaten that.
Fighting evil and drilling wells, no job is too small for MiguelMan and his minion Sidekick. Thanks guys! And be careful out there!

MiguelMan is here again, to protect the innocent and fight evil on the rig. Nobody suspect that mild-mannered Miguel is the hidden identity after the well known super-hero. His special super powers make him virtually indestructible. He can bend drill pipe with his bare hands, drill wells with his laser vision, fly to shore in the thickest fog, pull the drill string free of the longest section of salt... His companion Sidekick fights along his side in their never ending campaign against the evil doers. You will be able to follow their adventures on this website very soon.

Hola a todos. Esta vez en espanol, aunque me falten letras en el teclado. Este es el amanecer de ayer. Que no os engane el sol, hacia un frio del carajo. Pero la verdad es que cuando no esta nublado, es bastante bonito. Nada comparado con los amaneceres de Sajalin, pero bueno. Algo bueno debia tener Holanda, no? Hoy hacia tanto viento que habia que ponerse piedras en los bolsillos para no caerse por la borda. Estado de la mar, marejadilla.

I am sick of this job. I want to go home. I decided to ask my company to do it in a nice way, but they refused. So I had to take extreme mesaures about it. This is a photo I have sent to the press, along with my demands.

Hi. I wanted to show you some of my latest aquisitions in Russia. I could not get really good medals this time, but I got some really good badges, which I honestly I am starting to like more than the medals themselves. I have in mind a trip to Ukraine. That is a good medals and orders destination.


This one really kicks ass. "Excellent Borderguard, member of KGB" Absolutelly original. The logo at the bottom is the KGB logo. If the picture were better, you would be able to read the Russian characters for KGB in the red enamel.

These badges are really cool. Top left: Komsomol member 1950s. Top right: Excellent worker 1950s. Bottom left: Moscow Olympics, 1980 (obviously). Bottom right: Frontline Soldier. I admit I am not sure, but I think this one was awarded along with the Order of the Great Patriotic War in 1985.


Top: A medal bar. From left to right "For the Victory over Germany", "20, 30 and 40 Years of the Victory over Germany" and "Veteran of Socialist Labour"
Bottom: "Veteran of Socialist Labour" in its both versions silver and dark background. Both are from the Leningradsky Monetny Dvor. To the right, "100 years of the birth of Zhukov"
All these are up for trading. I know they are not the best of medals, but maybe somebody is missing them.


University graduate badges. All top row are for teachers and humanistic studies. Age increases from left to right from 1950s to 1980s


Bottom row are university graduate 1950s, Medicine graduate 1960s, art 1980s and engineering 1980s

That is a turtle race in Helsinki, on New Year's Eve.

And then, after New Year's I came back to Holland.

If anybody want to see how the cabins on the rigs look like, here you have a photo of mine. I sleep on the lower bunk. The other photo is of the galley. The plattform in the third photo was a stop over for refueling on the way out here.

After a long break, due to the holiday season in which I have been wandering around eastern Europe, I'm back to slowly update the weblog. I am on the Ensco 72 in Holland, and my access to the net is limited, so this will take a few days. When I left the rig in December I flew to Russia. I spent some time there, but it was so cold that I did not go out much. I got some cool soviet badges, I will post about them when I get good photos. For the moment I prefer to talk about my New Year in Helsinki. It was THE GREATEST NY in my life. What a cool city. The weather very mild, just -2 to +2, against the -18 I had had in Russia days before. Hours of fireworks to say goodbye to 2005, lots of souvenirs related to mooses, my favourite annimal, and snow. Thanks to all for visiting my weblog, including the people who stop me on the street to congratulateme me for the cool photos (no bullshit, this has happened) Gracias, Edu, por tus felicitaciones, y sobre todo por visitar la web. Te has ganado que no te mande a los grises para Reyes. More to come...

The Bay and the City Centre of Helsinki shortly after NY.

The Art-Deco statues in the main train Station in Helsinki.

I swear that this is not Mars. This was a park near the hotel. The water in the fountain was not frozen and the sky was red. Weird.

Fireworks in the main square by midnight. It was so very nice. I recommend Helsinki to everybody. If yo hear that it is a very expensive city, well... it is expensive, but since Euro Madrid is not so cheap anymore. I have to go guys. I'll be back with more as soon as I can.

Espero que os gusten las fotos. Helena, si ves esto desde Noruega, te deseo que los Reyes se pasen por tu plataforma y te dejen algo que no sean hidrocarburos... je je, chiste del mundo del petroleo.

Carla, edpanola, que te traigan muchas cosas a ti tambien. Beto, Nuria, que me engraseis la tuneladora, y a ver si es verdad que teneis otro Nazare.