This week at Casey the Red Shed project has moved back downstairs and started to demolish the old WCs and last remaining vestiges of the old bar, Splinters. Wandering around what was once our lovely living space on Tuesday it suddenly became obvious that they have well and truly taken over every little bit of available space and we are now without question living in a renovation. Nick will report next week on what the team have been up to and the progress shots will be amazing; but the pics this week are to show just a little bit of what we’re living amongst and dealing with quite patiently. (I wonder how long that will last…)
This week has seen our most significant blizzard to date, winds to 95kts and it lasted from Friday afternoon to Monday morning… some call it a boss’s bliz as it only interrupted the weekend, not an hour of the working week was lost. Just as our three day bliz started we made it outside for a photo to mark NAIDOC week, it was a bit too windy to put up the flags but still a great shot of the team recognising an important event.
To mark the time indoors over the weekend, we held an ABC Party on Saturday night. ABC stands for Anything But Clothes and we saw some extraordinary costumes crafted. Bubble wrap, duct work, a met balloon (yes, Will managed to insert himself in a met balloon), and many many garbage bags were sacrificed in the name of Antarctic fashion. The durability of the designs was then tested through a series of party games, most outfits (thankfully) withstood the exertion; Scotty 2 Dogs did have some issues in his prize winning costume (see pic) as it was not particularly manoeuvrable.
And, probably the most exciting event of the week… The team out on O’Brien Bay undertaking the last of the sea-ice travel training spotted an emperor penguin (pic provided as proof). Yes, we know that Mawson has thousands of emperor penguins within driving distance, but we are so deprived of any living thing other than ourselves at the moment that any animal, especially such an extraordinary animal, is cause for much excitement. (And much jealousy for those who were not in the small party of four out on the ice.) We believe it’s a juvenile, and there has been much conjecture as to why it’s here so far from any rookery (just another reason we need a penguin biologist with us here on station over winter!). The final consensus (thanks Troy) is that it’s a free and single guy who’s a trail blazer, loving the single life, travelling and exploring the continent, eating different things, hanging out with the Adèlies and Chinstraps, and checking out all the stations,. He’ll set up a Tinder account for next year’s mating season. Well we say; "make the most of it fella, it won’t be long before your spending these winter months fasting (approximately 125 days) while incubating an egg in a rookery. So live life while you can!"
Is that anthropomorphizing? We know it’s wrong but they really do look so human. Here’s to the Emperor…may there be many more!
Rebecca (Casey SL)