Chilly Opportunity

So, last Friday I had a phone call from HR. I thought they’d found out that I don’t actually know anything, and the job was all one large mistake. However, it was not so.

There is an event for all those on the Global Graduate Programme (which doesn’t include me by the way) where they all get together to listen to esteemed and highly senior speakers from each of BHP Billiton’s ‘Customer Sector Groups’ talk about Petroleum, Aluminium, Diamonds etc etc… It transpired that the Petroleum speaker was unavailable at the last minute, and all our ‘esteemed’ and ‘highly senior’ speakers (i.e. everyone else) were busy doing proper work.

“So” they said “can you give a presentation about Petroleum? It’s ready to go…”

So of course (being nice and eager to please!) I said yes, I’d step in.

“Excellent!” they said…

“It’s in Santiago”

Me: “As in Chile!?”

Them: “Yes. And it’s next Wednesday.”

So, that’s why I find myself on yet another plane, this time bound for South America – another new continent to chalk up.

What’s amazing (at least to me) is that I get in on Tuesday morning, do the 3 hour Petroleum Session on Wednesday morning, and fly immediately back that evening, getting back to Houston on Thursday morning in time for a full day of work.

Oh, and the rest of the family (all 5 of them) arrive on Friday. Busy. But an experience!
So, backing up a little…

On Sunday 15th, the weather was terrible in Houston. It was reminiscent of a tropical storm, but with less wind. Nevertheless it was gusty, very grey, and dumping copious quantities of rain causing the roads to flood (which they do a lot). I ventured out to spend way too much money on some new sunglasses (which you might find funny considering the weather), and then visited Ikea to get some bits of gadgetry in a vain attempt to organize my closet.

The rain continued. And then carried on more. And more. I went to work on Monday under a sky that was so black, I was watching out for the odd apocalyptic horseman. (or horseperson).
The day fairly flew by, but the rain continued bashing the windows of my office on the 3rd floor. At 3:30 I went down to meet the limo for the trip to the airport, and off we went. The first route we tried resulted in near soggy disaster as we turned left to encounter 2 feet of standing water. A quick about face, and we were off along the back streets of Houston, sticking to the centre of the road where possible in an attempt to avoid the floodwaters. After about an hour I arrived at terminal A to check in with American Airlines to Dallas, to be informed that the plane was still on the ground in Dallas due to the severe weather in Houston. This meant that it would be late, and I would likely miss my connection to Chile.

After a lot of standing around and waiting, it appeared that it was the OTHER flight to Dallas that was late, and mine left only 15 minutes behind schedule.

So, after an uneventful stop at Dallas, I am now on board a Boeing 767 through to Santiago. It’ll take a little under 10 hours to get there. Should be fun, if a little unnerving as I don’t know much about the petroleum industry, and I’m giving a talk about it.

Also, my grasp of Spanish is limited to ‘Good Day’, and ‘I’d like two beers please’.

To be fair, that will probably suffice.

posted by Sam @ 23:13