Dublin, Abu Dhabi and tennis
Hello all,
I know I've been doing a pretty poor job of this lately, and for that I apologize. I'm not going to make any excuses for it... I just hope that most of you haven't lost interest, although of late I certainly wouldn't blame you.
The past couple weeks have been very busy. I'll get work stuff out of the way first - finished my first project a little while back and got some good feedback for it. The object was to determine the best sensor layout for a leak detection system onboard an offshore oil platform. Basically the most probable leak sites are determined, and we model those leaks. The results show the size and relative hazard of the resulting gas clouds, based on prevailing wind conditions. Then we analyze the proposed leak detector layout, to see if they accurately detect the most hazardous leaks. If so, the layout is fine, if not, we recommend the addition of more (or more efficient) detection in the problematic locations. It's all very interesting. Now that that's finished, I'm moving onto another oil platform which is having difficulty with equipment overheating - we're trying to get to the bottom of that.
Just found out yesterday that I'll most likely be heading to Abu Dhabi (UAE) for a site visit in about a month. From what I gather, it's quite warm there this time of year, say 50C on a hot day? Luckily we will most likely be working through the nights to stay a) more or less out of the way and b) raw (as opposed to, say, medium-well). This is something that I'm really looking forward to. Opportunities to travel for this type of work are quite numerous it seems - this is not something I'd be able to do with a smaller company, that's for sure. The company has done LOTS of work in the middle east, some of the more high-profile being the burj and the Bahrain World Trade Centre. Neither of these are actually in Abu Dhabi but hopefully we can swing a visit since we'll be relatively close. Now don't worry about me, the UAE is a very stable place and besides Atkins won't send any employees to even moderately risky places. The only danger will be a wicked sunburn.
In my free time I've had quite a busy couple of weeks as well. Two weekends ago was the Queen's official birthday, which included an airshow. I tell ya, there's always something going on in the City. This I had no idea about until I thought to myself 'Gee, those planes sound awful low...'
Last Wednesday (a week ago already?) I took off to Dublin to meet up with Jon, my Master's supervisor. He was in Ireland for a conference, and was going to fly out of Dublin so we were able to meet up for a couple of days. I was able to take advantage of a cheapo fare (a whopping 1.49 pounds, one way) to go so it was pretty difficult to pass up.
Dublin was a ton of fun. Lots of friendly people, interesting sights... aw, who am I kidding... we went for the Guinness. And the Guinness did not disappoint. The brewery has a very well done self-guided tour which takes you through the process, history, and basically everything else to do with Guinness. You wind your way up through the building until, ultimately, you reach the 'SkyBar'... a glass-walled tasting room 7 or 8 stories up overlooking the city and the Irish Sea. Really nice views, as you can see.
Well after a LONG night Thursday
I had to catch an obscenely early flight back home on Friday morning. Of note: There are a bunch of wind turbines in the middle of the Irish Sea. You can see them from the plane. I hear a similar effort is underway in Lake Ontario... anyone heard of this?
On Saturday I went to Brighton, on the south coast of England, with a couple of other Canadians - Andrea, a friend from Queen's who now lives in North London, and Jo - who had been vacationing in London for a couple weeks. We were blessed with beautiful weather and it was all in all a fantastic day. The city is quite picturesque, complete with a very large pebble beach, a carnival pier, and you can see the White Cliffs (of Dover?) off in the distance, even though Dover is many miles away.
This week the tennis at Wimbledon started up. As a result, my normally serene neighbourhood has transformed into a bustling metropolis. We can see the stadium and hear the crowds from our balcony - if you watch the coverage you can likely see my flat when they do a wide overhead shot of the grounds. One night this week I'll have to queue for tickets. It'll probably be easier to get in this week than next.
Ok, that's it for tonight. I promise it won't be so long until my next update.
You guys have to keep me up on Leafs news. I hear we have a new goaltender. Thoughts on that?
Cheers all
Dan
I know I've been doing a pretty poor job of this lately, and for that I apologize. I'm not going to make any excuses for it... I just hope that most of you haven't lost interest, although of late I certainly wouldn't blame you.
The past couple weeks have been very busy. I'll get work stuff out of the way first - finished my first project a little while back and got some good feedback for it. The object was to determine the best sensor layout for a leak detection system onboard an offshore oil platform. Basically the most probable leak sites are determined, and we model those leaks. The results show the size and relative hazard of the resulting gas clouds, based on prevailing wind conditions. Then we analyze the proposed leak detector layout, to see if they accurately detect the most hazardous leaks. If so, the layout is fine, if not, we recommend the addition of more (or more efficient) detection in the problematic locations. It's all very interesting. Now that that's finished, I'm moving onto another oil platform which is having difficulty with equipment overheating - we're trying to get to the bottom of that.
Just found out yesterday that I'll most likely be heading to Abu Dhabi (UAE) for a site visit in about a month. From what I gather, it's quite warm there this time of year, say 50C on a hot day? Luckily we will most likely be working through the nights to stay a) more or less out of the way and b) raw (as opposed to, say, medium-well). This is something that I'm really looking forward to. Opportunities to travel for this type of work are quite numerous it seems - this is not something I'd be able to do with a smaller company, that's for sure. The company has done LOTS of work in the middle east, some of the more high-profile being the burj and the Bahrain World Trade Centre. Neither of these are actually in Abu Dhabi but hopefully we can swing a visit since we'll be relatively close. Now don't worry about me, the UAE is a very stable place and besides Atkins won't send any employees to even moderately risky places. The only danger will be a wicked sunburn.
In my free time I've had quite a busy couple of weeks as well. Two weekends ago was the Queen's official birthday, which included an airshow. I tell ya, there's always something going on in the City. This I had no idea about until I thought to myself 'Gee, those planes sound awful low...'
Last Wednesday (a week ago already?) I took off to Dublin to meet up with Jon, my Master's supervisor. He was in Ireland for a conference, and was going to fly out of Dublin so we were able to meet up for a couple of days. I was able to take advantage of a cheapo fare (a whopping 1.49 pounds, one way) to go so it was pretty difficult to pass up.
Dublin was a ton of fun. Lots of friendly people, interesting sights... aw, who am I kidding... we went for the Guinness. And the Guinness did not disappoint. The brewery has a very well done self-guided tour which takes you through the process, history, and basically everything else to do with Guinness. You wind your way up through the building until, ultimately, you reach the 'SkyBar'... a glass-walled tasting room 7 or 8 stories up overlooking the city and the Irish Sea. Really nice views, as you can see.
Well after a LONG night Thursday
I had to catch an obscenely early flight back home on Friday morning. Of note: There are a bunch of wind turbines in the middle of the Irish Sea. You can see them from the plane. I hear a similar effort is underway in Lake Ontario... anyone heard of this?
On Saturday I went to Brighton, on the south coast of England, with a couple of other Canadians - Andrea, a friend from Queen's who now lives in North London, and Jo - who had been vacationing in London for a couple weeks. We were blessed with beautiful weather and it was all in all a fantastic day. The city is quite picturesque, complete with a very large pebble beach, a carnival pier, and you can see the White Cliffs (of Dover?) off in the distance, even though Dover is many miles away.
This week the tennis at Wimbledon started up. As a result, my normally serene neighbourhood has transformed into a bustling metropolis. We can see the stadium and hear the crowds from our balcony - if you watch the coverage you can likely see my flat when they do a wide overhead shot of the grounds. One night this week I'll have to queue for tickets. It'll probably be easier to get in this week than next.
Ok, that's it for tonight. I promise it won't be so long until my next update.
You guys have to keep me up on Leafs news. I hear we have a new goaltender. Thoughts on that?
Cheers all
Dan
posted by Dan at 11:03 PM
4 Comments:
I must say you are a very good blogger.
I actually understood the explanation of what you are doing, and have been doing. Well done. I am so glad you are travelling around at every opportunity, and having seen aerial photos of Abu Dhabi, am excited for you...very neat.
Great to hear from you...keep up the good reporting. Life in the north woods seems so ho-hum now(like it ever wasn't)!
Dan, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog and dad and I got lots of laughs from it! You really do have a way with words!
Am excited for you in your upcoming trip! Keep us posted on this please!
You mentioned Jo in your blog...is that Joanna? Glad to hear that you are doing a bit more travelling about the island.
Re the Leafs, both Domi and Belfour's contracts have been bought out! It's about time! Belfour for sure is over the hill and the new style of hockey makes Domi obsolete.
All for now...time for bed....
Look for a blog from me tomorrow...
Mom
Love the information. Cousin Linda was here visiting so your news is wide-spread. We climbed a mountain a few days ago and ran into a couple of young guys from London. I told them about you living near the big pickle-they looked confused and then said: "You mean the gherkin???"
Oh well...
I can see how they would be confused... here 'pickle' is actually our relish! I can imagine them trying to figure out where the big jar of relish was!
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