First day of Work

I woke up early due several times to a multitude of reasons. The first was the transport company moving my bicycles from QLD to SA making sure that someone will be home to receive them. I sent my dad an sms and went back to sleep. Then again for every time the air-conditioning kept cutting in and out of its "auto" setting. and then finally when I couldn’t sleep any more at 5:30am. I had a shower (water smelt bad), shaved, ironed my shirt, got dressed, watched an episode of Dexter and had breakfast.

I headed off to work with our driver Ahmad without a clue of how many buildings there are and which one I was meant to be in. Turns out my manager is too busy this morning interviewing or getting interviewed and so I am sitting in the wrong office, wrong building, answering QGC (old work in Brisbane) emails and working out my appointments for inductions tomorrow.

Feels like I am in an Egyptian satellite TV sitcom that my mum loves watching so much...but in real life. Oh! I forgot to mention that I can speak Arabic (partially understand the Egyptian accent) and that the majority of my family (hundreds of them!!!) lives in Lebanon.

Finally when I get to work, after sampling the quality of the local shawarma of course (i.e. yiros, kebab, meat wrap), I met the team and learnt about what sort of project it is I will be working on.  I had to leave my passport at the entrance with the 6 security guards. The team is great, simply put, they are a small group of knowledgeable UK expats and at least one Egyptian counterpart for each position. The project is a joint venture (JV) between Petronas, BG Group and the Egyptian National Oil Company. The project is a sub-sea tie-back project of new wells into new and existing infrastructure.

The biggest surprise came from the amount of security at the base of every oil and gas companies buildings around Egypt, and the mandatory tea and coffee man for each floor of the building. Our man is called Abdullah and he makes awesome tea…

My Visitors pass

View from the window of the wrong office I was in

 

BNE-SIN-DUB-CAI

Big day! Would be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly nervous but immensely excited about what was ahead.

I don’t remember eating breakfast, all I remember now is the comfortable taxi ride into the airport and smooth check-in with only 23kg of luggage and a back pack and a carry on with mainly charger cables and a days clothing for my transit to Cairo.

After a smooth yet long (annoying 5 hour stop in Singapore and 90min re-fuel and crew change in Dubai) transit to Cairo, I had no trouble finding my travel assistant at the gate ho grabbed my passport and gave me a visa sticker, got my luggage and met my driver. I then made my way to the BG staff house in the nice area of Maadi, Cairo whilst reading briefing documents about security, safety, and post-revolutionary changes and precautionary measures in place. I landed at 0715.

The drive ‘home’ was a bit of a shock even having been to Lebanon and Syria previously and witnessing their chaos and lack of any consideration to road rules, etiquette or safety. Made it in one piece though. Turns out it’s a “6^th floor” / 3 story / top floor apartment for 5 graduates and plenty of living space. I unpacked my stuff and went for a walk around the neighborhood to find myself some food, get my bearings and stay awake so that the jet lag doesn’t kill me. I made it until 2300 and slept solid.