The Steamtug Blog

The bubble has finally burst. “G” town was a buzz yesterday as our beloved Cats headed up to Melbourne’s MCG for the preliminary final to decide who will play in the grand final next week. Many cars around town, were flying the cats flag while the subject on most people’s lips was the big game looming Friday night. Geelong is such a 1 sided town when it comes to footy. It’s our town, and it’s our team! Of course there are many other supporters who follow different clubs, but they are usually quiet this time of year, and with the Geelong team putting up such a strong performance over the entire season, you could not help feeling proud of the boys.

But it all came crashing down when the lightning fast Collywobbles shutdown the game for the cats, going on to win by 10 goals. Well, it’s only a game!!! And Geelong are no longer in the competition. But we should all congratulate the boys of the old GFC for the fantastic effort they have put in over the season. They have brought a lot of joy and happiness to a lot of people in the town, and so they didn’t make it to the grand final but we should all be grateful for what we have achieved. Well done Cats!!!!

It’s raining pooh!

I’m famous at work again! All the managers who forgot I exsisted were all talking about me again yesterday. I am currently the shutdown co-ordinator for the solvents plant turn around. On Thursday, I needed to steam out the line that injects cold liquid back into the column to wash some of the light ends back down so we get good distallation. The line has corroded on the top elbow, so we disconnected it at the top, some 35 metres above ground, pulled off some valves at the bottom for drainage and hooked up a steam hose. I was never really satisfied that the line had drained properly after I had pumped about 5 tons of boiling water up there to clean out the column, but it must be OK, coz nothing is coming out the bottom. So I opened up the steam. rumble Rumble RUMBLE and boosh! It all came gushing out the top, and carried away by the 25 knot S-Westerly wind!

Shortly after I got a call on my radio to come back to the office. When I arrived the whole work crew from the cleaning bay across the road and about 200 metres away where standing in my office with black spots on their faces and helmets! They were not happy…. (You can’t make cake without breaking eggs!)

Tim calls it a day after 43 years with Shell!

During the week, I attended the retirement function of my collegue Tim. He started at Geelong as an apprentice mechanical machinist at 16 years old, later changed to be an instrument technician, then came to operations around 20 years ago, finally retiring with a staggering 43 years service with the same company. An amazing achievement! He is one of life’s true gentlemen and I have never heard him utter a bad word about anybody in all that time! And we could not even find any dirt on mistakes or incidents he has been involved in! (Like raining pooh on people) While thinking about how much we would miss him, I drank as much of the free beer as I could. Everyone went home excpet Mick, Scott, Nathan and I, who kept the party going until they chucked us out at midnight. I had to ride my push bike home with wobbly wheels, all the time wondering how I would make it back to work the next morning. Whew!

Beer facts

Here is an intersting trivia piece…  Did you know (I guess you didn’t) that to make your own beer in Germany, you  must firstly notify the government that you intend to brew some beer. And then, you are restricted to a maximum of 200 litres without paying tax on the beer you make! Damn… only 200 litres per year!!! And I thought those Germans were big boozers!

Vwe hev vayz to make you drrink more schnaps!

On the other hand, the finance minister in Russia recently announced that Russian should booze and smoke more. He said the tax on alcohol and cigarettes was keeping the government going, and more people should drink and smoke to do “their share” for the country. You gotta love Russia!