Antarctic Week 5: Christmas is coming! AGAIN!

wowwee, it's that time of the year again (and also, the time of the month, but much has been spoken of this subject already, so i shall not taint [HAHA] this post by mentioning anything about it) where halls are decked and carols are sung and money is siphoned away from the hard-earned wallet.

i never expected to spend two christmases in a row in antarctica, but i guess plans are made for changing. i still remember that i made quite a fuss last year about missing out on christmas in the real world. however, this time around, i'm just too busy to even care. i can't wait for christmas to come just so that i can have my 2-day very-well-deserved break - before i have to go back to work le sigh.

yet again, i will be missing out on presents (except for my secret santa present, WHICH I AM HOPING WILL BE AWESOME!) because no one was prepared enough to give me pre-wrapped christmas pressies to take with me to antarctica to be opened on that very hallowed day. also, i will be missing out on christmas mass YET AGAIN - was quite apathetic about it last year, but now i really miss hearing the priest say 'Baby Jesus bless you all and have a Merry Christmas!' (no he doesn't actually say that). however, i AM looking forward to christmas dinner here on station. last year was an absolute food bonanza and i ate so much i induced myself into a food coma. i'll remember to take some photos of our spread this year to impress you folks back home.

other than that, that's all me done for today. if i don't speak to you soon, i just want to wish you all a very merry christmas and i hope you have a great time with family, friends and a lot of alcohol. speaking of a lot of alcohol...

Antarctic Week 4: One more week before Ho Ho HO!

before week 4 goes out the door, i thought i should just give some quick dot-point updates about how my week has gone so far:

• this week has been a 7-day work week for me.
  
• on sundays in Antarctica, i usually wake no earlier than 2.30 pm. today is the first sunday i've woken up before lunchtime. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY before lunch time. i hope this does not become a trend.
• onto happier, more successful stories though, me and jess have started an experiment and it's already been 24 hours post-fertilisation and all our babies are still going strong.
• i guess that is a big WIN for us.
• however, this means that jollies for me has officially ended until i arrive back on australian shores (or run out of work, the former being more likely than the latter).
• talking about jolly season, CHRISTMAS IS NEXT WEEK SATURDAY!
  

anyway, can you believe it, christmas is literally just around the corner! the christmas tree is already up in the wallow (i helped put it up cos everyone else wasn't very feeling very festive) and i already have the name of my secret santa gift-receiver!

which brings to mind, WHERE HAS 2010 gone?! holy crap, i know that i keep saying the same things year in and year out about how the year has gone past very quickly blablabla where did all my time go blablabla i'm one more year closer to death blablabla but it's true, you know...i can really feel my years whizzing past.

i think before 2011 is ushered in, i will definitely have to sit down and reflect on all that i've done during the year 2010. and until then, i shall leave you with this photo:



this is how it feels like to be standing at the very end of the world.

Antarctic Week 3: All set up and pretty with nowhere (no animals) to go (kill)!

So here's to another week that has come and gone. My lamentations about how fast Fridays were coming about did little to stop (or at least, slow) time. This week, I had another 'wait what the fuck, it's Friday TOMORROW??' moment. I should start getting wiser about and learn from my mistakes - Fridays will ALWAYS come about and the sooner they do, I guess the sooner I get to go to the bar and engage in a tipple or two.

Anyway, I have some good news - actually, I have some GREAT NEWS! The new Jess and Mel team (Jess is the new Simon for this season) is tearing up the tracks and, at this moment as I type, the aquarium is sitting pretty with all equilibrators running, CO2 bubbling through, temperatures holding at where they should be AND all 126 sample jars of ours already in line connected to the water manifolds. Can I please get a FUCK YEA!!??

I am so relieved...I am BEYOND relieved. I know that I might be celebrating prematurely because the potential for us going down tomorrow and finding out that the whole aquarium has gone to shits is very high, but to be honest, I really can't give a fuck right now. Everything's going great and the aquarium doesn't seem to be as temperamental as the year before so I'm not going to worry about it.

I will leave you now with some photos of the new Jess and Mel team! She's a year younger than me and hails from New Zealand. Go the Kiwi-Malaysian team!


Our office: Icebergs, island, the occasional penguin...best job in the world?


Girl power.

Antarctic Week 3: Proof.

This is for all the non-believers out there. Yes, Tammy Chiew; this means YOU. Anyway, here are a few photos of my trip out to the famed and mythical AND mystical jade iceberg. Be warned, images you see here might blow your mind to infinity and beyond.

Also, I figured it was about time to start putting up some photos onto my blog again. Happy pictures time!


OHAI IZ ME! Take that, you non-believer of an older cousin, you!


Mystical Jade Iceberg glinting in the Antarctic sun.

Antarctic Week 2: I am very tired.

It feels really good to finally be able to sit down and type - perhaps I shall type endlessly without any direction or aim, just letting my fingers tap wildly loose in accordance to the thoughts that are flowing out of my head.

It has been a very long week, but then again, it has probably been the shortest week I've had since I got onto station. I didn't even realise that it was Thursday yesterday - my mind was so deeply entrenched in the fact that it was still living in the Tuesday timezone. That makes today Friday - FRIDAY!! Where did my week go??? I don't want to be the first person in the world who whinges about Friday being here too soon (who does that anyway??) but I'm really flummoxed, flabbergasted, surprised, astonished, APPALLED that it is Friday yet again! Does this mean that my time here is running out? Am I not to have the aquarium completed as and when I want it to, and must I have to relive the whole nightmare of the 09/10 season?

Granted, the aquarium is currently at a 'place' which took me and Simon 2 months to get to, so I really shouldn't be complaining. But knowing how little (and precious) time is here, I can't help myself but to complain, and be fearful, and sceptical! The whole environment here is so unstable and inconsistent and temperamental and unpredictable (you get the drift) - anything that goes wrong is amplified by a bajillion times over compared to if the problem had occurred in the real world. Heck, I mean, my cut, which I obtained through my own sheer stupidity of not wearing gloves while dipping my hands into -1.7 degrees Celcius waters, IS STILL NOT HEALED!! And it was only a minor surface scrape!

Sometimes, I fucking hate this place.

But then, sigh, at other times, I am absolutely in love with it, and I think to myself, "There is nowhere else I'd rather be if I had to choose a location to work and play." The other day, I was treated to a 'jolly' - which is the Antarctic Division lingo for recreational-trip-out-of-station - out to the Sorsdal Glacier as well as to see a Jade iceberg (YES I HAVE FOUND THE MYTHICAL JADE BERG AND IT WAS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!) and my mind was blown. The entirety of my mind; circuit breakers, amplifiers, transistors, neurons, protons, synapses, EVERYTHING, was blown away. It was singlehandedly the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen in my life, and I can say that with absolutely confidence. Just standing there, I couldn't stop myself from gaping my mouth wide open, and going WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAA and OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH and AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH and WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH like some imbecile cave-woman. And all this is true - I am not making it up.

So I guess no matter how tired I feel, or fucked up or have shit from the aquarium ladened upon me, it boils down to me being in Antarctica. And that is one hell of an experience that I'll never ever trade for the World! Ok la, maybe I would trade it for the World. Heck, I'd even trade it for a small tropical island, like Bali, or the Maldives, or Seychelles, or even Pulau Perhentian..I'd trade it if Pulau Perhentian could be mine and all mine and for myself and my own use only.

Just kidding.