food.

It’s Thaaaaanksgiving week, so what better topic to cover than food??  To say that I love good food is an understatement; however I do NOT consider myself a foodie.  I don’t know the latest trends, I don’t know how to pronounce names of fancy foods, and I don’t know how to cook, BUT I love a good meal and I will try just about everything (except if it involves raw tomatoes and cantaloupe).  So this week, I decided to document everything that I eat to give you an idea of what hardship I am really going through…

Monday

Breakfast:  oatmeal (side story about this oatmeal...a few months ago I was at work and I decided to go ahead and get on Amazon to stock up on food for my next rotation, so I ordered some Nature's Path Organic flax seed, super good for you oatmeal.  I paid like $30 for 6 boxes, but I didn't really think about it because I just figured it was expensive since it said organic on the label.  Anyways, I got back from work and got to Brian's house where a GIGANTIC box was waiting for me in my online purchases stack.  I opened it to find 6 CASES of oatmeal, which contained 6 boxes each with 8 packets...that's 288 packets of oatmeal.  So yeah, I eat oatmeal everyday.  I eat oatmeal in my room and then bring a quest bar (pretty much the best protein bars you will EVER eat) to my desk to have as a mid-morning snack, but it hardly ever lasts past 8AM.

Lunch:  PIZZA; I LIVE for pizza day.  It’s this simple thin crust (flatbread type) with marinara and cheese.  I have no self-control on pizza day…Monday I ate 5 pieces.

Dinner:  cup-o-noodles.  Mr. Lee, the I&E inspector that was onshore with me is now working offshore.  He left Tuesday and starting offloading all of his leftover snacks, so I’m stocked with noodle-bowls, Malaysian version, which I LOVE because I can sit in bed and eat noodles while watching TV….reminds me of my college days!  This also cuts out 1 trip down/up stairs to the mess hall, I’m that lazy. 

Tuesday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a cookie dough quest bar (yes, it tastes like cookie dough...)

Lunch:  “salad” (shredded cabbage, sometimes carrots but not today), pickled beets, steamed cabbage with some other veggies, soup (leftover noodles from last night’s pasta and beef, I think)

Dinner: rice, beans, and questionable meat – I think it was pork

Wednesday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a cookies & cream quest bar (yes, it tastes like cookies & cream...)

Lunch:  salad (cabbage and beets), spaghetti which wasn’t that bad and I can’t tell if it really wasn’t that bad or I’m just getting used to barfy food. 

Dinner:  My dinner salad was SUPER exciting because they had olives!  It ALMOST felt like I had the relish tray from Nana’s house, even though they were non-pitted olives, it was still special J  I also had slimy pork, which was questionable, but I scarfed it down anyway. 

Thursday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and a double chocolate chunk quest bar (this one is my favorite...I dip it in my coffee, YUM)

Lunch: LUNCH ON THE DRILLING RIG!!!  O.M.G.  Steak, French fries, shrimp, steamed veggies, turkey and gravy, baked potato, AND strawberry pie.  I ate until I couldn’t breathe.  I out-ate the 4 other people that I was with by an entire plate (went back for 2nds and 3rds  OH – and I came back to the sweetest surprise (literally), a gigantic Toblerone chocolate bar.  It was a Happy Thanksgiving gift from one of the South Africans in my office.  It took everything I had not to open it immediately!

Dinner:  I actually skipped dinner.  I can’t believe it, but I couldn’t even think about eating again after my gluttonous lunch.

The icing on the cake Thursday was that I got to see everyone (turkey and pies, too) at Nana and Papa’s right before they were sitting down to supper!  Our internet sucks sooo bad, and I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to see everyone on Thanksgiving BUT we had our own Thanksgiving miracle out here.  Makes me wonder if they purposefully turn off/slow down the internet all the time to keep us from doing anything but work, hmmmm….

Friday

Breakfast:  oatmeal – skipped my quest bar because I was STILL full.

Lunch:  back to blah – broccoli, cabbage soup and slimy pork

Dinner:  vegetable soup (the cabbage soup leftover from lunch with some carrots thrown in…)   

Saturday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and cookies & cream quest bar

Lunch:  Saturday lunch is a close 2^nd to pizza day.  We have hamburgers and French fries every Saturday afternoon.  The hamburgers are OK, I douse mine with ketchup (the ONLY condiment we have, literally), but the French fries are heavenly - crispy, deliciousness.  Sadly, I have zero self-control on my French fry portions.  It’s starting to get out of hand…

Dinner:  cup-o-noodles….Saturday was a looooong day with lots of stairs, so I couldn’t take any more 

Sunday

Breakfast:  oatmeal and

Lunch: bean soup and rice

Dinner:  leftover bean soup and rice....today was a particularly rough day.

So that's it...a week in the life on the Camelot.  All I can say is thank goodness for French fries!


Most everyone out here is new to me.  There are a handful of folks that I met/knew before coming offshore, but for the most part I’m the “new” person.  So this hitch it’s just been getting to know all my co-workers and asking all the get-to-know-you questions…where are you from, where do you live now, where did you go to school, omg-do you know such-and-such…the usual conversation starters.  One question that’s worked its way into my every day convos is “where are you going to eat first when you get home?”  Given the food sitch, it’s usually a GREAT topic of conversation that makes everyone happy!  And a bonus is that I’ve learned of LOTS of new place to eat when I get back to Houston ;) 

I'm officially over halfway done.  There's nothing better than being on the downhill side of 5-weeks at work.  The bonus this trip is there's only 26 days until CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

19 days down, 16 to go!  xoxo…