October 2010
Friday 1 st
of October 2010
and they called me at 6 o'clock in the morning.
- We're about to be ready!
- OK, I'm coming
I was half dead, felt like I just had felt asleep. And it was!
When I came down to the CCR I discovered a foggy morning. Thick fog and the visibility was down to almost 0. We completed the discharging 25 minutes after 6 o'clock in the morning.
We were ready with all the paper work at 7 o'clock and pilot was ordered for 7 thirty. 30 minutes to kill, what to do?Well, I can enjoy a diet drink.
Pilot came onboard in time and we left Pori behind, nice. And I will
hopefully not be back until next summer. It was a beautiful day, but it's very cold so I expect the ice any day now.
I told our Pump man to start the heating in our deck trunk and to blind the FW out on deck. We were out of the fog not long after the departure and the morning turned in to a gorgeous day. Cold, but very nice weather. Just a wee bit more than 2 weeks before I go home so I wish for the weather to stay like this until then.
Seems like we will get our fresh water allowance back. Now we're loading to maximum 8.59 m no matter what the dock water density is. DNV will send onboard an Inspector when we have painted our draft marks. Starboard side in Hamina and our Pump Man started right of to paint the draft mark fresh water draft mark. And when he was at it he repainted the other draft marks as well.
We haven't had any stupid slide show here for a long time, so I will throw in a slide show trying to brighten your day a bit. So go ahead, enjoy our Pump Man's hard work and my pictures.
We had all fast in Hamina 10 minutes after 3 o'clock in the afternoon, ship's time. We commenced discharging 45 minutes later and when we're ready with the discharging we will start to load for Helsinki. We will just move the arm from manifold #5 to #4.
2 parcels to be mixed onboard and we started the first parcel 01:35 and the first parcel is on 550m³. So I stayed up until this parcel was ready before going to bed.
I woke up 10 minutes after 12 and I had a quick shower before going for my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®. and then I checked out the CCR before I returned to my HTML editor in my cabin. I expect it to be a long night and a very early morning arriving to Helsinki tomorrow morning. Darn, it's every night!
The called me at 18 thirty to give me the 30 minutes’ notice to completion of the loading. We left Hamina at 10 o'clock and pilot at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning. I have a few hours to sleep on.
If I can manage to fall a sleep
- 20 to 25 minutes to the jetty.
- Motherf....
We had all fast at 6 thirty in a marina. We're the first tanker to have arrived here since 1999.
And port side along side, perfect! Our Pump Man can finish
the draft mark on Port side and we're ready to have the DNV inspector onboard so we can get our fresh water allowance.
Nice weather but cold so I had to wear pantalongas on deck. Never mind, October and nothing else is expected. And if I can wear shorts until October I'm satisfied. I will soon in Asia so I will have summer until I'm returning in the Spring time 2011.
No tankers at this jetty since 1999. The cargo arm looks very old, but it’s a brand new pipe line ashore so we were allowed to discharge with a maximum rate of 150m³/h until the lines was checked and filled with cargo.
When the shore line was full we were allowed to discharge with an whopping 600m³/h. We must be
ready to leave before 9 o'clock tonight (22:00 local time) or we have to wait until tomorrow morning. And that means 5 o'clock so I really hope we can leave tonight. But it is touch and go!
The cargo arm has then most likely not been in use since 1999.
- They have just had service on the arm, they told me.
Well, the arm was leaking like ,hmm, yeah, much and the Loading Master was a wee bit embarrassed and he told me several times that the arm was
back from service.
Crew change in Helsinki and we got a new 2nd Officer, I knew him from Ek-River. We also got our electrician back onboard after 1 month at home. And he
was knocking on my door after the dinner. Dried mangoes, very good. A gift is always appreciated. Well,hmm, what about my diet? And Lisen! Now you see how much a small token of appreciation means!
And why are all the on signers looking so young with their new haircuts? Life isn’t fair, when I get a
haircut I just looks bald. DARN! And double darn! And my “MAGIC HAIR STUFF”! Today it's more like an irritating thing than a hope to look good in the future.
Where did it go wrong? I don't know, but it's no fun when there is no more hope!
move when I had my shower and the water was splashing batch and forth in my bath room.
But it was nice to see that our Engine Cadet had toughens up. No more sea sickness and
when I ran in to him at the coffee break he had a plate brimmed with cup cakes for the engine room.
Well, he will soon be as cocky as our OS.
I finished our cargo plans before lunch, I only need to get the density and temp before I print the Sequence Plan. But the narrative part is ready and printed. ETA 10
o'clock tonight so I went to bed after lunch. Arrival in the late night and I need a sleep during the day. If we arrive in the middle of the night I'm better off with no sleep during the day because then I cannot sleep in the evening.
I'll be darned! I expected us to get the pilot at 10 and when I looked out my window I could see that the deck light was on.
- Good, we will soon get the pilot.
I looked out the window a little later to see if we were approaching the port. I could see some lights in the horizon.
- Good, we will soon arrive.
I looked out the window 20 minutes later and the lights were in same position.
- Are we moving?
I went on the bridge and we had just dropped anchor at 22:35.
- Jetty is occupied until 1,2 or 4 o'clock.
- Motherf@....!
Now I can't sleep tanks to my afternoon sleep. Now I'm full of vim, but if I can't sleep I will be dead in the middle of the night. But 4 o'clock means f@ck all around here and I hope we go alongside tomorrow, after 8 o'clock in the morning.
the pilot station called at 3 o'clock and I might have been asleep between 30 minutes and an hour when they called me 20 past 4 in the morning.
We started loading 20 minutes before 7 and I felt a sleep around 8 o'clock. I woke up 3 and a half hour later to a beautiful day. Loading in progress and we really don't know when we're ready, we can load to maximum draft 9,05 meters minus water level. And the water level has been everything from -40 to -31. And when we finally completed loading it was -45 cm.
after midnight this very morning. It was sunny but windy with rough sea and water spray over deck.
Our crew could not be on deck due to the water spray
over deck, never mind, the crew was busy in our potable water tank.
Yearly inspection of the tank and we discovered some mud in the bottom of the tank when we removed the man hole cover yesterday. So our engine department pumped out as much water they could and our Pump Man pumped out the last 2m³ from the tank with the Welden pump.
Our Pump Man and OS went down to clean the tank with brushes, rags and a high pressure washer. No cleaning agent was used, as I told them.
- Don't use any cleaning agent! Could be hard to remove.
- OK, we only use water.
- Hold it there for a sec Buddy Boy!If we use cleaning agent
it might be unnecessary to use shampoo and we can save a buck or two on the shampoo!
They spent 2 to 3 hours cleaning the tank and we could put back the manhole. Now we have to wait for the starboard side tank to be empty so we can do that tank as well, but then I will not be onboard.
Soon time to go home.
The tank was ready in time for lunch and I went to the kitchen to get my “ TUNA & ONION
SURPRISE
”
®, and of course, our Cook had to f@ck it up by adding sausages on top of it. And I didn't have time to say NO before he had put the sausages on my plate.
Rough sea in the Baltic Sea and our Engine Cadet, yes, he was very cocky the other day when we
were well secured alongside the jetty. Today it was a different story, pale and sea sick.
No, I'm not sea sick, but it's very tiring to hold on to stuff all the time. Well, I hope the weather gets better tomorrow so we can kick some arses on deck. There is always something to do on deck, and as we have the sea breaking over deck today I can't send anyone out on deck. We don't want anyone to be washed overboard.
woke up. I finished our discharge plans for Le Havre and I also
measured our tanks for H2S before lunch.
Well, Chief officer was not the only one busy. Pump Man and the AB changed oil in our MOB boat davit and while they were at it our electrician did something with the electric motor to the davit.
They were finished with the davit in time for lunch so they could continue the painting
after the lunch break. And I was happy that I finally read
some Thai during the lunch break. I have not opened my books for quite some time now.
A busy morning turned in to a slow afternoon. Well, I managed to kill a few minutes giving pointers to the ABs painting the deck.
Spinach and cod fish for dinner and I went to my cabin with half can of diet drink, yes, the very last can and I hope I can manage withoutdiet drinks from now on.
Maybe I have turned in to a “dietoholic”® and I will go through the crew’s cabins in search of diet drinks. Of course, I will do as the Captain in Veritas Tankers did.
- What the
are you doing in there?
- Oh! I'm here to have a look on the carpet. Very nice!
- You forgot to turn on the light!
barge was alongside to give us 200MT FO and 40MT GO. It was a beautiful morning so I was not really sure we were in Göteborg, I mean, what’s the chance to arrive to a sunny Go:teborg? A very slim one!
We started to force ventilate STB Slop tank when the bunker barge departed and 1 hour later we did a bottom flush so we could go down to make the tank inspection. We finished the tank inspection in time for lunch and 5 minutes later a sunny morning had turned in to a gloomy and grey day.
I could not believe my luck, yes the sun came back in the afternoon so the crew could paint on deck.
- But who cares?
No the most important happening today was that I found a can of diet drink. And yes, I could not
believe my luck when my “Carpet Inspection” finally paid off and I found a diet drink. I dashed straight off to my cabin and I popped open the can.
My last, last can and I want to enjoy it in my cabin without all the riff raff around.
enough to be annoying. I had my tea in my office and I tested our
gas detectors before going down to the engine work
shop to check out the progress with the welding.
We have a leaking foam line in the deck trunk so our deck crew started the day by removing the pipe.
They had it in the engine work shop and the pipe was welded before the coffee break. Only to pressure test the pipe before my best guys put it back.
I expect it to be ready before lunch and the guys can spend the afternoon cleaning their cabins.
I found a diet drink yesterday and it lasted me for 6 and a half hour. I have never stretched a can of soda for so long before.
And of course, one my way back to my office I held a cross-examination with all the Engineers.
- Do you have any diet drinks?
- No! I promise!
- ARE YOU SURE??!!
- Yes Sir!
But just to make sure we checked the refrigerator in the
ECR and I'll be darned. I could not believe myluck, there was a diet drink!
And this diet drink didn't last for 6 and a half hour. The can was pretty much dry after 5 minutes'.
We will arrive to Le Havre tomorrow and according to the latest information we have there will be a strike from Tuesday morning. So we might get stuck in Le Havre for as long as the strike is on. So I might have time to go ashore for a diet drink. But if we're at the same place as last time I won't bother, too far away.
After lunch and I was, yes, I had studied my Thai books, looking for yet another diet drink. I ran in to one of the ABs.
- ARRANGE A DIET DRINK FOR ME OR ELSE....
- Sir! Yes! Sir! On the double! Sir!
He returned with a can of diet coke a few seconds later.
- I had one can in my cabin!
- Hmm, diet coke! Not good, but it have to do! Thank you!
I scrutinized
the can carefully
- Ahh, made in Denmark!
So there is some hope for it to be drinkable. I popped open the can and it
tasted way better than the Polish and German diet coke. But diet coke is not my favourite, water taste better.
I got an e-mail from Lisen. She had been visiting Ek-River when they were in Go:teborg. OK, firstof all I just want to mention that I'm happy to notice that the new way of spelling Göteborg/ Gothenburg has really catch on.
But I was not happy to learn that she had seen the picture of me with the mop on my head in the DIRTY MESS!!! What theis this. What
happened to the “Wall of fame”?
Reason to be worried? Yes, maybe, Lisen also wrote that she was going on town to eat sushi. And believe me, I was quick to reply: “DON'T GO EMBARRASS ME AT YAMMY KITCHEN!!!” Oh yeah, would have been a dream come true to have Lisen running around Yammy Kitchen telling Miss “Most beautiful in the world” that:
- I know Aladdin!
- ...on his web page....
- Aladdin loves you....
- Desktop background....blah-blah-bla....
Just what I need and it would have been impossible for
me to show my face there again. Well, I received e-mail from FUNKY TOWN. And I was not sure what my friend meant by “WE”.
Hopefully he meant him and the gorgeous Japanese girl.
- Hmm, still don't know if she is on to the whole sumo thing.
Well, only one way to reply to this one:
Yo! We? Please elaborate
I managed to get an hour constitutional
on deck, well, almost 2 hours during the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and the wind came from behind so it was like a nice spring day on deck.
Of course, the day would have been perfect if I just could find one more diet drink. I had played it nice so far and I had just come up with, well, almost ZIP! He decided to try another approach, no more Mr. Nice Guy! Hell, I never thought that I would get a chance to write No more Mr. Nice Guy on my web page. well, anyway, I went to the crew's table during the dinner.
- Bon appétit motherf@ckers and a**holes!
- WHICH ONE OF YOUHAS DIET DRINKS IN THE CABIN?
I could not believe it. My new tactic paid off right away. I left the mess room and 26 seconds
later our Pump Man came after me to the duty mess.
- I heard that you were looking for a diet drink.
- Yes.
- I have one in my cabin!
- Well, bring it, motherf@cker!
Our Pump Man returned a few seconds later with a diet drink and I popped it open before a second had passed by.
- Mmm, thank you!
Well, anyway, I returned to my cabin with the half of my diet drink that I got from our Pump Man. Lo and f@cking behold, when I opened my door I discovered an almost full case of diet drinks. Diet Coke, but anyway. Sunday night turned in to a feast.
Hmm, is it possible to be addicted to diet drinks? I don't know, but maybe I have turned in to
a dietoholic. Well, it's better than being an alcoholic, I can still perform in my profession.
Hmm, maybe not what employers are looking for. I have more experience than I care for from useless drunken alcoholics on the ships. And almost without exceptions it had turned out that ship
owners prefer the drunks. Every time they are coming around the corner its cake, colourful hats and party whistles.
And I understand, of course they want to hear stuff like.
- Very nice!
- Everything is OK
So of course, when I'm coming with:
- Maybe we need to repair this....
So they are glad when I leave and I have many examples. Last time was in a company I was in 2 years ago. I had complained to the company about the drunken engine department. No response, well, expect that I never heard anything from the company, no e-mail or nothing. Well, that was kind of nice. Well, I asked them to send me home ASAP.
And then at a vetting inspection, in another company, the Vetting Inspector told me that this very company had to send a new Captain to a ship that was not allowed to leave the jetty.
- The Pilot found the Captain drunk and called the Police.
Now imagine how much this set the company back. Occupying a jetty waiting for the new Captain. And it must have been a killer for the reputation.
So actually it's nice to be in Ektank, they take it serious with ZERO tolerance with alcohol. And as I say, if you can't live without alcohol for 6 weeks you have problem. And it's always the guys with problem complaining.
- It's like communist soviet, I can’t have a glass of wine to my dinner on Saturdays.
- OK, go ahead have a glass of wine.
He has a glass of wine and then we have to live with this motherf@cker running around naked
for the next 2 weeks. Until he sobers up and then it's back to the cake, colourful hats and party whistles.
- He is so very good this guy!
And the suckers having to do their job are just a pain in the arse.
- I WILL FIND OUT WHO IT WAS!
Of course, impossible to fall asleep after all the diet drinks so I was dead tired when they calledme 20 minutes before 8 o'clock in the morning. I had spent most of the night tossin' and turnin' in my bed.
Well, not time to loll around in bed. We will soon take onboard the Pilot for Le Havre.
And we will stay here until Wednesday when they start to work again after the strike. And people are obviously reading my page. 10 minutes after updating my page about the strike in France I got an
e-mail from a British fan. And he gave me information about the strike, it will be over on Wednesday.
Later on I got it confirmed that we would wait in Le Havre after discharging until Wednesday morning. Maybe time to go ashore for a walk on Tuesday afternoon. But I have been in Le Havre before and it's not a place that makes anyone happy.
We had to slow down because they didn't had any Pilot available for us. This delayed us for one hour and the Pilot didn't board us until 10:30.
And we had a MSC ship ahead of us and she was also bound for the lock so it took us almost 2 hours with the Pilot before we arrived to the lock.
We spent 30 minutes in the lock and we left at 12:40. Our jetty was just 400 meters across the harbour from the lock. It was the very same jetty we discharged at with Ek-River last winter. Back then here was snow. But today it was almost like a summer day. 
We had our first line ashore at TOTAL's jetty #3 at 13:00 and 25 minutes later we had all fast.
Captain was searching the refrigerator on the bridge while the crew was busy with the mooring.
And motherf@... He found 2 diet drinks.
- Hey, now I can stay 1 month extra, I said.
I popped one can open immediately. And the Surveyor and Loading Master onboard 20 minutes later and sampling and paper work. Well, doesn’t seem like they are in a hurry to get us out from here before 6 o'clock tomorrow morning when they close the lock due to the strike.
We were waiting for 3 hours before we could start. Sampling completed at 14:30 and they sent the samples for analyse before we could start discharging. At 17:40 we started the discharging and no chance we would make it to the lock before 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, and that's even though we're discharging with an whopping 1500m³/h.
So there might be a chance for me to go shopping tomorrow.
- We finish discharging in 30 minutes.
- OK, I'm coming down.
I was surprised, I was full of vim even though I just felt a sleep. And after the shower I was cart wheeling down to the CCR and we completed discharging 5 minutes after 5 o'clock. Tank inspection completed at 5 thirty and all the paper work was signed around 6 o'clock.
I was back in bed at 6 thirty trying to sleep, impossible. So I was down in the mess room at 8
o'clock again. Dead tired, but I could not sleep.Hmm, most likely die to the diet drinks I had been drinking the last few days. It must be all the caffeine that makes me manic.
But I can't get enough of them and we asked our Agent to order a taxi for us when he came onboard around 10 o'clock. Our Engine Cadet and OS joined me for a trip to town.
Our engine Cadet was looking for a lap top so he could visit www.aladdin.st during tedious nights onboard. Our driver dropped us at some shopping centre in Le Havre. And there were no people around at all. Actually it looked
closed, and maybe so, due to the strike.
- It's not like Mall of Asia in Manila, I said.
- No, always plenty people at Mall of Asia.
It was a big building, but most of the space looked like a parking building and, well, it turned out to be parking spaces. The shopping centre was on the ground floor and there was a few clothes shops, a radio/ computer store and a supermarket.
No people around and it was pretty dead around
and we decided to continue towards the train station. We stopped at the super market for 3 diet drinks before we continued towards Le Havre train station.
- American Express!!??
No we don't accept AMEX!
And yes, we remember the drama in Manila last April when
I tried to get money with my plastic cards. Magnetic tapes were unreadable. I have ordered new cards 3 times and they never arrive. So my 3rd order will be sent to the bank and they will send it to me in Bangkok. I still have my old cards but every time I ordered new cards they cancelled the previous cards that I had ordered. So my old cards are most likely
cancelled, so no money.
I called my bank today and still no VISA and Master Card. Well, we will see when I get them. Luckily enough I had a Bangkok Bank VISA so we could pay for the diet drinks. 
When we came up to the train station the streets were empty. No people around, only a few people
at the brassiere on the corner. We went in to buy some coffin nails. No cards accepted, but there was an ATM and I found use for my Thai ATM for the second time today.
When we were in the shop we could hear drummers outside and we went to check it out. From around
the corner came, well, it was more like people were poured out on the street from around the corner. The street went from empty to a war zone in a jiff. First we had the drummers
and then people screaming.
We could hear bombs go off in the distance and we could see smoke down the road. It looked like it was the “Dockers Le Havre” that walked first. At least according to the banderols. Well, they are marching and we have to stay alongside waiting for them to finish their strike.
People marching and screaming mixed with cars having music blasting from loudspeakers on the roof.
Next car had even bigger loudspeakers and some on screaming angrily in a microphone. Well, at least it sounded like they were unhappy.
We saw people working at a hospital in the protest. Seems like everyone is on the streets. And our Agent told us that this was a national strike.
- A pretty big strike.
Well, the group from the hospital
were doing the protest samba style, dancing down the road with the disco music blasting high on the Richter scale. So of course, they got some well deserved attention.
Of course, everyone wanted attention and the cleverest way I saw were the guys pulling an Atlas Copco compressor after a van. 2 huge horns connected to the compressor and it was impossible not to give them the attention they were looking for.
But we didn't saw any violence.Hmm, there was a guy throwing an apple at a Police car. But he
missed. So no harm done.
All the excitement made us hungry and we spotted a restaurant across the street. The only problem was that it looked like mission impossible to cross the street with all the terro..., no protestors.
- Hmm, what to do?
We really wanted to have some French food before returning to the ship. Well, French food, never mind. But afresh baguette would be nice. But we came up with yet another master plan.
- Let's join the protest and we work our way across the street!
Said and done, we throw ourselves in to the crowd
and we were soon on the other side. 
And there was an American Express sign on the door so I knew I could pay for the meal. but those
American Express signs are noting I run in to very often.
- AMEX!!?? NO NO!! Only VISA and Master Card!
And the sign on the door was no guarantee for them to accept
AMEX, but then I could always make a scene.
Menu, only in French. I recognised broccoli and camembert. So I pointed at this item and the waitress just shakes her head. OK, I
recognised Avocat, well, it reminded me about avocado so I pointed at this item. she shake her head even more and she
pointed at a black board on the wall.
Well, the starter was the salad buffet and we could choose between two things for the main course. Pallete a la Diable sounded most exciting so the choice was obvious.
Tarte aux pommes and surprisingly enough the waitress
knew that this was apple pie in English so I and our Engine Cadet decided to have one after the darn “Pallete a la Diable”.
And I ordered tea.
- Uno la pot of tea!
- Oui!
She pointed at all of us.
- Trois?
I was just about to say no, only for me. But yet again, I came up with an “avoir une idée de génie”.
- Oui! Trois!
Yes, I told her that we wanted a pot of tea for 3 persons in hope that they would bring us a manly pot of tea.
We were enjoying our salad buffet and the waitress came to take our picture.
We finished our salad and when they came with the third basket with bread we told the waiter to bugger off. By then we were full and still no sign of the darn “Pallete a la Diable”. It took us
almost one hour to get the main course. So when the “Pallete a la Diable” arrived to our table I told them to bring the Tarte aux pommes and the bill.
- Bill??!!
- Oui! La bill!
- Ah! Addition!
- Correcte lamente
I had drinking three pots of tea and I managed to order milk to my tea. I remember one time in Bayonne a few years ago. I was in a restaurant ordering tea with milk.
They got the tea right, but it went wrong when it came to the milk. I was screaming moo moo while doing the internationally recognised sign for milking a cow.
- Imbécile!!
I had to drink my tea without the milk.
Our apple pie arrived to the table.No vanilla sauce!!
- VANILLA!!!
- Ah! Sauce Angle?
- Oui!
F@cking A, I'm getting the hang of the French language now. And it was no problem to pay with
my AMEX. American Express and of course they thought that I'm from USA. I seem to be the only one stupid enough to have a AMEX.
At least by judging from the acceptance of the card.
Well, we walked back to the shopping centre and we started by looking for a computer for our Engine Cadet. I told him that they would only have windows in French and not in English. And I was right so we left the shop and returned to the supermarket. Last stop before returning to the ship.
We bought a few diet drinks and my Thai ATM card came in handy for the third time today. And the girl at the supermarket was so kind and she called us a taxi. was it our charm?I don't know
It was nice to be back onboard. My reliever willhopefully be onboard the 20th of October and I spent the afternoon writing my handover report to my reliever.
It will be nice to leave Le Havre tomorrow morning. Pilot ordered for 9 o'clock. Good, I was afraid that we would leave 4 o'clock when they open the lock.
I'm done with France for a while and we haven't had any videos on www.aladdin.st for long time so I
will upload a video from the excitements in Le Havre. The only thing is that if I want a good quality video on my web page the size is ballooned out of proportions. Well, we will have to try to enjoy it anyway.
- Pilot onboard in 20 minutes
- What?
- Pilot onboard in 20 minutes
- OK, I'm on my way.
I had a hot shower and I went to the bridge. 7 o'clock, a little disappointment, but its way better
than 4 o'clock. And it looks like it will be a nice day so I was in a pretty good mood when we left for Rotterdam anchorage.
No new cargo and I hope they will come up with something soon.
while the crew were busy with our foam line in the deck trunk we got orders to go to Grangemouth, Scotland to load for Assens, Denmark.
Later on I heard that it might have changed to Go:teborg. Well, we see where we end up.
Soon time for me to leave and our Cook is keeping a close watch over the hazelnuts, pumper nickel and tuna.
- If you stay for 10 more days, no problem!
- What about if I have to stay for 2 weeks?
- No problem with the hazelnuts and
tuna. Pumper nickel is good for about 10 or 12 more days.
Diet drinks, for a few more days. And we're talking tops. Captain came with 2 cases for me in my office. And I could not help but thinking that back in the days they were busy handing out beers and booze to the alcoholics. Now they are busy handing out diet drinks to the dietoholics.
Time changes and no one is able to say it better than the Chief Engineer on M/T Marimba.
- Back in the days we were drunk and stupid and it was much better. Today they are not drinking!
What a statement!Hmm, I have no clue what he meant. But I
have no problem to imagine these people drunk and
stupid.
Well, later on in the afternoon I got Go:teborg confirmed. And we might have to drop anchor in Grangemouth until Sunday. The cargo is not ready for us. Well, we have stuff to do.
Today the crew repaired the foam line and we will pressure test the line tomorrow when we force ventilate Slop tank Port preparing this tank for inspection. Last tank I can do before signing off.
But we have done all the tanks and cofferdams, except the cargo tanks and stb fresh water tank. We cannot do the cargo tanks until we have had a cargo suitable for cleaning and inspection. But I will finish the last slop tank before my reliever come onboard. Of course, weather permitted!
I cannot leave anything behind for him. I know myself and how pissed off I get when I relieve some ar** hole having left everything behind for me to do.
But there was a ray of sun in my office when I got the news that we would drop the anchor in Grangemouth. I really hope so, even though it’s boring like hell. And the company get paid while we wait for the cargo. But anchoring and we will be in Go:teborg on Wednesday and Ektank is working 24 seven to get a cargo from Go:teborg. Discharging and loading and if my reliever is comingin Go:teborg he will get more experience than he can wish for and I can go home in Go:teborg.
Can I be so lucky? It’s for sure my time to get some luck after 22 years of no luck at all. I don't understand how I have ended up so unlucky. Thursday, if I can leave Go:teborg on Thursday I will
arrive to Funky Town on Friday the 22nd of October.
Yes, it's my turn to have some luck this time.
Well, anyway, we started the day by ventilating and clean our
port slop tank so we can inspect the tank after the coffee break.
I called the engine room when it was time for the tank inspection.
- Chief Engineer
- Yo! Mr. A here!
- How's life?
- Good, and you?
We exchanged some pleasantries over the phone before he asked me:
- What can I do for you?
- We're going down the tank. Has the Cadet ever been down in a tank?
- No
- Now he has the opportunity
- I send him to your office. Can he take pictures?
- Yes
Of course, our Engine Cadet needs to see how a tank looks like. Slop tank is pretty much the same as a cargo tank even though the slop tank is
much smaller than a cargo tank.
I gave a gas detector to the Engine Cadet, very important to have a gas detector before
you entering a tank. I showed him how to do a quick pre-entry test of the detector. I measured the tank before I entered at 11:40
When I came down I called Pump Man and the Deck Cadet on the radio.
- It's safe to come down now!
Our Engine Cadet, well, it didn't take long for him to turn from scared to cocky. He took pictures for remembrance of the
adventure of his life. Good for the new guys to see how it looks like.
- Hmm, maybe I could make a living out of this. A cargo tank tour operator making
millions of Scooby dollars and I will never have to work again.
Well, we got back loading in Go:teborg confirmed in the afternoon. Load FO in Go:teborg for Gävle.
And what the **** is going on? First I had our Electrician asking if he could use my stapler.
- Yes, no problem!
He returned with his papers to the engine room and 30 minutes later I had the Chief Engineer in my office.
- Do you have any staples?
- No
- OK, I will go try on the bridge
I don't understand why we can't get staples onboard. Well, I have
No more drunken captains, just captains burping all the time and unable to sleep because of the cafeen in the drink.
Just imagine what would happen if you had a shipment of diet coke, the ship would go missing for weeks, and would be found 100 miles off Barbados with everyone with a long straw sipping from the tanks. At least you wouldn't have to strip the tankers after it had all gone, the coke will do it for you.
You got good job, good company that's good luck. You could be on a Greek ship shifting coal from Russia :)
Stay safe
my staples from when I left Ek-River
I was sitting in my cabin reading e-mail and writing about Argo Athena
thinking that this day would have nothing more to offer when I could hear some noise so I turned down my music a notch.
Sounded like water running through a pipe. A wee bit later it
sounded like a helicopter and I looked out my window facing aft. There was a helicopter hovering over us
I went out to take a few pictures making sure Ektank's logo on the funnel appeared on each picture. So people will know what company
to hire for future oil transports.
Yes, Captain was laughing at me in Finland and Grangemouth last time. When Loading Master is leaving I'm always quick to add a “OK, now you know it's the real deal. No need for any colourful pamphlets telling you how good we are! If you need oil transported ask for Ek-Star”
Captain was laughing when he was telling me:
- That's the spirit!
Well, he was not laughing when Teboil wanted us back in Finland. Everyone was surprised that they needed so much oil transported “all of the sudden” Grangemouth, yes, we're back in Grangemouth. Last time there was a Furetank ship anchored outside Grangemouth rejected so she had to leave and we took the cargo.
So yes, I think our logo on the funnel will make a difference. People will know about the KICK ARSE crew onboard. And they will know that we're a reliable no nonsense crew. 
OK, I had planned for this page to last until I sign off and I don't want to split it in to two so I
guess I will have to go easy on the pictures from now on.
Well, turned out that it was the British Search and Rescue training
their helicopter crew. Good to see them practice, we never know when we will find use for them.
So far I have been on two ships were we have needed the helicopter service.
Well, making a lot of noise and people came to the bridge to check out what was going on.
- Don't be scared, papa daddy is here!
I was soon growing tired of the helicopter action. And it was cold outside so I returned to my cabin.
I must finish rewriting about Argo Athena and Argo Pallas before I sign off.
A lot of writing and all my old pictures has to be edited before I can upload them. Last time I uploaded my pictures I had to make them very small and the Photoshop back then left a little to wish for. Or maybe my skills have improved a wee bit since then. Well, anyway, it's a lot of work and I want to finish these two ships before going home.
Fat chance that I will sit in Bangkok wasting my time with this.
And believe me, these nightly helicopter action adventures doesn’t help making in quicker. I was delayed by an hour or so. First taking all the pictures and then edit and upload.
1 hour + + that I could have worked on my Argo Athena page had disappeared.
So that's pretty much it for today.Hopefully I won't get disturbed anymore today. There is a new exciting day tomorrow so you just stay tuned for all the excitements.
It was a gloomy and black day, I guess normal Scottish weather this time of the year. Well, the
guys painted the foam line and they greased on deck. No use to start any chipping and painting in deck. Looks like it can start to pour down any second.
We got the latest news from our Agent, berthing post phoned until Monday night. Midnight L/T. Good, and bad. I will for sure sign off in Go:teborg. But when? No more delays and I have the chance to arrive to FUNKY TOWN next Saturday. But it will most likely not be untilnext Sunday. 24th of October, well, that's not a bad day to arrive home on.
And as we use to say: More days more dollars!
We held our fire and oil spill drills after the 10 o'clock coffee break. And we completed everything just in time for lunch. Well, I was a few minutes late due to the reports I had to write.
And at lunch we got Monday night confirmed. Then discharging and loading in Go:teborg. My reliever will come onboard in Go:teborg on Thursday. Can I leave on Friday and thus arrive home on Saturday? Well, we're talking touch and go here. I will most likely not be able to leave until Saturday the 23rd of October and thus I will not arrive to Bangkok until the 24th of October.
I had received my booking for my courses in Manila. Good, now I'm ready to fly to Manila on the
1st of November for 2 weeks of courses.
But,hmm, economy. My diet have not turned out to be quite the 
success I had been expecting. And that's even though my waste bin is brimmed with empty diet drink cans. So I might be better off in a real seat.
Yes, I will for sure be better off in a real seat and I sent the girl at my travel agency an e-mail.
- Can you please change to biz?
And I had my new tickets a few minutes later. Good service from FUNKY TOWN.
Well, we got good and bad news before lunch. We will go inside tonight, Pilot will board us around 6 o'clock. And the bad news, a very slow rate is expected and we won't be able to make it to Go:teborg in time so I will most likely not be home until earliest next Sunday the 24th of October.
Well, I'm off to bed for a quick power nap after lunch. It might be a long night.
I managed to sleep for about one hour, or one and a half hour during the afternoon. After dinner I heard them start the main engine.
Nice, finally time to kick arse again.
I was in my cabin taking it easy rewriting my web page about Kaprifol, yes, Rankki and the Argonaut ships are ready. Well, I received pictures of Kaprifol from my friend so now I have a picture to put on my page. I have searched the internet and I came up with ZIP.
I called the bridge 20 minutes before 8 o'clock to see when we were going to arrive to the lock.
- In about 20 minutes'
- OK, I will just take a quick shower and I will come to the bridge!
Passing through the lock, we raised by 5 meters in the lock. In to the basin and turning to back up to jetty #3. Paper work and a cup of tea. More paper work and a diet drink and we were finally ready to start loading 10 minutes before 11 o'clock.Hopefully we will be ready to leave tomorrow night so we can get my reliever onboard in Go:teborg.
på Bohusmalmön kan du nog glömma. Kanske jag kan gå av sent på lördagen och det kanske finns tid för ett par drinkar
i Göteborg, eller som det kallas nu för tiden, Go:teborg.
Men vilken mardröm och komma till Yammy kitchen med tolvans fyllesjuka på söndagen.
Båstad m stop på Laxen's hus och mjukglass i Båstad efter att vi hämtat mina kort på banken. Ja, denna resa ska ju dokumenteras så du kommer att få mer exponering på internet än någon kan önska sig
Och sen e d Lisen och inte Fisen. Tycker att det är både roligt och kusligt att du har blivit så besatt av min hemsida så att du blir arg bara för att Lisen får lite uppmärksamhet på internet.
Men jag tar åt mig av kritiken så jag ska öka din exponering här på www.aladdin.st. Vad annars ska man göra efter den utskällningen man fick på telefonen. du skrek ju så att man fick mittbena.
Jaja, Lisen får ta den smällen, men hon har säkert ett mer sansat sätt att se på det här med internet.
tomorrow afternoon. With this rate we will be ready at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and we can leave tonight. Good, earlier than expected in Go:teborg, if we come alongside at arrival that it. You never know in Go:teborg.
I got an e-mail from my friend and they are throwing
a party in Go:teborg, but I won't be able to make it.
My reliever is new onboard so I will have to stay with him during discharging and loading before I can sign off in order to give the new guy some “HANDS ON”
experience.
I discovered a message on my desk after the coffee break. My friend had called and our Captain found him self in the middle of a cross examination.
- Where are you?
- When are you arriving to Go:teborg?
- Are Aladdin signing off?
Well, maybe Saturday evening. We see what’s happening. But my friend has booked a hotel for me in Go:teborg and I have told the company not to book my ticket back to FUNKY TOWN until Tuesday and I will arrive home on Wednesday.
I will go to my bank in Båstad to pick up my VISA and MasterCard. F@ck, I had it with these cards by now, for one year. Yes I have waited for one year. The last cards they sent to me were not working. Well, the smart chip was working. But not the magnetic strip.Yes, we
Skåne, kanske vi kan besöka stället där dom hadde det
fina badrummet? Vi blir troligtvis inte insläppta där för dom lär ju inte ha glömt den rysaren även om vi snackar 20 år sen
Jaja, vi har ju varit i Skåne ett par gånger och fadäsen i badrummet är ju inget i jämnförelse mot när vi hadde Johan med oss till Mölle.
Jaja, d ska bli roligt att träffas, en rolig måndag på tur e ju mycket bättre än en tråkig måndag i Bangkok.
Ochkanske, jag säger kanske, kan vi träffa snyggingen på Yammy Kitchen.
J, ska han sitta hemma o tröst äta?
remember the drama in Manila last spring when I was running around looking for an ATM where I could use the smart chip in the card.
1 year, every time I call my bank to ask for my cards they cancel the cards and ordered new ones. Last time I called to ask, yes, we had given up the idea to send them to my friend in Go:teborg after several failed attempts. Well, they told me that they had cancelled the cards the 1st of October and ordered new ones.
Then the cards were ordered again on the 9th and the cards ordered the 1st had been cancelled. What is going on there? Time to change bank?
Well, I called my bank and it seems like they will have the card at the bank on Monday.
- Don’t send them to Bangkok, I will drop by to pick them up on Monday.
- OK, we keep them here.
They were running out of cargo ashore so we had to stop short of full cargo. Completed loading at 15:00 S/T and the Surveyors took the samples and we had the final density 1 and a half hour later. Cargo documents onboard 17:25 and now we just have to wait for the Pilot. Latest news is that he will board at 1 o'clock tomorrow morning.
In and out of locks, tank inspection extravaganza and it goes on and on. And now sampling, is there any part of the exciting life onboard we haven't seen on www.aladdin.st by now? 
I returned to my cabin when we were finished with the documents. I have a little something to write on my web page. Then maybe I will take the time to watch a movie trying to kill time until the pilot arrives so we can leave this place behind without any backward glances.
Storm warning with winds coming from the North bringing snow and shit. So I expected
some very bad weather when I woke up. Well, the ship was rolling at times, but not bad and the weather was expected to be better during the day. Well, ETA Go:teborg tomorrow night and my reliever are expected to come onboard on Friday morning. Will I sign off on Saturday or Sunday?
We had sunshine during the afternoon and the wind
decreased, but still heavy swell so it was not the time to sit down relax with a diet drink. I popped open a diet drink when I woke up and I could not let go of the can. As soon as I put down the can it went off the table. So I'm better off without any diet drink today.
And I discovered the engine crew suffering from seasickness when I came down to the engine department in the afternoon to have a chat with our Electrician.
I don't know if it was due to the fact that I got used to the rolling or if it was due to improved weather, but it seemed like the rolling decreased a wee bit in the evening.
I have finished updating my old ships, as for this time onboard. I will continue next time I come onboard. There are still plenty ships to update. So I watched a movie trying to kill time.
just some slight swell. But they told me that it would start to blow from NW during the day.
Congestion in the port of Go:teborg so we will have to drop anchor. And as we're expecting winds from NW we will drop anchor at Skagen to get some protection from the sea.
Berthing prospects, no idea.
We transferred slop during the morning and I packed my bag, took me exactly 3 seconds to pour my snus in my suitcase. Now I just have to worry about over weight on the flight.
But I should be allowed to check in 40 kg. But I think its 30kg per bag. Well, we will see.
Would not be the first time I have had to repack my stuff at the airport.
I got my flight details in the aftaernoon. I will fly from Sweden Tuesday night and I will arrive to
FUNKY TOWN on Wednesday afternoon. So I well get 2 or 3 days of quality time with my friend in Go:teborg before leaving for FUNKY TOWN. I just wish it was summer.
October and we have already have our first snow in Sweden.
And I'm pretty sure I would have stayed longer of it was nice weather. I'm in no hurry back to FUNKY TOWN. When I left home the city was on fire and now they are selling 
child porn on the streets. What kind of country alows this?
On the third of October I read the Bangkok Post headline:
Child porn on streets stirs outrage
I was choking on my morning tea when I read the report.
- What theis going on? Don't they have any shame in this country? What an outrage!
I'm for sure ashamed to live in a country like that. During my 15 years living there I had never been ashamed even though I have been branded as a sex tourist. I have meet prejudice peoples almost on a daily basis.
- Oh, living in Thailand??!! Every Thai girl is a prostitute.
Well, I guess it's just because they are green of envy. Imagine living in Shitville in February,
of course your envy someone living in Thailand. Must be the reason because I can't imagin anyone seriously thinking that every Thai girl is a prostitute.
A henious crime and this goes on in the open. But on the 6th of October we read that “Police moves in to clean up porno stalls in tourist areas” .
And then again, on the 10th of October I read the following in Bangkok Post:
Child porn on sale despite 'Crackdown'
I qoute Bangkok Post and the article “Lumpini police in hot water in wake of raid” from the 14th of October: The UN Children's Fund called on the government the day before the raid to end the sale of child pornography in Bangkok
Well, I'm not good with words, but you can read the articles from Bangkok Post. Then you can judge for your self if a country where it's alowed to sell child porn is a country of lawlessness
- Hmm, well, the prisons are full!
- Of course, comit a petty crime and the law will come down very harsh on you.
Unless you're connected, the you get away with everything Hell, not only are you walking free. You are arousing admiration and people are looking up to you.
Or what do you think of the following
flip-flop story from Bangkok Post. Yes, imagine trying to board an aircraft with a pair of those flip-flops. A suitcase full of child porn, no problem,
but a pair of flip-flops can get you in to deep shit.
Of course, only if it's the wrong kind. And which shoes are allowed? This is a serious matter and I understand that child porn doesn’t make it very high on the list.
Hmm, the whole thing might turn out
as a good thing.
Going to Pattaya and you think that
you have ended up in a Beach Guard convention
Det blir ju nästan som i Göteborg 1987 när vi åkte runt i limo service mellan restauranterna.
Jaja, det dramat kommer man ju ihåg. Från toaleten på Colombus till den däringa restauranten som du kallade Göteborg's stjärn krog. 5 våffel järn eller vad den hadde fått. Sen hadde dom inte ens fiskpinnar.
with all the people walking around in flip-flops. If a certain pair of flip flops are a threat to the national security, why
shouldn't all flip-flops be a threat to the national security.
I'm just joking, of course, I understand that terror flip-flops are more dangerous than ordinary flip-flops.
I will keep my eyes out for these flip-flops and I will buy a few pairs. This might be the thing to take off as the #1 Christmas gift of 2010.
Well, I'm looking forward to a few days in Sweden before going back home and the only thing I'm worried about is if Ms. “Most beautiful in the world #1” will grow tired of us before it's time to leave.
Well, I'm a little worried about the weather, I only have shorts to wear so we willhopefully stay indoors.
A beautiful day turned in to a terrible evening. The wind picked up to full gale and it became cold. Our plan was to drop anchor at Skagen to get some shelter. But now we have new berthing prospects, tomorrow morning. Early, good, I will soon meet my reliever.
And of course, Pilot was changed from 6 o'clock in the morning to 13:00 due to delayed ship at the jetty. All cargo operations had ceased yesterday due to the storm. But we willhopefully get alongside this afternoon so my reliever can come onboard.
I called my friend and he had booked a hotel for me. But he told me that I could stay with J.
- He has a 2 room apartment.
- No, I want to stay at a hotel.
- You save money.
- Hey, I have spent 5 months on a ship and I would like to be alone during the nights.
And I guess the breakfast at the hotel beats anything that J can come up with. And after 5months on the ship money is of no concern.
Especially since I got my cards. Yes I called my bank this morning.
- Have my cards arrived?
- Yes, they are here.
- About f@cking time, I will come to Båstad on Monday or Tuesday.
We will see when we go to Båstad. J is joining his ship on Tuesday so we might spend the day in
Go:teborg for some quality time with him. But according to rumours he will be on a
course on Monday so we will see what happens.
Well, my reliever is not coming today. Why he isn't coming? Are you sitting down? You better sit down! The company had forgotten to tell my reliever that he should join the ship. Unbelievable, OSM, of course, I should not be surprised after having seen their safety posters. What to expect after the banana peel poster?
They have known that I should be home to the 20th of October since February/ March and they get me a reliever that cannot come before the 21st and then they forget to tell him to come!! Way to go if you have problem to find Chief Officers!
We got our Pilot onboard at 12:40 and we had all fast at jetty 510 fifteen minutes after 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
We were finished with the paper work and waiting to start discharging when the Seaman’s church
came onboard with newspapers. I was in the duty mess drinking tea when he came in through the door.
- Aladdin!
- What? Do I know you?
- You were on a Furetank ship.
- That must have been a few years back and you are still remembering me?
- Was 7 or 8 years ago and I brought books to your ship in Vlissingen.
- You remember this?
We had a chat about the good old time and I was amazed that he remembered my name, the ship and where we had meet 7 or 8 years ago.
no sign of my reliever. I turned on my phone, yes, I had to turn it off yesterday when my drunken friends called screaming in the phone:
- PARTY!!
This was exactly what I did not want to listen to so I turned off my phone. And I was happy that I was onboard. Imagine waking up with a hangover force 9,7 today. OK, if I have had fun the day before.
But waking up with a hangover force 9,6
after a night screaming of just “party” it would have been enough to make me want to throw
myself from a bridge.
Well, anyway, turning on my phone and 500 voice messages that I never bothered listening to. Text messages “For your web page?” with video
attached that I will never put on public display on my web page.
Pictures and, well, they must have been very busy sending all the stuff to me so I don't understand where they found the time to all the:
- PARTY!!
Well, we have an annual DNV inspection and the Inspectors came onboard just after 8 o'clock, still no sign off my reliever.
I finished some paper work and I went to
the kitchen to pester our Cook. I had to pass the mess room on my way to the kitchen and I discover our Cook having his breakfast in the mess room when I came.
- What the?! Are you eating from a bucket?
DNV is onboard to check all the alarms and stuff to renew our certificates so our engine
department is busy all morning with the Inspectors. I will
have a tour on deck with them after lunch.
They called me in my cabin at 11:45 and I expected that it was the DNV Inspectors wanting to take the tour on deck.
- Your reliever is here
- OK, I'm coming
I went to the owner's cabin to greet our new Chief Officer. I gave him a boiler suit and a pair of working shoes. Luckily enough our DNV Inspectors were ready to go on deck for inspection so I brought the new Chief Officer.
When we were ready we our Pump Man and I decided to take the new Chief Officer on a more thorough tour on deck.
- I will just get something warmer, the new C/O said.
- OK, I will give you a winter overall, I said.
Yes, it was gloomy and grey for as long as you could see, raining and windy and I'm really looking
forward to leaving Sweden for some warmer weather
We finished the tour on deck and we got in to my office to continue with the handover. I have written a handover report with a STEP BY STEP instruction for the maintenance and loading program. I had done some of the work but I had not removed them from the STAR IPS so he could follow my STEP BY STEP guide to report the works as done.
I went for a diet drink in the duty mess while our new Chief Officer was busy with the STAR IPS. I was sipping on my can glancing through one of the news papers they had brought from the Seaman's church yesterday.
I stumbled on an ad, laser liposuction. Only 900$ this might be something I want to try. Yes,
I will soon look good!
- Motherf@cker, this is something for me!
Anyone heard of i-Lipo? I would be grateful for information. This might be my thing. well, anyway, I was in a good mood when I came back to my office. And my mood improved when our new Chief Officer had finished the tasks I had prepared for him.
- Is it a new SUPER Chief
or is my STEP BY STEP guide just excellent?
I usually do like this, a written STEP BY STEP guide and a few tasks to complete and my reliever has completed the tasks by himself and he will remember it. If I just tell him how to do it he will have forget it after 5 seconds.
I had made one TRAINING purchase for him to do and he completed the task in less than 5. He had ordered 3 items with only a few pointers from me. So he knows this program in less than 20 minutes. Or as I told him.
- You could have spent 2 weeks reading the darn manual and you would still not have had a clue what to do with the program.
Yes, I think the most of us have experience from useless manuals.
we will be completed around 10 o'clock and the Pilot was ordered for 11:30 Good, we will have time to run the ODME.
I have asked them to prepare the pump room for running the
ODME so Pump Man had done this when he started work this morning. ODME and our new Chief Officer want to do a test run. I finished my morning tea and Pumpernickel in the CCR and we started the test run.
When we were ready with the test run I went to get my bags in my cabin. I had a shower and I changed my clothes and I returned to the office. We had 20 minutes to go before we
were completed with the discharging. So I had time to go to the kitchen to pester our Cook
- Hey, handsome! I will take a few pictures and send to my friends in Manila. Beautiful girls.
Well, he didn't manage to send it to my phone so you will never get to see the pictures.Hmm, and if he didn't manage to sent it to my phone I doubt that he will manage to get them to his girl friends in Manila. But never mind.
We completed discharging 10 minutes after 10 o'clock and the Pilot was onboard 40 minutes before the time he was ordered so I had to wait for the taxi on the jetty. And it was cold.
But I got the chance to take some pictures of EK-Star leaving jetty 510 from the jetty. She will load at jetty 521 and the jetty is occupied and she had to go drop the anchor until Preem's jetty were free, maybe tonight. But what do I care? 
I also got a chance to get some pictures of the crew at their mooring stations. I went out at the end of the jetty to get a few pictures of our headlines on the bollard.
Well, time for me to leave the jetty to see if the taxi is arriving and I left Ek-Star behind on my way for my holidayafter 5 months on Ek-Star and Ek-River.
- We're about to be ready!- OK, I'm comingI was half dead, felt like I just had felt asleep. And it was!
When I came down to the CCR I discovered a foggy morning. Thick fog and the visibility was down to almost 0. We completed the discharging 25 minutes after 6 o'clock in the morning.
We were ready with all the paper work at 7 o'clock and pilot was ordered for 7 thirty. 30 minutes to kill, what to do?Well, I can enjoy a diet drink.
Pilot came onboard in time and we left Pori behind, nice. And I will
hopefully not be back until next summer. It was a beautiful day, but it's very cold so I expect the ice any day now.I told our Pump man to start the heating in our deck trunk and to blind the FW out on deck. We were out of the fog not long after the departure and the morning turned in to a gorgeous day. Cold, but very nice weather. Just a wee bit more than 2 weeks before I go home so I wish for the weather to stay like this until then.
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 2 nd
of October 2010
and I woke up to yet another beautiful day. The sea was like a mirror and the sun was shining. But the high pressure also means that it's getting colder. But better cold and sunshine than storm and rain. We haven't had any stupid slide show here for a long time, so I will throw in a slide show trying to brighten your day a bit. So go ahead, enjoy our Pump Man's hard work and my pictures.
A Stupid Slide Show just for YOU!
We had all fast in Hamina 10 minutes after 3 o'clock in the afternoon, ship's time. We commenced discharging 45 minutes later and when we're ready with the discharging we will start to load for Helsinki. We will just move the arm from manifold #5 to #4.
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 3 rd
of October 2010
and I didn't go to bed until 04:30. We completed discharging 5 minutes after 10 o'clock yesterday evening and then it was just for me to wait for the Loading Master so we could do the paper work for the loading.2 parcels to be mixed onboard and we started the first parcel 01:35 and the first parcel is on 550m³. So I stayed up until this parcel was ready before going to bed.
I woke up 10 minutes after 12 and I had a quick shower before going for my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®. and then I checked out the CCR before I returned to my HTML editor in my cabin. I expect it to be a long night and a very early morning arriving to Helsinki tomorrow morning. Darn, it's every night!
The called me at 18 thirty to give me the 30 minutes’ notice to completion of the loading. We left Hamina at 10 o'clock and pilot at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning. I have a few hours to sleep on.
If I can manage to fall a sleep
+++++++++++++++
Monday 4 th
of October 2010
and they called me quarter to 6 in the morning.- 20 to 25 minutes to the jetty.- Motherf....We had all fast at 6 thirty in a marina. We're the first tanker to have arrived here since 1999.
And port side along side, perfect! Our Pump Man can finishthe draft mark on Port side and we're ready to have the DNV inspector onboard so we can get our fresh water allowance.Nice weather but cold so I had to wear pantalongas on deck. Never mind, October and nothing else is expected. And if I can wear shorts until October I'm satisfied. I will soon in Asia so I will have summer until I'm returning in the Spring time 2011.
No tankers at this jetty since 1999. The cargo arm looks very old, but it’s a brand new pipe line ashore so we were allowed to discharge with a maximum rate of 150m³/h until the lines was checked and filled with cargo.
ready to leave before 9 o'clock tonight (22:00 local time) or we have to wait until tomorrow morning. And that means 5 o'clock so I really hope we can leave tonight. But it is touch and go!The cargo arm has then most likely not been in use since 1999.
- They have just had service on the arm, they told me.
Well, the arm was leaking like ,hmm, yeah, much and the Loading Master was a wee bit embarrassed and he told me several times that the arm was
back from service.Crew change in Helsinki and we got a new 2nd Officer, I knew him from Ek-River. We also got our electrician back onboard after 1 month at home. And he
was knocking on my door after the dinner. Dried mangoes, very good. A gift is always appreciated. Well,hmm, what about my diet? And Lisen! Now you see how much a small token of appreciation means!And why are all the on signers looking so young with their new haircuts? Life isn’t fair, when I get a
haircut I just looks bald. DARN! And double darn! And my “MAGIC HAIR STUFF”! Today it's more like an irritating thing than a hope to look good in the future.Where did it go wrong? I don't know, but it's no fun when there is no more hope!
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 5 th
of October 2010
and we had the sea against us when I woke up. I could feel the shipmove when I had my shower and the water was splashing batch and forth in my bath room.But it was nice to see that our Engine Cadet had toughens up. No more sea sickness and
when I ran in to him at the coffee break he had a plate brimmed with cup cakes for the engine room.Well, he will soon be as cocky as our OS.
I finished our cargo plans before lunch, I only need to get the density and temp before I print the Sequence Plan. But the narrative part is ready and printed. ETA 10
o'clock tonight so I went to bed after lunch. Arrival in the late night and I need a sleep during the day. If we arrive in the middle of the night I'm better off with no sleep during the day because then I cannot sleep in the evening.I'll be darned! I expected us to get the pilot at 10 and when I looked out my window I could see that the deck light was on.
- Good, we will soon get the pilot.
I looked out the window a little later to see if we were approaching the port. I could see some lights in the horizon.
- Good, we will soon arrive.
I looked out the window 20 minutes later and the lights were in same position.
- Are we moving?
I went on the bridge and we had just dropped anchor at 22:35.
- Jetty is occupied until 1,2 or 4 o'clock.
- Motherf@....!
Now I can't sleep tanks to my afternoon sleep. Now I'm full of vim, but if I can't sleep I will be dead in the middle of the night. But 4 o'clock means f@ck all around here and I hope we go alongside tomorrow, after 8 o'clock in the morning.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 6 th
of October 2010
and of course it was impossible to fall asleep. I was awake whenthe pilot station called at 3 o'clock and I might have been asleep between 30 minutes and an hour when they called me 20 past 4 in the morning.We started loading 20 minutes before 7 and I felt a sleep around 8 o'clock. I woke up 3 and a half hour later to a beautiful day. Loading in progress and we really don't know when we're ready, we can load to maximum draft 9,05 meters minus water level. And the water level has been everything from -40 to -31. And when we finally completed loading it was -45 cm.
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 7 th
of October 2010
and we were on our way when I woke up. We left Riga 25 minutesafter midnight this very morning. It was sunny but windy with rough sea and water spray over deck.Our crew could not be on deck due to the water spray
over deck, never mind, the crew was busy in our potable water tank.Yearly inspection of the tank and we discovered some mud in the bottom of the tank when we removed the man hole cover yesterday. So our engine department pumped out as much water they could and our Pump Man pumped out the last 2m³ from the tank with the Welden pump.
Our Pump Man and OS went down to clean the tank with brushes, rags and a high pressure washer. No cleaning agent was used, as I told them.
- Don't use any cleaning agent! Could be hard to remove.- OK, we only use water.
- Hold it there for a sec Buddy Boy!If we use cleaning agentit might be unnecessary to use shampoo and we can save a buck or two on the shampoo!They spent 2 to 3 hours cleaning the tank and we could put back the manhole. Now we have to wait for the starboard side tank to be empty so we can do that tank as well, but then I will not be onboard.
Soon time to go home.
SURPRISE
”
®, and of course, our Cook had to f@ck it up by adding sausages on top of it. And I didn't have time to say NO before he had put the sausages on my plate.Rough sea in the Baltic Sea and our Engine Cadet, yes, he was very cocky the other day when we
were well secured alongside the jetty. Today it was a different story, pale and sea sick.No, I'm not sea sick, but it's very tiring to hold on to stuff all the time. Well, I hope the weather gets better tomorrow so we can kick some arses on deck. There is always something to do on deck, and as we have the sea breaking over deck today I can't send anyone out on deck. We don't want anyone to be washed overboard.
+++++++++++++++
Friday 8 th
of October 2010
and I was happy to discover that the ship has stopped to roll when Iwoke up. I finished our discharge plans for Le Havre and I alsomeasured our tanks for H2S before lunch.Well, Chief officer was not the only one busy. Pump Man and the AB changed oil in our MOB boat davit and while they were at it our electrician did something with the electric motor to the davit.
They were finished with the davit in time for lunch so they could continue the painting
after the lunch break. And I was happy that I finally readsome Thai during the lunch break. I have not opened my books for quite some time now.A busy morning turned in to a slow afternoon. Well, I managed to kill a few minutes giving pointers to the ABs painting the deck.
Spinach and cod fish for dinner and I went to my cabin with half can of diet drink, yes, the very last can and I hope I can manage withoutdiet drinks from now on.
Maybe I have turned in to a “dietoholic”® and I will go through the crew’s cabins in search of diet drinks. Of course, I will do as the Captain in Veritas Tankers did.
- What theare you doing in there?- Oh! I'm here to have a look on the carpet. Very nice!
- You forgot to turn on the light!
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 9 th
of October 2010
and we were anchored outside Go:teborg when I woke up. The bunkerbarge was alongside to give us 200MT FO and 40MT GO. It was a beautiful morning so I was not really sure we were in Göteborg, I mean, what’s the chance to arrive to a sunny Go:teborg? A very slim one!We started to force ventilate STB Slop tank when the bunker barge departed and 1 hour later we did a bottom flush so we could go down to make the tank inspection. We finished the tank inspection in time for lunch and 5 minutes later a sunny morning had turned in to a gloomy and grey day.
I could not believe my luck, yes the sun came back in the afternoon so the crew could paint on deck.
- But who cares?No the most important happening today was that I found a can of diet drink. And yes, I could not
believe my luck when my “Carpet Inspection” finally paid off and I found a diet drink. I dashed straight off to my cabin and I popped open the can.My last, last can and I want to enjoy it in my cabin without all the riff raff around.
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 10 th
of October 2010
and I woke up to yet another beautiful day. Some swell, but notenough to be annoying. I had my tea in my office and I tested ourgas detectors before going down to the engine workshop to check out the progress with the welding.We have a leaking foam line in the deck trunk so our deck crew started the day by removing the pipe.
They had it in the engine work shop and the pipe was welded before the coffee break. Only to pressure test the pipe before my best guys put it back.
I expect it to be ready before lunch and the guys can spend the afternoon cleaning their cabins.I found a diet drink yesterday and it lasted me for 6 and a half hour. I have never stretched a can of soda for so long before.
And of course, one my way back to my office I held a cross-examination with all the Engineers.
- Do you have any diet drinks?
- No! I promise!
- ARE YOU SURE??!!
- Yes Sir!But just to make sure we checked the refrigerator in the
ECR and I'll be darned. I could not believe myluck, there was a diet drink!And this diet drink didn't last for 6 and a half hour. The can was pretty much dry after 5 minutes'.
We will arrive to Le Havre tomorrow and according to the latest information we have there will be a strike from Tuesday morning. So we might get stuck in Le Havre for as long as the strike is on. So I might have time to go ashore for a diet drink. But if we're at the same place as last time I won't bother, too far away.
After lunch and I was, yes, I had studied my Thai books, looking for yet another diet drink. I ran in to one of the ABs.
- ARRANGE A DIET DRINK FOR ME OR ELSE....
- Sir! Yes! Sir! On the double! Sir!
He returned with a can of diet coke a few seconds later.
- I had one can in my cabin!
- Hmm, diet coke! Not good, but it have to do! Thank you!
I scrutinized
the can carefully- Ahh, made in Denmark!
So there is some hope for it to be drinkable. I popped open the can and it
tasted way better than the Polish and German diet coke. But diet coke is not my favourite, water taste better.I got an e-mail from Lisen. She had been visiting Ek-River when they were in Go:teborg. OK, first
of all I just want to mention that I'm happy to notice that the new way of spelling Göteborg/ Gothenburg has really catch on.But I was not happy to learn that she had seen the picture of me with the mop on my head in the DIRTY MESS!!! What the
is this. Whathappened to the “Wall of fame”?Reason to be worried? Yes, maybe, Lisen also wrote that she was going on town to eat sushi. And believe me, I was quick to reply: “DON'T GO EMBARRASS ME AT YAMMY KITCHEN!!!” Oh yeah, would have been a dream come true to have Lisen running around Yammy Kitchen telling Miss “Most beautiful in the world” that:
- I know Aladdin!
- ...on his web page....
- Aladdin loves you....
- Desktop background....blah-blah-bla....
Just what I need and it would have been impossible for
Yo Alito
So we will see you in two weeks?Hopefully he meant him and the gorgeous Japanese girl.- Hmm, still don't know if she is on to the whole sumo thing.Well, only one way to reply to this one:
Yo! We? Please elaborate
I managed to get an hour constitutional
on deck, well, almost 2 hours during the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and the wind came from behind so it was like a nice spring day on deck.Of course, the day would have been perfect if I just could find one more diet drink. I had played it nice so far and I had just come up with, well, almost ZIP! He decided to try another approach, no more Mr. Nice Guy! Hell, I never thought that I would get a chance to write No more Mr. Nice Guy on my web page. well, anyway, I went to the crew's table during the dinner.
- Bon appétit motherf@ckers and a**holes!
- WHICH ONE OF YOUHAS DIET DRINKS IN THE CABIN?
I could not believe it. My new tactic paid off right away. I left the mess room and 26 seconds
later our Pump Man came after me to the duty mess.- I heard that you were looking for a diet drink.
- Yes.- I have one in my cabin!
- Well, bring it, motherf@cker!
Our Pump Man returned a few seconds later with a diet drink and I popped it open before a second had passed by.
- Mmm, thank you!
Well, anyway, I returned to my cabin with the half of my diet drink that I got from our Pump Man. Lo and f@cking behold, when I opened my door I discovered an almost full case of diet drinks. Diet Coke, but anyway. Sunday night turned in to a feast.
Hmm, is it possible to be addicted to diet drinks? I don't know, but maybe I have turned in toa dietoholic. Well, it's better than being an alcoholic, I can still perform in my profession.Hmm, maybe not what employers are looking for. I have more experience than I care for from useless drunken alcoholics on the ships. And almost without exceptions it had turned out that ship
owners prefer the drunks. Every time they are coming around the corner its cake, colourful hats and party whistles.And I understand, of course they want to hear stuff like.
- Very nice!
- Everything is OK
So of course, when I'm coming with:
- Maybe we need to repair this....
So they are glad when I leave and I have many examples. Last time was in a company I was in 2 years ago. I had complained to the company about the drunken engine department. No response, well, expect that I never heard anything from the company, no e-mail or nothing. Well, that was kind of nice. Well, I asked them to send me home ASAP.
And then at a vetting inspection, in another company, the Vetting Inspector told me that this very company had to send a new Captain to a ship that was not allowed to leave the jetty.
- The Pilot found the Captain drunk and called the Police.
Now imagine how much this set the company back. Occupying a jetty waiting for the new Captain. And it must have been a killer for the reputation.
So actually it's nice to be in Ektank, they take it serious with ZERO tolerance with alcohol. And as I say, if you can't live without alcohol for 6 weeks you have problem. And it's always the guys with problem complaining.
- It's like communist soviet, I can’t have a glass of wine to my dinner on Saturdays.
- OK, go ahead have a glass of wine.
He has a glass of wine and then we have to live with this motherf@cker running around naked
for the next 2 weeks. Until he sobers up and then it's back to the cake, colourful hats and party whistles.- He is so very good this guy!
And the suckers having to do their job are just a pain in the arse.
+++++++++++++++
Monday 11 th
of October 2010
and who the f@ck put the almost full case of diet drinks inside my door yesterday afternoon? Very very bad!! - I WILL FIND OUT WHO IT WAS!
Of course, impossible to fall asleep after all the diet drinks so I was dead tired when they called
me 20 minutes before 8 o'clock in the morning. I had spent most of the night tossin' and turnin' in my bed.Well, not time to loll around in bed. We will soon take onboard the Pilot for Le Havre.
The strike is on for the two days, Tuesday and Wednesday
e-mail from a British fan. And he gave me information about the strike, it will be over on Wednesday.
Later on I got it confirmed that we would wait in Le Havre after discharging until Wednesday morning. Maybe time to go ashore for a walk on Tuesday afternoon. But I have been in Le Havre before and it's not a place that makes anyone happy.
And we had a MSC ship ahead of us and she was also bound for the lock so it took us almost 2 hours with the Pilot before we arrived to the lock.
Captain was searching the refrigerator on the bridge while the crew was busy with the mooring.And motherf@... He found 2 diet drinks.- Hey, now I can stay 1 month extra, I said.
I popped one can open immediately. And the Surveyor and Loading Master onboard 20 minutes later and sampling and paper work. Well, doesn’t seem like they are in a hurry to get us out from here before 6 o'clock tomorrow morning when they close the lock due to the strike.
We were waiting for 3 hours before we could start. Sampling completed at 14:30 and they sent the samples for analyse before we could start discharging. At 17:40 we started the discharging and no chance we would make it to the lock before 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, and that's even though we're discharging with an whopping 1500m³/h.
So there might be a chance for me to go shopping tomorrow.+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 12 th
of October 2010
and they called me at 4 thirty this morning.- We finish discharging in 30 minutes.- OK, I'm coming down.I was surprised, I was full of vim even though I just felt a sleep. And after the shower I was cart wheeling down to the CCR and we completed discharging 5 minutes after 5 o'clock. Tank inspection completed at 5 thirty and all the paper work was signed around 6 o'clock.
I was back in bed at 6 thirty trying to sleep, impossible. So I was down in the mess room at 8
o'clock again. Dead tired, but I could not sleep.Hmm, most likely die to the diet drinks I had been drinking the last few days. It must be all the caffeine that makes me manic.But I can't get enough of them and we asked our Agent to order a taxi for us when he came onboard around 10 o'clock. Our Engine Cadet and OS joined me for a trip to town.
Our engine Cadet was looking for a lap top so he could visit www.aladdin.st during tedious nights onboard. Our driver dropped us at some shopping centre in Le Havre. And there were no people around at all. Actually it looked
closed, and maybe so, due to the strike.- It's not like Mall of Asia in Manila, I said.
- No, always plenty people at Mall of Asia.
It was a big building, but most of the space looked like a parking building and, well, it turned out to be parking spaces. The shopping centre was on the ground floor and there was a few clothes shops, a radio/ computer store and a supermarket.
No people around and it was pretty dead around
and we decided to continue towards the train station. We stopped at the super market for 3 diet drinks before we continued towards Le Havre train station.- American Express!!??No we don't accept AMEX!And yes, we remember the drama in Manila last April when
I tried to get money with my plastic cards. Magnetic tapes were unreadable. I have ordered new cards 3 times and they never arrive. So my 3rd order will be sent to the bank and they will send it to me in Bangkok. I still have my old cards but every time I ordered new cards they cancelled the previous cards that I had ordered. So my old cards are most likelycancelled, so no money.I called my bank today and still no VISA and Master Card. Well, we will see when I get them. Luckily enough I had a Bangkok Bank VISA so we could pay for the diet drinks.
at the brassiere on the corner. We went in to buy some coffin nails. No cards accepted, but there was an ATM and I found use for my Thai ATM for the second time today.When we were in the shop we could hear drummers outside and we went to check it out. From around
the corner came, well, it was more like people were poured out on the street from around the corner. The street went from empty to a war zone in a jiff. First we had the drummersand then people screaming.We could hear bombs go off in the distance and we could see smoke down the road. It looked like it was the “Dockers Le Havre” that walked first. At least according to the banderols. Well, they are marching and we have to stay alongside waiting for them to finish their strike.
Next car had even bigger loudspeakers and some on screaming angrily in a microphone. Well, at least it sounded like they were unhappy.We saw people working at a hospital in the protest. Seems like everyone is on the streets. And our Agent told us that this was a national strike.
- A pretty big strike.
Well, the group from the hospital
were doing the protest samba style, dancing down the road with the disco music blasting high on the Richter scale. So of course, they got some well deserved attention.Of course, everyone wanted attention and the cleverest way I saw were the guys pulling an Atlas Copco compressor after a van. 2 huge horns connected to the compressor and it was impossible not to give them the attention they were looking for.
missed. So no harm done.All the excitement made us hungry and we spotted a restaurant across the street. The only problem was that it looked like mission impossible to cross the street with all the terro..., no protestors.
- Hmm, what to do?We really wanted to have some French food before returning to the ship. Well, French food, never mind. But a
fresh baguette would be nice. But we came up with yet another master plan.- Let's join the protest and we work our way across the street!Said and done, we throw ourselves in to the crowd
and we were soon on the other side. American Express signs are noting I run in to very often.- AMEX!!?? NO NO!! Only VISA and Master Card!And the sign on the door was no guarantee for them to accept
AMEX, but then I could always make a scene.Menu, only in French. I recognised broccoli and camembert. So I pointed at this item and the waitress just shakes her head. OK, I
recognised Avocat, well, it reminded me about avocado so I pointed at this item. she shake her head even more and shepointed at a black board on the wall.Well, the starter was the salad buffet and we could choose between two things for the main course. Pallete a la Diable sounded most exciting so the choice was obvious.
Tarte aux pommes and surprisingly enough the waitress
knew that this was apple pie in English so I and our Engine Cadet decided to have one after the darn “Pallete a la Diable”.And I ordered tea.
- Uno la pot of tea!
- Oui!
She pointed at all of us.
- Trois?
I was just about to say no, only for me. But yet again, I came up with an “avoir une idée de génie”.- Oui! Trois!
Yes, I told her that we wanted a pot of tea for 3 persons in hope that they would bring us a manly pot of tea.
We were enjoying our salad buffet and the waitress came to take our picture.
almost one hour to get the main course. So when the “Pallete a la Diable” arrived to our table I told them to bring the Tarte aux pommes and the bill.- Bill??!!- Oui! La bill!
- Ah! Addition!
- Correcte lamente
I had drinking three pots of tea and I managed to order milk to my tea. I remember one time in Bayonne a few years ago. I was in a restaurant ordering tea with milk.
They got the tea right, but it went wrong when it came to the milk. I was screaming moo moo while doing the internationally recognised sign for milking a cow.- Imbécile!!I had to drink my tea without the milk.
Our apple pie arrived to the table.
No vanilla sauce!!- VANILLA!!!
- Ah! Sauce Angle?
- Oui!
F@cking A, I'm getting the hang of the French language now. And it was no problem to pay withmy AMEX. American Express and of course they thought that I'm from USA. I seem to be the only one stupid enough to have a AMEX.At least by judging from the acceptance of the card.
Well, we walked back to the shopping centre and we started by looking for a computer for our Engine Cadet. I told him that they would only have windows in French and not in English. And I was right so we left the shop and returned to the supermarket. Last stop before returning to the ship.
We bought a few diet drinks and my Thai ATM card came in handy for the third time today. And the girl at the supermarket was so kind and she called us a taxi. was it our charm?
I don't knowhopefully be onboard the 20th of October and I spent the afternoon writing my handover report to my reliever.I'm done with France for a while and we haven't had any videos on www.aladdin.st for long time so I
will upload a video from the excitements in Le Havre. The only thing is that if I want a good quality video on my web page the size is ballooned out of proportions. Well, we will have to try to enjoy it anyway.+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 13 th
of October 2010
and they called me 20 minutes before 7.- Pilot onboard in 20 minutes- What?- Pilot onboard in 20 minutes- OK, I'm on my way.I had a hot shower and I went to the bridge. 7 o'clock, a little disappointment, but its way better
than 4 o'clock. And it looks like it will be a nice day so I was in a pretty good mood when we left for Rotterdam anchorage.No new cargo and I hope they will come up with something soon.while the crew were busy with our foam line in the deck trunk we got orders to go to Grangemouth, Scotland to load for Assens, Denmark.
Later on I heard that it might have changed to Go:teborg. Well, we see where we end up.
Soon time for me to leave and our Cook is keeping a close watch over the hazelnuts, pumper nickel and tuna.
- If you stay for 10 more days, no problem!
- What about if I have to stay for 2 weeks?
- No problem with the hazelnuts and
tuna. Pumper nickel is good for about 10 or 12 more days.Diet drinks, for a few more days. And we're talking tops. Captain came with 2 cases for me in my office. And I could not help but thinking that back in the days they were busy handing out beers and booze to the alcoholics. Now they are busy handing out diet drinks to the dietoholics.
Time changes and no one is able to say it better than the Chief Engineer on M/T Marimba.
- Back in the days we were drunk and stupid and it was much better. Today they are not drinking!
What a statement!Hmm, I have no clue what he meant. But I
have no problem to imagine these people drunk andstupid.Well, later on in the afternoon I got Go:teborg confirmed. And we might have to drop anchor in Grangemouth until Sunday. The cargo is not ready for us. Well, we have stuff to do.
Today the crew repaired the foam line and we will pressure test the line tomorrow when we force ventilate Slop tank Port preparing this tank for inspection. Last tank I can do before signing off.
But we have done all the tanks and cofferdams, except the cargo tanks and stb fresh water tank. We cannot do the cargo tanks until we have had a cargo suitable for cleaning and inspection. But I will finish the last slop tank before my reliever come onboard. Of course, weather permitted!
I cannot leave anything behind for him. I know myself and how pissed off I get when I relieve some ar** hole having left everything behind for me to do.
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 14 th
of October 2010
and I woke up to a gloomy and grey day. Grey, it was more like it was a black day. Black clouds covering the sky.But there was a ray of sun in my office when I got the news that we would drop the anchor in Grangemouth. I really hope so, even though it’s boring like hell. And the company get paid while we wait for the cargo. But anchoring and we will be in Go:teborg on Wednesday and Ektank is working 24 seven to get a cargo from Go:teborg. Discharging and loading and if my reliever is coming
in Go:teborg he will get more experience than he can wish for and I can go home in Go:teborg.Can I be so lucky? It’s for sure my time to get some luck after 22 years of no luck at all. I don't understand how I have ended up so unlucky. Thursday, if I can leave Go:teborg on Thursday I will
arrive to Funky Town on Friday the 22nd of October.Yes, it's my turn to have some luck this time.Well, anyway, we started the day by ventilating and clean our
port slop tank so we can inspect the tank after the coffee break.I called the engine room when it was time for the tank inspection.
- Chief Engineer- Yo! Mr. A here!- How's life?- Good, and you?We exchanged some pleasantries over the phone before he asked me:
- What can I do for you?- We're going down the tank. Has the Cadet ever been down in a tank?- No- Now he has the opportunity- I send him to your office. Can he take pictures?- YesOf course, our Engine Cadet needs to see how a tank looks like. Slop tank is pretty much the same as a cargo tank even though the slop tank is
much smaller than a cargo tank.I gave a gas detector to the Engine Cadet, very important to have a gas detector before
you entering a tank. I showed him how to do a quick pre-entry test of the detector. I measured the tank before I entered at 11:40When I came down I called Pump Man and the Deck Cadet on the radio.
- It's safe to come down now!
Our Engine Cadet, well, it didn't take long for him to turn from scared to cocky. He took pictures for remembrance of the
adventure of his life. Good for the new guys to see how it looks like.- Hmm, maybe I could make a living out of this. A cargo tank tour operator making
millions of Scooby dollars and I will never have to work again.Well, we got back loading in Go:teborg confirmed in the afternoon. Load FO in Go:teborg for Gävle.
And what the **** is going on? First I had our Electrician asking if he could use my stapler.
- Yes, no problem!
He returned with his papers to the engine room and 30 minutes later I had the Chief Engineer in my office.
- Do you have any staples?
- No
- OK, I will go try on the bridge
I don't understand why we can't get staples onboard. Well, I have
Yo
It does look like diet coke will be the new contraband.No more drunken captains, just captains burping all the time and unable to sleep because of the cafeen in the drink.
Just imagine what would happen if you had a shipment of diet coke, the ship would go missing for weeks, and would be found 100 miles off Barbados with everyone with a long straw sipping from the tanks. At least you wouldn't have to strip the tankers after it had all gone, the coke will do it for you.
You got good job, good company that's good luck. You could be on a Greek ship shifting coal from Russia :)
Stay safe
I was sitting in my cabin reading e-mail and writing about Argo Athena
thinking that this day would have nothing more to offer when I could hear some noise so I turned down my music a notch.Sounded like water running through a pipe. A wee bit later it
sounded like a helicopter and I looked out my window facing aft. There was a helicopter hovering over usI went out to take a few pictures making sure Ektank's logo on the funnel appeared on each picture. So people will know what company
to hire for future oil transports.Yes, Captain was laughing at me in Finland and Grangemouth last time. When Loading Master is leaving I'm always quick to add a “OK, now you know it's the real deal. No need for any colourful pamphlets telling you how good we are! If you need oil transported ask for Ek-Star”
Captain was laughing when he was telling me:
- That's the spirit!
Well, he was not laughing when Teboil wanted us back in Finland. Everyone was surprised that they needed so much oil transported “all of the sudden” Grangemouth, yes, we're back in Grangemouth. Last time there was a Furetank ship anchored outside Grangemouth rejected so she had to leave and we took the cargo.
So yes, I think our logo on the funnel will make a difference. People will know about the KICK ARSE crew onboard. And they will know that we're a reliable no nonsense crew. guess I will have to go easy on the pictures from now on.Well, turned out that it was the British Search and Rescue training
their helicopter crew. Good to see them practice, we never know when we will find use for them.So far I have been on two ships were we have needed the helicopter service.
Well, making a lot of noise and people came to the bridge to check out what was going on.
- Don't be scared, papa daddy is here!
I was soon growing tired of the helicopter action. And it was cold outside so I returned to my cabin.
I must finish rewriting about Argo Athena and Argo Pallas before I sign off.A lot of writing and all my old pictures has to be edited before I can upload them. Last time I uploaded my pictures I had to make them very small and the Photoshop back then left a little to wish for. Or maybe my skills have improved a wee bit since then. Well, anyway, it's a lot of work and I want to finish these two ships before going home.
Fat chance that I will sit in Bangkok wasting my time with this.
And believe me, these nightly helicopter action adventures doesn’t help making in quicker. I was delayed by an hour or so. First taking all the pictures and then edit and upload.
1 hour + + that I could have worked on my Argo Athena page had disappeared.
Hopefully I won't get disturbed anymore today. There is a new exciting day tomorrow so you just stay tuned for all the excitements.+++++++++++++++
Friday 15 th
of October 2010
and we were anchored when I woke up. Good, now I hope that we're going in to load on Sunday. Not before and not after or we might run in to trouble in Go:teborg where I have planned to go home. Well, we have to see. guys painted the foam line and they greased on deck. No use to start any chipping and painting in deck. Looks like it can start to pour down any second.We got the latest news from our Agent, berthing post phoned until Monday night. Midnight L/T. Good, and bad. I will for sure sign off in Go:teborg. But when? No more delays and I have the chance to arrive to FUNKY TOWN next Saturday. But it will most likely not be until
next Sunday. 24th of October, well, that's not a bad day to arrive home on.And as we use to say: More days more dollars!
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 16 th
of October 2010
and we were still anchored when I woke up and it was still dark outside. But it was only 06:40 local time. But it didn't improve very much with the daylight. The sky was covered with black clouds.We held our fire and oil spill drills after the 10 o'clock coffee break. And we completed everything just in time for lunch. Well, I was a few minutes late due to the reports I had to write.
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 17 th
of October 2010
and we were still anchored at Firth of Forth waiting to get up the River Fort to Grangemouth. I managed to end this day without taking any pictures. I have to go easy on the pictures in order to avoid ballooning this page out of proportions. I want to use the same page until I sign off. And anyway, after 4 months there isn't very much to take pictures off. Hell, I even disturbed the crew in their lunch on the picture above.+++++++++++++++
Monday 18 th
of October 2010
and we were still anchored at Firth of Forth waiting to get up the River Fort to Grangemouth. Our last day anchored? 1st of November for 2 weeks of courses.But,hmm, economy. My diet have not turned out to be quite the
Before
After
Yes, I will for sure be better off in a real seat and I sent the girl at my travel agency an e-mail.
- Can you please change to biz?
And I had my new tickets a few minutes later. Good service from FUNKY TOWN.
Well, we got good and bad news before lunch. We will go inside tonight, Pilot will board us around 6 o'clock. And the bad news, a very slow rate is expected and we won't be able to make it to Go:teborg in time so I will most likely not be home until earliest next Sunday the 24th of October.Well, I'm off to bed for a quick power nap after lunch. It might be a long night.
I managed to sleep for about one hour, or one and a half hour during the afternoon. After dinner I heard them start the main engine.
Nice, finally time to kick arse again.I was in my cabin taking it easy rewriting my web page about Kaprifol, yes, Rankki and the Argonaut ships are ready. Well, I received pictures of Kaprifol from my friend so now I have a picture to put on my page. I have searched the internet and I came up with ZIP.
I called the bridge 20 minutes before 8 o'clock to see when we were going to arrive to the lock.
- In about 20 minutes'- OK, I will just take a quick shower and I will come to the bridge!Hopefully we will be ready to leave tomorrow night so we can get my reliever onboard in Go:teborg.+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 19 th
of October 2010
and I discover a loading rate off 1000m³/h when I come down to the CCR. They had told us that it would be slow loading and that we had to wait for departure until Björn
Jag har sagt till att jag vill flyga hem på tisdagen så du kan boka hotel till mig. Men partytpå Bohusmalmön kan du nog glömma. Kanske jag kan gå av sent på lördagen och det kanske finns tid för ett par drinkari Göteborg, eller som det kallas nu för tiden, Go:teborg.Men vilken mardröm och komma till Yammy kitchen med tolvans fyllesjuka på söndagen.
Båstad m stop på Laxen's hus och mjukglass i Båstad efter att vi hämtat mina kort på banken. Ja, denna resa ska ju dokumenteras så du kommer att få mer exponering på internet än någon kan önska sig
Och sen e d Lisen och inte Fisen. Tycker att det är både roligt och kusligt att du har blivit så besatt av min hemsida så att du blir arg bara för att Lisen får lite uppmärksamhet på internet.
Men jag tar åt mig av kritiken så jag ska öka din exponering här på www.aladdin.st. Vad annars ska man göra efter den utskällningen man fick på telefonen. du skrek ju så att man fick mittbena.
Jaja, Lisen får ta den smällen, men hon har säkert ett mer sansat sätt att se på det här med internet.
I got an e-mail from my friend and they are throwing
a party in Go:teborg, but I won't be able to make it.My reliever is new onboard so I will have to stay with him during discharging and loading before I can sign off in order to give the new guy some “HANDS ON”
experience.I discovered a message on my desk after the coffee break. My friend had called and our Captain found him self in the middle of a cross examination.
- Where are you?
- When are you arriving to Go:teborg?
- Are Aladdin signing off?
Well, maybe Saturday evening. We see what’s happening. But my friend has booked a hotel for me in Go:teborg and I have told the company not to book my ticket back to FUNKY TOWN until Tuesday and I will arrive home on Wednesday.
I will go to my bank in Båstad to pick up my VISA and MasterCard. F@ck, I had it with these cards by now, for one year. Yes I have waited for one year. The last cards they sent to me were not working. Well, the smart chip was working. But not the magnetic strip.
Yes, we Björn
Det här äventyret ser jag fram emot. En trevlig utflykt tillSkåne, kanske vi kan besöka stället där dom hadde det
fina badrummet? Vi blir troligtvis inte insläppta där för dom lär ju inte ha glömt den rysaren även om vi snackar 20 år senJaja, vi har ju varit i Skåne ett par gånger och fadäsen i badrummet är ju inget i jämnförelse mot när vi hadde Johan med oss till Mölle.
Jaja, d ska bli roligt att träffas, en rolig måndag på tur e ju mycket bättre än en tråkig måndag i Bangkok.
Och
kanske, jag säger kanske, kan vi träffa snyggingen på Yammy Kitchen.J, ska han sitta hemma o tröst äta?
1 year, every time I call my bank to ask for my cards they cancel the cards and ordered new ones. Last time I called to ask, yes, we had given up the idea to send them to my friend in Go:teborg after several failed attempts. Well, they told me that they had cancelled the cards the 1st of October and ordered new ones.
Then the cards were ordered again on the 9th and the cards ordered the 1st had been cancelled. What is going on there? Time to change bank?
Well, I called my bank and it seems like they will have the card at the bank on Monday.
- Don’t send them to Bangkok, I will drop by to pick them up on Monday.- OK, we keep them here.They were running out of cargo ashore so we had to stop short of full cargo. Completed loading at 15:00 S/T and the Surveyors took the samples and we had the final density 1 and a half hour later. Cargo documents onboard 17:25 and now we just have to wait for the Pilot. Latest news is that he will board at 1 o'clock tomorrow morning.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 20 th
of October 2010
and the Pilot came onboard 5 minutes before 1 o'clock in the morning. We left the lock around 2 o'clock in the morning and I was in my bed around 3 o'clock.Storm warning with winds coming from the North bringing snow and shit. So I expected
some very bad weather when I woke up. Well, the ship was rolling at times, but not bad and the weather was expected to be better during the day. Well, ETA Go:teborg tomorrow night and my reliever are expected to come onboard on Friday morning. Will I sign off on Saturday or Sunday?We had sunshine during the afternoon and the wind
decreased, but still heavy swell so it was not the time to sit down relax with a diet drink. I popped open a diet drink when I woke up and I could not let go of the can. As soon as I put down the can it went off the table. So I'm better off without any diet drink today.And I discovered the engine crew suffering from seasickness when I came down to the engine department in the afternoon to have a chat with our Electrician.
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I have finished updating my old ships, as for this time onboard. I will continue next time I come onboard. There are still plenty ships to update. So I watched a movie trying to kill time.
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 21 st
of October 2010
and I woke up to a beautiful day. Sunshine and the wind was gone,just some slight swell. But they told me that it would start to blow from NW during the day.Congestion in the port of Go:teborg so we will have to drop anchor. And as we're expecting winds from NW we will drop anchor at Skagen to get some protection from the sea.
Berthing prospects, no idea.
We transferred slop during the morning and I packed my bag, took me exactly 3 seconds to pour my snus in my suitcase. Now I just have to worry about over weight on the flight.
But I should be allowed to check in 40 kg. But I think its 30kg per bag. Well, we will see.
Would not be the first time I have had to repack my stuff at the airport.
FUNKY TOWN on Wednesday afternoon. So I well get 2 or 3 days of quality time with my friend in Go:teborg before leaving for FUNKY TOWN. I just wish it was summer.October and we have already have our first snow in Sweden.
child porn on the streets. What kind of country alows this?On the third of October I read the Bangkok Post headline:
Child porn on streets stirs outrage
I was choking on my morning tea when I read the report.- What theis going on? Don't they have any shame in this country? What an outrage!I'm for sure ashamed to live in a country like that. During my 15 years living there I had never been ashamed even though I have been branded as a sex tourist. I have meet prejudice peoples almost on a daily basis.
- Oh, living in Thailand??!! Every Thai girl is a prostitute.
Well, I guess it's just because they are green of envy. Imagine living in Shitville in February,
of course your envy someone living in Thailand. Must be the reason because I can't imagin anyone seriously thinking that every Thai girl is a prostitute.A henious crime and this goes on in the open. But on the 6th of October we read that “Police moves in to clean up porno stalls in tourist areas” .
And then again, on the 10th of October I read the following in Bangkok Post:
Child porn on sale despite 'Crackdown'
I qoute Bangkok Post and the article “Lumpini police in hot water in wake of raid” from the 14th of October: The UN Children's Fund called on the government the day before the raid to end the sale of child pornography in Bangkok
Well, I'm not good with words, but you can read the articles from Bangkok Post. Then you can judge for your self if a country where it's alowed to sell child porn is a country of lawlessness
- Hmm, well, the prisons are full!- Of course, comit a petty crime and the law will come down very harsh on you.
Unless you're connected, the you get away with everything Hell, not only are you walking free. You are arousing admiration and people are looking up to you.Or what do you think of the following
flip-flop story from Bangkok Post. Yes, imagine trying to board an aircraft with a pair of those flip-flops. A suitcase full of child porn, no problem,
but a pair of flip-flops can get you in to deep shit.Of course, only if it's the wrong kind. And which shoes are allowed? This is a serious matter and I understand that child porn doesn’t make it very high on the list.
Hmm, the whole thing might turn out Björn,
nä man e ingen fräck globetrotter bara för att man går runt i magbälte och “GOD MORGON”
boots
Going to Pattaya and you think that
you have ended up in a Beach Guard convention Björn,
jag är bokad så vi kan spendera hela tisdagen i gamla Svedala innan vi far ut till flygplatsenDet blir ju nästan som i Göteborg 1987 när vi åkte runt i limo service mellan restauranterna.
shouldn't all flip-flops be a threat to the national security.I'm just joking, of course, I understand that terror flip-flops are more dangerous than ordinary flip-flops.
I will keep my eyes out for these flip-flops and I will buy a few pairs. This might be the thing to take off as the #1 Christmas gift of 2010.
Well, I'm looking forward to a few days in Sweden before going back home and the only thing I'm worried about is if Ms. “Most beautiful in the world #1” will grow tired of us before it's time to leave.
Well, I'm a little worried about the weather, I only have shorts to wear so we will
hopefully stay indoors.A beautiful day turned in to a terrible evening. The wind picked up to full gale and it became cold. Our plan was to drop anchor at Skagen to get some shelter. But now we have new berthing prospects, tomorrow morning. Early, good, I will soon meet my reliever.
+++++++++++++++
Friday 22 nd
of October 2010
and we were steaming against the sea when I woke up. We had been steaming against the wind during the night. To drop anchor would have been stupid in the wind blowing at storm force. All the ships that were anchored at anchorage “B” yesterday had left during the night when they started to drag their anchors.And of course, Pilot was changed from 6 o'clock in the morning to 13:00 due to delayed ship at the jetty. All cargo operations had ceased yesterday due to the storm. But we will
hopefully get alongside this afternoon so my reliever can come onboard.I called my friend and he had booked a hotel for me. But he told me that I could stay with J.
- He has a 2 room apartment.
- No, I want to stay at a hotel.
- You save money.
- Hey, I have spent 5 months on a ship and I would like to be alone during the nights.
And I guess the breakfast at the hotel beats anything that J can come up with. And after 5
months on the ship money is of no concern.Especially since I got my cards. Yes I called my bank this morning.
- Have my cards arrived?- Yes, they are here.- About f@cking time, I will come to Båstad on Monday or Tuesday.We will see when we go to Båstad. J is joining his ship on Tuesday so we might spend the day in
Go:teborg for some quality time with him. But according to rumours he will be on acourse on Monday so we will see what happens.Well, my reliever is not coming today. Why he isn't coming? Are you sitting down? You better sit down! The company had forgotten to tell my reliever that he should join the ship. Unbelievable, OSM, of course, I should not be surprised after having seen their safety posters. What to expect after the banana peel poster?
They have known that I should be home to the 20th of October since February/ March and they get me a reliever that cannot come before the 21st and then they forget to tell him to come!! Way to go if you have problem to find Chief Officers!
We got our Pilot onboard at 12:40 and we had all fast at jetty 510 fifteen minutes after 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
came onboard with newspapers. I was in the duty mess drinking tea when he came in through the door.- Aladdin!
- What? Do I know you?- You were on a Furetank ship.
- That must have been a few years back and you are still remembering me?
- Was 7 or 8 years ago and I brought books to your ship in Vlissingen.- You remember this?
We had a chat about the good old time and I was amazed that he remembered my name, the ship and where we had meet 7 or 8 years ago.
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 23 rd
of October 2010
and we were still discharging when I woke up. And of course,no sign of my reliever. I turned on my phone, yes, I had to turn it off yesterday when my drunken friends called screaming in the phone: - PARTY!!
This was exactly what I did not want to listen to so I turned off my phone. And I was happy that I was onboard. Imagine waking up with a hangover force 9,7 today. OK, if I have had fun the day before.
But waking up with a hangover force 9,6
after a night screaming of just “party” it would have been enough to make me want to throwmyself from a bridge.Well, anyway, turning on my phone and 500 voice messages that I never bothered listening to. Text messages “For your web page?” with video
attached that I will never put on public display on my web page.Pictures and, well, they must have been very busy sending all the stuff to me so I don't understand where they found the time to all the:
- PARTY!!
Well, we have an annual DNV inspection and the Inspectors came onboard just after 8 o'clock, still no sign off my reliever.
I finished some paper work and I went to
the kitchen to pester our Cook. I had to pass the mess room on my way to the kitchen and I discover our Cook having his breakfast in the mess room when I came.- What the?! Are you eating from a bucket?DNV is onboard to check all the alarms and stuff to renew our certificates so our engine
department is busy all morning with the Inspectors. I willhave a tour on deck with them after lunch.They called me in my cabin at 11:45 and I expected that it was the DNV Inspectors wanting to take the tour on deck.
- Your reliever is here- OK, I'm comingI went to the owner's cabin to greet our new Chief Officer. I gave him a boiler suit and a pair of working shoes. Luckily enough our DNV Inspectors were ready to go on deck for inspection so I brought the new Chief Officer.
When we were ready we our Pump Man and I decided to take the new Chief Officer on a more thorough tour on deck.
- I will just get something warmer, the new C/O said.
- OK, I will give you a winter overall, I said.
forward to leaving Sweden for some warmer weatherWe finished the tour on deck and we got in to my office to continue with the handover. I have written a handover report with a STEP BY STEP instruction for the maintenance and loading program. I had done some of the work but I had not removed them from the STAR IPS so he could follow my STEP BY STEP guide to report the works as done.
I went for a diet drink in the duty mess while our new Chief Officer was busy with the STAR IPS. I was sipping on my can glancing through one of the news papers they had brought from the Seaman's church yesterday.
I will soon look good!- Motherf@cker, this is something for me!Anyone heard of i-Lipo? I would be grateful for information. This might be my thing. well, anyway, I was in a good mood when I came back to my office. And my mood improved when our new Chief Officer had finished the tasks I had prepared for him.
- Is it a new SUPER Chief
or is my STEP BY STEP guide just excellent?I usually do like this, a written STEP BY STEP guide and a few tasks to complete and my reliever has completed the tasks by himself and he will remember it. If I just tell him how to do it he will have forget it after 5 seconds.
I had made one TRAINING purchase for him to do and he completed the task in less than 5. He had ordered 3 items with only a few pointers from me. So he knows this program in less than 20 minutes. Or as I told him.
- You could have spent 2 weeks reading the darn manual and you would still not have had a clue what to do with the program.
Yes, I think the most of us have experience from useless manuals.
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 24 th
of October 2010
and I woke up to my last day onboard Ek-Star. I called the CCR andwe will be completed around 10 o'clock and the Pilot was ordered for 11:30 Good, we will have time to run the ODME.I have asked them to prepare the pump room for running the
ODME so Pump Man had done this when he started work this morning. ODME and our new Chief Officer want to do a test run. I finished my morning tea and Pumpernickel in the CCR and we started the test run.When we were ready with the test run I went to get my bags in my cabin. I had a shower and I changed my clothes and I returned to the office. We had 20 minutes to go before we
were completed with the discharging. So I had time to go to the kitchen to pester our Cook- Hey, handsome! I will take a few pictures and send to my friends in Manila. Beautiful girls.Well, he didn't manage to send it to my phone so you will never get to see the pictures.Hmm, and if he didn't manage to sent it to my phone I doubt that he will manage to get them to his girl friends in Manila. But never mind.
We completed discharging 10 minutes after 10 o'clock and the Pilot was onboard 40 minutes before the time he was ordered so I had to wait for the taxi on the jetty. And it was cold.
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I ran in to the boatman on his way to our headlines
(The boatmen are the guys taking our mooring lines at arrival and departure)
- Hey, did you see any taxi up there?
- Aren't you cold in shorts?
- Well, I don't have any panta longas,
(The boatmen are the guys taking our mooring lines at arrival and departure)
- Hey, did you see any taxi up there?
- Aren't you cold in shorts?- Well, I don't have any panta longas,
Well, time for me to leave the jetty to see if the taxi is arriving and I left Ek-Star behind on my way for my holiday
after 5 months on Ek-Star and Ek-River. OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it 
be? So it’s not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. So
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one.
So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas
Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!
Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!
Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra
Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!
คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.
Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
be? So it’s not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. So Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaasFaites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopraSprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben! คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
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