January 20th already!!-personal-
My goodness! Has a week gone by already?! Where did it go?! How can it be that the days are so long, so very long that this morning feels at least two months ago, but the weeks are so short? Answer me that, o riddle master. The days, well, they are years, they are a whole lifetime and a blink. Maybe it's because we work eleven hour days, fairly long by most people's standards, but it's still light outside so your mind at the end of the day is saying "take me outside to play, look it's still daytime, we have hours before bed!" while your body is saying "nooo, not more, I've been out there all day, where were you then, o off-with-the-fairies playmate of mine?!" And so it goes on. Sometimes one wins, othertimes the other. Tonight, I think it shall be early to bed. But then, I say that every night...
Yesterday was a Sunday, our day off, and I slept all day. Well, most of it, and then went outside to see friends here kite-surfing. What a wonderful sport that is! So silent! so fast! Whoooosh, like the wind. Pulled along at great speeds while your feet are bound to skis or a snowboard. They look so graceful, it looks so natural. Have you ever tried surfing (in the sea)? I did once. All I remember is feeling like I was inside a washing machine that was stuck on the spin cycle. Occasionally allowed to gasp for air before another horrific onslaught of eddies removed my sense of gravity and orientation entirely. Kitesurfing is not that different. It's wonderful, believe you me, when the wind picks up the kite. It's exhilarating when you get pulled along faster than a skidoo, it's predictable that you will soon be flat on your face. Again. But the snow is soft and the day is long so I came home a bit soggy, a little bruised, very windswept but with a big grin across my face. Last Sunday we went on a trip to visit a nearby emperor penguin colony. The chicks were hip height but still fluffy. Bizarre proportions. The parents, so sleek and slender didn't fit in really. The entire bay was made up of strange formations of snow and ice. Like stalactites or stalacmites (whichever are the ones that grow upwards?). How did they form? The wind? The sea? The salt? The antarctic katabatics? No, of course not. Penguin poo. What else?! Without being too graphic, snow is white and reflects sunlight exceedingly well. Anything darker than snow absorbs light and heat... and so melts the snow underneath. At one point there were 10,000 penguins in this not overly-large bay so do the mental imagery for yourself.... however it formed, the final effect was surreal. And this is what you have: waist high formations of ice (or rather waste deep melting spots, but anyway...), hip high baby penguins, adults of the same size but looking out of place, and to top it all off, head height humans in dayglo polar gear dangling multiple cameras within reaching distance of the lot. The penguins seemed much less bothered by us than we, them. It was actually quite sad too as the stronger chicks had already left for the sea and many of these that were left will probably never make it. But they had such strong characters! They huddled in creches of about 10 chicks per adult and made the most extraordinary coo-ing call that is individual to each and the way that parents find their kids. These parents aren't returning now though,- it's up to the chicks to shed their fluff and seek out fish. It was all very odd and then we left. But that's not what people have been writing to me about. Jim asks: "How are the living accomodations, food, people, wildlife, weather, your work etc.", Vanessa asks why I'm digging a big hole anyway, Steve, of course, wants to know about sewage and fresh fruit (not related), Kirsten wants to hear about the 'humdrum', Toni the community and when the ship will be returning and Chris, bless him, asked about the view from my window. The best news is that I now have a window! Until last week I was living in a windowless room that wasn't conducive to much except sleeping. Now, Mandy and I have a wonderful bright north facing window that brings us much joy every time we walk through the door. The view is of the sky and the snow but also of a few buildings, a handline and the vehicles, all lined up in a row (at night time). Bulldozers and snowcats and skidoos and cranes. Lots and lots of big toys that we all love. This is the biggest playground in the world! The weather has not been that cold, hovering around freezing or a bit below. When it's calm, it's beautiful, not more than a couple of warm layers needed. When the wind picks up however, it can bite. But it's a fresh bite. The air so clean. And the water! the water we drink and wash in and cook with and make ice from (!I know, odd!) tastes so...well...so pure! This week I'm on melt-tank duty which means that at 6:45pm every evening I go out to the melt tank with three others and shovel snow down some pipes for about 20-30 minutes until it is full. The same happens in the morning (a different four people) and from this little act we have sufficient water for all the washing machines, kitchen requirements, bathroom and drinking needs for 40 people. Not bad, eh?! I love the showers. They are brief, but to be bathed in fresh antarctic snowmelt.... From there I don't feel I should move to sewage although I guess it's all plumbing....let it just be said that it either gets combusted or poured into the ground to form a great big frozen mass. This is hopefully changing in the future. Fruit we do still have, most notably apples, pears and oranges. They haven't been frozen, just carefully wrapped in paper and stored in a coolroom on both the ship and base. Stay amazingly fresh. I remember a similar method happening in Nepal when the apples lasted for months if they were buried deep in the earth where it was cool. More fruit will be arriving on the ship in a couple of weeks so we are encouraged to help ourselves to as much as we like which is fantastic. The people and community are still a lot of fun. Everyone's working hard so it's no more the party atmosphere that was on the ship...but everyone wants to be working hard and working here so there's a certain joy and helpfulness that I don't think you get on your average construction site. Even the grumpy old gits, whose character it is to be a grumpy old git, wink at the end of a grumble. The ship has just left the Falklands again and is due back here in a couple of weeks. After relief #2, she sails off for a science cruise for two weeks and then picks those of us up who aren't staying for the winter at the end of February. I believe that I am due to be back in the land of roads, trees and nights mid-March sometime. I'm losing the plot, the flow has petered, my tired body is asking for rest and the daylight outside can't be hidden from my mind's eye for much longer. For now, I leave you for another week or so, to my daydreams, to the wonder of ice and beautiful skies. Search out a star for me tonight.Posted by Rhian at 23:24 EST
Comments
Congratulations to the room with a view. Hope you will still get some sleep.
Oh well, thougght you were out of harm's reach, but should know better. So, have fun kite surfing and stay well.
mum
Posted by: erika at 8:23 EST, January 21, 2003
I've just travelled 10 000 vicarious miles in 20 minutes, catching up with your all your writings since you set off. North Yorkshire can be even more cut off from the world than Antarctica, so I've only just been able to log on and read your stuff. I'm afraid the strange behaviour of the ice in the Weddell sea is not the result of the climatic factors you mentioned in an earlier entry- it's solely the result of great gales of red-hot ENVY, leaving Kirkbymoorside at supersonic speeds and blowing in your direction. JEALOUS, JEALOUS, JEALOUS! But your latest entry has given me an idea: I've nearly finished fitting the Morris Minor with skis, floats and a kite. We're on our way to visit you, so keep scanning that horizon. On second thoughts we might not make it by the time you leave. Maybe next season.....
Posted by: Jim R at 15:37 EST, January 23, 2003
The clean whiteness, crisp air and endless horizon sound wonderful. I'll bet your own body is getting cleansed as you spend time down there. But . . . can we hear about the laser you are going to be shooting out of the window in your lab. I assume you will be shooting it into the air to see how much of a particular frequency bounces back. Does the laser sit on a big dais with glowing rods and a soft evil hum from the generators? Do you sit in a seat and have a cross hair target through which you look before you blast away? Does it make a treacherous high-pitched squeal when you shoot the laser? Like Cambridge we're soggy here in Seattle, but I think not as frozen snowy as eastern seaboard US.
p.
Posted by: Philip Howard at 19:50 EST, January 23, 2003
Now then. A stalagmite is an up-from-the-ground type thing and a stalagtite is a dangling thing as far as I recall. The way I remember is that tights sort of hang when one unwraps them from the cellophane and cardboard bit that holds them in place to make them look nice on the M&S display hooks (the cardboard bits serve well as a place to write a shopping list - as Tink will testify). Tights, for those of you in the US or Australia are those things you call pantyhose. Why this name, I cannot imagine. A hose, as far as I know, is a snakelike garden accessory through which to shoot water at high pressure and has little to do with (usually) women's legs. Tights hanging down from your hips to cover ones pins, stalagtites hanging down to look interesting and to confuse with stalagmites. oh, just thought of a way to remember the latter. TerMITES build mounds up from the ground. StalagMITES go up from the ground (or ice or whatever). Easy.
Cannot believe how time is flying. A
Posted by: span at 6:31 EST, January 24, 2003
Looking forward to kite-surfing with you this summer, it's huge here, and I'm sure will be equally amusing as our sailing exploits! Remember turning turtle and the tripper boat trying to rescue us? What were we doing? Giggling of course!
Very jealous of your view, it's been foggy here all day, so have seen nothing (fairly white though)! In fact, I'm just very jealous and may be hitching a ride in that fabulous Morris Minor I've just read about! Enjoying your tales. All my Love xxxx
Posted by: Amy at 17:21 EST, January 27, 2003
Pleeze come visit us in NYcee when you can, I want to see many many photos and perhaps we can drop off some choice pics at custom labs and have them enlarge to 18x24 or 20x30 or whatever the grain will allow. Ooooooooh! I can't wait to see pictures, and I hope you are enjoying your camera.
Posted by: Michelle at 12:30 EST, February 03, 2003
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