Departure...and for goodness sake, Polar Bears do NOT live in the south.

Here he is...the Antarctic Monkey.

Ladies and Gentlemen - The Antarctic Monkey

Please please please, I can't take it anymore!! I'm at my wits end. If anyone who hasn't asked me yet, and who's reading this I'll tell you now...I will not be seeing any polar bears when I am in Antarctica. Nobody will. They live on the other side of the planet!

Remember...Penguins South, Polar Bears North.

Sorry. I just had to get that off my chest.



Right, I've been getting a lot of grief as to why my blog hasn't been updated in a while.
I do have a good excuse. Basically, I've been spending all of my time since the met. training doing (would you believe) more training in Cambridge.

Well, more to the point, learning loads and loads of sciency and electronicy things which I will have to look after when at Halley. To explain all of these things on a blog would make me come across as
a) Boring, and
b) Totally geeky

I've seriously enjoyed my time working in Cambridge, and actually towards the end of the 6 weeks started to feel rather settled in the city and warming to my daily routine. I made some good friends, (all of whom are fully clothed and not closet naturists), and met many interesting people, and experienced a lot of fun (largely involving parties and a small tipple or two of course).

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19th November 2007 - Departure

So, this is it.
It's the eve of my departure from the UK.
I suppose I am feeling a whole cocktail of emotions right now. But mainly, I just want to get there and settle in. All of this prolonged goodbye and emotional rubbish is now starting to get my goat!
:o)

The last time I made such a a change in my life was when I moved 200miles to a new town escaping the evil clutches of Great Yarmouth to set up a new life in Berkshire. And back then the stress of it all gave me itchy welps (or whatever they're called) all over my legs. And lo and behold, they're bloody well back with this new transition in my life.

I'll save you the horror by not putting a picture of them on here!
(actually, I've heard that the thought alone of seeing a picture of one of my legs sends flutters of ecstacy through many a woman's heart, but it would be damnable cruel of me to abuse the power of the blog and affect so many in one go!)


I've been very busy socially these past few weeks. I've been absorbing as much culture as I can such as theatre shows, visiting places of historical interest, country walks, parties, etc. These were all experienced with various people in my life.
I've never driven so many miles in such as short time in my life. I've been darting between Cambridge, Reading, and Great Yarmouth. Peterborough, Basingstoke, London, and Newbury.

However, I am glad to say that I managed to squeeze in one final performance with the Boundary Players by participating in a Murder Mystery event organised in association with Save the Children. This was performed at Wokefield Park on 10th November. And my, what a brilliant time it was. I was playing as an off-duty fresh-out-of-training policeman with a slight nervous disposition. A copper who just happened to be present at a meal/presentation put on by a theatre group who were using the evening to announce the next season's big production. Unfortunately members of the theatre group were being killed off throughout the evening after a spate of arguments between themselves. P'hah...amateurs.

Above is a picture of a not so intelligent looking off-duty copper having accosted the murderer after significant help from the guests/punters (it was Brett/Chris whodunnit). A very drunk (she was acting of course) Margot/Alice on the right.

The cast...Alice, Steve, Jen, Myself, Chris, Francesca, Andy and Pat

This weekend was spend with my family. As I will be missing two Christmasses, we decided to have our celebrations early this year. Friday night was our Xmas where we enjoyed a fully decorated table at a restaurant (Quay Largo on Gorleston Seafront, this is your plug. Many thanks to you guys). As a going away pressie, I bought everyone a tiny fluffy penguin in hat and scarf.

Not to feel outdone, the Antarctic Monkey joined in by wearing his own hat and scarf.

As I said there are no polar bears in Antarctica, but I've heard they give good head!!

Saturday was our New Year celebrations.
Anyone who knows my brothers and I know that it is tradition for the Stephenson brothers to dress up. Not to let anyone down, we did just that. The theme for this year...

Penguins!!!(well, Duh)

That bloody polar bear...he gets everywhere.
Do not be confused. Polar bears and penguins do not generally mix.
As for the club. Well, we were going to go clubbing later...seal clubbing
(yeah, I know, it's a very tenuous link).
And I know some smart alec is going to comment on the lobster (we were hard pushed to find Antarctic marine life in the local fishing shops.


Right. I guess the next entry will be from the Antarctic, where I'll have much more exciting and newsy things to go on about.
But for now...bye.