Robbie & I make pies for Anzac lunch - Andrew - in true boss style - just looks on. ;o]

Anzac Day dawn - blowing 75knots!

 

Petie - "Come in Spinner!"

 

Gunfire breakfast on Anzac Day

 

The Boys wore suits for the Anzac day Service

 

April 24th - 30th

Hello Everyone.
As I type the winds are at 50knots and there is massive amounts of blowing snow outside my bedroom window. It’s a pretty amazing sight. Only an hour ago I was watching giant snowflakes gently fall, creating a beautiful winter blanket on the ground. It still amazes me at the speed the weather here changes. It is starting to get really cold now. Friday I had to return to my room and put a second thermal layer on and I was still cold.
I actually hate the cold. Lately I have been dreaming of Thailand and a lovely spa resort where I can unwind in the heat and spend 10 days in luxury pampering myself. Snorkeling in turquoise waters, or wandering along white sandy beaches picking up seashells. Ah Bliss! Sounds like a good plan when I com home I think.
So why on earth did I come to Antarctica for more than a year you ask? For the adventure of course. And what an adventure it is, a cold one, but you can’t have it all hey?
We have had blizzard after blizzard in the last few weeks and all around the earth is nothing but scoured blue ice as a result. Overnight we did have a massive dump of snow and we were all hoping for some calm conditions for it to settle. With the winds up now, it will more than likely be gone in a few hours. Robbie, John, Brian and I are planning a quad ride for the day tomorrow (Sunday) to Robbo’s. Hopefully the weather will subside overnight and be kind to us tomorrow. I am dying to get off station. The weather has been crappy for weeks and weeks on end now and I am going a little stir crazy with not being able to get out and explore and just get away from the red Shed, even if only for a day.

So what have I been up to this week?
Of course, we had Anzac Day. The day before was the most glorious – though very cold – day and the sunrise from the porch of the Comms Building was just gorgeous. I stood with my cuppa and watched as the Bergs turned pink and the sky turned from the dark of night to a glorious yellow streaked fluffy cloud vista as the sun peeked its head over the Moraine line then rose in all its splendor. I was contemplating the beautiful sight it would be to watch the next morning at our dawn Service.
Of course, as luck would have it, Anzac Day was a shocker! We woke to a blizzard and 75knot winds – no lowering of the flags or outside ceremony this year! So we gathered in the wallow and had a ceremony, with flags lowered to half mast on the climbing wall. We paid respects to both the fallen and the servicing service personnel. I have friends currently serving in various war-torn places around the world and my thoughts were with them as well as with the diggers who fought so hard and died so needlessly at Gallipoli.
After the service we had a gun fire breakfast then I helped Robbie in the kitchen making good ol’ Aussie chunky pies for lunch. Afterwards the traditional 2Up was played with Monopoly money used. It is easy to keep betting until it is all gone when the money is not real – as all the boys discovered. ;o]

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen with Robbie lately. It is becoming a Saturday afternoon habit of mine to join him and help with the Saturday night dinner preparations. I enjoy cooking and I am not too bad in the kitchen, though I rarely cook at home. When you live alone it is often hard to find the motivation to actually cook anything more than stir fry at night for dinner. ;o]
Robbie is teaching me all sorts of things and I am really enjoying the experience. I think he also enjoys having someone who wants to learn from him. He is a great chef, very capable and also very patient when teaching. I’ve actually never met a chef who wasn’t half insane, so it is a nice change to work with Robbie. This week I made the dessert for dinner. Angel’s Food cake & Devil’s Food cake with Crème Anglaise on the side. Crème Anglaise is quite tricky as the eggs can scramble if the heat reaches 82 degrees, so I had to cook using a thermometer as I stirred, and stirred, and stirred….
Robbie had high praise for my end results and that made me quite proud I have to say.

I also started learning Lead-lighting this week. I bought all the glass and supplies I require before I left Hobart and Chris – one of our chippies – is teaching me. I have to say, it sure is a lot harder than I thought it would be! It requires a great deal of patience and the work can be quite intricate and complicated. In saying that, I am enjoying the challenge. I have a small project I am starting with and plan, by end of year, to have made two panels for the entranceway in my house in Newcastle. I also have, in my head, an idea for a bit of an art show piece as well. All I need do it get the design out of my head, onto my sketch pad and then created and constructed. All good stuff.

On Tuesday Andrew leaves on a Travers inland. He will be gone for a week and a half, leaving me in charge. Oh the power! ;o] Actually, every time he leaves the station something major falls over and crashes, so I am crossing my fingers that I am not in for too steep a learning curve on some obscure piece of kit that decides to go wheels up on me the second the boys have all left the station. . Ha ha ;o]

Anyway my fingers are crossed that our weather improves overnight so I can get out and explore in the morning. Hopefully, next week I will be able to show you some pictures of my adventure to Robbo’s on the quads.

Toodles Doodles!
Trace x

Looking out from the front porch at my Comms building at 8:30am. Just beautiful!

 

Sunrise at 8:30am. This is the view on my way to work.

 

Cut and Colour anyone? Perhaps a career change when I get home. ;o]

 

Practicing rescue technique using the stretcher

 

Help is sent to the aid the fallen expeditioner

 

A "fall" over an Ice Cliff

 

17 - 23 April

Well, another week has flown by.
Not quite sure where the time is going. I had an e-mail from a friend this week who remarked that it has been 9 months since I left GTE (which is where I normally work) and how it seems like only yesterday that I was there. To me, it seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened and I have had lots of adventures and experienced so many amazing things that it is hard to even remember life back home at the moment. Though I do really miss Maxy, my dog, dearly. It will be lovely to see him once more at the end of this adventure. It is nice to know he will be waiting for me in Hobart when I come back. Hopefully he will remember me! ;o]

So what has been happening this week?
There was SAR training both on station and off.
Ice cliff travel and over edge rescue techniques as well as prusicking. All good stuff.
Work continues, the new phones are now fully installed and operational and our ongoing maintenance around the station ticks along.

On the station side of things it was hairdressing and cooking of the Saturday night dessert - deep fried ice cream - which was a hit with everyone. I was also on hydroponics duties all week. I love it out in hydroponics. Every day the water tanks and plants need to be monitored and checked, nutrients added when required and the PH level of the water kept to a certain range. The dripping system is checked daily for blockages and the flowering plants are pollinated by hand as there are no insects down here in the cold to do the job. The hydroponics container is a favorite spot of mine on station. It is warm and smells fabulous and the greenery makes a nice change. We are currently growing beans, snow peas, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, several varieties of lettuce, bok choy, silver beat and a large range of herbs. Our tomato bushes have about 8 small tomatoes on them and Petie is very proud. Pete overseas hydroponics and puts in a lot of time and work with the whole process. It is to his credit that we are having such great success. Every day we have something from the garden at our table, which is lovely. I enjoy being in with the plants. I have a little chat to them and make sure the radio is turned up so they can listen to the music from the MP3 player which is sent out on an FM Frequency throughout the station. It’s just a nice place to be.

Till next week
Trace ;o]

Starting to get cold here now

 

A shovel of snow keeps our drinks on ice

 

Birthday in the Dieso Workshop

 

Sea ice is starting to form in the Harbor

Spotted at the Wharf on Friday. This big fella is very late in departing for winter.

 

And it was spectacular!

 

As the sun set - The moon rose

 

Just gorgeous!

 

An amazing sunset over Casey on my birthday

 

10th - 16th April 2005

This week was busy again work wise. More cabling in the Dieso workshop. This time more phone lines needed to be run for the boys. So it was through the roof and down the walls once more. There are phones in the workshops, but not in the office area, so we are fixing that for the boys by paralleling their current phones to their office area.

After a Blizz we always have to go out to the Txer and Rxer sites to check all the Antennas for damage. Nothing major to report. A couple of isolators to be restrung and some HF wires need re-tensioning with new separators installed as there was some damage. This is a job that needs a still day with no wind. We have to climb the tower to perform this one.

On Thursday I saw the most beautiful site. I stood on the porch of the Red Shed and watched as the sun went down to my left in a burst of brilliant red, burnt orange, blazes of yellow and finally pink tinges emerged. At exactly the same time as the sun was setting on my left the moon was rising on my right. A full, magnificent, blood moon. And both the sun and the moon moved so fast that it was over in less than 10 minutes. What a sight to behold! Never have I seen such a phenomenon. It was one of those moments when you simply stand quietly and watch the beauty. Forget cameras, this can never be captured on film in a way that would even remotely do it justice. All you can do is stand and watch and commit it to memory. There are days when something truly beautiful happens down here. Something that makes me think this really is the most amazing place on earth.

Then it was my Birthday. I spent my birthday actually at work, first time in about 5 years I think that has happened. Celebrating any birthday down here is pretty cool, but I have hit a milestone. The big 4-0. I am not a birthday kinda girl, never really have taken much notice of them. I think if I actually looked anywhere near my age I’d probably kill myself, but I don’t so it’s all good. ;o]
The boys and Marilyn wanted to celebrate with me, which was nice. A phone from my mate Lisa, who shares the same birthday as me, was a bonus.
On Thursday night Robbie cooked me my Fav meal and on Friday (my actually birthday) after work there was a BBQ in the Dieso workshop, complete with birthday banner and a cake. I had a special bottle of very good pink champagne and followed that with a bottle of Wolfblass champagne. Once again the skies were clear and we saw the sun set and the moon rise simultaneously. It was a beautiful sight. I awoke Saturday suitably hung over but made it to work 5 minutes before Andrew so that was good. ;o]

After finishing work on Saturday morning, I decided to help Robbie out in the kitchen. I was a bit restless I think and I enjoy working in the kitchen and with Robbie. He is a legend. Also, I like to cook. So I made seafood chowder – under Robbie’s guidance - helped with the pumpkin soup for lunch. I also finished off the bread after it had been kneaded by giving it a few bashes and thumps and shaping it for the tins then letting it prove and bake. All good fun.

Monday we had off for Easter. I spent the morning in the gym and with Shane’s help we cleaned a re-arranged the gym to make it more serviceable. I work out with weights 4 times a week and it is nice to have the gym set up well. I enjoy being in there with the music pumping while I work out. It gives me some “Me Time” and makes me feel fabulous. I also run every day, so I am staying in really good shape while I am here. I hope to come home looking absolutely fabulous – at least that is the plan! Plus it is a whole lot easier to live and work down here if you are fit and strong.
Monday was also Robbie’s (our chef) day off so Chris and I volunteered to do dinner. Chris made a fabulous chicken soup and cooked up some spring rolls while I did Fried rice, Chicken and cashews with Oyster sauce and veggie stir fry (mostly from our very own Hydroponics garden!) and Honey Soy Sesame King Prawns. It was quite challenging cooking for 20 people. The most I have catered for in the past is 6! It helps to have a full industrial kitchen at your disposal. Cooking is fun, but I wouldn’t want to do it every day! ;o]

Anyway that has been my week.
Catch you next week.
Trace x

But always beautiful! Vanderford Glacier behind Browning.

 

Same photo 30 minutes later!

 

The wind starts to blow snow

 

Browning

 

Getting back to Browning hut