Irony:
1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
2.An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.

Our new man in the room here tries hard but my chest is beginning to feel constricted from all the polite "heh-heh's" that I give him. Why don't yanks have a concept or grasp of irony. Now I am not saying that we as Europeans have a better grasp of it, but in the multicultural melting pot that is the Western Neptune, we do use it better and it makes sense. Myself and Stef exchange quips and comments all the time, but then Mr. T's contribution is just like uh, ok, eh, yeah. Either get it right or don't.

The main problem of course is not just how it is used but when and how often. I have asked questions and nearly everytime he answers it's with "irony". Now I know he's trying, he's trying to be funny, I'm wanting a proper seismic/geophysical answer. I pretend to take him seriously and ask him when this last was seen by him and of course there is nothing worse than having to say "No, I'm just joking/being ironic. I don't actually know or have never seen that." Not that my time is precious but continuous arsing is a bit much. Am I too cynical?

Maybe he is just a dry (and in his own words) white-trash Texan....or maybe that's Texan style. Look at Bush. Do people laugh at his jokes or do they just laugh at Bush trying to be funny?

Which brings me on to another point. Myself and Stef have decided that tomorrow the 24th December 2005 is a "Lent Day" which shall also be known as "No Bitching Day". We're not sure how we will handle this. It could/will be as hard as giving up cigarrettes. Certainly if you heard the amount that's been said of the other crew over the past few days you would realise this. I have put up a sign to remind me (Oh God he's done it again......not funny) about this. Pray for us. We are the master bitchers and need all the help we can get.

Welcome back Mike! Back on board again and boy was it a short break.

We eventually got off after the whole crew change debacle last time on the Wednesday, not the planned Saturday. I still managed to get my guitars though. Oh boy were they lovely. Jaime was well pleased with his. Home then to Spain for just under 5 weeks. And that was supposed to be our long 6 weeker! And now here for Christmas!! Lets not go there. I feel a rant coming on and I have work to do.

So I did some painting at home, got the van fixed, drank some fine wine, got the usual case of gippy-tummy before coming back and came back on a shite Northwest Airlines. Boy are American carriers the worst airlines in the world. They are. They have no class. They must never have flown Air France or KLM.

Then we get back and I find that we are a day early for a startup. SURPRISE!! But at least we had a talk and an exam and I won an iPod Shuffle for my efforts. Hooray! 90 bucks worth. I think the company has gone mad. A year ago they would have said you have to do the exam and thats that. This was optional and with a prize for passing. Are they on drugs? Speaking of, there was word of a D&A test bandied about by the onshore guy that seniors would be doing one as soon as we got on. Haven't heard anything since and I haven't had a drink in days I swear.

So here we are now and we're finding all sorts of problems with the flows and the other crews "good to go" stuff. Good to go to the crapper.....

I have a cold which I got as soon as I got on and am having shivers and chills and savage sweats at night. Much more of that and I'll have to hang out my mattress to dry I tell you. Now it's turning to a nasty cough and sweats. I hate being sick onboard and the medic is going as sparingly on the Ibuprofen as though it were morphine!

So there now. Oh and we're back in the Gulf. Tomorrow I'll write a bit about New Orleans and how it was.