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I’ve always been fascinated by mega structures and oil rigs is definitely one of them. Ken invited me to go for the christening of the oil rig project he was working on with Ensco. Yup the same peeps who hosted the NYE yacht-party.

So there. Ensco 8052. His baby. It is so huge, my lens is simply not wide enough.

The christening of an oil rigs is very much similar to how a newborn baby is baptised in a church. Similarly, a baby’s christening is also known as the naming ceremony. So on that day, Ensco 8052 was officially named.

That was the pastor giving his blessings to Ensco 8052. A short heartening prayer was offered. Wondered if other religious man will be engaged if the client is not American.

Anyway a highlight of the christening was when the very important lady, Ms Cambria Reinsborough pressed a button and a champagne bottle was smashed onto the hull of the rig signifying the start of a glorious for this vessel. Ah this ritual is very important because apparently maritime superstition held that a ship that wasn’t properly christened would be considered unlucky and a champagne bottle that didn’t break was a particularly bad omen. Anyway all went well and with the most enthusiastic round of applause and a brief shower of rainbow confetti, Ensco 8052 is off to a good start!

Can you spot the champagne bottle? By the way, when I told Ken that using a button to smash the champagne bottle seemed to spoil the fun. I felt that the ceremony will be more kick-ass if the lady smashed the bottle manually. Then he told me about the Curse of Camilla. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall was the honored lady who christened a passenger ship in 2007 and the bottle didn’t break. Turned out the first few cruises were marred by a vomiting bug which afflicted passengers. Hor hor. He also mentioned that the infamous Titanic was launched without a christening ceremony. Ok point taken.

Ah I can’t stop admiring this mighty rig. Isn’t that magnificent? Woah my eyes practically gaped in amazement. I was so fascinated by the super huge structure! Fyi those slender columns you see will be submerged under water when Ensco 8052 start drilling the seabeds for oil/gas. The idea of these columns supporting a platform deck at a significant height above the sea surface is kinda freaky to me.

Felt so tiny when I stand next to that humongous rig. Even the ropes I saw was monstrous.

And I was told to be wary of the thruster. lol.

Ben, pls. I know what you’re thinking. No. Not hard gay. The thruster I meant works just like a propeller. It pushes the vessel and is meant to keep the rig in a fixed position when the environment condition becomes extreme. According to wiki, an oil rig is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. That’s a mouthful isn’t it?

Oil rig 101.

Ensco 8052 is a Semi Submersible rig which floats and stay upright. I guess this type of platform is good for urgent projects because it could drill a hole in the seabed then quickly moves to the next location. If you are interested to know more about oil rigs, check out this wiki entry on oil platforms. Personally, I think the jack-up rig is pretty interesting.

After the ceremony, came the tour which I am so excited about! Personally, climbing up the stairs was a scary enough. The horrifying wire cage elevator was worst. It jerks unexpectedly and I almost thought I’m going to fly out of it just like how Charlie flew out of Willy Wonka’s glass elevator.

After surviving the terrifying elevator ride, I landed on a large deck. Everything was perfectly fine until I looked up. I was a little perturbed by the steel beams. Ok maybe perturbed is an understatement.

Getting more and more paranoid that this thing will land on me, I escaped to the control room. Couldn’t make sense of the buttons though it looked simpler than those dashboards we normally see on spaceships in sci-fi movies. Coolness.

Goofing around at the living quarters. Guess what, there’s also a gym and a TV room with a huge LCD TV on board!

Popped by the pantry for drinks and muffins. Finally I could take off the helmet.

That’s the end of the indoor tour and we were directed out to the open again. Wacky photo moment with me and darling Sok Hui.

Ting-ling-ling lunch is ready! Lol. I’m pretty sure that’s not the purpose of this bell. We also shared some fun moments at the helipad. Especially when Timmy decided to propose! So sweet!

Haha It was just for fun! He already proposed to Nic, his lovely fiancé weeks ago I think.  But nonetheless, it was still laudable act. Haha. Just like a typical scene from some Mediacorp drama. If you recall, Keppel did ran a drama series on Channel 8 featuring Christopher Lee with hideous white hair.

Before I end my post, I want to say that I’m proud of Ken being part of this project. Silly-billy looked very happy in the following picture.

Though the science behind how you guys put this astounding thing together still baffles me, I’m aware of the loads of man hours took to build this. This explained the extra hours/OT you needed to put in. All is forgiven. (:

At times, Cablenazi have to go offshore for couple days to run checks on the equipments and I wish I can get him to smuggle me into the cabin! Can’t whine to him for couple of days is quite torturous. I heard that one of his friends is involve in a floatel project! A floating hotel! Would you like to spend a night at a floatel? Could you imagine the excitement and drama of the oil adventure, life on board an oil rig? Honestly, I don’t mind the experience! Sounds fun! Imagine wearing the white telly-tubby overall and walking around pretending to be an engineer for a day. lol. I’ll probably drive my colleagues crazy.

Though interesting to the uninitiated, the nature of an oil rig’s operation — extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment — means risk, accidents, and tragedies occasionally occur. Now it seems pretty scary isn’t it?

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Thanks Ken for the invite and all the guides on the tour for your sharing. Well done folks for the successful delivery.

2 days ago, I woke up really early for a special tour at the Central Fire Station! Was pretty excited to visit the oldest existing fire station in Singapore with 3 other bloggers! Thanks Andric, Andy and Claire for making time to join me on this tour! Well, I was supposed to facilitate them as the representative from 24seven but it was more like a fun outing with friends.

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Our guide was LTA Foo Yiing Kai, a former Fire & Rescue Specialist and presently an Senior Officer. Pss. He has a gold badge for IPPT! Impressive! LTA Foo Yiing Kai was also deployed to Sichuan when international help was needed for the earthquake disaster. He’s exactly how I would imagined a fireman to look like! Suave, muscular and manly! Oh la la. Haha. OK come to think of it, all of the officers there fits the bill too! Perhaps it’s because they were all oozing with passion for their vocation. That must be it. Don’t you agree that passionate people are extremely sexy?

Well it’s no laughing matter to be in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). This is not an occupation for the faint hearted. Besides providing fire-fighting, rescue and emergency ambulance services and mitigating hazardous materials incidents, these guys also formulate, implement and enforce regulations on fire safety and civil defence shelter matters. We are talking about a dedicated team that respond to all types of life-threatening emergencies round-the-clock.

They actually sleep in their uniform and are ever-ready to grab a pole, hop on the fire-fighting vehicle and leave the fire station in 1 minute after the alarm bell rings.

After giving us a really informative special-guided tour with exclusive entry to some of the off-limits areas to the public, LTA Foo Yiing Kai shared a heart-wrenching story with us of how he once rescued a toddler from an accident scene. The terrified baby girl actually clung on to him like a koala baby, refusing to let him go because of the trauma she suffered. He had to leave his team at the accident site and accompany the baby to the hospital. I can’t imagined how bloody the scene was. The little girl’s mom was on her way to the hospital for a check-up. They were in a cab and apparently the cabbie took a wrong turn. When the stupid cab driver made a u-turn ILLEGALLY to get to the ride side of the road, a lorry ran over the cab. Luckily the mom and baby survived.

High chance that the firemen had to use this super loud and scary saw to rescue the mom who was stuck at the back of the car when they found her. The roar of this heavy machine (which he lifted effortlessly) was deafening.

After the tour, I kinda got inspired to join SCDF as a part-time fire woman. Oh look! I had loads of fun trying out the equipments!

The gun-like hose handler was so heavy! How can they hold on to this thing for so long while fighting fire? No wonder their arms looked so yummy sturdy!

Oh that’s the Light Fire Attack Vehicle or more affectionately known as the “Red Rhino”, a formidable well-designed vehicle which could maneuver into every corner of a HDB void deck! Woah, it looks small but it is equipped with a hydraulic system for rescue tools, a water mist gun and a water monitor.

You know, it was amazing to see so many families spending their Saturday morning at the fire station! Kids were running around in firemen helmets and attire, playing pretend. These mini fire-boys/girls were so adorable! I strongly recommend parents to bring their kids to visit a fire station! There’s a few fire stations around the island. Just pick one that’s near you. Visiting a fire station a fun activity for both kids and parents to do on a weekend. Plus, they will get so exhausted by the end of the day, you can enjoy some quiet time with your spouse alone. Have some wine and laugh over your kids’ hilarious stunts at the fire station.

OMG I had so much fun! A big thank you to LTA Foo Yiing Kai for broadening my knowledge on your occupation. Don’t you agree that the peeps at SCDF are unsung heroes who we remember only in times of need? Perhaps in time, more will acknowledge the efforts put in by SCDF to protect and save lives. You can start by finding out more about what they do here or even drop by a fire station and talk to one of the friendly officers. If you’re lucky, they may stay long enough for a chat before the alarm bell rings!

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I’m so pleased with my experience at the Central Fire Station that I shall end this post with a whacky picture of me taken by Andric! Thanks aaandric de blondee for the nice shot! The building totally rawks! I mentioned earlier that it’s 100 years old, remember?

Disclaimer: SCDF is a client of 24seven. This post is not an advertorial by SCDF. I wrote it because I really enjoyed myself and I want share my awesome visit to the Central Fire Station with my friends!