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.