Thursday, January 08, 2015

Working at a Dream Job.


One of the most exciting and rewarding jobs i ever had and i had many in my life was working for Van Seumerren RomStar  one of the largest Lifting companies in the world. While working with this group I felt like a real professional in what i was doing and what i was expected of me. I was in charge of 'Safety' while this pressure vessel was being raised by the 'Twin Ring' Crane at the Gebeng Propane Dehydration Plant.in Kuantan Pahang. 
The main contractor was Foster Wheeler and the project was at the Gebeng Industrial Site owned by Petronas. Bill Miller, the gentleman handing me the certificate was the Project Manager for Foster Wheeler and a real Firebrand. Now horseshit Bill they called him and standing next to him was The Health, Safety and Environmental Specialist , Mr. Steve Morton.

Working with these English gentlemen  was  a unique experience as they were very strict when it come to getting things done and yet they had a great sense of humor every now and then when you catch them off guard. 

My Boss John Derrick was also an English gentleman and he was  a good man to work for and although we did not socialize much we did have a good rapport about work and i had great respect as did all of my fellow workers for him as you rarely see him bent out of shape even when things gets seriously wrong. He knew his job  very well and you can tell, but he allows for others to take the lead until they cannot do it anymore and calls for his final touch.

Practically the whole crew of  locals working for the company were from Sarawak and they were all Ibans. except for two local Malays. I admired their discipline at work and i never saw anything negative ever expressed openly among them. You do not need to tell them anything twice to get a job done and they wore their red coveralls with great pride. 

The group that got the job done!
It took them in less than a week to set up the Twin Ring crane which arrived at the jetty in Kemaman  where the crane was delivered in many parts from the Middle east somewhere and assembled together to get the job done. The part were delivered by semi-trucks over a hundred deliveries in all as i was the man in charge of collecting the receipts when they were off loaded. A few additional expats were brought along to supervise the job and one can tell of their expertise in handling this huge contraption of a crane, one of the largest in the world as far as lifting capacity goes.


There were competitions between companies for coming up with the best slogan or the best ideas for this or that and prizes were given to keep everyone in the mood of cooperation instead of working against one another.

 This was how huge the condenser that was lifted to a permanent upright at our site and it was awesome to imagine how it was transported all the way from the West Coast to where we were in the East Coast, a journey of about a few hundred miles.


 My original journal that went with me all over the sites.




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