The Laurence M.Gould

Today the long awaited arrival of the party ship the Laurence M.Gould arrived. In the morning there was a exchange of people,Rothera people went on board for a tour and a cruse around the bay and the party off the Gould came ashore for a tour of the base for which I was one of the tour guides then after tea we had a party in the Sledge store.
For Rothera folk the Goulds arrival is the main event on the calender and speaking to the folk off the ship it is their main event as well,the Gould is a dry ship with no liquor on board so as you can imagine they look forward to a party.
The Party Photos will be on soon.

Eminem Asa

Asa one of the Environ electricians sharing my office, as you can see working hard rapping while looking at sport on the internet.

10 Weeks left at Rothera

Well only 10 weeks left before I leave Rothera I will miss sights like the burgs above and the elephant seals below,as smelly as they are.

The Bremen came in last week one of the only tour ships to come to Rothera. I was a guide with Asa showing the tourists around the base telling them what its like to spend over a year here and what goes on at Rothera.

Medivac

Last night a medivac flight from Neumayer arrived at Rothera on its way to Chile with a guy who became ill on board a ship near Neumayer.

They stayed here for the night but were straight off again this morning.

(Photos courtesy of Asa)

Major Incident Exercise

Every year a major incident exercise takes place, a different scenario and its always out of the blue.
This year it was a plane crash in which the air fire crew were also taken out.
So the old winterer's BA teams had to come to the rescue.

Kyle had two broken legs and neck injuries.

Unfortunately Jamie didn't make it as her injuries were to serious
What acting.

Rob and Birgit making up a stretcher.
All in all it was a good effort.

CAT

A couple of weeks ago the new Cat mini digger was transported to Sky Blu by the Dash 7.
This took some organizing from altering the digger so it would fit into the plane to the man power to get it on and off .

The digger will be used to clear the snow off the runway making it easier for the Dash to land as this plane has no skies.

Unloading.

A group photo of all the team.

The man who came in from the cold

Welcome back Drew.

Drew has arrived back from his Field Project where he spent nearly two months living and working out of a tent in the Hudson mountain range helping a geologist.
PS.. Nice nose candles

ITN news

Well another week has gone by and the weather is still not settled. It is so different to when I arrived over a year ago we just had blue skies for months.

Not much happening on base at the moment although we do have the ITN news crew here who are going to be broadcasting live every night for a week on the 1.30 lunch time news, the 6.30 news and the 10 o'clock news.
We also have the Bremen cruse ship in this Friday which is mainly full of German tourists.

Bonner Break

John the Bonner manager trying to explain science to Tech services but no one could take him serious as he looks like Rolph Harris with the voice of Noddy Holder.
Seriously Johns a sound guy and will be a good member of the new wintering team.

VIP's Visit

Well tomorrow the VIPs leave after a whistle stop tour of Rothera Research Station, last night after naming the New Bransfield building we had gin and tonic on the veranda watching whales in the bay (about 12 Minki's) then we had a formal dinner where after the VIPs gave speeches on the future of BAS and science in the polar regions.

They expressed how impressed they were at the set up and professionalisms of all the staff.

So hopefully government funding will be secure for the future.

I have met many interesting people down here what an experience.

Time

I have this strange feeling now as my time here is nearly up, only 14 weeks left.
I am looking forward to seeing the family but the thought of traffic,shopping etc doesn't fill me with joy.

Looking back winter seemed to go really slow but actually it flew and now time just seems to be speeding up.

Its good to see all the new staff settling in and enjoying themselves.
I think they are going to have a great winter.

Burgy Bits

At this time of year a lot of unusual shaped burgs drift onto the coastline.

Most of the shore is now clear of snow and ice as the temperature has risen.

I met this rather angry juvenile Elephant seal.

There was also a Leopard seal hanging around the bay.

New Years eve 10k race

These pics are from the annual New Years 10 k run, Which is fiercely contested by the health freaks on base.

Rodger did it in style.

Will doing the hardest work he's ever done.
He said its probably the first time he's broken sweat.

Jase

Moto our Japanese visitor.

Huge Burg

Today we had a huge ice burg come past the wharf to think that what you see is only one fifth of the burg and the rest is under water.
Even with the people standing on the wharf it still doesn't show how big it really is.
This week end we have some VIP's arriving on base including the new director and some government people.

Hogmanay cont...

Geoff and what can I say.

Alan,Dave and Andy.

Party Animals

Geoff and Asa.

Hogmanay

We had a great party on Hogmanay which was enjoyed by all.
Dug and myself.

Geoff, Jack and Asa.

Rachel and Graham (what a pout).

Alan.