Welome to the Trident Open Barnacle Snipping Competition. Regulations of this extremely exciting and challenging contest entail two contestants lining up on either side of incoming streamer, decimating instruments at the ready and by any and every means possible/necessary preventing even a single barnacle from slipping past unharmed.
:D... =)). All those with absolutely NO clue put your hands up now! Okay, so explanations: for the uninitiated, barnacles are yucky slimy oozy pathetic things which stick to streamers. And it is the unhappy task of trainees like me to clean them off 'cos once these already obnoxious creatures die (which is inevitable since they can't survive outside water), they stink. By stink I mean a really realy horrifying stench that sticks to your palms even after you've washed them raw, permeate your coveralls as well as the clothes you were under your coveralls. Then it spreads to the laundries and beyond. Eventually even people living in cabins far up in the front of the ship give you (seismic crew) dirty looks whenever they pass you in the corridors :|.
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Spent the better part of the afternoon in a rather sullen mood. As we neared the coast we were reaching the path of the migrating whales. By about 3 o'clock everyone on the ship had seen at least one whale doing a backflip not more than a few hundred metres from the ship. EXCEPT me. Then I was also informed that I'd have to give up my single cabin for extra people arriving at port X-(. Finally it took a concerted effort from about 3 or 4 humpbacks for me to finally see a whale actually leap out of the water :).
It was only towards the end of the shift that me and a new trainee (again, older than me :-<, still waiting for a junior junior) figured we'll spice things up a bit :D. The other chaps debated if we were each paid a dollar for every barnacle snipped/slashed/battered, how many of us would end up millionnaires :P. That and the 'competition' led to the quickest last hour of shift I have seen yet :D.
Currently: stinking :-<
Listening to: Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
:D... =)). All those with absolutely NO clue put your hands up now! Okay, so explanations: for the uninitiated, barnacles are yucky slimy oozy pathetic things which stick to streamers. And it is the unhappy task of trainees like me to clean them off 'cos once these already obnoxious creatures die (which is inevitable since they can't survive outside water), they stink. By stink I mean a really realy horrifying stench that sticks to your palms even after you've washed them raw, permeate your coveralls as well as the clothes you were under your coveralls. Then it spreads to the laundries and beyond. Eventually even people living in cabins far up in the front of the ship give you (seismic crew) dirty looks whenever they pass you in the corridors :|.
--
Spent the better part of the afternoon in a rather sullen mood. As we neared the coast we were reaching the path of the migrating whales. By about 3 o'clock everyone on the ship had seen at least one whale doing a backflip not more than a few hundred metres from the ship. EXCEPT me. Then I was also informed that I'd have to give up my single cabin for extra people arriving at port X-(. Finally it took a concerted effort from about 3 or 4 humpbacks for me to finally see a whale actually leap out of the water :).
It was only towards the end of the shift that me and a new trainee (again, older than me :-<, still waiting for a junior junior) figured we'll spice things up a bit :D. The other chaps debated if we were each paid a dollar for every barnacle snipped/slashed/battered, how many of us would end up millionnaires :P. That and the 'competition' led to the quickest last hour of shift I have seen yet :D.
Currently: stinking :-<
Listening to: Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
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