Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse
by Paul Carter

Paul Carter attended a few courses in advertising and copy writing when he was in Sydney and not working on the rigs, the result of all those excellent writing skills gained is this hilarious laugh out loud book with an equally catchy and amusing title.

The book details some really amusing incidents in Paul Carter's life in his various stints at oil fields around the world. If I remember correctly from the book Paul has worked on oil rigs around the world right from Brunei, Philippines, Cambodia, Nigeria , China , Russia , Japan and of course the Australian Outback.

So this book is not only a memoir of living in these diverse places but it doubles up as a travelogue giving us an account of his travels on cheap shit economy flights around the world.

There are some really hilarious fun moments in the book, like when Paul keeps a monkey in his house as a pet and the Monkey locks him in the toilet and runs away with the key. As it happens in times like these , this door happens to be a heavy duty one and opens inside, so breaking the door is not the easiest option out, instead he peels off the carpet from under the door , and tries a whole lot of things before finally coming out after taking off the latch with some crude tools.

Then there are accounts of his life in Nigeria , where you would see Ak47 s and hand guns as commonly as you would see mobile phones in Australia, and he goes on to suggest that for the African market Nokia should develop a HandgunPhone instead of a CameraPhone. Moving on there are accounts of diverse things like rowdy brawls in pubs around the world, running away from the police in China, the utter lawlessness in Nigeria, rampant mugging in Cambodia, Driving in the Australian Outback, Stoned out drunk backyard parties in Perth (where his electrician friends tape him to the floor naked with duct tape), Crazy betting on Big Scorpion vs tiny Mouse fights in Brunei (Where the agile Mouse beats the hell out of the poisonous scorpion by running around and cutting its tail off before the scorpion can take aim to sting), accounts of crazy deadly accidents working in oil rigs, and lots more.

I picked this book because of its title from a library shelf, I doubt If I would pick it from a bookstore. This is not the type of book with "Enduring Value" but is definitely worth a single read, and you better get ready to Laugh out LOUD !