Xmas

Good times! Too much nudity!!!

Pool, beer, good food, good company, and long natterings into the wee hours at the bar.

Cheers all! Merry 27th... coz I posted a bit late :D

B2

Part 3, "The Beardening...Beardinator...errr Beardie McBeardald"

Ok, so I shaved for X-mas. Wow, had the beard long enough that it came as a shock what was under there. I will valmorphicise again after the festive period.

Had a fire alarm, 3rd in as many weeks, but this time I was on the board as pump operator (extra emphasis on the "-or" part so as to sound extra cool, think Inquisitooooor in Red dwarf). We were in the middle of an ozone balloon release... yep... the big one. We looked up (well sideways) and see that the station is full of people walking to muster. So we throw the balloon to the sky and run like mad to our respective meeting points.

All good and well, false alarm which was good for me in that I got a trial run at being the emergency pump operator with out pressure (hehe, pump... pressure... man I am an idiot). I wasn't able to do the complete fire fighting course due to ozone training so it feels good to be able to contribute to the emergency response in some fashion.

Anyway, station life goes on. X-mas coming up... be in touch!

Pip B2 Kenny

This post has been officially stamped as UNPROOFREAD, I am half asleep at 4:45 and CBF

Part 2, "The long over due"

It has been a while, but it has been busy, and comms make doing this sort of thing a bit trying.

Well, cant remember my train of thought from about two weeks ago so I'll just jump in now. It's all happening. I won't say I'm good at obs, not by a long shot, but I am getting more comfortable with them. Balloons are quite routine now as is the rest. Tech work... Lots to do and loving it. Mainly preventative maintenance on the hydrogen systems, some computer/network problems, one simple troubleshoot (known problem that can crop up that people get told about, that I probably got told about but can't remember) that I had to solve from first principles. Good, fun stuff. As ever, no pics to show, this due to my being at a work computer and not with my camera handy. I will get round to it.

I have a vid of the walk down to the weather screen, of me cutting a deck of cards one handed - badly too I might add - and the usual pics from around the traps. Actually, I might have a vid of the Aurora Australis crashing through some high swell too, I'll see what I can dig up though I don't like my chances of being able to upload this stuff.

Kenny

The story thus far, Part 1 "No pics yet"

I have plenty of pics to share but don’t have my camera handy to do uploads. Safe to say I have been accused of being terse. With this entry I will try and take time to really fill the gaps any readers have on what, where, and how I am.




If it hasn’t been gathered, I left Aus for Antarctica and did so late October 2010. The ship ride on Aurora Australis varied depending on whom you asked. If you ask me… Amazing! Got a bit dry after a while and I could only play so many games of 500 (Plus some of the old guys were way better than me so playing as their team mate ended up being too stressful for me, that and I often had to run off for weather observations). I don’t get sea sick even in 14 metre Southern Ocean swells (only had one day of the big stuff, and “That’s nothing!” so say the yobs) and kept relatively active by running up and down the stairs to the bridge for weather obs. Doing these helped me get practice in before hitting Davis station, got the eye back in from where I left off at training school.



On the ship, we had a significant diversion due to an incident at sea. This cost us about an extra week of travel and the people involved in the tragedy their lives. It was a sombre start to our experience. Good food, good people, trying but ultimately good times. And then there was the “King Neptune” ceremony. Every so often I can still smell the combination of M&Ms, peanut butter and fish oil… not the nicest thing to have smeared everywhere, but it is done and I have a pretty certificate now. Even though the journey really started to drag, all of a sudden we were parked in the fast ice (fast as in stuck fast, not moving fast) outside Davis. In not much more time, we were all off the ship and settling into station life.



As stated in early posts, I have been to Whoop Whoop, the real Whoop Whoop, and it was good. A new weather station was installed there at the airstrip and my first and second - and I guess third and forth - chopper rides were had. Handover with the departing Tech went too quick but thankfully he was really helpful despite the time constraints. On the obs front, the team down here is the best. They help me with the new role above and beyond. They also excuse the help with the line “It IS part of my job” but the patience and input they give me is more than any job description asked for.



I have taken on the community role of hydroponics manager, as you may have noticed, and try and help out every chance I get with anything. A couple of people stayed on from the last winter season and will leave with our summer crew. They help without even thinking around base and make it look easy.
 
The smoko bell has just chimed. I am hungry and I will post part 2 when I feel like it. I leave that unfinished thought at that and post sooner or later,
 
B2

Minor Comms issues

A slow link down here has stifled my enthusiasm for Blogging since the last post (I am sure most of you wonder at me having any enthusiasm for it at all given my post sizes). I will try and put some stuff up soon. I am currently working a 3 day 17 hr each shift. Get into it when that is over!

What a day! I actually feel like I am getting on top of this.

Well, it all looks like it is coming together. In short, because it's what I do, here's the goss:

Hydro team rocks! Got heaps done, helped above and beyond. Room is almost cleaned up. Green Cos is "planted", herbs are going well.

Saw an elephant seal, was meant to get to bed, but then I heard the exciting news and took some pics. 3:30am-11:59pm is too long for me. Slept in.

And other good stuff...

Comm tech Doug's photo of me cleaning out Hydro stuff

My photo of Mark, current Deputy Station leader, trying to tell the elephant seal where to go.

Three Met techs after a long day/Waiting for a heli

Cheers to David Russel for the photo. Dave is one of our Aircraft ground support officers who was present at the time of the Whoop Whoop install, 18th Nov. Snuck up and caught us after a FULL day of work, but nobody would ever believe that Met would actually do some work!!!

From left to right. Brian "B2, Kenny, Hobo, and many other names" McKechnie, Mark Grainger and Nick "Hellboy" Helmore

Time management.

Do I have it? Probably not. Do I need it.... Oh yeah. I got the opportunity to go back to WhoopWhoop and so took my camera this time. Too many piccies to show so I just got one to prove that the camera that took this photo was airborne. Going out twice plus delays on the voyage made my handover VERY short. Need to balance the next week or so between a good shift but learning on the job and a big workload in hydroponics. Once I get the initial juggling sorted and the plants established (with the help of my more than capable team) I will be feeling better off. Balloon launches are freakin' awesome!

Made it

Well, after a long and eventful voyage I have finally made it to Davis. I am in the middle of handover, settling in and have just finished helping install a new weather station at Whoop whoop. I haven't gone through all my photos yet but here is one to keep you entertained :) It is from the southern ocean trip. I actually forgot to take my camera when I went to Whoop whoop (that's Davis' Airstrip up on the plateau).  I am kicking myself. First Helicopter ride and I didn't have my camera... DUH!

Last night

...So I did what anyone would; Poonced around in front of a camera! Or to put it another way, check out my Davis gear world!!! :D

Aurora Australis

Under a week now!

This time next week I should be out past the heads and in open water. Wont be doing posts from the Aurora Australis (Ice breaker I am travelling down on), a bit complicated so when I have landed and settled in there should be one big entry to cover it... that's the plan anyway. Still no photos.

Fi's here

Bit late but Fi's here, YAY!!!! Have a week of Bureau type training/consolidation, been great fun so far. Should have some photos to upload soon... still lazy as ever ;)

The Beginning

2 weeks to go. Down to the very last stages. Awaiting my Boarding-pass which should clear sometime today. The rest of the crew is going on Pre-departure leave, I will be hanging around Hobart doing some additional training. Looking forward to Fi getting here soon.