hey Petrofac this is engineering, let large, bespoke, not just a pile of pipes and pressurised containers joined together that you have so much trouble getting together.…
Where the gas pipeline re-enters the sea after its short land crossing from the Laggan-Tormore field via the gas plant whose infrastructure we are attempting to build despite our client’s gross incompetence at managing anything that’s not metal !!
Well here’s real metal engineering, the world’s biggest pipe laying barge, starting work on a 243 km pipeline to St Fergus.
Oil and gas stuff can make you stand back and admire, then they get involved in ground works, get lost, stay away you nodding donkeys cant, wont understand no matter how much money you throw at it via consultants.…
In Shetland we live in an purpose built accommodation block, a polecat has been seen by various people who have reported the sightings to me of a polecat living underneath our new building. One sighting was of the polecat dragging a rabbit underneath the building. My Brother found a dead polecat on the road near our Sella Ness camp, On the Sunday equinox I was delayed as I forgot to forward my alarm, so on exiting the camp 1 hour late my brother had a surprise in the van, a dead polecat. We put the polecat back near where it …
Feb 20th by Ian under Materials and Construction, Miscellaneous
Whilst on rota leave I was listening to radio Scotland’s call Kaye, the subject was the nurses as angels, the carers or have they gone too far with academic pursuance. I do have some opinion on that but the thought struck me about the ability to monitor everything via computers. So are we actually slaves to the computer as it can accumulate all and every piece of data and “analysis” it. This thought was sponsored by the nurses having so much paper/input work that patients can become “not the customer”, the system is driven by feedback usually for costs and …
Feb 18th by Ian under Materials and Construction
Being from the mainland, there is a strange to me, drinking behaviour. It is hiring a bus for a party, birthday, anniversary, just being a weekend day !! and going around several pubs. Its a lot like going round the halls for the squads at Up Helly A’s. So there we were in the Welcome Inn in Mossbank, our get a few pints haunt, and it was flooded by this party. I have no idea what it was for or why it was fancy dress, but given some tempting shots I had the camera out of the pocket and took …
Nov 6th by Ian under Materials and Construction
Tags: doc control, oil and gas QA/QC, QA, SGP
Being used to the role of principal contractor,then being a sub-contractor needs a mindset change, that comes through the contract and the impositions necessarily put on you. The Shetlands Gas Plant (SGP) Laggan-Tormore had a bigger surprise waiting, lurking menacingly, unseen, unexpected in the Totality of it’s monstrous dimensions – documents for QA. The whole team have no experience of the level of documentation required, I guess we are somewhat spoiled in transportation where the client has the testing required tabulated and “bare” appendices for designers to complete, from this I in the past have complied many test and inspection …
Oct 8th by Ian under Materials and Construction, Travels, my Friends travels
Tags: shetland sunsets
First tour of 18 days on and 9 days off which includes two travel days. No time off in 18 days, except to watch some morning rugby, where we played well but lost to the old enemy. Surprisingly I got used to the work cycle, working weekends well what else was I to do? well could have taken some more pictures, these sunsets were from the same place on different nights, luckily I had transport so could chase the sun to the west when it looked promising. I have to say I have about 20 really good shots and was …
May 19th by Ian under Materials and Construction
Tags: how to fail, TIE and no trams, vote them out
http://www.tie.ltd.uk/tie_key.html
click on the above to see the key personnel, well minus Mr Jeffrey, who bailed out today. The city of Edinburgh council have gagged the successful contractor Bilfinger Berger, so we will all receive a one sided account, and furthermore TIE have spent 80% of the budgeted sum and are now considering whether to continue with the project or not.
WHAT A BLOOMING SCANDAL
The Burghers of Edinburgh should be more reactionary and bringing those councillors who voted for this obviously ill thought out scheme to account. At the very least all those who voted for approval of this …
Apr 1st by Ian under Bird Watching, Materials and Construction
Behind our offices is waste land. Not covered in waste, just not fully usable by humans. It has an old railway and a few paths through it, I should say it is flat and boggy, not peat boggy just very wet silty clay boggy. However like much, left alone to nature land, every spare square metre has nature, being a birder I have taken much delight in listening and watching whitethroats in this favourable, to them, habitat. Last week as I wandered to the snack van to buy bacon rolls I heard my first chiffchaff of 2011. A few days …
Mar 21st by Ian under Materials and Construction
contract not signed yet but hey, use the link
http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/news/Forth-Replacement-Crossing-preferred-bidder-announced
well done to all the bidding team and thanks for the celebratory lunch today. The proper one will be a double hog roast near 24 Ravelston terrace !…
Jan 30th by Ian under Materials and Construction, Miscellaneous
http://trustart.org/projects/109-bamboo-bikes
This caught my attention during the week, this is entrepreneurial Americans at their best. I am no lover of America or Americans but this project is just superb. Now we need bamboo towers that when properly anchored can support a turbine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8257153.stm
see above link if you think I was dreaming.
Everything is possible
If the “system” allows…
Jan 2nd by Ian under Materials and Construction
http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com
I have been visiting this site for years and found it useful, it occurs to me belatedly that I should share it with you. That is those of you not erudite enough to have found it. Particularly you divots that continue to call blacktop /asphalt concrete, —-TAR. Click on the site and learn. If you have used the word TAR out of context in 2010 then I give you a resolution, stop your sloppy language and be precise. It can only help you go further professionally and stop me metaphorically belting the back of your heids.…
Well if it is I would like you to listen to the link below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00c4pmk/The_Climate_Connection_The_Climate_Connection_2010_Debate_Whats_Stopping_Us…
Dec 3rd by Ian under Materials and Construction
What can you buy for 20p a kilo? well pine cones, with global 24/7 news you kinda feel you can grasp what’s going on. Well I never knew this and I never even thought about it.
What?
The hand collection of pine cones from Georgia whose seeds are the stock of the Nordman firs we buy as Christmas trees at about £40. This is pure exploitation of subsistence farmers who risk their lives 40 to 50 metres up trees collecting cones for a seed base. Their exploitation is made easier by their communist past, their former world was controlled by …
You would expect, if you lied on a post or your observations on a company or institution were way off the mark that said companies or institutions would take some legal action against you or at least robustly comment on the maligning words. Well given the recent reaction to one of my posts, some people are as sensitive as adolescent school girls.  It surely must be wrong to associate a personal post on a personal blog to the persons employer and apply pressure regarding one’s personal opinions. So here we are in Scottish / Burmese state where words must be constrained, not because they are wrong, …