Tuesday 31st January 2017

Transfer deadline day. Which is the sporting equivalent of husbands going to the Kwik-e-Mart at eight on Christmas Eve looking for presents. There are few good eals to be done, and there will be much desperation, and laughing at who gets the footballing version of a presentation case of anti-freeze. It is dull, and nothing really happens until the last two hours, and even beyond when it is supposed to be closed, but it is compulsive viewing, either on the BBC ticker or Twitter, as rumours and lies are treated with the same gravity.

And there is work to be done too. Of course.

I am awake just before seven, get dressed and go down for breakfast where I meet someone from another company, we had spoken the day before, but it turns out that his best friend at school was someone I was with in the RAF! Small world indeed. And it makes a change for me to have someone to talk to at breakfast.

A quick blast round the rig road takes me to the office, where I find my minions have taken all the desks in the office and so I am relegated to taking one of the HSE desks. Who is the manager here?

Mails

Meetings

Work

Until lunchtime when it is time for all of us to go and sit in the tea bar as Matt has BBQd very pink sausages, and done some stir fry for our meal. Stopping to eat is something I rarely do, but it does stop your brain from thinking about work, and I think benefits from it in the afternoon.

All the time I have a window open following the transfers that are, or mostly not, happening.

More meetings

Another meeting.

Back to the office to wait for Jesper to return to shore with an update before I go back to the hotel. The guys are on health trips, and decline dinner out, so I will have to go by myself, which is OK as I can chose whatever I want.

I end up at the place along the hotel deciding Tai red curry with scampi is what I fancy, and its what I have.

Then there is an evening of looking at three website in rotation: the transfer page, Premier League scores and EFL scores. It passes the time until eleven when all the games finish. Will I stay up to midnight for the closing of the transfer window? Will I bugger.