Showing posts with label drstephenson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drstephenson. Show all posts

Monday, 16 June 2008

It's Mid-Winter already?



"Move, move, move...gangway" I shout excitedly, as I run down the length of the corridor holding it in my hands, "it's gonna blow"!

Turns out it didn't, but I thought it was.

For those of you with your minds in the gutter, I am in fact talking about the spare UPS (uninterruptible power supply) which I had transported from the Simpson to the Laws.

It was arcing and filling the computer room with a nice electronic-like burning smell. 230V supplied from the internal battery was shorting somewhere inside and I needed to disconnect the battery quick.

Some snow must have got into the inside of the UPS during transit and when melted had shorted out some of the electronics. Usually I leave electronic equipment to warm up and dry out when transporting them between buildings. This time I neglected to consider that the lead-acid battery inside would be supplying the circuitry constantly. Ooops.

Needless to say, I discovered it in time, and removed the battery. Averting disaster and burning down the entire base. From hero to zero to hero again!

Still, I have a repair job to do, as testing it a few days later caused it give an almighty bang and produce a jet of flame from an exploding power transistor or two. D'oh.

It's now been almost 2 months since my last entry. Not so much from me being lazy, but really from having too much to do each evening. The social calendar is packed.

The 24hr darkness soon came within a couple of weeks of the sundown ceremony. Life and work continued and monotony kicked in. I refuse to bore you with details of my job. And there really is little I can remember about day-to-day life and activities during the social hours.

That said...life on station is fun. Sometimes it can be damn good laugh.


The Darkness Descends

So, the Sundown ceremony came and went on 1st May, complete with an amazing aurora display to tie in with it. One month later Halley was quickly plunged into perpetual 24 hour darkness. Although on a perfectly cloudless and calm day a glow can be seen on the northern horizon at local noon (1400GMT), other than that it's dark.

Bloody dark.

With no light pollution and when there is a new moon, standing outside at night can be very spooky. It is so dark it is disorientating. But it gives an amazing view of the cosmos above though. There are loads of stars!



Thursday 9th May - Friday 16th May 2008
Nightwatch Shenanigans

A week after sundown was my turn to spend a week on nightwatch duty. We take it in turns here to spend a week on nightwatch. Nightwatch is needed to ensure that someone on base is awake and alert to keep an eye on all the systems, watch for any issues, provide 1st line defence against any possible outbreaks of fire, and do all the general cleaning which cannot be done in the daytime.

We also get a chance to make bread.
Look at these puppies I made! My first ever time at making bread.


It can be a boring week on nightwatch, unless one amuses themselves somehow.

Me...I amuse myself by leaving practical jokes for people to discover the next day.
Mwa-ha-ha-haaaa!

On Sat night I thought it would be a laugh to leave a picture of me giving the thumbs-up and a cheesy smile on the inside of the ladies loo cubicle door. They have loads of pictures of beautiful scenery and vistas, so I thought I'd add to the collection with a picture of me too! It'd be a nice surprise for whoever sits down to do their business in the morning! heh heh heh


Turns out that the girls never noticed it there until Dean pointed it out in the afternoon when he was doing the cleaning.

The following night I was doing my rounds, and I found I had been defaced by the girls. I didn't know whether to be honoured or insulted. I chose honoured, as later they took down all the other pictures and left mine up! Where it stays until this day...well, until some clown drew a big phallus on my head that is.



On Saturday night at the bar Hannah made a little pink girly horse balloon thing wearing a tie. Nobody knows it, but this little thing became my companion during those quiet evenings on nightwatch. It would watch films and programmes with me. It would watch me mop the floors. It would sit with me whilst I ate my meals. She was the only friend I had during that lonely week whilst out of sync with the rest of the base.



On Wednesday night, whilst cleaning the bootroom, I decided it would amuse me to place a couple of M5 nuts in everyone's boots. And by God it did amuse me. I was giggling to myself all night.

But there was never any mention of nuts in boots for 2 or 3 weeks afterwards. Not one person made a comment about it. Until one night at the bar. Ags mentioned about finding some nuts in her boots, and then everyone piped up stating the same. I tried to join in, but my guilty face gave me away. By the way everyone turned and looked accusingly at me, I realised that I too was to become a target of many a practical joke myself at some point.


Saturday 24th May 2008
Mexican Night

Another theme night, and another chance for people to raid the fancy dress cupboard.
Joe had proposed a Mexican-themed food night. Soon it was proposed to dress up also.
We had a good turn out.

Joe came as, what he called, a day-to-day modern mexican...he said he looked it up on the internet. To us he looked like a builder with a waste-jacket!

Paddy came as a Mexican terrorist. A little stereotypical maybe, but we were working with limited variety.

Rich came as a Mexican nobleman. He just radiated nobility and power whenever one was in his presence.

Ags and Hannah dressed in whatever I guess Mexican women dress in. Spanish-esque I suppose!

I came as Zorro...with an incredibly poorly made eye-mask which restricted my view. I could not look at anything unless I physically pointed my head specifically at objects or people. Twas the source of much amusement for the evening.


And we all sat down to eat Mexican food.


Then we partied the evening away Mexican style.
Like whacking a paper bull, which was hanging from the ceiling, by the means of a radio antenna in order to get sweets out of it. In other words...a pinata.

A bizarre activity, but fun nonetheless.



Monday 26th - Friday 30th May 2008
The week the science died

The exploding UPS was just a small part in what was to be the week of hell for science at Halley.
My life was about to get a little more busy than usual.

The balloon PC decided to start playing up when recording balloon data.
The weather station stopped recording wind.
The weather PC stopped logging it's midnight measurements.
Of course, the UPS blew up on me.
And Ryan's network of GPS loggers out in the field were not communicating with the Simpson building.
What else could possibly go wrong on me?

Well, nothing actually, because there was literally nothing else left to go wrong.
The situation became somewhat of a joke with the rest of the winterers. Even the nightmet board was showing mockery (thanks to Hannah's artistic abilities).



Extreme Science - Antarctic Style

We were experiencing a good blow throughout the week. Rich wanted to get some arty photo shots of balloon launches. Not one to turn down the chance to be photographed, I instantly agreed to help out.


And some pictures in not so blowy conditions...



The balloon shed is called the BART. Balloon and Radiosonde Release Terminal, or something like that. Obviously a title derived from the acronym, rather than vice-versa. It's a beautiful pun to the fact that the met building is the Simpson.
In it's hey-day, all equipment and computer systems on the Simpson were named after characters from the Simpsons.


Aside:
I'll take this opportunity to wish my good friend Leigh-Anne and her new husband Rik all the best in their new married life. Sorry I couldn't be there, but we shared a toast in your honour on the day.



June came, and suddenly everyone was under pressure to complete their respective mid-winter presents they were making for whomever they pulled out of the hat in March. Myself included. Must of June was spent sawing and filing wood, and many people were not seen for several days at a time.



Wednesday 18th June 2008
Mid-Winter week begins

After being treated to the most spectacular aurora display ever on Saturday, the week was off to a good start. Wednesday was the last working day before we all chilled out for a whole week, and celebrated mid-winter.

Mid-winter week being very much like Christmas celebrations, and mid-winter's day being on 21st June.

To kick it all off was the traditional office party at the Simpson. I was busy all day prepping the building for a mini-party. I set out one of the rooms as a bar with a table for a buffet. Mood lighting was set in my office, and chairs were set for the revellers.

And soon, after 2000hrs, guests started arriving.
Rich and Ags were first, followed by Dean and Joe (not as a couple). Scott, Paddy and Bob from Accounts soon followed also.
Who the hell was Bob from Accounts? He looked rather feminine, sported a very dodgy moustache, had a million pens in his shirt pocket and was very boring. He also looked uncannily like Hannah.



Constructing the mid-winter present

Well, I completed it on time. The masterpiece I had been making all this time since early May.
I had drawn Scott in the secret santa back in March. I was racking my brains as to what I could build him, and eventually decided on a clock with a personalised touch. Practical and ornamental.

Friendly hint:
never ever decide to build a circular frame from 4 short pieces of wood. It's a bitch.

It all came together really well in the end, and I was happy with the outcome.
In fact, I wanted to keep it for myself! :o)




Enough of me blowing my own trumpet.


Mid-winter's eve

Friday was the coldest day of the year so far.


Although the PRT sensor reading here says -49.3C, we actually got -49.9C at the lowest peak in the evening.

minus 49.9?
Why could it not drop that little extra 0.1C?
How cruel to tease us like that. It's seriously disturbed my zen not seeing that display hit 50.

Regardless, it was a good enough temperature to perform a favourite Halley trick.

Collect those of on station with long hair (Ags, Hannah, Bryan and myself).
Go out onto the open platform and stuck you heads in buckets of warm water.


Hold your head upside down for 20 - 30 seconds


And then stand up straight and let everyone laugh at you





I knew there was a reason why I haven't had my hair cut since leaving the UK in November!


Apart from freezing our hair, mid-winter's eve was quite a chilled day of watching old films on the reel projector. The darkroom has oodles of cans of film from times past. We had them running all day and all evening, Joe and Bryan manning the projector in turns.



The evening brought us a German Feuerzangenbowle. Dean was the perpetrator of this. Mulled wine stuff with a block of sugar suspended above it. Pour brandy over the sugar and set fire to it. The sugar precipitates into the mulled wine, creating a very potent and very tasty hot drink.

Well, we were celebrating, so we're allowed to indulge ourselves and enjoy such a beverage.

Having gone to bed at 0600 in the morning, I was up again at 0900 to observe the weather and prep a weather balloon. Yes, although it was a week off, and we were now on mid-winter's day, science continues in Antarctica.

Dean and I helped put up the decorations, Paddy was in the kitchen prepping our mammoth 10-course meal, and the girls were busy finishing their winter presents. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute.

Soon the whole base had surfaced, and activities started.
At mid-afternoon came the traditional mid-winter's day naked run.

Yes, you read correctly. A run around the outside of the base...naked.
In -47C, you probably think it's a mad thing to do. It is, but hell, what an experience.

The only people brave enough to do it was Dean, Joe and myself. We're obviously true Antarctic Heroes!
No pictures I'm afraid.

At 1700 we started the 10-course meal.
At 2000 we took a break to open the presents and listen to the mid-winter radio message on the BBC World Service.
At 2130 we resumed dinner.
At 2230 we chilled for the rest of the evening.



The tree with presents under it

During the summer, a package was received addressed to the metbabes. It was from an ex-metbabe who wintered at Halley. I think she was expecting the team to comprise of a majority of girls with small feet. Such a stereotype that the met department is always full of girls. It's discrimination I tell you! Not to let her down, I wore the socks that were in the package, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. Particularly when we were all dressed in our smart outfits.

Metbabes are men too you know...so unisex socks would be better
Particularly ones which do not have a polar bear theme!

Me opening my present from Dean

Scott unwrapping his present from me.

My present came from Dean. He made me a personalised weather detector. A piece of runner from an old Nansen sledge with an etched brass plate mounted on it. A frame supported a piece of Antarctic rock hanging from a string. The brass plate explained how to tell the weather by looking at the rock. If it's white then it's snowing, moving then it's windy, casting a shadow then it's sunny, etc. It is brilliant. I was very happy.

The general workmanship of all the members of the group was extraordinary, as the pictures below show.



Paddy's gift to Hannah....a reversible candle holder

My picture of Joe's gift to Les did not come out...but he made a framed picture of Halley V and Halley VI which he developed himself in the darkroom. The frame was made from wood from an old Nansen sledge.

Like I said, the quality of craftmanship was extraordinary from all.

All in all, mid-winter's day was a fantastic day.
The celebrations continued over the week with a biathalon organised by Dean, a murder mystery dinner organised by me, a bowling tournament organised by Rich (using the Wii) and many others.

Bryan curls one off...
...in the bowling

We can all now chill out now the stress of the lead up to mid-winter is over.
It feels like we are on the home straight, but it's another 5-6 months before the ship arrives.

Next entry due when?
Damned if I know.



Oh, and please, do check out the official Halley web-diaries on the BAS website. They are a good read taken from other people's perspective:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/diaries/halley/2008/index.php



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Saturday, 26 April 2008

Only 105 days 'til the next sunrise. And, oh yes...Aurora yay


In the gloom of the late evening, the external lights of the Laws platform barely penetrate 20metres through the thick blizzard of blowing snow. The whole building shakes and sways in the wind, standing proud on it's 20 legs, akin to a gesture of defiance to the hard winds which buffet it.

Inside, in the warm and relative safety, 11 people take shelter from the harsh Antarctic blow. The long flourescent lit hallway runnng the length of the building is devoid of people, and many of the rooms either side of it are dark and uninhabited. It is as if the building is deserted. The only evidence suggesting the contrary are the sounds eminating from the lounge...

To an outside observer, permeating through the howling winds from this lonesome building on an Antarctic ice shelf one would hear the sounds of whoops of joy, screams of passion, and groans of disdain.

What sordid group activity could possibly be going on in the lounge?
Had the group dynamics of a small isolated team living in close proximity to one another degenerated into a kind of orgy-fest?

The answer to this burning question will have to come later.


Wednesday 2nd April & Sunday 6th April 2008
More Met Phenomena






9th April 2008
The First Aurora

It was only very faint, and it was short-lived, but Halley saw the first visible aurora of 2008. Save for Dean, it was the first experience of such a thing for many of us. And it was a beautiful sight.

Joe came rushing down the corridor excitedly screeching that there was an aurora outside. As soon as Joe had made his announcment in the lounge/bar there was a momentary pause and then suddenly everyone leapt up and the base was alive with commotion. People scrambling over each other in the boot room to get kitted up in outdoor gear. People raiding the dark room for spare camera tripods. People fighting to get out of the door onto the open platform. It was close to all civility being lost.

The external lights were extinguished plunging everything into darkness. Soon our eyes had adjusted to the low light and then...

...suddenly there it was.

In the distance to the south was a faint arc of a green-ish hue. Slowly the hue could be seen to move, dancing subtly.

I was witnessing my first aurora.




It was short lived and had all but disappeared within 30 minutes.

Seeing that aurora was in itself justification for uprooting my comfortable life in the UK to work in Antarctica for 18months. And I was pleased that I had several more months of more intense auroras to come.


Saturday 12th April 2008
Casino Royale

Another Saturday and another opportunity to have a theme and dress up for no other reason than being fun. The theme for this weekend...James Bond Casino Royale.

It was Paddy's suggestion. And everyone put in an effort. Even Paddy who was busy cooking a predominently Russian style meal managed to find time to get dressed up. The dinner table was set out with betting chips strewn over it and laminated playing cards acting as coasters.

The lounge/bar was decorated as a casino theme to continue with the theme after dinner.

We had all kinds of fancy dress, from Joe being commando Bond to Lance being a Bond-girl. We had evil henchmen in the form of Les, Odd-Job (or was it Random Task) in the form of Paddy, Pussy Galore in the form of Ags (who employed a good use of lateral thinking for the costume), Dean came as Q and Bryan came as a gun-weilding bad-guy. I was running out of ideas and ended up coming as my own made-up bad-guy....a smooth one-eyed Spanish-Mexican gambler complete with pencil moustache and a guitar as my secret weapon (I would kill people with the tunes I played on it).




A few friendly, non-competitive games of blackjack and poker were played as the evening entertainment.



 20th April to 28th April 2008
The life consuming world of "Rezy"

The week began with a beautiful full moon on Sunday 20th. A slight mist had caused the light from the moon to produce a subtle halo. I tried and tried to capture it in it's full splendeur, but only to get the result you see below.


So, what had happened to the residents of Halley during the blow of the week of the 20th to 28th? What was causing the cries of joy, screams of passion, and groans disdain?
Was it an orgy?

The answer is no.

For instead, a new addiction had taken over the lives of this group in the form of a video game. Resident Evil on the Nintendo Wii had ensnared and consumed the lives of a certain few of us in the group.

It's quite extraordinary how a video game could capture the passion of so many people and compell them to play from early evening until 0100 or 0130 in the morning. A core group of 7 people would sit down ech day after dinner to watch and/or assist in the zombie bashing.
The game is so consuming that all observers would be shouting assistance to the person playing the game. People would whoop when a puzzle was solved, scream when a monster jumps out of nowhere, and groan when another life was lost. And on this went, all of Sunday 20th and every evening of the following week. By the end of the following Sunday we had managed to rack up 24 solid hours of playing time on this one game. 24 hours out of 144. That's almost 13% of the the week spent sat in front of the big screen shouting at monsters on a video game. Bonkers.

And now it is complete we're all suffering from a feeling of loss and emptyness. We are also feeling very cheated. The ending was a complete anti-climax. We had fought through villages, fortesses and islands over-run by possessed zombie-like people. We had rescued the girl after killing 900 monsters (ourselves having died 70 times in the process). In the end, as we floated on a jet-ski basked in the golds and reds of sunset, the girl offered herself to our character...

...AND HE REFUSED HER!!!

Oh, how we men booed and bayed as the end credits came up.
Booed and bayed I tell you!

The week of Rezy also brought us several chores, activities and celebrations to remind us that there is also life outside of the world of computerised zombies and sexually confused heroes.

The 21st April was Laws scrubout day. A day for everyone to get down and dirty and give the entire base a damn good cleaning out, doing the stuff that gets missed in the weekly gash chores.
Ags and I got busy with the walls and the stores in the utility room, Paddy commanded a crew for the kitchen, Dean and Joe blitzed the lounge. Everywhere throughout the Laws was the satisfying stench of chemical cleaning agents and sweating armpits. By the end of the day the entire place was spotless. Dinner was served and then we settled down for some zombie/monster bashing.

The 23rd April was the beginning of another few days of a blow. It was also St. Georges day. Paddy agreed to cook up a traditionally English dinner for the evening. But that was as far as the celebrations went due to crappy weather and being mid-week. We soon lifted our spirits by settling down for some zombie/monster bashing. I suppose the blood bath of cutting down the maurauding undead with shotguns and rescuing the presidential daughters can be tenuously related to the legend of St. George slaying the dragon and rescuing the girl.

The evening of Saturday 26th April was a surprise to us all. We all went to bed on Friday night (at different times of course!) to find a balloon attached to our bedroom doors with an invitation to the dining room at 1930 on Saturday. What could this mystery be?

Something secret was going on all afternoon and nobody was allowed in the room. Then, at 1930 the door was opened to reveal the dining room decced out into a party venue, complete with decorations, buffet and cheesey music. Everyone even had a party bag with treats and toys in them.

Oh, how I was excited. Cheesey parties are the times when I shine, revealing my amazing dance routines and oh, oh, oh....the prospect of getting the ol' patented Leg Guitar out!

But it wasn't to be.
False alarm. The party was shorted lived and soon people retired to the lounge/bar and chilled out. A few of us kept the party going by playing some games. But alas, the opportunity for the leg guitar had passed.

A slight aurora was showing itself in the south sky that evening, but it was only subtle.



 Thursday 1st May 2008
Sundown

Now that Halley is fully into winter mode of operation, there is a more generally relaxed and chilled out atmosphere on station. It is easy to lose oneself and spend hours playing video games as you do not get the guilty feeling that time has been wasted. We do still have our 0900 - 1730 jobs to do Monday to Friday, but even work days are relaxed.

Back in Beakerville I continue to monitor the weather, launch the daily weather balloon, take air samples, sample precipitation snowmelt, look after the science data loggers, maintain the science equipment, manage the data, write reports, conduct ozone layer measurements, record weather statistics, and live the daily annoyance of being referred to as a scientist by my fellow winterers!

As the season progresses, the amount of daylight experienced each day gets shorter and shorter as the earth's orbit round the sun gradually points the southern tip of the planet away from the sun light...an effect of the tilt of the earth's axis.

The 1st of May (according to my predictions) was to see the sun dip below the horizon for the last sunset of the winter (known as "sundown"). The Halley tradition is to celebrate sundown by having the oldest member on base lower the union flag which flies proudly above the Laws building.



The flag is raffled off during the mid-winter celebrations in June. A new flag is not raised until Sun-up when the sun peaks it's disk above the horizon again in August. This ceremony is performed by the youngest member on base.


So, at 1317hrs (again according to my calculations) ex-army tank driver Lance lowered the flag after making a fantastic speech.


We will not see the sun again until mid-August.
We all definitely now feel that winter at Halley is in full swing.

The celevrations continued with a BBQ outside.

Later in the evening we were treated to the most spectacular aurora display to date. It covered almost 1/2 the celestial dome.



The Antarctic Monkey joined me to witness the show.

...and so do I.
(well, it's got to be done)

And that's it for another month or so.
It's getting more and more difficult to talk about every day base life as activities are very sporadic and low key now that it is winter. So please bare with me if I now talk about mundane things like playing computer games rather than exciting things like flying aeroplanes.


Note: If anybody wishes copy any of the photos above and use them for their own purposes please get in touch and let me know, or at the very least acknowledge me in their use. Thanks.

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