That's the catch phrase of living in Alberta.
Three days in the job and I think that I may like it. Well other than the fact that there is a wind chill warning out there, -44 C in the wind and you freeze in minutes. Well I might go out in the field tomorrow and all I am praying for is a nice comfortable run where I get bored to death sitting in the nice and warm truck.
Haven't had a chance to talk to any of the other people from NEST or OFS but I'll get around to it soon enough. I finally break though in the food and the pay departments. Tomorrow I get to see my first salary and tonite I stocked up on breadbuttereggs. I'll start off slowly in the cooking department, a few basic scrambled eggs and toasts, nothing more than mixing and heating initially, but I do plan to expand my kitchen during or after the school period. There's an Indian groceries store in Calgary and it is pretty well stocked up.
One thing that's most bothersome yet exciting is that you are surrounded by all these new people, an entirely different culture, whether it's India and abroad, thus a chance to start life afresh, mould it in a different style each time, explore a different facet and there is always something unique about it each time. Perhaps it is because I grew up in such an environment that I really like travelling, staying put at anyplace for longer than a couple of years, not my cup of tea. Well better turn in now or I'll be cursing myself in the morning. I just hope I don't get called to a job in the middle of the night... I won't be able to answer the phone!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
When does the night begin
I have always been a child of the night. I start feeling sleepy with the first rays of the sun and become more active as the night matures. Am I alone out here, I wonder, or are there others like me, nightrunners each lost in their own world, also thinking the same. Out there whiling away the time when we are at our best and handing over the reigns of the world to the weak that wander in the sunlight. I like this place, I really like it here. Here the sun lives a very short life everyday. Here the night's domain spreads far and wide, gripping the land in its cold, cold hands, here I am ALIVE
Friday, November 24, 2006
A short journey
Have you ever gazed into the distance and tried to imagine what wonders lie beyond your horizon, waiting for you to take a step forward and bring them within grasp, or as you go by fields and across streets, what might your life have been, had you been there instead of where you are right now. I did, and I also stepped out of the car to give reigns to my imagination and found out a hard, cold truth of life, There is a reason people use air-conditioners in Canada. Oh and if you ever get the feeling that wift of curiosity is slowly trying to entice the juvenile, youthful part of your brain, overpower it with a strong brew of common sense and a dash of cold air.
Oh yes I was in Canada, traing for my job, and today we did a fire prevention course with a hands on for extinguishing fires. When it's this cold out in the open, you want to warm up your hands by the fireside, not put it out!
One good thing about the hotel and the training centre, lots of hot chocolate! I go thorough almost 4-5 glasses each day and it is nice. Our instructor for the course, a guy a named Demo, is a pretty nice guy, we get 10 minutes break every hour and there is a TT table as well.
One more thing before I call it quits, tried seeing the movie 'DON' today, and was only able to sit thru it cause there were other prople for company. It sucked.
Oh yes I was in Canada, traing for my job, and today we did a fire prevention course with a hands on for extinguishing fires. When it's this cold out in the open, you want to warm up your hands by the fireside, not put it out!
One good thing about the hotel and the training centre, lots of hot chocolate! I go thorough almost 4-5 glasses each day and it is nice. Our instructor for the course, a guy a named Demo, is a pretty nice guy, we get 10 minutes break every hour and there is a TT table as well.
One more thing before I call it quits, tried seeing the movie 'DON' today, and was only able to sit thru it cause there were other prople for company. It sucked.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
October Snow
I'm in Airdrie, Canada and its -19 degrees outside, Oh yes, this is just the start of winter.
Since my last entry the year has been pretty eventful. First to come was my trip to Manali, in May, then a host of engagements and marriages in the family, me starting to learn french and finally a flight to Calgary to start off on my first job. Giving all the details now would be a bit too boring, so I'll slip them in every once in a while. Right now, I am undergoing training to survive my job as a field engineer in the oilfield services. The good news is that I am not alone and my colleagues are a real nice set of guys and gals, the bad news is the winter, or as the put it here, the slight 'chill' in the air. I hope to make regular entries from now on, so this blog will act as a record of the daily weather reports!
Oh and if you ever visit the place in winter, never try to pee by the road side, it freezes before it hits the ground..
Since my last entry the year has been pretty eventful. First to come was my trip to Manali, in May, then a host of engagements and marriages in the family, me starting to learn french and finally a flight to Calgary to start off on my first job. Giving all the details now would be a bit too boring, so I'll slip them in every once in a while. Right now, I am undergoing training to survive my job as a field engineer in the oilfield services. The good news is that I am not alone and my colleagues are a real nice set of guys and gals, the bad news is the winter, or as the put it here, the slight 'chill' in the air. I hope to make regular entries from now on, so this blog will act as a record of the daily weather reports!
Oh and if you ever visit the place in winter, never try to pee by the road side, it freezes before it hits the ground..
Friday, April 21, 2006
A semester gone
Apr. 17th, 2006 | 06:03 pm
Yesterday did not start like any other day, i got up at 730AM in the morning after a good night's sleep, and since i usually sleep during the day, I got to see the early morning sun after a really long time. The rest of the morning was spent making a project report, another very peculiar occurrence, as the deadline was miles away, and i got my first taste of lunch in about a month. Just describing the pleasure of being able to see all the contents of your plate clearly, brings tears to my eyes.
Well the evening draws near and the rest of my wingmates slowly emerge from their catacombs, their sleep chased away by a growling stomachs, so we head to PizzaHut, and surprise surprise, I'm so stuffed that I refuse FREE PIZZA! Well we head on the Cafe Coffee Day, I got a sudden urge to drink coffee, where we are joined by a few more of our nocturnal friends who had been dragged out of their rooms by an end semester examinations. Oh by the way I had mine starting the next day but the professor was a cool one, he was known to repeat the previous year's paper and never bugged anyone about attendance. He was a bit pissed of though due to our utter lack of interest in the course, well on to more important things, we were in CCD, drinking coffee, trying to ignore the crappy music playing in the background, when I see a really cute girl. Man did she have pretty grey eyes, and that's all there is to it, we paid the bill, made a few lame jokes and returned to base.
I spent a few hours watching "The Jewel Thief", I just love old hindi movies and this one is really good. By this time, quite a few of us who had exam the next day morning had gathered, and by 11 PM we felt that we'ed better start solving the previous year's paper, our hope to pass the course, resting on the benevolent prof. You always start feeling sleepy when you have to stay awake and I would have dozed of but for the entertainment that is ZOD, a guy in our wing, or more precisely, anti-wing, the anti-wing was created so that we are not counted in the same wing as that calamity. In his usual style he was able to get everyone mad at him, and after a few shouting matches, jeering booing and generaal activity on our part to irritate the guy, I had managed to shed off my sleep. The night was spent trying to cram the question answers, a desperate search for midnight and early morning snacks, and valiant efforts to concentrate on the subject atleast on this last day.
After a hearty breakfast we reach the exam hall early, the office in-charge is on friendly terms with us, so we get to seat ourselves just as we wish to, so we go and find adjacent seats. The prof enters the class at 930 AM today morning and he is smiling, that was the only warning we got. I receive the question paper before the others, one look and I know we are doomed, I make a quick motion with my hand drawing across my neck and I swear I could hear half the class choking and spluttering at the sign. Well what's done is done, we somehow manage to write something in the paper, its not that he din't repeat last year's paper, he did, and he repeated all the questions, but they just constituted half the question paper. I am still wondering whether he considers us such studs that he feels we can finish two papers in the same time interval, or was he trying to tell us something about attending classes.I am still wondering but my opinion is shifting towards the latter. He won't fail us, and most probably we'll get pretty decent grades, but I guess the Profs. too like to have fun once in a while.
So we mourn and cry our way back to the hostels and I have my second lunch, man I might get addicted to it if this goes on for too long. Now comes the time when we gotta submit the report I mentioned earlier, everyone is running around to see if the other guy has completed his, but me, I'm cool, "snigger snigger", the poor bastards! I take pity on them and release my report to the general public, after extracting promises that they will at least change the formatting before submission, I submit mine. Its 3PM and I am in the department with my ex-roommate, trying to decide whether to go back to the hostel and finally get some sleep, or go outside and get something to eat. It is a rare day when good sense prevails, so we head outside. The scorching heat decides our menu for us. We first take a glass of juice each and then on a whim both of us take half a liter of Ice-cream. We start walking back towards our hostel with our ice cream buckets very sure that they'll last the whole way, but I guess such estimates are never right. We finish up less then half the way back and are left hungering for more, luckily right at that moment another fellow prisoner is seen coming back after submitting the report, and he has a bike!
The three of us drive to his hostel, a bit of timepass and we push off homeward bound. We trudge our way back to our rooms in a state of partial unconsciousness, and then the computer beckons, sleep once again goes on the back burner and I end up writing this journal entry. I have to get a few hours of sleep, after all night is just a few hours away and as I said earlier, I seldom sleep at night.
Well the evening draws near and the rest of my wingmates slowly emerge from their catacombs, their sleep chased away by a growling stomachs, so we head to PizzaHut, and surprise surprise, I'm so stuffed that I refuse FREE PIZZA! Well we head on the Cafe Coffee Day, I got a sudden urge to drink coffee, where we are joined by a few more of our nocturnal friends who had been dragged out of their rooms by an end semester examinations. Oh by the way I had mine starting the next day but the professor was a cool one, he was known to repeat the previous year's paper and never bugged anyone about attendance. He was a bit pissed of though due to our utter lack of interest in the course, well on to more important things, we were in CCD, drinking coffee, trying to ignore the crappy music playing in the background, when I see a really cute girl. Man did she have pretty grey eyes, and that's all there is to it, we paid the bill, made a few lame jokes and returned to base.
I spent a few hours watching "The Jewel Thief", I just love old hindi movies and this one is really good. By this time, quite a few of us who had exam the next day morning had gathered, and by 11 PM we felt that we'ed better start solving the previous year's paper, our hope to pass the course, resting on the benevolent prof. You always start feeling sleepy when you have to stay awake and I would have dozed of but for the entertainment that is ZOD, a guy in our wing, or more precisely, anti-wing, the anti-wing was created so that we are not counted in the same wing as that calamity. In his usual style he was able to get everyone mad at him, and after a few shouting matches, jeering booing and generaal activity on our part to irritate the guy, I had managed to shed off my sleep. The night was spent trying to cram the question answers, a desperate search for midnight and early morning snacks, and valiant efforts to concentrate on the subject atleast on this last day.
After a hearty breakfast we reach the exam hall early, the office in-charge is on friendly terms with us, so we get to seat ourselves just as we wish to, so we go and find adjacent seats. The prof enters the class at 930 AM today morning and he is smiling, that was the only warning we got. I receive the question paper before the others, one look and I know we are doomed, I make a quick motion with my hand drawing across my neck and I swear I could hear half the class choking and spluttering at the sign. Well what's done is done, we somehow manage to write something in the paper, its not that he din't repeat last year's paper, he did, and he repeated all the questions, but they just constituted half the question paper. I am still wondering whether he considers us such studs that he feels we can finish two papers in the same time interval, or was he trying to tell us something about attending classes.I am still wondering but my opinion is shifting towards the latter. He won't fail us, and most probably we'll get pretty decent grades, but I guess the Profs. too like to have fun once in a while.
So we mourn and cry our way back to the hostels and I have my second lunch, man I might get addicted to it if this goes on for too long. Now comes the time when we gotta submit the report I mentioned earlier, everyone is running around to see if the other guy has completed his, but me, I'm cool, "snigger snigger", the poor bastards! I take pity on them and release my report to the general public, after extracting promises that they will at least change the formatting before submission, I submit mine. Its 3PM and I am in the department with my ex-roommate, trying to decide whether to go back to the hostel and finally get some sleep, or go outside and get something to eat. It is a rare day when good sense prevails, so we head outside. The scorching heat decides our menu for us. We first take a glass of juice each and then on a whim both of us take half a liter of Ice-cream. We start walking back towards our hostel with our ice cream buckets very sure that they'll last the whole way, but I guess such estimates are never right. We finish up less then half the way back and are left hungering for more, luckily right at that moment another fellow prisoner is seen coming back after submitting the report, and he has a bike!
The three of us drive to his hostel, a bit of timepass and we push off homeward bound. We trudge our way back to our rooms in a state of partial unconsciousness, and then the computer beckons, sleep once again goes on the back burner and I end up writing this journal entry. I have to get a few hours of sleep, after all night is just a few hours away and as I said earlier, I seldom sleep at night.
the first id
Nov. 23rd, 2005 | 01:57 am
The day started off just fine... I had just removed myself from in front of the computer and was headed for breakfast. I was a bit grumpy. That's a given, considering I had stayed up all night reading a novel. I had to climb down seven stories ( the lift never works when I am awake in the morning) and that did nothing to improve my mood. A good breakfast might have made things better, but a sudden realization of an impending end semester exam in the afternoon sent me flying back up to the roost.Six hours of last minute mugging and three hours of downright torture led me straight to my bed without any food. Well, I'm up now and the good news is, no one fared any better than I did, but my life is never so straightforward to allow a good turn to pass by unaccompanied! I have another one of those exams tomorrow and this time I have started studying, but I have another unread novel in front of me and its just a matter of time before yield.
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