Coffee Corner
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Join the coffee corner! The place to be for hot news, the latest gossips, anecdotes, nick names, stories nobody believes, jokes
and much, much more. Do you have something that fits here? Please share it with the rest of us! |
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Brainwave Award! Monday, 03 Jan 2011 To start I would like to give you all my best wishes for 2011. Let's hope for another year in Health, Happiness and Prosperity. Further I can tell you that I visited Van Oord's New Year's Breakfast this morning in the Feijenoord-Rotterdam Soccer stadium, where our CEO Mr. Pieter van Oord had his New Year's speech. I'm sure that at some stage you will receive an official copy of Pieter's speech on DVD or other medium, meanwhile I can tell you that his main message was that the company has done well in 2010, both financially and safety-wise. Also the board is optismistic for 2011 and beyond; for >800 M euro's of investments in new vessels were announced. For the area offshore a new shallow water pipelay barge will be developed and built. Our Nordnes team was awarded with the (very first) Van Oord Brainwave Award, for the idea of the Fish Repellent Device on the FPROV that improves the quality of survey data. Dave and myself had the honour of receiving the award and the adjoining certificates on your behalf. Once again I would like to thank all of you for your contribution to making the idea reality and also I want to sincerely congratulate you with winning this Brainwave Award. |
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7500000 tons of rock! Monday, 06 Dec 2010 On the 4th of the December 2010 at 2:35 PM the FFPV Nordnes reached a new milestone. A very proud Nordnes crew is showing the total tons of rock installed since she started working in July 2005. The bulk of this total volume has been installed in Norwegian waters for our Offshore Clients. We like to thank all, helping us reaching this milestone. |
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Congratulations from all Nordnes crewmembers! Wednesday, 13 Oct 2010 Dear Colleges, And finaly I am daddy!!!!! This morrning 08.20 my wife gave birth to my Daughter - Sanda!! She is helthy and no complications at all. 54cm tall and 3.4 kg in weight!! Sandis |
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Happy birthday! Sunday, 10 Oct 2010 Happy birthday Le Loi! |
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Happy birthday! Thursday, 30 Sep 2010 Happy birthday Jim and Alaner! |
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Happy birthday! Thursday, 23 Sep 2010 Happy birthday Flory Ann! |
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Wedding! Monday, 06 Sep 2009 Hello Gina and Leo, You have chosen each other above all the rest To share your love and laughter, to live life at its best. May you always fill each other's lives with love. Congratulations from the Nordnes family! |
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Jeroen Hermkens pen drawings Sunday, 18 Jul 2010 This summer, from 12 June to 5 September 2010, Kunsthal Rotterdam presents over eighty works by painter and lithographer Jeroen Hermkens. He travelled around the world for one and a half years in order to register the activities of Van Oord Read here Mr. Camiel Eurlings' openings speach of the Terra Nova exhibition. |
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The Nordnes 2010 World Cup Pool Thursday, 17 Jun 2010 Follow the progress of The Nordnes 2010 World Cup Pool ! One participant disagreed with the score and accused the organisation of fraud. Read the full story in todays edition of World Cup News..... |
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Happy birthday! Thursday, 03 Jun 2010 Happy birthday Eva! |
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Congratulations on behalf of all Nordnes crewmembers! Monday, 15 Feb 2010 Dear Colleges, I am glad to inform that on the 11.02.2010 at 11.44 am I became daddy again. This time it is a son, Borys. He had 57cm and 4,060 kg. Borys and his mommy feels good. P.S. Looks like he is going to be famous rapper in the future. Best Regards, Bartosz Kowalczyk |
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Good-bye Marc!
Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010 With a crew existing of fifty people it is inavoidable that sometimes one has to say goodbye. The partings from crew that have been working on the Nordnes for some considerable time are usually memorable and occasionally even emotional. Friendship flourishes in this team, working so closely together and with mutual objectives. On many occasions the ones who stayed made a farewell greeting for those who left. In this case the one who left said goodbye to those who stayed. We’re happy that we never found out how good you were in your profession. Marc, Nordnes crew thanks you for your letter and wishes you all the best for the future! |
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Congratulations! Tuesday, 08 Dec 2009
Saturday, 02 Jan 2010 Nordnes crew congratulates Bert, Barbara, Kimberley and Rowan with Kelvin! |
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The story about the box Part 1: Beschuit met muisjes (pronunciation: bə‘sxœyt mЄt ‘mœyςəs, lit: "biscuits with little mice") is the traditional food served to celebrate the birth of a baby in the Netherlands, though they also are eaten regularly outside of birth celebrations. Beschuit are similar to rusks but a little softer. In the United Kingdom they are sold as Dutch crisp bakes. They are round, and are prepared by baking a small cylindrical bread, cutting it in half and baking a second time. They are spread with butter (or margarine) and the muisjes (lit. "little mice") are sprinkled on top. These muisjes are sugared aniseed balls. They are sold in a mixture of two colors: White and pink. In 1990 a new mixture was introduced: white and blue, and it has become a custom, but not a universal one, that the latter (blue) are served when a boy is born, and the former (pink) for a girl. When a child is born in to the royal House of Orange, orange muisjes are sold. Part 2: De Ruijter (mind you, the rich branch of the family;-) is the manufacturer of muisjes (among other famous sweets, like chocolate sprinklets). Adjacent images show the original box and ours, inspired hereby, to introduce the brand called Kelvin. |
 
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Happy birthday! Friday, 06 Nov 2009 Happy birthday Gina! |
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For sale! Thursday 05 Nov 2009 Interested? info@nordnes.nl
Send an E-mail to: |
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Wedding! Thursday, 03 Sep 2009 Sunshine in your life This new marriage will bring Giving you much pleasure With a new song to sing. Singing with joy Celebrating your new life Enjoying yourselves As husband and wife. From the Nordnes crew |
Liwanag ng buhay Hatid ng inyong kasal Dala'y kasiyahan Bagong himig na aawitin. Masasayang tugtugin Sa pagdiriwang ng bagong buhay Magpakaligaya ng magkasama Bilang mag-asawa. |
 
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Rockin'ladies.
Thursday, 27 Aug 2009 "Girl Power" Keeps our data-processing engine running smoothly! Interview published in "onboard". |
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Turtle-doves feel at home wherever the ball rolls!
Thursday, 30 Jul 2009 Football – While the majority of the Breda supporters are preparing their trip home to... Read on in BN DeStem (a Dutch newspaper) Read English translation.... |
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For sale! Tuesday 07 Jul 2009 |
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Happy birthday! Thursday, 30 Apr 2009 Happy 44th birthday Dave! |
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Problems with website... Friday, 17 Apr 2009 Due to hard disk problems on the storage server of our provider, the website has been offline for a number of hours today. Read more.... |
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10000 Visitors !! Tuesday, 7 Apr 2009 7th April 2009 we welcomed the 10000th visitor to our website. That was another great milestone for us! The Nordnes crew thanks all visitors! |
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Compliments we're proud of! Wednesday, 01 Apr 2009 The guileless passer-by on our website might easily be misled: there are so many items about parties, get-togethers, birthdays and other cheerful festivities that people sometimes wonder whether we actually have time to do some serious work. Well, for those interested: we actually do, and we have proof of it as well. The ones who know us a bit longer, have seen us walking around in the 5 Megaton windbreakers, which were issued some time ago when we had actually reached the milestone of 5 million tons of aggregates placed on the seabed. That it's not only quantity that counts, may be demonstrated by the testimonial from (yet another) happy customer that we received recently and that we want to share with you here, since we're so proud of it. And to proof that it's not only about partying, of course... Published with explicit permission of customer. |
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Happy birthday! Wednesday, 01 Apr 2009 Happy 46th birthday Dick! |
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Karaoke! Monday, 23 Mar 2009 Although a number of talented singers like this one and this one recently continued their careers elsewhere, we are, by no means out of talent. Not only does this company employ the best rock installation crew in the world (that's the other shift, of course;-) but also, luckily, we have quite a few gifted 'rock' singers amongst us. Karaoke parties are NO FUN AT ALL, if there are no real vocalists around. After completing rock installation on a project for one of our clients, our new captain decided it was time for a Karaoke party whilst sailing into port. Although his surname means 'Nightingale', which could easily implicate expectations in itself, his talents are most definitely other than singing. It's quite likely they made him Captain and not Chief Singer, in order to stay away from the 'rock business'. Nevertheless, he organised a Karoake session for the crew on board which might have drawn the attention of Sir Richard, who's not only the owner of the cables we've been protecting with rock, but also is a "platenbaas" (the Dutch word for record producer). LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, (and Sir Richard) may I please have your attention for the following gifted 'rock singers & musicians': Roy, Lemuel, Gina, Roderick, Bernard (harmonica), Margreet, Joselito, Ramon, Rowel, Ivan, Dexter and many, many more, which might be less gifted, but just as enthousiastic as the others?! |   |
By Bert, the most talented writer on our boat!
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Congratulations! Friday, 20 Mar 2009 Hello All, I would like to inform that on the 18th of Match 1300h, my wife Arleta, after 10 hours gave birth to beautiful daddy’s girl – Amelia Nicole Kowalczyk. Baby girl has 60cm and 3.945 kg. Every think is alright with mom and daughter. Cheers, Happy daddy Bart |
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Congratulations! Wednesday, 28 Jan 2009 Piotr and Julita, congratulations with your daughter Dominika! |
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Happy birthday! Sunday, 04 Jan 2009 Happy birthday Bob! |
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Happy birthday! Sunday, 29 Dec 2008 On 20th Decemeber we celebrated Vanessa's birthday. Happy birthday Vanessa! |
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StatoilHydro prepares for Ormen Lange in Sognefjorden
Thursday, 18 Dec 2008 StatoilHydro prepares for Ormen Lange in Sognefjorden Letting go massive loads of rocks Practicing in calm waters with precision down to 1 millimeter. Leikanger : Rocks in Ten thousands of tons are dumped in the fjord between Fresvik and Kaupanger-half island. This is a part of StatoilHydro’s prepare for producing oil and gas in the large Ormen Lange section. Published in Sogn Avis Wednesday, 17 Dec 2008. Read English translation.... |
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Happy birthday! Friday, 28 Nov 2008 Margreet, happy birthday from all of us! |
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For sale!
Friday, 21 Nov 2008 For sale: The smallest heavy-duty Fallpipe ROV on the market. This FPROV is more power ful, more robust and a more cost effective solution than all other FPROVs in its class. These facts however are secondary to the real capability of the FPROV. All FPROVs have a flight pattern that reflects the movement of an aeroplane (3 degrees of movement). This FPROV however has the hydrodynamic properties of a helicopter: this allows it to hover, circle, rotate on its axis and move in any direction that is required. This technical breakthrough is achieved by ten internally housed thrusters that produce five degrees of movement. With an operating depth of 5 m, a total system carry case weight of under 200kg, and a service life of 200-300 hours at 100% duty this beauty has been designed for rock dumping in hazardous and confined areas. As you can see, the system has recently been fully serviced and inspected by the manufacturer and is in very good condition. Will be delivered without ROV pilots, umbilical, LARS, survey platforms, electronics, hydraulics, thrusters, survey equipment and manuals. Prospective bidders should register their interest by leaving contact details in the Guestbook of this website. |
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Happy birthday!
Monday, 17 Nov 2008 One of our appreciated captains has a habit of hiding his birthday for the crew, if it so happens that this is during his term on board. Suspicion is that he does so, just because he doesn’t like cake. There’s a non-confirmed rumour that no means are avoided in order to hide the real birthday-date. At some stage this captain might even have gone as far as frauding his birthday on the crewlist by changing it to a date in the past. However, your crew of specialists wouldn’t be worth a penny if they hadn’t figured out a way to trace the exact date of birth. It actually so happened to be on crew-change day. Therefore the crew decided to organise an extra warm welcome, starting with a welcome committee at the gangway, displaying the best wishes for Capt. Tony’s birthday. A nice makeshift Jumbo Birthdaycard was made up by our talented painting artist George in order to express our congratulations. So also for our colleagues in China: Please update your diaries: The one-and-only-confirmed date is: 17th of November! |
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Nintendo Wii
Wednesday, 05 Nov 2008 As a token of appreciation for the co-operation of the crew during the recent ONS offshore exhibition in Stavanger, when the vessel was moored alongside and open to visitors, the ladies from Van Oord’s Offshore Marketing & Public Relations department presented the crew with a brand new Nintendo Wii games computer, complete with steering wheels, family trainer and some games. As Mariokart is one of the all time favorites, this can now be played wireless as well. Regretfully the ladies from the office had no chance of being on board, so the gift was handed over to Mr. Marlon Ona (as a representative of the whole crew, and one of the ladies’ favorite dancing partners) by captain and superintendent, and immediately put into service. Thank you ladies, for the nice gesture and we’ll all make sure that it will be used extensively and contributes to further camaraderie among the crew. |
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Gigantic contract to company from Sandnessjøen. Saturday, 01 Nov 2008 The company Aquarock has closed long term deals with the gigantic Dutch company Van Oord about delivering offshore rocks from Sandnessjøen. The contract will result in 20 new jobs. Read on .... More in the local press: www.helgeland-arbeiderblad.no |
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Happy birthday! Wednesday, 22 Oct 2008 Cindy, happy birthday from all of us. And a big hug from the Nordnes Chippendales! |
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Milestone. Friday, 17 Oct 2008 Dear Superintendent, Captain and crew, An enormous milestone!! 5,000,000 tonnes of rock dumped with Nordnes. And not just dumped, but very accurately and succesfully installed in the most varying conditions: Sometimes very shallow water, sometimes very deep water (and everything in between), sometimes nice weather but quite often very tough conditions. All in all a very impressive achievement! A job very well done! Congratualations to you all ! Best Regards, Hidde de Boer Operations Manager Van Oord Offshore bv |
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Fish. Thursday, 25 Sep 2008 Due to a tragic incident our fish died on 25th September 2008. She has been a beloved and appreciated member of our family for many years. Dear fish, we will miss you. May you rest in piece... |
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Nicknames.
Yes, also on our boat nicknames are often used.
- Bobski. One of our Dutch colleagues who lives in Poland.
- Peterdeleter. A chief surveyor who accidentally formatted a harddisk of an online positioning computer. Feeder off....
- Too short Theo. An Ass. Superintendent who had the bad habit of installing rockberms which were too short.
On both sides.
- Bert kijkt niet op 18 meter de Ruiter. (Translated as Bert does not look at 18 metres de Ruiter).
An Ass. Superintendent who once installed an 18 metres long rockberm in the wrong trench. Oops
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Interview. Read an interview with one of our colleagues. Published in GIM International of September 2008. Download a pdf version of 1 Mb |
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Expressions.
During operations often many standard expressions are used. Sometimes important,
sometimes annoying and sometimes really funny.
- When in doubt throw them out. Still not sure? Put some more! (Harry Campigly)
- Keep my hopper full!! (Peter Raas)
- Your f**g scans are at the wrong scale!!!! (All superintendents to some online surveyors...)
- Reverse on track, speed 50! (Ass. Superintendents to DP Operators)
- One minute! (Ass. Superintendents to Discharge Operators)
- Feeder on! (Ass. Superintendents mainly to themselves....)
- "En de groeten" (Translated as "And bye, bye"). Frequently used by Peter Raas when he got
fed up with someone's behaviour. Now often used by many of us.....
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SHIPPING coffee_corner - LATEST Sunday 27th May 2007, 21:26 UTC+2 Reports of a major marine incident were received from a vessel in the North Sea earlier today when 3,000,000 tons of rock spiralled out of control to the seabed from the luxury cruise ship "Nordnes". Read more .... |
Safety Bulletin Recently one of the crew (no name will be mentioned but he is Polish) locked himself in the telephone booth on the B deck. Read more .... |