Australia day swim

Ok, what does it feel like to jump into approximately -1.5 degree water? Well, you don't really have to jump in it to know it's f**king cold. Add to it the fact we were jumping in near to elephant seal waste and, yeah, you get the idea. But you know what esteemed person reading this here blog type page thingie... I loved it!!! See pic below for how much I am looking forward to the mid-winter swim.

Sunday afternoon

Saturday night, Pirate night... fun was had, sleep was missed, pushed through and went straight to work. Caught 2 hours of sleep after my morning obs. Needed more but having trouble sleeping these days. Went on a walk in the afternoon, so relaxing. I have taken photos BUT you don't need to see 'em, these ones weren't so good.

This trip was for me to unwind a bit, get off station, have some good chats with my fellow wanderers and reboot the brain. It worked, laughs and stupidity flying thick and fast, Doug and Karen more amused bystanders while Ashley, Clive and I just basically crapped on for four hours.

Look Pa, I'm a stringin' up them tomaytahs reaaaal good!

And you said it couldn't be done!!!
:D

Note: stringing up tomatoes "reaaaal good" is just a matter of opinion though ;)

"Met Office, Met Office, this is Met Tech at Whoopwhoop"

So it turns out my supreme professionalism had a group of field trainees in stitches as I was broadcasting over the repeater line. What am I talking about... gather round for a tale.

Back to Whoopwhoop, this time I got to observe the relocation of our weather station by way of the shipping container that holds it. After dropping a mast, removing sensitive equipment and standing well back it was just a case of righting everything and confirming that comms were still good. Then the waiting...

Turns out this job was double edged, having a Met person out at WPWP meant that the AGSOs could go about their work with out doing pesky obs. Soooo, 6 hours later I finally got back to station. All my reports were heard over the radio by a group out doing training and were apparently very amusing. They especially liked the way I say Whoopwhoop?! I was getting very sick of using the name by the end of the day...

Turns out that tale wasn't very good after all, here are some pictures instead.

Arriving, man-made Mount Whoopwhoop at the front

How to move a container in a straight line

Ready to go!

Mount Whoopwhoop with mood lighting

Hydro after field training

Hydro before field training

Mars? Ok, lame!

Before

After

You can say more with pics

Ok, fair crit, so I haven't put up enough pics in a long time. I have been away for the last three days and have been working or just faffing about for the others. In brief:-
- Hydroponics is going well, we're finally at the monitoring stage.
- New-years party was a blast
- Work is work
- 3 days of field training was amazing.

Ok, as I said, you can say more with...