What a big week (or three) it has been here at Davis. We had our own new wave/rock/grunge band playing on Xmas Eve. We were visited by Russians, armed with good intentions including Vodka. Nick/Vlad sang House of the Rising Sun in Russian! We had a Xmas feast. On New Years’ Eve we had the Blue Oyster Bar disco. There was also a quiet room for the older folk to sit and muse and muse. Bingo anyone?
I know we covered Xmas last week but some more photos came to hand and the station record would not be complete without them being published in This Week at Davis.
Santa gave out presents to those who had behaved and those that didn’t!
While it was great for us to share Xmas with our friends here, Xmas is a time when the absence of family and friends from home is keenly felt. The phones were busy as we tried to shorten the distance home. Hopefully we did.
We also had a number of field trips and training programs going on.
Survival training involves sleeping inside a plastic “ bivvy” and sleeping bag with the sun shining all night and occasional snow showers on the face. Happily for me, I passed.
The builders and maintenance crew have been very busy and made great progress on various projects. The roof is up on the waste management centre, the heli hangar has framework, walls, and almost a floor and the old concrete floor in the workshop is about to replaced. Maintenance continues to the other buildings and engineering systems that keep the station running. Yesterday’s hole in the ground is starting to look like a hangar for helicopters and yesterday’s workshop floor is now looking like a hole in the ground. Even the boffins (scientists) and helicopter crew are getting in on the maintenance, assisting with repairing the spaghetti cabling for the radar.
The clock is ticking and half of me is thinking ahead to my return in March while I also want to explore this strange place with the limited time left to me. The snow around the buildings turned to slush in December and now to dust. As the sea ice vapourises, we will be able to do some boating around the icebergs. Time is moving on and Storeman Rhys has put the summer people on notice to prepare for RTA. There is movement at the station!
Bill.P, BOM