The Steamtug Blog

I first met Petri when I joined the commissioning team for the first ever gas plant in Nigeria. Petri was from a refinery in Sweden, so like me, this gas stuff was all new. He had been there already a couple of months and kindly showed me what he had learnt. We became close buddies, always finding some skull duggery together and I even had him running the Hash Runs in Nigeria before I left the project after 5 years together.

I didn’t see Petri for 1.5 years, but stayed in touch with the occassional email, until one day he sent me an email to tell me he had just got a job in Russia. He was even more surprised when I told him “Me Too!” I arrived there a few days ahead of him with enough time to suss out where to get the best beer in town.

My work in Russia finished a year or so ago, and it’s a while since I have seen Petri, so during a phone call I suggested he visit me here in Geelong before the winter weather set in, so he came with his wife and 5 year old daughter.

They left today, and I can now relax after running them ragged around the country side. I even took him to the footy at the MCG to see Geelong win a tough footy match against Hawthorn. Petri kept comparing it to European Football. It told him this was the real “Foody!” And finally during the third quater, he admitted it was an exciting game. So I needled him a little more and got him to admit it was even more exciting to watch than soccer!!! That was a big ask!

I brought him a Geelong jumper with number 20 “Steve Johnson” on the back and after he carried it all the way to the train station in a plastic bag, I made him put it on once he got on the train! We met Charlie and Goofa there and enjoyed the game.

We went to the Hot Rod show at the Geelong showgrounds.

We did a boat trip to Portarlington with 12 of my mates for lunch.

We went to Sovereign Hill

I even showed them around the city centre of Melbourne before checking them into a hotel. It was great having them here. We drank 2 kegs of beer! Now I will have to spend the next month trying to get my depleted beer stock back up!

And Oooh… I almost forgot, I convinced Petri to come and play a game of underwater hockey with me! He used to be a dive master so I thought it would be right up his alley. He said later… “I was very enthusiastic until the game started and I put all my effort into the first go, then realised just how tough this game is!” It was all down hill from there. Thanks for at least having a go!

Here is a link to Petri’s photos taken while in Geelong and Melbourne…

https://picasaweb.google.com/petripalokangas/GeelongAndMelbourne2011?feat=email#

And here is Petri’s blog page too! Happy reading… It’s in Swedish!!!

http://ettnyttlivioz.blogspot.com/