Fort Mac

At lunchtime on Monday a project manager (Scott) and I winged our way to the cold province of Alberta. In the afternoon we went to say giday to the guys at the KCB Calgary office. I have one project on the go for the Calgary office and will probably have another soon so it was good to meet them face to face. I think it was about -10C which felt pretty damn cold but it was about to get colder...

We had a rather quick sleep and got up at 4am to get ready to catch a Suncor (the name of the mining company) jet up to Fort McMurray. It was pretty incredible that these mining companies are so big and move so many people around that it warrants them having their own flight service a couple of times a day. Apparently Shell even have their own runway on one of their mining sites. When we landed it was about -25C and it hovered around there all day. No moisture though, I heard that in Vancouver it feels about 10C colder than it actually is because of the humidity in the air. We had a beautiful clear day and no wind. Apparently thats how it normally is: Bloody cold but with clear blue sky. The wind can be a killer though, easily adding (or subtracting depending on how you look at it) another 20C so they can see temperatures of -50C pretty easily including windchill.

We were visiting a site that is a green field (brand new) mine that is under development. I think they are set to start mining in 2017 or something so there is not much equipment around at the moment. We got to see some trucks driving around but they were 777's which "only" have a payload capacity of 40 tonnes. Later on there will be 797's driving around which have a capacity of 400 tonnes. Crikey dickens. KCB were responsible for the de-watering wells that are required to remove the ground water so that excavation can begin for the "crusher" facility. Later we will also be involved with the seepage wells to capture process affected water (any water that falls on the mine site) and prevent it from seeping into the local ecosystem.

It was a pretty cool place to be. I got a photo of some sun-dogs which is caused by ice crystals in the air refracting the light:

It really gave me a new definition of cold. Every time I got out of the truck my breath caught in my throat until it got used to breathing -25C air. It took about 20min for me to start to get uncomfortably cold when we were standing outside the truck and I was wearing 2 thermal singlets, 2 layers of marino, a microfleece jersey, a softshell and a plastic windbreaker.

The camp we stayed in, Beaver Lodge, was pretty crazy huge too. I think it could house around 5000 people (that could be wrong, seems ridiculous now that I write it) and supplied 3 meals a day for all of the lodgers. It was a pretty flash one though and we had our own bathrooms. Most of the camps that the workers stay in have shared facilities. The food was pretty good too. I had 5 different types of dessert. Here is a picture of the hallway of our wing:

There was about 10 wings like that connected by one gigantic hallway which led to the dining room and reception:

The photos don't really do it justice. I could see the end of the hallway to our wing but I couldn't even see the end of the main hallway.

The second day it got even colder, around -30C to -35C we think but luckily still no wind. Truck Dashboard temperature:

The night before I had my first experience plugging the block heater of the truck in. In the morning the truck started no worries but it was pretty grumpy with us and had flashing handbrake and tyre pressure warning lights. It seemed like it was saying "OK, I'll take you where you wanna go but I'm not happy about it". Some people say you can't really feel the difference in temperature after -20C but I got much colder much quicker outside. I could only really last about 10min with all my layers on. It was amazing though that there are guys just working out in it. They must be just well adjusted to it. Just madness.

One other interesting thing is that the Fort Mac airport has direct flights to Mexico and Las Vegas. It makes perfect sense but it is pretty crazy to think about getting in the plane at -30C and getting arriving at 30C. It seems that just about everything that this mining gig influences makes the mind boggle. Equipment, flights, accommodation, weather, infrastructure.

So that was my field trip. I am really stoked to have had the opportunity so early to go and check it out and it will really help when I am designing stuff to have experienced the conditions. Luckily electricity doesn't mind the cold too much! Everyone else has to remember to put heaters on things like pipes and pumps to stop them freezing!

Orienteering and Beers

This week I didn't get up to too much due to my lack of finances. Bloody annoying having to wait for paychecks.

On Tuesday night at choir practice the guy brought his guitar along which I am pretty stoked about. Its just an old nylon string guy but it'll do the trick for a while. We took it to the pub after practice and got told off for playing it in the bar. Apparently there is a law against "patron participation" in BC and the guy could lose his liquor license which would be pretty stink. I was also told that there are a billion hoops to jump through to be able to perform music here which sounds pretty ridiculous.

On Wednesday I went to check out an orienteering event called WET which stands for "Wednesday Evening Training" but kinda has a double meaning because its usually raining. Hah. It was pretty cool. We went for a run around Stanley Park/Coal harbour. I was a bit apprehensive trying to navigate around an area I had never been before but I think that's the whole idea of being able to read a map. I did OK despite my crappy headlamp (many of the controls were in the park where there was no lights and there was no moon so it was pitch black). I got pretty lost on one control which probably cost me about 5 min. The controls were just a flag and it was an honesty system as to whether you found it or not. Turns out I got 20th out of 30 people with a time of about 49 min. The fastest guy got around in 25 mins. I really need to invest in a magic shine headlamp, another thing to add to the list of things to buy when I can get my head above water.

On Friday I went to have some drinks and play guitar at Matt and Justins place (Matt is in the choir) with a few others. It was pretty good fun and it was good to be having a few beers with some friends in someones house again. The I am the highway/Umbrella medley was a bit of a hit and I gotta thank Gaz and Nut for passing on that gem.

Unfortunately I was a bit crook on Saturday and Sunday so I didn't get up to much. I wish I could blame the hangover but I think I was actually sick which was stink. I was pretty worried I was still gonna be sick on Monday as I was going on a site visit to Northern Alberta.

Workin and stuff

So I had a fairly quiet weekend. Went to the supermarket twice. It is really annoying not having a car and having to make multiple trips to get the stuff I need. On Tuesday I went downtown to check out the Sing City choir. It was pretty good so I signed up. I was pleasantly surprised that there was quite a people that weren’t grey haired and quite a guys around my age in the tenor section. After the practice we went to a nearby bar (they go there every Tuesday after rehearsal) and it ended up being quite a late night. One guy had brought his guitar along and so we had a bit of a bash on that. Another guy has offered to lend me a guitar until I buy one which is pretty cool. Hope to get that on Tuesday.

On Wednesday night I went to another meetup event which went decidedly better than the first. This one was at a café and there was a pretty good group of people there. Had a massive yarn to a bunch of cats about personality types, entrepreneurship, travelling and sport.

On Thursday night I went to yet another meetup event at a restaurant on commercial drive. It was another great event and lots of cool people there. Unfortunately it ran fairly late and I didn't get to bed until about 1:30am. Dispite not having much sleep the run to work was awesome. It was a clear sky during the night so everything was well frozen but as there was no clouds there was a spectacular view of the mountains. Turns out Vancouver has a pretty awesome mountain view and reminded me of Queenstown a bit!

Work has been pretty good. I am filling a support role for a few projects at the moment but I also have my own project working out some control systems for River diversion in Alberta. It is interesting how the projects go through different stages, in this particular project KCB assisted the client with the preliminary report on the existing site, now we are doing a bid design and if we win the contract we will do the technical design. So I have some guidelines of what we are working towards from the preliminary report and the guys in Calgary but my only deliverable is a high level look to see if there are going to be any problems from the electrical point of view. All the nuts and bolts will be worked out later.

I got paid on Friday night and worked out I had enough money to buy a speaker thing for my laptop. I am pretty happy because finally I have decent sounds in my apartment but now I only have about $280 next two weeks. Totally worth it.

Watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RBSkq-_St8&sns=em

First week at Klohn done

To be fair it was a pretty short week at only two days but I could really use a sleep in. This whole early morning thing is really not my cup of tea! Especially after a month of sleeping until noon! Hopefully there will be some adjustment to be had next week.

The majority of what I have been doing is meeting people (apparently there are around 300 in the office) and doing orientation stuff. There is heaps of forms to fill out and policies to read. Some even have quiz's to do. I guess that what happens when you have whole departments coming up with this stuff. Its all pretty logical though and I kinda appreciate that there are these requirements for new staff. On the one hand it is boring and tedious but on the other it means that all new employees are exposed to things like the mission, values etc. right from the outset.

But I have got a couple of projects on the go already. Just had a hilarious thought that I better be careful what I write on here as I'm not sure about the levels of sensitivity for the projects yet. I am going to be doing some work with a new hydraulic intake, sizing switchgear, getting feeders in and out of a switchroom and stuff. That is pretty cool because I can sound fairly knowledgeable about that! I am also going to be working on some electrical systems for a reservoir spillway in Alberta and will probably have some work coming up in the oil sands as well. Apparently Calgary has an office but there are no electrical engineers there so I will be providing support for them. It was nice to hear some positivity around the office about me coming on board from a "we need real electrical engineers with real electrical experience around here" point of view so hopefully I can fill the hydro gaps quickly and help out. Apparently leading up to Christmas a few of the electrical team were doing 60 hour weeks and working some weekends to get stuff done and this year looks like it will be just as busy or busier which sounds awesome.

Today at lunchtime I went for a run with a couple of guys from the team which is cool. There are a fair few people around that like to get oot and aboot. Some had ropes and skis lying around their cubicals so can hopefully tap into that.

But first I need to get some sort of bloody cashflow. Its gonna be a couple of weeks before I get paid which is annoying (payday was today and there a 1 week lag for processing). Need so much stuff!

Tonight I went to a "Meetup.com" event at a pub. You can basically create a group that people can join and then you can create events for your subscribers. Unfortunately it wasn't really that cool with a lot of older people and a fair smattering of socially awkward people. But I have joined some trail running groups and there are hiking and climbing groups to so should be good.

On Tuesday I am gonna go and check out a choir too so hopefully some cool people there. Could also be a weirdo magnet too I guess but I don't have much else ona Tuesday night!

Ahhhh, this got much longer than I anticipated. Finish now with no proof read sorry.

New Years

I still haven't been up to much. I went for a test run the other day to see how long it would take me to run to work. About 17min apparently.

For new years I went downtown and went to a backpacker bar called the Beaver Bar. Met a couple of nice english people that having just been living and working in NZ and Australia for the past couple of years. He worked for Transfield in Wellington cutting trees away from Transpower lines so that was pretty funny. They have got 1 year work visas for Canada and are in the process of setting up a life in Vancouver as well. Just before the countdown the bar handed out champagnes to everyone which was a terrible idea (maybe it was actually my fault for drinking it but they should have known they shouldn't have given me one). Drunkeness came upon me like a ton of bricks and I got the hell out of the bar to get some air. After stumbling around the streets for a bit I realised that there was no more night for me and I needed to put myself to bed. It was pretty funny trying to figure out which way to go (I had never been downtown before) and I would probably be dead now if it weren't for trusty google maps on my shitty old phone. I got home to bed safely but totally forgot to say goodbye to the english people.

Unsurprisingly I spent new years day lying very low. Its pretty hilarious having my own place as I can just spend all day in my boxer shorts. I think living alone is going to be detrimental to my personal habits, I hope someone comes to visit soon!

Today is the last day of not having a job. I know I've said it before but it is amazing I haven't worked since April last year! I think I have utilised my time away from work pretty well. I have also definitely failed to pre-adjust my sleeping habits so getting up in the morning is gonna be awful for a few days. Lucky I only have to work 2 days this week and then get a weekend! Tonight I will cook nachos for dinner which is gonna be awesome.