MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
As above, working away in Baku, Azerbaijan on an 8 week stint. 2 weeks in. Missing Mrs Mugy, mini mugsy and micro mugsy like crazy. Living and working in the same apartment so a bit under house arrest.The work is a beaurecratic nightmare and lots of banging head against wall, and deling with a very corrupt ministry to try and get a drilling licence. The lads here go out on Sat night, and it's pretty much a case of fighting off the hookers in each place we go into.
I'm just feeling so homesick.....................
Right that's it. Self indulgent rant over. Sorry for wasting your time!
I feel for you... Ms Markie and myself are on the opposite side of the fence when Mrs Markie goes away (though I suspect her experiences in Edinburgh are somewhat different to yours in Baku!). We find Skype / FaceTime to be good - video messages sent by email and mms text messages (now free between ios5 devices) too. It doesn't stop her being homesick, or us from missing her, but it helps. She focuses on why she's doing the work and what it does for us as a family, and I do the same, plus try to explain it to Jr. Stay strong.
reminds me of a long boring feb & march I spent in Vasteras(ABB city). Rattling around as only person in a dismal lake side hotel playing endless games of pool against myself. A really dismal town in the depth of winter, evenings were spent running robot analysis routines arrrrrgggggh the boredom. Daytime spent measuring robot motion, cycle after cycle after cycle after cyle arrrrrrrrgggggggggh the boredom. So so homesick by the end.
You think you've got problems! I'm in Wales!
I once spent a year sitting in a portacabin just outside of Rotherham playing Solitaire... you've got it easy 🙂
brakes you'r eprob right, binners Wales is ok.
We have been skyping with the kids at tea time, but I'm knackered and distracted. BBC world news on the tv is getting very repetitive and I'm running out of books. A kindle starting to look a good idea!
I'll just grit teeth and think of the money that is going towards buying the house we are currently renting near Grenoble.
Goodnight all. Going to try and keep off the sauce this week, and take some time for me.
Binners ... How very dare you!
Wales is ace ... after all I live here 🙂
Yeah Binners so shut up just cos youse lost! 😡
I'll just grit teeth and think of the money that is going towards buying the house we are currently renting near Grenoble.
There you go. Every cloud and that. 🙂
And just think; most of the people where you are have to live there yet don't earn tidy sums of money. Always someone worse off than yerself and all that. Like those hookers...
Baku is beserk. Very rich and very poor. Lada's fighting with Land Cruisers etc. Not a good advert for the black gold if you ask me.
Earlier this year I did 3 tours of 6 weeks on 2 off in Mauritania. I was not so homesick there, mind you less bored and work was very technically interesting.
Clean slate tomorrow, it's a different day etc.
pictures so we can judge the drinking places 😉
^ +1 ^
mugsy
im in operations in the same industry
the only thing that gets me through my trips is the thought that ill be able to buy a house - and that im building a deposit at a rate that some of my mates can only dream of.
i skype alot and make phone calls alot not just to family but friends as well
a kindle is a great idea - i read alot of books on the kindle app on the ipad.
movies
do socialize in pubs etc but there are pubs where you dont need to fight off the gas cookers - its just that your workmates probably enjoy the eye candy and attention.
like when you were in mauritiania ive landed a good stint this time in holland but spent q3 and q4 working in equatorial guinea which sounds alot like baku - with no internet and no creature comforts due to the corruption coming into the country - no ipad ,only my work laptop (piece of crap with no games etc on) and i was doing 7 week on 1 week off trips there. its hard - you really need a goal to get you through it !
im looking at it as training atm for that office job in applications once i get fed up of the traveling !
do your company not have an office you can go to ? i found it important not to bring my work home with me even if i am doing very little at night ! otherwise it just felt like i was working 24/7
I don't think I have the right mentality for working away from home really. I'm moving to another country for work but home is coming with me so to speak. I had a chance to do a couple of very interesting contracts but decided that as they came up just after I got married, doing two stints of 5 months away in the first year was a bit shitty 🙂
I have to agree with Klunk I spent a month in winter time near Vasteras(ABB city) Sweden in a small village called Smedjebacken what a depressing place all the locals cant wait to get out of there.
headsup: Hmmm I'm an ICM in Az. WREP GI. What about you? We have guys out in Georgia too. On WREP and SCPX.
Cheers all.
What tyres for Baku? I am here for a few days now. I have been out here about ten times in the last 18 months for short stints and was maybe planning to bring out my bike for a long weekend. mugsys_m8, have you brought the bike over or is free time in short supply?
I worked in Turkmenistan for an extended period and also homesick for long periods. When I was there my life better when I drank less but also planed and cooked a meal for guests once a week. Hosting a meal gave a focus for meeting local people or colleagues alike. The reduced drinking meant that I was in a better frame of mind to speak to friends and family via Skype.