Time for a change ?

For those in the know, Rue was here for a week but now is languishing back in the tropical temperatures of the UK.  During the week here, we tried to explore a little.  One thing I found was a shopping mall (I really hate saying mall instead of centre) with a theme park inside.  The roller coaster looked half decent on YouTube at least so we headed out to find the place.

Turns out that the roller coaster wasn’t all that.  The theme park was all for kids so a little bit tame to say the least.  Still, I soldiered on and found the indoor kart track, complete with electric karts.  I tried that once before in Vegas and loved it, so I talked Rue into having a go (by that I mean I paid !).

Turned out to be a right good laugh and we had 10 minutes of very close racing.  How close was actually flipping amazing.  When we got off the karts, the staff were staring at the timing screens, keen to point them out to us.

So I had been beaten by just 0.001 seconds – of course that victory was gained by a death move at the hairpin which included Rue nerfing me off the track to get by.

It was a good vibe but I had lost – after all, it was Cheap Trick that once said that there are no points for second best.  I plotted my revenge.

On Tuesday we headed back to the track for the rematch.  The stakes were high, we were BBQing on the 20th floor.  Rue pulled out first and slowed to let me take the lead – fatal mistake.  What followed next was 19 laps of sheer magic.  I pulled a lead that extended to the length of the start/finish straight  and try as he might, he couldn’t get near me.  It’s fair to say, in Formula 1 terms I absolutely annihilated him – almost 0.3 seconds faster.

So it was done.  I had more than made up for the 0.001 seconds defeat from the previous week.  I gloated all the way to the coffee house as Rue kept telling me he wasn’t competitive anyway.  I comforted him saying that at least he had improved on his previous time but as I just looked at both photos, seems he didn’t manage that so I shall gloat some more next time I see him.

Not competitive eh?  That’s why you rammed me off the track in the first heat !!

There – that done, my time here in Qatar is almost over.  This brings me to another dilemma.  I am heading back to the UK next week to tie up a few loose ends (not a metaphor for bondage), complete some training updates and then decide whether to find a new job or stay off for a few months and take some more exams.

Two days ago, I had a very good job offer from a boat in Thailand that spends its time between there, Singapore and Indonesia.  It was a seriously good job offer too.  Wicked Salary, 80 days paid leave and a months salary as a bonus at end of year.  There was also a short discussion with another sailing yacht currently in Mallorca but heading to the Caribbean and Americas Cup.  I kind of dismissed the sailing yacht as the captain sounded very distant and uninterested on the phone.

The more I thought about the Thailand gig, the less I wanted it.  Last night I typed a mail to the captain explaining that his job wasn’t for me and held it in my draft box.  I was of the mindset that I would also tell the sailing boat the same thing and knuckle down and do my next exams. Then today the captain emailed me with an offer that just blew everything else away, clean out of the water, to the point that I just cannot ignore it.  I am sure that was his plan, to make it impossible to say no.  He has offered me more than a 20% increase over my last job – that is massive!

So now I have a dilemma.  Tonight I will talk to the current engineer to get his take on it all, then I might start negotiations.  Not to be cheeky but I reckon I can squeeze more out of him.

Lets see what happens next.