Thread: Post a photo you took yourself

Originally Posted by Shutree

This is how it starts, an apple crumble here, a plumped pillow with chocolate there and before you know it you're building a house in Batangas.

@mendip - just remember that if you do build a house in Batangas, the land is still hers.

I've watched some vlogs of Filipino workers on ships, just as a curiosity. I have neighbours who are seafarers, as well as colleagues whose husbands are (or dads were) seafarers. Respect!!!

I've also been on the passport control lane wherein the person before me was a stewardess on a ship. She was on video call with her husband and small kid. I could see that she was a bit teary eyed but she controlled herself. This was before they put separate OFW lanes at the airport in PH.

I've only been in overnight ferries (inter-island) and by the next morning, I'm itching to get on land. It's good that now, there's wifi & techonology to keep in touch with family/ loved ones.

Katie, my days of building houses in SE Asia are over, I'm afraid!

You would have thought that Wifi would enable keeping in touch, but the bandwidth we get allotted on this boat isn't enough to open an email. When I'm off shift I can see that I've got a mail in my inbox on my phone but have to wait until I get on shift to actually open it on my pc. Even off the northern coast of Norway the 4G is more powerful than our Wifi.

Anyway, this is the Melkøya LNG Terminal at the northern tip of Norway... we're working on a gas pipeline route for a new development in the Barents Sea. LNG is carried away from the terminal by tankers. The Norwegians aren't wasting any time in increasing their gas output.



We have 40knt winds, zero degrees, sleet and 6 metre waves offshore which is why we're currently working in sheltered waters. The Norwegians get tax incentives to work up here... it's absolutely awful. I'll never again complain about Korat... until I've been home for a couple of days.

“ I'll never again complain about Korat... until I've been home for a couple of days.“


I love your honesty!

^^Beautiful offshore night shots

A very unusual sunset tonight

Sky turned lilac overhead but the horizon where the sun had just disappeared went greeny blue

Then the lilac turned dark purple and the horizon went orange about 20 minutes after sunset...

Or maybe I was suffering a minor stroke

Nice sunset Looper.

Get Miss Lusty Luzon to stick her thumb up yer starfish. If your resulting smile is a bit droopy on the left side then you may well have suffered a minor stroke in which case take an Aspirin and get yerself down to A&E pronto.

Anyway, we finished our work in the Barents Sea and on Saturday departed for warmer climes to the south. We're heading for Bergen... and the distance between Hammerfest down to Bergen is the same as Bergen down to Portugal. It makes you think.

The weather has been atrocious so we've taken a route between the many islands where possible to find sheltered waters.

A few pics from our journey.





Some idyllic looking waterside properties... although the photo doesn't really show the gale force wind and freezing temperatures. If they're lucky, these people may get to enjoy 10 degrees for a few days in June for their 'summer'.



We ended up sailing directly through a huge NATO exercise around the Bodø area. The exercise, called 'Cold Response', was apparently planned before the Russian invasion of Ukraine but if things did escalate northern Norway would be a very strategic location.

A couple of NATO vessels...






Sadly the awful weather claimed the lives of four American marines.


Four dead after US military plane crashes in Norway



The aircraft, which belonged to the US Marine Corps, was taking part in a Nato exercise when it came down on Friday.

It crashed in a remote region of Norway, south of the town of Bodo, and helicopters were unable to land at the site due to bad weather.

But search teams used snowmobiles to reach the scene of the crash in the early hours of Saturday.

"It is regrettably confirmed that all four on board the plane have perished," local police said in a statement, adding that the victims were all US nationals.

An investigation into the cause of the accident was paused due to bad weather, but police said it would resume once the weather improves.

The MV-22B Osprey aircraft was taking part in a Nato exercise known as Cold Response, which is designed to prepare members of the defensive alliance to protect Norway.
It involves some 30,000 troops from 27 member countries.

Four dead after US military plane crashes in Norway - BBC News

US Marines identify four dead in Norway plane crash - BBC News


We continued southwards...



The Seven Sisters at Sandnessjøen, famous in Norsk mythology. (although I make it six)



And this 'Mountain with a hole in' at Brønnøy, called 'Torghatten'... also famous in Norsk legend.



And that's it. Bergen for a crew change tomorrow and then two weeks at sea with nothing to look at apart from the horizon.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Get Miss Lusty Luzon to stick her thumb up yer starfish. If your resulting smile is a bit droopy on the left side then you may well have suffered a minor stroke in which case take an Aspirin and get yerself down to A&E pronto.

Quality advice. From experience on the boats?

Originally Posted by Mendip

Some idyllic looking waterside properties... although the photo doesn't really show the gale force wind and freezing temperatures.

Some striking scenery there. I don't think I'll be rushing to book my next short break there though. I prefer warmer climes. That said, Isan is no place to be right now, getting hotter and quite a bit of rain recently so it is humid too.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Four dead after US military plane crashes in Norway

Those Ospreys are a bit of a nightmare, i'm surprised they haven't retired them. RIP

Recently I have seen increasing numbers of deceased snakes along the morning walk. This was a Red-tailed pipe snake. They are small, nocturnal and mostly black, so unless you crawl around in the undergrowth at night you're unlikely to spot one alive. Which is a shame because when threatened, I have read, they can raise and flatten their tails to look like baby cobras, which would be interesting to see.



Also an Indochinese rat snake. It didn't look particularly squashed but there it was, motionless, on the verge.

Easier than taking photos of birds!

Originally Posted by Mendip

Easier than taking photos of birds!

In future I might just kill things first.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Get Miss Lusty Luzon to stick her thumb up yer starfish

Sadly Miss Lusty Luzon will not be sticking her thumb up my bum in day soon Mendip

She saw Miss Mindanao's discarded panty liners in the bathroom bucket and all bottom bets are off

That makes me sad as I don't like things coming to a sticky end

But I blame Katie for egging me on to reach out to Miss Mindy on Christmas Eve, so my conscience is clear and there it is

And then to top it all Miss Mindy has gone and got herself a new job north of Brisbo so she will be leaving me on my lonesome to rue the error of my ways and reflect on another love lost

Anyway back on topic and those Arctic snaps make me envy your wandering ways. No doubt the work is hard but you are racking up some great travel along the way.

Brilliant full moon.


I got a new toy to cheer myself up. A fook off commercial grade 43cc 2-stroke weed whacker.

Fook that puny 18v chinko shit off.

I had a go on it tonight. What a fookin ripper. Looking forward to some hard yakka.

Noisy fookers , you got some air defenders?

^^ Have you got a brush cutter attachment for that?

Originally Posted by Looper

Sadly Miss Lusty Luzon will not be sticking her thumb up my bum in day soon Mendip

She saw Miss Mindanao's discarded panty liners in the bathroom bucket and all bottom bets are off

Rookie mistake, always change the sheets, towels and empty all bins between visits.

^Especially the pillow cases, I don't know how they can tell their own 18 inch long black hair from anyone else's but their will be baseless accusations in my experience.

Originally Posted by Joe 90

Noisy fookers , you got some air defenders?

And a helmet with visor? Or industrial goggles. A man lving along our lane lost an eye last year while weed whacking.

Originally Posted by Headworx

^Especially the pillow cases, I don't know how they can tell their own 18 inch long black hair from anyone else's but their will be baseless accusations in my experience.

Not necessarily baseless, in my experience.

Miss Shanghai checked down the sides of the sofa and found a hair that was probably Miss Chongqing's, although others also passed that way.
I blamed it on the neighbour Miss Macau. Shanghai had befriended Macau so that she had a source of intelligence whilst back in Shanghai. Macau was lonely and popped over in her dressing gown occasionally for a coffee on the sofa. I had to keep that platonic so that Shanghai received only good news and the third party hair story fitted the known facts.
I also had a Filipina maid who came in once a week so she could be blamed if a random hair was found on the bathroom floor. Happy days.

^Well the one lesson from all of this is deny, deny, deny. Even if you're innocent, deny that too. Deny everything.

Follow me for more relationship advice.

^^ What a complicated life you have led Shutree! I was confused only half way through reading that lot.

A friend of mine once told me that if ever you were to gift a companion a duty free bottle of perfume, to always buy the same brand as your wife uses. Wives can detect a different brand of perfume on your shirt from a hundred paces, upwind in a gale force wind, apparently.

Originally Posted by Headworx

^Especially the pillow cases, I don't know how they can tell their own 18 inch long black hair from anyone else's but their will be baseless accusations in my experience.

Different hair textures. When I was younger, I could tell whether the hair on the floor was mine or my sister's (we shared a room). My hair strands are thicker & blacker, hers are thinner and browner. I have the same hair texture as my mom. We don't know from which relative sis got her hair from, since my dad has a different hair type too (thick & wavy).

And yes, we know when something fishy is going on.

Edit: seems that Looper has a complicated love life too. There's Ms Lusty Luzon, Ms Mindanao, Ms Petite Thai, Ms Africa. There was also a Ms. Korea (the one with the high heels, I think.)

Originally Posted by Shutree

Or industrial goggles. A man lving along our lane lost an eye last year while weed whacking.

I had already walked all the way to the front gate (this fooker is too heavy to carry on the scooter) before I remembered that I had forgotten my goggles.

I was whipping away sans goggles when after 20 minutes I got struck in the chest by a high velocity organic projectile. I thought 'that was powerful and could have done some damage to an eye' but I soldiered on anyway until after 40 minutes I was struck a stinging blow on the upper lip by another stray missile.

I took this as a sign from His Holiness God Almighty that I should head back and don the appropriate safety gear.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

^^ Have you got a brush cutter attachment for that?

This return to the house gave me an opportunity to swap out the head and try the brush cuttter clearing blade.

It is well powerful. I have not tested it to the limit yet but the omens are good.

Originally Posted by katie23

Ms. Korea

I am worried about KLF. Her inbox has been bouncing for months after she sounded stressed by the 'Rona on her ER ward

Originally Posted by katie23

Ms Mindanao

I am down with the concept of the Ms thing from a political perspective. But I cannot really get on board with the 'z' sound from an aesthetic perspective.

It just sounds so ugly. Can you ever imagine it being used in a poem? Could they not pronounce it the same as Miss since it has an 's' ?

How about 'Mss' as a new politically neutral epithet with a soft feminine non-buzzing sonorance.

Originally Posted by Looper

This return to the house gave me an opportunity to swap out the head and try the brush cuttter clearing blade.

You also need one of these for the saplings

There's a school of thought that says Norwegian television is the worst in the world... even worse than Thai.

But I don't go with that. Yesterday I witnessed the thrilling sport of Precision Fly Casting.

I'm an avid fisherman and back when I was still alive I used to love fly fishing. The Norwegians share my passion and will watch this for hours on end.

Nice back cast...



And forward cast...



Lucky... just inside the '5' bullseye zone!



Vidar Sælsøen from Kristiansand was unstoppable. I'd love to have a pint with him one day.

Theres fish in dat der pond...