I just found what I wrote at the time intending to post it here. SO here is it a bit late but ....
Even though I had plans for Christmas and everybody knew about them, on December 22nd at 4:30pm as I was leaving the office I was told that the next morning, very early, I would have to go to the rig because my back-to-back thought that the next part of the operation would be too much work for him. I was quite angry about it, but I went. When I arrived at the rig I remembered why I like working rigs. Everybody said “Welcome back” and the working atmosphere was great. Ultimately it was great to go back to the offshore rig that I would have never seen again if it hadn’t been for my incredibly lazy and selfish back-to back.
All this was last minute and I had nearly finished with “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen so I took with me “the Light that Failed” by Rudyard Kipling, thinking that it was going to be a simple, light, probably written for kids, book. I should say that even the cover gives that impression. Now I know “Do not judge a book by its cover”, but cannot you trust a book by its author? I say this because it turned out to be quite a dark little book. I wanted to finish it and I did, but it had none of the qualities I was hoping for when I bought it. I am a great fan of “the just so stories” and particularly the story about the elephant child. In fact the story of the elephant child is the reason why my first trip in South Africa was to see the Limpopo. This book was totally different. I don’t want to say too much in case you want to read it but in general terms it is the story of a man who was an orphan and now is an artist who became famous after his illustrations of the war in get published in a London newspaper. Already the character himself is pretty dark, as his preferred subject matter suggests, but from once in London a succession of terrible circumstances make him even darker….and that is all I am going to say! About “Pride and Prejudice” so much as been written that I really do not think I need to add anything, so all I will say is:While reading “Pride and Prejudice” I wanted to write and speak in perfect English. She writes beautifully!
In a totally different style here are two photos of things which look beautiful to me. I took these during my December time at the rig.
