Postcards from the South

Greetings and salutations from the frozen South, the land that has so much ice its sheer mass is keeping the Earth on an even keel and balance out all those big continents in the Northern hemisphere. Well, I'm sure someone around the world believes that one...

A few short months ago I was contacted through a marvellous network of people working off the 6 degrees of seperation theory and asked to send a postcard to the Handley Homeschool in Redmond, WA, USA. And now I'm finally getting off my lazy bum and doing as I promised and posting a photo of the postcard before sending on the next available post..... on a flight in Novemeber.

Pillip Law on the summit of Arthurson Bluff, Oates Land, with a Bell 47G helicopter, 1962

In the mean time, email and phone calls are definitely the best ways to stay in contact with people down here. Unfortunately video calling software is generally blocked as they are peer to peer based and they don't let us have those sorts of programs. Of course, for these sorts of conversations to work each side has to actually remember to reply to the other, which is something I've been guilty of not doing recently. Sorry people.

Living in Antarctica

In case you're wondering, yes, I did sing the title to the tune of James Brown's "Living in America" although I think that's about where the similarities end. What I really want to highlight in this post is what our living space actually looks like, how we entertain ourselves and all of that sort of stuff. The fact is we still try and lead a so called 'normal' life in that we go to work, watch movies, try to keep some semblance of fitness and have socialise together.

The station with the Red Shed in the middle and Green Store to the left

The main living building here is the Red Shed (such an original name) which contains our rooms - and with such small numbers we even get a spare! - a library, the kitchen and mess, a bar and pool table, a cinema and a sadly now defunct climbing wall. Apparently there's a new one being put in next year but we don't get the benefit of enjoying it. Actually, I hope they make it a bouldering wall as that'll make using the wall easier if only one person wants to do it.

We also have a spa and sauna and both are used fairly regularly, plus skis for the more energetic people.

A typical cold porch where jackets and boots can be placed so as to leave all the snow and ice outside

Anyone for cross-country skiing?

If someone feels like doing a spot of sewing, here's the place to do it

My spare room -what's that peering out the window?

My room is much cleaner than it has been in a while and yes, the building is warm enough that I use a doona cover and mattress protector to keep me warm at night.

The music corner

One defunct climbing wall

Billiards goes with...

Darts...

And beer!

The table tennis comps can be ferocious. Well, they would be if we used the table.

Library with an incomplete puzzle

And the rest of the library

We even have air hockey!

A cardio room (the weights gym is hidden in the Green Store)

Movie time!

In reclining chairs and dark corners

A few years ago the Comms Techs had a little project building this arcade machine

"The Wallow" that occasionally turns into a dance floor complete with flashing lights and mirror ball.

The mess

And a phone booth for all clandestine calls. Otherwise feel free to call from any other phone and run the risk of having people come past and listen in on your conversation.

Ant-AR(c)T-tica

Keeping the mind busy with little projects is vitally important when in this sort of isolation. Why? otherwise thoughts go haywire with all the little things that are irrelevant suddenly blown waaaaay out of proportion. Then there are arguements and unnecessary rage and groups form and then people get isolated from those groups because the others think they're weird or something. Also, boredom isn't anywhere near as much fun as it sometimes sounds, so these little things help stave off the mundane.

Last time around I made some wooden jewellery and it seemed to get pretty good reviews from the girls on station, so I've been making more and will continue to over the rest of the season. Not sure what I'll do with it, but probably either give various pieces away or sell them - I'm open to suggestions and ideas. Do you want to request a piece? Hmm, don't know about that one, there is actual work to do.

A few weeks ago the station leader (SL) started some drawing classes with a view to getting us to do portraits of each other. In this link you'll some info and there's a link to photos of a show that has some of his work. So far we've been working in charcoal and last week we were given a artwork or photo, chosen by the SL based on the styles he's seen us draw with and we tried to copy them or adapt them to fit our style (from his point of view...). I was given the *cough* easiest hardest one of the night - a version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

Steve the sparkie

This was supposed to be John Casey, namesake of this station...

I guess it kinda worked