It’s traditional for stations to produce a Christmas photograph and the Davis Social Committee decided that something a little different would be the order of the day. A concept image was drawn on the whiteboard in the mess and all on station were invited to put their names against a part of the proposed photograph.
On the Wednesday before Christmas, the entire station walked down to a large patch of snow near the Operations Building where the Christmas scene had been carefully laid out by a few volunteers. All had been instructed to wear colourful clothing and don a Christmas-themed hat or attire. Everyone found their spot and lay down in the snow…a tad cold for those brave souls in shorts. A Go-Pro had been mounted on a platform and was set to timer with the resulting picture bringing a smile to everyone’s faces.
The fun didn’t stop there and on Christmas Eve, Dan our brilliant quizmaster posed round after round of challenging, dubious, and funny questions. Teams were given a long balloon at the start of the night and tasked with creating a team mascot and name based on their creative design. It’s a more difficult task than you might imagine and resulted in the aptly named “Earthworms”, and “Deflated”.
Christmas morning saw the traditional Christmas brunch after which everybody gathered on the front deck of the living quarters to welcome Santa and his two elves who made the very long trip to the South Pole in a red Hägglunds.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas everyone had drawn a name out of a hat and was designated Secret Santa for that person. Some expeditioners had bought presents in Hobart while others relied on their creative skills to make that special gift.
After brunch, everyone gathered around the Christmas tree while Santa and the elves handed out the gifts, one at a time, to expeditioners. Much fun was had by all and it was lovely to see the creative flair and talents of our crew on display.
An afternoon of calling family and loved ones, various board games, darts, pool, and generally relaxing was followed by the formal Christmas dinner. Good clothes were dusted off, the mess was converted into a candlelit, fine-dining restaurant with ironed napkins, and some chilled music was piped through the speakers. The traditional Christmas dinner was a fabulous affair – many weeks of thought and preparation by our chef Kerryn had gone into the night - the food was amazing and it was a real chance to sit down and relax with fellow expeditioners at a time we would normally be at home with our loved ones. We toasted our chef, each other, and importantly our loved ones.
Having finally digested the Christmas dinner, New Year was upon us and the much awaited first gig of our very own station band, the “Red Hot Chilli Penguins”. Our tradies cooked a spit-roast and we all shared a relaxed meal upstairs in the living quarters which has a spectacular view over Prydz Bay towards Gardner Island and the ice-bergs. Dessert was home-made choc-bombs – jaffa or boysenberry. Think waffle cones lined with chocolate, filled all the way to the bottom with ice-cream, a generous serve of caramel or raspberry sauce, another layer of ice-cream and the final indulgence, a coating of melted chocolate.
At 8:30pm, the Red Hot Chilli Penguins graced the stage. Roadie Graham had arranged everything perfectly and the lighting and ambiance was just right. Our musos Todd, Marshall, Steele, Chris, Josh, Derryn, Kat, Dawson, and Dan were brilliant! Who knew we had such talent in our midst. A great time was had by all and there were many calls for an encore. Plans are already underway for a second gig.
Christmas and New Year is a time we usually spend with our loved ones and it’s always difficult being away. While we all missed these important people in our lives it’s fair to say that Davis was a good place to be.
From the entire team at Davis, we hope you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year and wish you all the best for 2023.
Karen
Davis SL
