I’ve been to the mother fucking mountain top…….

So its been awhile since I’ve done any serious blogging. Honestly I’m not sure why. My life hasen’t been very interesting, but that never stopped me before. Well I actually do have a little bit of excitement to talk about so here goes…… and as for the title goes, well its just a song that’s been stuck in my head for a while now, not sure why but I am open to suggestions.

So to start with I should have written this about a week ago, or maybe longer. On the work front the big huge “Most important job in Aberdeen this year” and therefore the most important Wireline job for Schlumberger this year was completed on May 25 my your truly. Everything defiantly did not go according to plan, but I think overall we (John a fellow American was the other engineer) we did a good job, actually we did a great job. We had some failures(Not our fault), but we were on the limits with everything and for the most part dealt with the stress of the weight of the Wireline world on our shoulders, and half the SLB world literally looking over our shoulders well. I can’t really say anymore about the job because it’s a tight hole (ha ha ha, yea I laugh every time I say it too). Now its just back to do all the final paperwork and get this “HUGE” check that everyone keeps talking about.

O yea just to keep everyone updates I was offshore from May 2-18, than back on land for the 19-20, then back out from the 21-25, so a total of 20 days offshore in a month, new record for me!

Ok so now for the fun stuff on Friday the 25^th when the job was finally over we had Chinese for dinner. We being John, another Texan and myself. All three of us drank quite a few beers ad decided that the best place to spend the rest of the night was the Casino. This was not a surprise because all 3 of us do enjoy the gambling, although 1 of us (not me) usually walks away up a lot of money. SO anyway on our way to the International casino we pass the new casino that opened upstairs from the club I mentioned earlier that is in an old church. The Casino is owned by the same people (No not God) but as the club is called Soul it is called Soul Casino. So we decide that we have walked far enough and we will stop to deposit out money into the hole at the end of the roulette table here. We sign up and as the place has only been open for 2 weeks they decide to give us the grand tour. Doesn’t hurt that when they ask if we are members at any other casinos we all pull out multiple black membership cards. So we head up the elevator and it opens into the most impressive room I have seen in Aberdeen. Later in the night 9after many many drinks it was described as what Vegas tries to be) It has huge cathedral ceilings with exposed wood, stained glass on every wall. A 70 seat restaurant, a bar.longe area, and really cool bathrooms upstairs. Not to mention a huge floor with slots around the outside and tables in the middle. Poker room to come too I was told J

So anyway we start playing roulette and this is where I start to do amazing things. Not not just o he won in a casino amazing, but like, oh my god this cannot happen in the physical universe amazing.

So for starters I buy in for 20 $. O and for record $ means pounds and all the money I talk about should be doubled to convert to US dollars.

Ok her goes with what I remember. I was playing 0.25$ chips and covering the board, basically playing the middle numbers and making a flower around 26. I was staying about even when I decided to change my bet and just bet a few numbers. When I was betteing I put 8 chips down on 15 and 3 on 3. My only 2 bets on the table, what hits …… 15, that’s 8X35 chips, that’s a lot. I go nutz. I make a neighbors bet. (Bet 25$ on a number that splits down to 5$ on 5 numbers in a slice of the wheel and pays ut 175$ if you win. I hit it. I let the bet spin again, it hit again, I had over 500 in my hand. The 3^rd of the group who is normally taking money from casinos is loosing, I do feel slightly better but he maxed out his card and I gave him a loan.

I then walked over to the blackjack table and start to play. 5$ hand, won to 10, 10 goes to 20. make the bet 100, and I won. At this point the other guy on the table is just laughing nearly as much as me. I bet the table maximum of 200$ and wouldn’t you know it, I hit blackjack for 300$. I go back to the roulette table with all green $100 chips and ask John what will hit. He is a student of the numbers tonight for some reason, but he doing well so no harm, and he says it will be a low one. I put 200$ on the first 12, it lands on 6. I make 400$, if you know the order of a wheel you know that 6 is surrounded on both sides by high numbers for at least 5 in each direction, there is no way it should land on 6, but it does and I peak for the night at 1200$, that’s 2400 real $, that’s like 2 weeks work almost all this and it might be 10 pm. Everyone tells me to cash out, I go to play blackjack. I make 5 consecutive 200$ bets and loose them all, I am back down to 200$. I am sad. I demand the free sand wedges that we were promised on entry. Before they get there I am down to 50$. I am upset.

I work the wheel again all the way back to 800$. I can do no wrong. The third guy borrows money again, make almost all he owes back to me and runs home. mE and John continue until 3 am. He ha 25$ from a big round number and says here bet this while I cash out. I make another neighbors bet. It hits. I yell “John… then give the big thumbs up. We turn that 25$ into another 450 in about 4 spins. We walk outside. Because its daylight here at 3 am ( It is really frustrating by the way) we are running around town trying to get a cab. We can’t so we each walk home. I decide to throw all the money on the bed and sleep in it. When I wake up in the morning I collect it and smile. What an amazing night.

So the next day I buy 100$ worth of wine and Scotch, Scotch for a guy that helped out a lot on the job, 1 nice bottle of whine for my Aunt that I went to visit and the rest to stock up. Then went to work. Went back to the casino the next night after a night of bar hopping and watching Pirates 3, which really sucks. And lost 300$ back but I was still up.

Mom came on Sunday to visit which was great, will write about that later, but I took her on Tuesday and made another 200$. So bottom line. Looks like I found a new ATM machine when the money doesen’t come from my account, brilliant.

On Wednesday I went down with Mom to my Aunt and we had a family reunion with 2 new family members (2 new babies, 1 cousin and 1 great cousin (I know that doesen’t exist but its my Cousin’s baby and I don’t know what to call it) Again will write more about that later.

Anyway only 3 weeks of work until my vacation J Hopefully it will go fast. Will write more soon now that life is a little more slow.

Bye

Ricky

My Life is booring

Hi All,
I am not disregarding my loyal readers but I just have nothing interesting to write about and I will not more you with mindless details. Basically my life the last 3 weeks has boiled down to preparing "The most important job in Schlumberger this year." If any of the tools fail we will lose a worldwide contract and many people will loose their jobs. (No one has said I will be one of those people..... but I think if things go wrong I may be looking for another job). Hopefully it all goes right but the job is at the limit of most of the tools so we shall see.
I am going down to a testing facility this weekend to test the tools but it is a pretty superficial test. It is down in Edinburgh which if you may remember was a lot of fun last time I went. It will be a much lower key visit with work stuff to do, but still should have a little excitement.
Goodnight and good luck
Ricky

My List

So a while ago I promised a list of my 25 gratest accomplishments so far and the 75 to come in the next 75 years. I am still working on the list but I seem to have hit a wall and I need help. This is my list so far. Remember these are 25 things fromt he first 25 years of my life, and 75 things to do before I reach 60, cause as we all know after 60 life will be nothing but living in an old folks home and pissing in depends. So here is the list so far, please send comments on what I am missing, or if you hav any ideas on how/when to accomplish these things.

To do in future::
1) Do so well in an activity that I can drape the American flag over me when I am finished like in Rocky 4
2) Enter a free style battle like in 8 mile
3) Have sex with a stripper/prostitute or a girl that has sex like strippers do.
4) Bungee jump
5) Jump out of a plane with a parachute

6) Drink so much Hypnotic that I get hallucinations.
7) Get drunk on 5 different continents. ( So far North America and Europe, possibilities are South America, Africa, Australia and Asia)
8) Spend new years in 2 different places in the same year by flying backwards.
9) Go to an open casting call and try and get a part in a movie.
10) Sleep with an American Girl
11) Own hummer H3 and a Sports car at the same time
12) Get married
13) Have at least 2 children, 1 boy 1 girl
14) Get a dog / have a job or life that allows to me take care of a dog
15) Live at a beach for a year (Could be combined with 27)
16) Run a marathon
17) Attend a racing driver’s school
18) Go to concert at Red rocks
19) See the Northern Lights
20) World Series of Poker main event
21) Watch these 10 movies: The Queen, 49 Up, The Departed, United 93, Neil Young -- Heart of Gold, 13 Tzameti, 51 Birch Street, Half Nelson, Heart of the Game, Little Miss Sunshine
22) Read more .books, starting with books that movies are based on so I can comment that the movie is nothing like the book
23) Live out of a 1 bag for a year (Schlumberger Camp Location ???)
24) Spend an entire year outside of the US and see if my views change at all (2008 is the plan)
25) Buy an entire bar a round of drinks
26) In my apartment: install fireman’s pole in home and get female to dance
27) For 1 year live in a town with a Baseball team and get season tickets and attend every home game
28) Become so important that random people know who I am
29) 2 words… Go Fast
30) Break 90 playing golf
31) Own a Golden Tee arcade game
32) Watch a season of 24 in fewer than 24 hours
33) Own a house with one of those entrances with 2 stairways at the bottom that merge on the next floor up
18 Places to go: Goa, South Africa, Australia, Hawaii, Everest Base camp, Rain Forest, a really big waterfall that I can swim under, Yankee Game, Celtics game, Red Socks game, Rome/Vatacan City, Raft on the Colorado River, Alaska, Back to Canyon lands NP, Argentina, Space, Spain, Mauritania (SLB rig in Offshore Africa).


Things I’ve Done (Top 25 life moments?)
1) Being Born
1) saw the Rolling Stones in Concert; everything will try to live up to that for all time
2) Live in Washington DC area
3) Eagle Scout
3) In three varsity sports score a goal/point/run in my senior year
4) Scored the game winning run from first base without the ball being hit, possible the best baseball play ever seen on any level. (We were down 1-0 in the 7th to St. James, they had there #1 pitcher on the mound, we got a guy on first, made an out, then there was a ball in the dirt, then someone hit a single. Runners on 1st and 3rd. I pinch run for the guy on first and coach calls for the break early. I break and the pitcher doesn’t want to throw the ball with a runner on 3rd. I stop in between first and second and just stand there. Pitcher steps off and eventually throws the ball, I get caught in a rundown for 3 throws, guy on 3rd breaks for home, ball goes to home, throw is high, Greg slides under the catcher and ties the game, I round second and cant find the third baseman because he was involved in my earlier rundown, so I head to 3rd. Catcher sees me and throws to 3rd. I avoid ball, Left fielder is out to lunch, I round bag and score game winning run, get mobbed my team and fans…. Unfortunately there was no American flag to drape around me)
5) Hit the game winning shot.
6) Spring Break in the Dominican
7) Change my name
8) Drive across the US and most of Canada
9) Went off road driving in my Jeep by myself
10) Live out of my Jeep for 4 weeks in the desert
11) Go to Vegas, leave with more money than I came with
12) Graduate from University
13) Went Surfing, rock climbing saw a baseball game, and went to a bar all in the same day (San Diego is the best city in the world that I have been to so far)
14) Got drunk in Tijuana
15) Live in Texas
16) Mexican Resort
17) Make money at a casino
18) Drive a sports car (But I want a faster one)
19) Spring Break in South Padre

Day 2.....

So day 2 begins with me on my way to meet up with Matt and Adam, but lets back track a little to mention one more funny story. When I am being given my things back I am also asked to sign a piece of paper that has 101.50 pounds at the bottom. In my still drunk mind I think O fuck, Jail is expensive. I dig through my wallet and hand the cop behind the counter my credit card. He looks at it and gives it back. I say "I don't think I have enough cash to pay this" He starts laughing and says "That's not a bill, that's how much you had when you came in here". Whoops my bad..
Ok so on my way out of jail I see a cop (Ironic huh). Actually he is walking by giving people parking tickets, but I ask him where I can get a cab as I don't know where I am. He asks how I could not know where I am and I say its a long story. He walks me to the end of the street to a corner calls on his radio and within a minute a cab appears. I tell the cabbie to take me to the grass market and I start looking through my phone calls dialed.
This is where the trouble starts because I notice that while I called Matt several times after 2 am, I also called my manager, the base number, and a secretary. Whoops, so much for a night in jail no one will know about. I get to the grass market ahead of Matt and Adam and head for a little sandwich shop. I demolish a spicy chicken sandwich with crunchy bread. Once finished I realize I am almost choking as I am dehydrated as a dead snake on a dessert road and drink a small bottle of water. My first in at least 18 hours (and last for another 18 ish). Still dressed up in a nice collared shirt, sheep skin Jacket and of cores the famous playboy chain I see Matt and Adam arrive. We head into a bar and have breakfast. Breakfast is beer and its on me because of the drama I caused last night, I figure we are all even now. I hear stories about how dumb I was and things like this. Then my phone rings....
Its the personal department head telling me that they have arranged legal council for me. She asks where I am, I say a bar. She goes silent. I explain that I was let out and have met back up with the other guys and we are having "breakfast". She accepts the excuse and hangs up. 2 seconds later my manager calls, I try to explain what happened saying that there was a "misunderstanding" between me and the cops. He asked what sort of misunderstanding can land someone in jail. I said I would explain Monday. Ok problem solved for now..... 1 minute later the secretary calls.
She wants to hear the story first hand as I left a message last night saying "Help me, the fuzz has me and they are taking me to their lair. I know what they do to Americana's here. I am too young to die. Save me. Call Tim Welling, he is American, he will help,(In a whisper) he is superman, he can help. Tell them I am not from here and I have diplomatic Immunity. O shit, there coming help me help me now. Then there was some arguing and then I hung up" I got to listen to the message on Monday and it is the funniest thing I have ever said in my life. I honestly fell over when I heard it.
So after I explain and we decide to leave the predominately Welsh pub to head next door to go to the Scottish supporters pub, and get food. Some more pints (Once again i am drunk, its amazing how fast you can get drunk on the second day of a binge). But I got some more food in me so i am in a jovial drunk state. We drink until about 2 pm, then catch a taxi to the game. We are the only ones walking into the stadium, most likely because the game has already started. A cop on the outside offers us tickets, but we say we have our own. We go in and walk around until we find our seats. Matt goes to sit down and me and Adam hang out on the outside of the stadium talking to the girls at the snack counter. After a few minutes we decide to head in and these are the seats Matt got tickets for.
Basically 50 yard line 4 rows back. These are the second greatest seats i have ever had for a sporting event I was not playing in. (KT's Redskins seats were still the highlight of my sport watching life putting 50 points on the bears was good too)
So we watch the second half of the first half, sit through all of halftime and watch the second half while I am texting the sales engineer who is at the game somewhere with some clients saying he should come hang with us, but he recognises that I am wasted and smartly stays away.
The game ends and we have a couple of post game pints at a tent. We loose Matt, but then find him again. Head back to the hotel, which is the first time, since I arrived in Edinburgh, that I spent more than 5 seconds in the room. I have a much needed shower and Matt breaks his cell phone into a million pieces. Get changed out of the "Jail" clothes and get ready for another night.
We order a taxi to take us back into town and head to the hotel bar to keep the buzz going. I regale some people with my prison story including a family I apparently was talking to after we drooped our bags at the hotel last night. They worn me to stay safe tonight and we head out.

We are all really hungry so we ask to go to a nice restaurant. The cabbie drops us of at a restaurant that is painted blue, that's all any of us remember from the outside. We go in a sit at a table by the door. We get menus and we all realize that we have to really concentrate to read. I manage to read the word Tuna and order that. We get a bottle of house red wine and keep drinking. When the food comes within a bite we all agree that this is all of our best meals ever. We are absolutely wasted and I am sure the food was good, but I have no clue if it was "the best ever" but at the time we all think it is. We are so impressed that we each one at a time head up 2 flights of stairs to the kitchen to thank the chef for suck a great meal. I ask to "shake the hand of the man the made the best tuna ever made in the history of fish" The waitress asks if we need anything else and we order another bottle of wine and dessert. I had sticky toffy pudding, which I did not read, because at this point reading was beyond me, but we just yelled different desserts until the waitress said they made that. We ate dessert finished the wine and decided that the chef needed another thanking. This time we all went up together to tell him he was a god among men. We then went back downstairs and left.
Now there is one crucial thing that we did not do at this restaurant that you always have to do. Do you know what it was........ yes that's right. We didn't pay. At the time I think we all thought someone else paid for it, but after further discussion in the morning and again on Monday when everyone checked there credit cards online none of us paid and we just walked out on our meal. O well, it prolly wasn't that good anyway ;-)
We go to some street with a lot of bars and head into one of them. Start drinking more and somehow I end up talking with the bouncers outside. (I think it was my subconscious trying to make up for last night) They are not pleased to have me hounding them, but I am on a mission and they can't get me either back inside or further outside so i just hang with them asking about how they decided who can come in and who can't. (they let me in so their standards can't be that high) After about an hour of me being super annoying they need a break and they ask me to watch the door. I decided that this is them accepting me and my apology to the bouncer community for my previous nights actions has been wiped clean. A group of 4 guys wants in, but I tell them "we are full" and they walk off, I am drunk with power, and beer. 3 girls come up (Pretty cute) and ask to come in, I say yup, just as the "real" bouncers come back. They say I did good, but I have to go inside now. I feel like I did my part so i go in and find Matt and Adam. They ask where I was, I give them the brief story as 1 of the 3 girls walks by, she is confused, but I try to explain it. I am too drunk to make it make sense to her, so I just stop talking. We have a few more then decided its time to head to a different type of club.
We decided on one of those places where girls practice to be firemen by sliding down poles. We head to the "Bermuda triangle" and place where there are 3 strip clubs on 3 corners, we go to the one in the middle. Stopping at a bank machine I take out money and give Matt 100 pounds. Matt goes in first, then I go in. I instantly loose Matt. (Later I find that he went straight upstairs found a girl gave her the hundred pounds and said 1 word "Dance") I look behind me and Adam is no where to be seen. I walk to the stage area and see one of the hottest girls ever in my life. She climbs (Literally the stage in the middle of a ton of guys and is 5 ft off the ground with no stairs so it really was a climb) onto the stage and begins "dancing" I have no clue how long I am there for but I think it was about 2 hours. I am constantly calling Matt (If you remember he broke his phone so obviously he does not pick up) I don't have Adam's number and I am starting to realize that I have no idea where the hotel is... or even what the name of it is. I'm screwed.
I head for the door and ask the bouncer if he has seen an American guy or a British guy. He points across the street and points to a random guy and says "Is that him?" and laughs This bouncer turns out to be Jesus because he points right at Adam. I say yes, and run across the road towards him. Cars screech to a halt and I make it across without being hit. Adam is wasted as am I, but he has a card from our hotel so now we know where we live. We get some food, again talk to the owenr of the place, but no "free" food this time. A few slices of pizza give us energy and we decided we need to find a taxi. We try to wave one down but no luck. We walk a little further down the street and find a taxi line that is ridiculously huge. We decide that we are way too important to wait in that line so we start walking around asking every single girl if we can go home with them or if they will take us to our hotel. They laugh because we are so far from our hotel, we don't think its funny.
Then a stroke of genius hits me. The taxi's for the line have to come from somewhere... lets go to the source. We walk down the road and start seeing empty taxi's heading to the taxi stand. I snap my fingers but nothing stops. we then start waving, but still no luck. We then get right in the middle of the road trying to get in their way. They all manage to avoid us and still not stop. We are not too big to admit when we are beaten and head back to the taxi line. We make it to the hotel at about 6 am with the sun about to come out. Go and sit in the hotel bar and this guy comes up and wants to drink. We decide not to let a guy drink alone (Cuse that's what alcoholics do) and we have a scotch with him. As soon as I smell it I remember that I have ordered some of the most expensive single malt scotch's before and I can never drink them. I dump my shot into Matt's glass and go to my room......
I don't have a key so I bang on the door, no answer. I go and get the guy at the front desk and he opens my door. I ask if there are any rooms with hot girls in that he can open instead, he says no, and I pass out in my bead with socks and ski hat on.
Matt's alarm wakes us up in the morning for breakfast. I see the family again, they are happy I didn't end up in jail again. We pack up and head back to Aberdeen, i sleep most of the way on the train, get to my apartment and go to sleep putting an end to one of the, if not the drunkest weekend of my life.

Let us all remember in this Cold and flu season...

This is the beast way to prevent getting sick






How awsome is this. On my rig they have to show you how to wash your hands...... O the Joys!!!

I have a drinking problem.....

Ok, so since I moved to Scotland there have been some great drunken nights...... This was not one of them.
I got a call at 6:15 Friday saying there was an extra ticket to the Scotland V. Wales Rugby game on Saturday, train was leaving in 45 minutes and they had a spare bed booked at the hotel. I quickly called my manager, got the OK and then showered, packed, drank 2 beers and ran to the train station. I made it in time, so did Matt, Adam did not. So as he was running in and the train was pulling out we were already heading to the bar. We had 2 more beers, met up with one more guy that had an early flight out of Edinburgh and made the train an hour later. The train ride down was a 2.5 hour drunken affair where I had 4 more beers, by this point I was on my way to getting quite drunk.
We get off the train, drop bags at the hotel and hit the bar at the hotel while waiting for a taxi. A few shots and a few beers and lost count.
We tried to go to 3 sister's widely known to be the best bar in town... it closes at 1 am and we got there at closeing time. That is really the only time stamp I have for this story for a while.
We ended up at a bar downtown where the real trouble started. Some of this is my memories some of this was filled in by the people around me and the people i called.
I danced with a young girl grinding on me, and when I say young she did not look a day over 17, and was prolly younger than that. I went to the bathroom and then saw my buddy Matt at the bar. I decided running up behind him and chocking him would be fun. The bouncers did not like my idea and they kicked me out of the bar. I was by this point a very aggressive American being very drunk. Bad combo!!! I let the bouncers know that the guy I was chocking was my friend..... They did not care as all 3 of us were kicked out. Words were exchanged ( I wish I knew what I said, but alas i do not) I threw a 10 p coin at the girl bouncer and said something about how she could use the money. She said she was going to call the cops. I called her bluff. She was not bluffing. Cops came and said they wanted me to leave. I told them they don't even have guns and I can do what ever I want. They said they were going to arrest me, again I tried to call their bluff, but again they were not bluffing. I got slapped with handcuffs, put in the back of the paddy wagon and taken away......
On the ride to prison I decide that I better call my manager. Very bad decision at the time. I am not so drunk that I can't talk... another problem. I tell him to get me out.... another bad decision. I get to jail still arguing with the guards there. They take all of my things, make me sign some stuff, tell me I was taken in for assault take a really bad picture of me and put me in a cell.
I look for ways to escape, finding none I start banging on the wall, there are 3 cops in my cell. They are big. I decide that I can not run past all of them and quiet down. I go to sleep on a gym mat that is in the cell on a concrete step like thing holding the small blanket I was given on top of me. There is no pillow, but I manage to go to sleep somehow
I am woken up in the morning and given a roll, tea and black pudding for breakfast. I ditch the black pudding and eat the roll and drink the tea.
I ask if the guard can flush the toilet (I pushed the one button on the inside of my cell and it is not to flush the toilet apparently) and when i can leave. I have no watch, but I am incredibly board. What seems like a few hours pass. I am released but first they take a DNA swab of my mouth, and take fingerprints on a digital machine. I walk out of the jail, ask for a cab, call Matt and Adam. They are on their way to a pub. I meet them there and quickly get right back in the swing of things.

There will be more to come on the second day of drinking. Maybe a drunker day than the first, but I slept in a hotel instead which was much nicer.

Sorry for the delay. Second installment will be coming soon

Ricky

Finally get to start :-)

Well as the title says we may actually get to start today. The other logging company is in casing with their run so its about 5 hours until we get to go. Finally getting to do someting will be very exciting. Wow, I just re read that and its about the most boring thing I have ever read.
Ok I'll keep it short. far 3 people have done the survey. Some pretty good scores have been posted. Only 2 more people have to respond to get the leader board put up and correct answers shown.
Ok I'll leave it at that. Maybe the logging job will lead to some excitment
Sorry for the piss poor post, I will do better next time
Ricky