June 5 - 11
Hey All,
Well, I finally got to go out on the sea ice on the quads this weekend. It was a hoot. We have had a lot of snow this week and I got bogged 3 times before I even left station limits – very frustrating! Once we were out on the sea ice there was still more snow and the only way to avoid being bogged was to keep the speed up. It was an amazing feeling flying across the top of the sea ice on the way back to station heading towards the wharf and being on a quad. I had a great day. The last time I took that same path I was in an IRB on the boating team ferrying scientists back and forth across the water.
Andrew and I were able to head off station together, which was a lot of fun. As we are both the Comms kids we are generally not allowed off station together, so we have never been anywhere that isn’t work related together before. Our deputy station leader kindly looked after radio Comms for the arvo and because Andrew and I were staying within 30 minutes return journey of the station we were able to head out for a trip together. So 4 of us headed off once the sun came up – at 11am and were back just after the sun set at about 3:30pm. A few hours were all I needed to recharge the batteries and get rid of the cabin fever that had been steadily growing in the last few weeks.
This week I also discovered the spa and sauna. Heaven! Being cooped up with the same 18 other people day after day for all this time can sometimes get on my nerves. Every now and then I just need to completely disappear so I don’t actually kill someone. That is what happened this week. I think I was just a little fed up and grumpy and had a bit of cabin fever from long days with no break. I was getting tired and grumpy so I took myself out to the spa and sauna and stayed there for about two hours with my Mp3 player. I did the same thing Friday night as well. I think it may become a regular habit of mine now to go out and just spend time going from the spa to the sauna and back again for a few hours once or twice a week. I had good music for company and just disconnected from everything for a while. It is nice.
On Thursday I spent the day cooking in the kitchen with Robbie for the Mid-Winter celebrations. I got my arse kicked a few times for stuffing up but that is OK because I am starting to cook some pretty advanced things now and it also means Robbie is seriously teaching me in the kitchen. I am now making things from scratch and some of them are quite complicated. So that is all good. This morning I was wide awake at 6:30am so headed out to the kitchen and started cooking. I made two fruit cakes for the boys and then a breakfast for myself of fluffy scrambled eggs with quail and roast potato. Even my taste is becoming rather fancy these days. For dinner tonight I have made some chicken and camembert with white wine pasta sauce that I am having over ravioli. Not bad for the packet queen who’s motto has always been “Why make when you can buy?” ;o]
What else has happened this week? More work down at the IPS hut and a trip out to the receiver and transmitter sites. The Blizz from last weekend lasted a few more days and the temperature hit -32 degrees during the week. Now that was a cold old day I can tell you! Oh and a brilliant solar pillar that had sun dogs at the same time and one of the sun dogs also had a solar pillar. That was a pretty spectacular site I have to say.
But apart from that life at Casey station just toodles along. The days are pretty short now. The sun rises at about 11:00am and sets at about 3:30pm so it is dark for most of the time. I am finding it difficult to motivate myself to train at the moment. I am only running 40 minutes each day and doing yoga once a week now. But I am not too concerned as I am not putting on any weight and I know once the sun comes back I will be well and truly motivated to hit the gym hard once more.
So that is it from Tracey in Casey for this week.
Till next week – have a good one.
T x
Well, I finally got to go out on the sea ice on the quads this weekend. It was a hoot. We have had a lot of snow this week and I got bogged 3 times before I even left station limits – very frustrating! Once we were out on the sea ice there was still more snow and the only way to avoid being bogged was to keep the speed up. It was an amazing feeling flying across the top of the sea ice on the way back to station heading towards the wharf and being on a quad. I had a great day. The last time I took that same path I was in an IRB on the boating team ferrying scientists back and forth across the water.
Andrew and I were able to head off station together, which was a lot of fun. As we are both the Comms kids we are generally not allowed off station together, so we have never been anywhere that isn’t work related together before. Our deputy station leader kindly looked after radio Comms for the arvo and because Andrew and I were staying within 30 minutes return journey of the station we were able to head out for a trip together. So 4 of us headed off once the sun came up – at 11am and were back just after the sun set at about 3:30pm. A few hours were all I needed to recharge the batteries and get rid of the cabin fever that had been steadily growing in the last few weeks.
This week I also discovered the spa and sauna. Heaven! Being cooped up with the same 18 other people day after day for all this time can sometimes get on my nerves. Every now and then I just need to completely disappear so I don’t actually kill someone. That is what happened this week. I think I was just a little fed up and grumpy and had a bit of cabin fever from long days with no break. I was getting tired and grumpy so I took myself out to the spa and sauna and stayed there for about two hours with my Mp3 player. I did the same thing Friday night as well. I think it may become a regular habit of mine now to go out and just spend time going from the spa to the sauna and back again for a few hours once or twice a week. I had good music for company and just disconnected from everything for a while. It is nice.
On Thursday I spent the day cooking in the kitchen with Robbie for the Mid-Winter celebrations. I got my arse kicked a few times for stuffing up but that is OK because I am starting to cook some pretty advanced things now and it also means Robbie is seriously teaching me in the kitchen. I am now making things from scratch and some of them are quite complicated. So that is all good. This morning I was wide awake at 6:30am so headed out to the kitchen and started cooking. I made two fruit cakes for the boys and then a breakfast for myself of fluffy scrambled eggs with quail and roast potato. Even my taste is becoming rather fancy these days. For dinner tonight I have made some chicken and camembert with white wine pasta sauce that I am having over ravioli. Not bad for the packet queen who’s motto has always been “Why make when you can buy?” ;o]
What else has happened this week? More work down at the IPS hut and a trip out to the receiver and transmitter sites. The Blizz from last weekend lasted a few more days and the temperature hit -32 degrees during the week. Now that was a cold old day I can tell you! Oh and a brilliant solar pillar that had sun dogs at the same time and one of the sun dogs also had a solar pillar. That was a pretty spectacular site I have to say.
But apart from that life at Casey station just toodles along. The days are pretty short now. The sun rises at about 11:00am and sets at about 3:30pm so it is dark for most of the time. I am finding it difficult to motivate myself to train at the moment. I am only running 40 minutes each day and doing yoga once a week now. But I am not too concerned as I am not putting on any weight and I know once the sun comes back I will be well and truly motivated to hit the gym hard once more.
So that is it from Tracey in Casey for this week.
Till next week – have a good one.
T x
posted by Tracey in Casey - Antarctica at 3:56 pm
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