With the weeks seeming to flash by here at Halley, even Christmas was over fairly quickly. Not the long drawn out process of back at home with it dragging on for weeks… We finished early on Christmas Eve (1pm), had Christmas day off and were back at work at 7.15am on Boxing Day. It was almost like it had never happened, but then, on Boxing Day the best Christmas present of all arrived: the ship!!!
We ate like kings…
Fresh fruit, vegetables and chocolate…
A variety of soft drinks…
And best of all, as I was emptying a container of build equipment, I came across a box with my name on it!! Presents from home and more choc and malt whisky. Things are a lot rosier…
Most of the work on site is moving ahead on schedule, its only the electrical side that seems to be holding things up. Most of the problem is the mess they constantly work in; they never clean up after themselves and are often working on top of weeks of debris. Their excuse is that they are too short of time to be cleaning up, and try as I might, they don’t believe me when I tell them they would work quicker and more efficiently on a clean site. Usually, some mug (i.e. me
or Les, the other painter) gets sick of the mess and sweeps up. On New years Eve I spents 2 hours moving 8 bags of rubbish from the undercroft of 1 module (Rant over!!!)…
This has a knock on effect on everything else, and 2 more sparkys are flying in in 2 weeks time to help catch up. D-day for the project is Friday 13th January when BAS have to be confident they will be able to winter in the Base and the main services will be functional. If not they will have work to do on the Halley 5 building for the winter. The mood though is optimistic.
No more news yet on the Windy Bay penguins, although we are hoping to catch up with them next weekend. The sea hasn’t been very rough, so we are hoping the sea ice has hung on over the festive period. I’ll keep you posted on them. Here are a few other wildlife shots to keep you going…
(Click the picture for a bigger image, 1.7Mb, it'll take a mo' to download, be patient)
Hooray, chocolate, whisky, and more supplies. Phew!!! 😛 😛
You need that fortification to have a rant at those slackers! 👿 👿
Glad to see you’re planning some more ski touring trips.
I am having trouble believing that you have a found a trade that makes more mess than one plumber 😯
Love the seal doing a handstand 🙂
That seal is definately enjoying a good laugh…
Happy new year!
We missed you this year (again)… we did manage to climb one mountain on New Years Day when the rain finally stopped!! In London it has been warm and manic… tomorrow Colin Jackson is popping in to see Crystal at school…
The weather is finally cooler … some ice…
Working in mess: now you know what it is like to be a parent!
Hope the birthday preparations are coming along: another year for us eh? Keep safe and well… we love you… Caroline Steve Crystal and Emerald….xxxxx
PS: If I had known we could send you pressies we would have done!
Hi… me again: 29 minutes until our birthday :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: … wish you were here to help me stare into the mirror in disbelief… just back from Kiev: minus 11 degrees and snow.. :freeze: . not as much snow as where you are… thinking of you all day… 😀 happy birthday Ian! x :love: