There was a grand naming ceremony which took place in my company last week, on the day after Valentine's day. (Thank god I had nothing on Valentines day, the preparations itself had me killed for two weeks).
For those who don't really understand the meaning behind the naming ceremony, a little explanation for you. As you know, I'm working in a shipyard. Although my yard doesn't do newbuilding of vessels (building of ships from scratch), we actually do conversions of vessels. For example, there are many kinds of vessels in the sea. Like.. Container Ship, Livestock Carrier, Oil Tanker, FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Off-loading vessel). So the process of conversion actually means converting a type of a vessel to another type. Like a container ship to a FPSO vessel. So when this is done, a new name is given to the vessel.. as it's like a re-birth for the vessel.
This naming of the vessel is done on a grand scale in my yard itself. Marketing Department (My department) does the lead by arranging everything from the tentage (where the ceremony is held) to the food. Now you understand what we were so busy with. Hehe. Well, coming back to the ceremony.. This naming ceremony is one I won't forget. Reasons as follows.
Firstly, something unfortunate had to happen two days before this ceremony. We had our 300+ door gifts already packed nicely into gift carriers and stacked into my department. When I was going to knock off from work (I was the only one at the office), I heard a loud thud noise coming from the corners of my office. I almost had a heart attack as the noise was very loud - I thought that the window has cracked from all that rain. After a while I noticed that the floor was wet. Then I found out that the pipe broke and water was seeping through the walls. I had to shift all the door gifts up but sadly couldn't salvage all my gifts.
Thank the good lord,we had some spare. The flow of water gradually increased that my office looked like a mini Jakarta. (The flood effect) I had to call the cleaners to help me vacuum the water but they took ages to come. So I grabbed a bin (Those big black garbage bins you see at the roads) and manually scooped the water in, excruciatingly one by one, to prevent it from flowing out of the office and spreading to other offices. After sometime, when the cleaners finally arrived, I took my leave. Haiz.. The next two days were spent re-packing everything.
During the naming ceremony itself, I spent my time running errands when my saviour Emily offered to bring me onboard. So the very first vessel I went onboard was FPSO Umuroa. Oh gosh, I took ages to climb the stairway up the vessel as I held on the railings so hard climbing the steps one at a time, peeking at the bottom in between. The metallic stairs had holes everywhere which greeted me to the deep blue sea at the bottom which freaked me out to the max. The whole time I was just imagining what kinda sight it would have been if i just tumbled down, hitting my head in the stairway causing it to shatter into pieces, landing right into the sea. My colleagues were asking me not to look down but how to?? How to look at the sky and climb the stairs? You still have to look at the bottom what!! So when I finally reached the top, I saw a whole lot of workers staring at me. Then I realised that they had to wait for me to reach to the top before they can run down the stairs to go for lunch! Paiseh paiseh!!
For ten minutes, I remained very silent and my arms were trembling. I could not respond to whatever Karin was telling me, I just stared into empty space. Just imagine how traumatized I was! After I recovered, I started enjoying my 'tour' abit more.. Although the guy explaining everything got abit technical, I learnt abit here and there. Went to see the accommodation part.. to the engine room.. and my favourite of the day - the cold room. That's the room where they keep stock of the meat and fish.. etc. It was so freezing cold inside, and imagine how heavenly it was, cause just a moment ago I felt like I was in a sauna. When we were talking inside the cold room, we could see the white smoke coming out of our mouth like those winter countries. - Imagine how cold it was. That whole journey left me tired for the whole day.
For those who don't really understand the meaning behind the naming ceremony, a little explanation for you. As you know, I'm working in a shipyard. Although my yard doesn't do newbuilding of vessels (building of ships from scratch), we actually do conversions of vessels. For example, there are many kinds of vessels in the sea. Like.. Container Ship, Livestock Carrier, Oil Tanker, FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Off-loading vessel). So the process of conversion actually means converting a type of a vessel to another type. Like a container ship to a FPSO vessel. So when this is done, a new name is given to the vessel.. as it's like a re-birth for the vessel.
This naming of the vessel is done on a grand scale in my yard itself. Marketing Department (My department) does the lead by arranging everything from the tentage (where the ceremony is held) to the food. Now you understand what we were so busy with. Hehe. Well, coming back to the ceremony.. This naming ceremony is one I won't forget. Reasons as follows.
Firstly, something unfortunate had to happen two days before this ceremony. We had our 300+ door gifts already packed nicely into gift carriers and stacked into my department. When I was going to knock off from work (I was the only one at the office), I heard a loud thud noise coming from the corners of my office. I almost had a heart attack as the noise was very loud - I thought that the window has cracked from all that rain. After a while I noticed that the floor was wet. Then I found out that the pipe broke and water was seeping through the walls. I had to shift all the door gifts up but sadly couldn't salvage all my gifts.
Thank the good lord,we had some spare. The flow of water gradually increased that my office looked like a mini Jakarta. (The flood effect) I had to call the cleaners to help me vacuum the water but they took ages to come. So I grabbed a bin (Those big black garbage bins you see at the roads) and manually scooped the water in, excruciatingly one by one, to prevent it from flowing out of the office and spreading to other offices. After sometime, when the cleaners finally arrived, I took my leave. Haiz.. The next two days were spent re-packing everything.
During the naming ceremony itself, I spent my time running errands when my saviour Emily offered to bring me onboard. So the very first vessel I went onboard was FPSO Umuroa. Oh gosh, I took ages to climb the stairway up the vessel as I held on the railings so hard climbing the steps one at a time, peeking at the bottom in between. The metallic stairs had holes everywhere which greeted me to the deep blue sea at the bottom which freaked me out to the max. The whole time I was just imagining what kinda sight it would have been if i just tumbled down, hitting my head in the stairway causing it to shatter into pieces, landing right into the sea. My colleagues were asking me not to look down but how to?? How to look at the sky and climb the stairs? You still have to look at the bottom what!! So when I finally reached the top, I saw a whole lot of workers staring at me. Then I realised that they had to wait for me to reach to the top before they can run down the stairs to go for lunch! Paiseh paiseh!!
For ten minutes, I remained very silent and my arms were trembling. I could not respond to whatever Karin was telling me, I just stared into empty space. Just imagine how traumatized I was! After I recovered, I started enjoying my 'tour' abit more.. Although the guy explaining everything got abit technical, I learnt abit here and there. Went to see the accommodation part.. to the engine room.. and my favourite of the day - the cold room. That's the room where they keep stock of the meat and fish.. etc. It was so freezing cold inside, and imagine how heavenly it was, cause just a moment ago I felt like I was in a sauna. When we were talking inside the cold room, we could see the white smoke coming out of our mouth like those winter countries. - Imagine how cold it was. That whole journey left me tired for the whole day.
That's us after the tiring event.
Hmm.. Had a family gathering last Monday during the CNY holidays. Was great meeting up with my long lost cousins and all.. The organiser of this 'Namma Family Day'07' Ms Lavany Devi had done a very good job. Games and all. Enjoyed myself alot.. Damn! The filthy water of East Coast has caused a pimple outbreak on my face! Hope I recover soon..
Well, looking forward for the weekend! Have got something planned on Saturday night.
*Evil Laughter*
Labels: FPSO Umuroa
posted by g a y a @ 1:19 PM
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