Sakhalin Sokoli

Anyone who knows me knows that I've never really been a big fan of football. I like to watch the big games and world cups and the like manage to stir up a little bit of patriotism in me, but other than that I'm not really a big fan. However, we manage to pull together a team of enthusiastic guys at work for a weekly kick around in the local park (Westbroekpark in Den Haag is our training ground) during the summer time when the evenings are a little longer.

Given that there's only 70-80 employees in our office and that less then half this number are in any sort of condition to do hard physical exercise, we still manage to pull together a full squad of players. To test our competitiveness, we organised a friendly game the other week against another local expat team that play at the Den Haag PGS Vogels club. We were a little daunted when we arrived at their ground the other week... they have their own proper pitch along with a clubhouse and several professional changing rooms. The club hosts about nine men's teams (along with a couple of women's) and we thought we were pitching up to play their nineth team. However, it turned out that we were playing twoof their teams, the first in the first half and the second in the second half. This wasn't really fair, since it meant that we'd be playing a totally fresh team in the second half, plus this was our first full time game on a full size pitch.

So it came as no suprise that we lost 4-1. However, we put up some good opposition, taking the first goal with a penalty and holding the first team to 1-1 in the first half. Towards the end of the second half we were exhausted and inevitably let in two late goals. But we were proud of our performance, as were our opposition who have subsequently offered to allow us to utilise their pitch for future games against third party opposition! Or maybe that had more to do with our generosity in the clubhouse after the game?

Anyway, above is a picture of me playing down the left wing and below is a team picture before the match. I went for run yesterday and was suprised at my performance... seems the social football is having a positive effect on my health as well as being a pleasant way of spending one evening per week.

Back by popular demand

We never meant to leave you for this long, dear readers, our only excuse is that we have been very busy. Busy living the adventures that this blog is named after and so little time to write about them. But of course, a blog requires commitment and requests for updates have been steadily pooring in. This one is especially for Kata and Pobb!

Enough to write about: a wedding, another wedding, a trip to London, meeting old friends, making new friends, writing my thesis, trying to finish the house, but mostly working and working some more. Both Jonny and I have been making long hours at work. I work for a publishing company and we are about to launch the Netherlands' first free special interest newspaper. Next month. And there is still a lot of work to do.

It is a new thing for the company and a new thing for me. And apart from actually launching the product, our department is also to set the example for the future way projects are managed. Last week we were kindly invited to have lunch with the CEO and discuss progress. To put that in context, I have around 3500 colleagues. With expectations cranked up as high as the volume knob will go, I have to say I did feel a little intimidated.

I do think that we managed to convince him that all preparations are going according to plan and that next month there will actually be a product that we can be proud of. So there you go. We just need to do it now.

My first Christmas hamper

When I was little, my dad used to get a Christmas hamper from work. On the day he brought it home, I eagerly waited for him, excited with anticipation.

He was always sweet enough to let me, the youngest child, help him unwrap the package and scrutinize the contents. The box of After Eight! The jar of paté! The Christmas napkins! Regardless of the contents always being sort of predictable, I thought it was so much fun!

Now I am all grown-up (well, sort of) and today I got my first very own Christmas hamper. Not bad after only a week at my new job! It was good fun opening it, but the contents remain unopened for the time being. Our stomachs are still a bit feeble after the mussel adventure...

You gotta move!

Today was my first day as project manager/assistant editor in chief/publishing manager at a publishing company. They are in the middle of a big reorganisation at the moment so most job titles are currently being reviewed. I am going to help them out with a few different projects in the next four to six months.

I spent half a day at a nice country estate discussing the launch of a new product. A very good way to meet a few of my new colleagues and get back in the work pace. There is a lot of work to be done so they were happy to have me aboard. And I am looking forward to starting properly soon!

Travels in the Sea of Okhotsk

Most people wonder what the hell I get up to on my adventures away from home, so I thought I’d write a quick post to give a snapshot of a day in the life of a well engineer (plus I had my camera so was able to take a few pictures to illustrate).

Yesterday was a long day of travel. At around 10am I left my temporary home 16km off the coast of Sakhalin island in the sea of Okhotsk, where I’d been living on a man made island of steel and sand called the Molikpaq. I was transported onto a crew boat via a special basket that is lifted from the deck of the platform onto the deck of the boat via one of the platform’s cranes; if you look closely at the picture below you can just about make it out on the right of the picture as a small yellow pyramid shaped object. Fortunately, it’s not too cold this time of the year, but I still had to wear a thickly padded orange survival suit to protect me from the cold wind and from the icy water should an accident occur and I fell into the sea. The basket is hanging about 30 meters above sea level, so it’s quite a fall is something goes wrong, but fortunately i was safely strapped in.


It takes about four hours for the boat to navigate from the platform to the nearest port, but on the way we stopped off at another vessel called the Jaya Installer 5 to pick up some more passengers. This vessel is a floating hotel with accommodation for about 300 people. It carries out support work for the installation of offshore platforms and is currently carrying out welding operations for Exxon oil company (who operate a similar platform out here called the Orlan).

I spoke to one of the departing passengers and he informed me that the welders are currently working on a pipeline. It’s a tough job, since the divers spend two weeks in a pressurised environment. To weld underwater, they construct a tent on the seabed, approximately 30 meters beneath the surface. After a 12 hour shift, they return to the surface, but have to stay in a small pressured tank to prevent decompression problems. This way, they only have to compress and decompress once during their hitch; they compress when they start and then at then once at the end of their two-week hitch they decompress to re-join the rest of the world. Spending this much time in such a claustrophobic environment would send most people insane!

There’s not an awful lot to see on the way except for an occasional seagull following the wake of the boat looking for food.

The end of the sea journey is marked with the arrival at the port of… (sorry, I'm crap at remembering names, particularly Russian ones) a battered, bleak, run down little port with signs that it was once a major oil export terminal judging by the numerous rusty old oil depots littering its perimeter.


After saying farewell to the crew boat (I’ve never been a big fan of crew boats after being forced to endure three days on one, unable to disembark due to rough sea conditions… I lost about 5kg in weight during those three days and earned the nickname “the jolly green giant” on account of the change in colour of my complexion), so I was not sad to be back on terra firma.

Here’s a picture of the crew boat. Mine was the one in the background, affectionately named “Miss Sybil”. The one in the foreground was similarly named “Miss Vickie”, perhaps after an old college friend of mine who coincidentally is now a teacher, so shares the “Miss” prefix also. Life’s full of coincidences (if you look for them).

After a quick stop over at a base camp in Nogliki (a sterile, characterless place, also enough to send one insane if having to spend anything length of time there) to pick up my passport (never get caught in Russia without your passport!), it was off to the train station to catch the overnight train back to Yuzhno.

Similar to the port, the train station appears to have seen better days, since, as is the fashion in this part of the world, machinery that has come to the end of its useful life is left to unceremoniously rot away in an open grave. At least these abandoned train carriages are now being utilised by a young family of dogs, who have sensibly chosen the less decrepit of the two carriages to be their home.


No expenses are spared on the train travel, as we are treated to relative luxury having our own carriage with 4 berth sleeper cabins. Fortunately, I’ve only ever had to share a cabin with one other person, which is actually a blessing since it gives the opportunity for some human contact on what is otherwise a very lonely experience.

This time, I shared my cabin with a local inhabitant of Yuzhno, who gave me an insight into the way of life in the area. Despite their somber appearance, Russians have an inherent sense of good humor; they are very aware that they live in a tough environment, but are very tolerant and accepting of it and are content just to survive.

As Flo has taken to point out recently, we live in a generation where we expect an awful lot out of life, like it’s our birthright. It’s not until I return to relative civilization back at my hotel when I realize how lucky I am to be able to call my loved ones and catch up life back at home with a half our chat with my wife.

Where's Jonny?

In case anyone's wondering why I've not been posting with my usual fevor, it's because I'm currently stuck out here.


This picture is a bit exagerated... it's not frozen up at the moment, but there's not many pictures of this place on the internet, so this will have to do. The place has also grown a bit since this picture was taken too... it grows rather organically this place, sprouting lumps and bumps all over and walking around inside it is like walking through the insides of huge monster. I'll see if I can get a nicer picture of it as I leave tomorrow.

If you're wondering where this thing is, you can read a bit about it here. I've only spent a couple of nights out here, heading back tomorrow... 4 hours in a boat followed by 15 hours on a train to get to back to town.

Meanwhile, Flo's left at home, sorting out bills, painters, builders, plumbers etc and dealing with our recent set-back all on her own (well, physically at least, since I often think about her). I think I've actually got the easy option in comparison... so sorry Flo! Promise I'll make it up to you when I'm back! I do appreciate all the hard work that you're doing, I hate not being there with you and most importantly, I love you very much!

What is Flo doing with her time?

I have now officially been a SAHW for a month and I am not bored yet. A bit of a shame, since I read yesterday that being bored and doing nothing sometimes is good. Apparently it gives the mind a chance to recuperate from the thousands of impressions that we get every day and helps to find the deeper purpose of life (link to the Dutch article here).

What I keep myself busy with? Things like meeting my friends for lunch, flogging the contents of my wardrobe on Marktplaats, amusing Jonny with my acrobatic skills, getting colour swatches for the new house and cooking natural meals. Basically I have three job titles at the moment: project manager 'building, moving and decorating', domestic goddess and part-time student brand management (and yes, the thesis is coming along fine thanks). Oh and we are preparing ourselves for the next round of IVF-ICSI.

The preparation involves healthy natural food and ridiculously expensive supplements. Good nutrition is vital in preparation for IVF to support the body's ability for developing and growing eggs, building the lining of the womb, helping with the healing after the retrieval of the eggs and for the implantation of the embryo. In order to get not too worked up about our food, we are following the 80/20 rule, being health-conscious about what we eat 80% of the time.

The possible stress that I get from finding all the right ingredients for our dinners I reduce by abdominal massage and acupuncture. Abdominal massage detoxifies and strengthens the lower abdomen and improves the blood flow. Acupuncture before and during the IVF-treatment helps to balance the body and grow follicles. A German study shows that acupuncture might increase the chances of a full term pregnancy.

So if (anything in) the treatment goes wrong, at least we know it's not in the preparation. And the healthy living makes us feel good, which is a major bonus!

We have an appointment in the hospital next Wednesday. This is a couple of days before we are supposed to start the treatment again, so they can check if my body is ready for another go. This appointment is at my request, since I felt I'd rather know that we cannot start yet, than psyching ourselves up for the treatment, start injections to only then be told that the best time has not come yet. Best spannend dus!

Career change

As some of you may be aware, Flo is currently taking a time out of her career to concentrate on other things. However, this doesn't mean that she's resting on her lorals, since as you can see from this short video above, she's been training hard on her auditioning act to join the Nederlandse Vrouwen Sociale Circus!