Christmas Week

Usually Christmas week is spent in glorious lassitude at home, eating far too much in front of a crackling fire, playing with my 10 year old brother, listening in turn to carols and ‘A Rat Pack Christmas’, watching Christmas television and revelling in family and friends. But this year I was 7000 miles away from hearth and home, with people with whom I am only just beginning to be friends, in the middle of summer (although you couldn’t really tell the difference between South Georgian summer and British winter). However, as much as I missed home, it was a good week and we all made it as good as we possibly could for each other.

The week started very luckily without a bang. When the army left South Georgia in 2001 they swept the area around the base for unexploded ordnance. However they couldn’t sweep the entire island and quite often we find some unexploded ordnance from their exercises. Luckily it is becoming rarer and rarer but it still does happen. We found 3 live blank bullets yesterday for example, and on Christmas Eve there was another occurrence; the builders have a fire and gravel pit where they can burn what they need to and take gravel for cement etc. Pecker (Dave Peck the foreman) was wandering around the fire pit when he saw something sticking out of the ground. Thinking it was something that his builders had left by accident, he pulled it out to find that it was in fact an anti tank round with the explosive head still intact. He was bloody lucky and it reminded us again that if we see something odd we mark it and leave it (we all carry around a bit of orange tape to mark ordnance with). We will have to call in EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) to deal with it. We think that they will blow it in situ since it is probably too dangerous to disarm and move. It was an interesting beginning to the week.

I went, with others, in the afternoon to pick up Katie and Ali from the Barf peninsula where they had been on holiday. Unfortunately one of the engines on the RIB conked out and we had to change boats before we left the cove. I will admit that I simply left it till after Boxing Day to try and fix. Not the best start to the holiday though, knowing I would have to fix it.

In the evening, once it had got dark enough, we all walked over to the church. It was incredibly beautiful. The church was lit from inside with candles and the light fell in pools from the windows. Behind, the outline of the pitch black mountains was picked out in snow, glinting silver when the moon crept out from clouds that looked like they were painted on navy washed silk.   

Christmas Service

The service was very nice. The Doc, John conducted it and we all sang our hearts out, attempting to hear time and pitch from the slightly tinny iPod in the corner and in the end deciding that we would go at our own speed. I was asked to read a passage and half way through the service we were very civilised and stopped for mulled wine from thermoses and mince pies. We walked back in the darkness avoiding the seals by spotting the darker lumps on the track and listening for growls. The stars slowly winked out at us and I was reminded yet again of the alien nature of the skies and how perspective is incredibly important to us: I mentioned to Shane (one of the builders who lives in the Falklands) that Orion was upside down and he told me that it was just the right way up thank you very much. Looking at these skies makes me think of the bravery of ancient sailors who would leave their homes and sail into the unknown until the very skies had changed. How terrifying would that be? It also reminds me of the lines in Hardy’s poem ‘Drummer Hodge’:

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.

Christmas morning broke to the sound of furries quarrelling under my window. I got up and opened the stocking that had found its way into my P box when I was packing. It was a very poignant half hour sitting enjoying my stocking while thinking about the family all opening theirs sitting on Mum and Az’s bed all together, with Percy (the dog) sitting patiently listening to it all. The rest of the day for me was spent in between the kitchen and the bar reading the books I had been given. Sarah (Manager of the Museum and GO Pat’s wife) had very thoughtfully prepared a bag of token presents for everyone and we all sat together at 1130 opening them. It was extremely kind of her.

We all had dinner together in the dining room and Sue, who was managing the whole thing, surpassed herself. Things only really came together, literally, in the last half hour. We had food cooking in three different ovens in three different buildings that was all brought together and served in Everson House dining room. We had reindeer and mushroom terrine, then the roast chickens from HMS Edinburgh with all the trimmings (and some that I found slightly odd such as Yorkshire puddings and cauliflower cheese), then Christmas puddings (two of which again had found their way into my P box - you’ve got to love mothers) and trifle. It was lovely, we all had a great time chatting, pulling crackers, playing charades and generally doing silly Christmas things.

Christmas Dinner

I won’t say that it was easy to be away from home at Christmas but, unlike at some of the bigger bases, we are a sort of family here and we all worked very hard to make it come together and feel as homely and Christmassy as we could and it worked, through a stint of hard graft, it worked.

Boxing Day, the weather clagged in and snow was the order of the day. Most of us stayed inside doing nothing but watching films and reading. We played a couple of board games and generally waxed lazy for a day. The next day however was back to work and for me that meant fixing a reluctant engine. As usual, while trying to fix one thing I came across two other problems that needed urgent attention and I didn’t even get to start the real work of figuring out what was wrong with the engine (that will have to wait for Monday) but I was very proud of myself that with little help I managed to make a new gasket, rescue bits from a scrap engine (we didn’t even have some of the parts that I needed which has made the whole thing trickier) and put the engine back together so at least it wasn’t in worse shape than when I started.

I had to leave the engine till Monday because on Friday I was asked by Daniel to come and learn how to catch, handle and weigh penguins so I can take over penguin weighing for him when he is at sea doing the groundfish survey with Sue. Ali, Daniel and I walked over to Maiviken and had our breath taken away by the sight of the HUGE tabular icebergs which had been pushed into the bay by the unusual easterlies we have been having.

Huge berg

Bergs in the bay

Using the VHF receiver we discovered that one of the female seals they had tagged had returned so we first had to catch her and recover the tag. It was a team effort to catch her and then put her in ‘the stocks’ so that she wouldn’t be hurt while Daniel took the tag off. I had to chase away any male that thought that was a good opportunity to claim her as his, which can be a dangerous time for the beakers (scientists) and seal alike. When I held her I could feel the silkiness of her fur that was so nearly the downfall of her species. I can see exactly why they were persecuted to near extinction; to have a coat of that fur would ensure you were warm and snug forever.

Once we had released her and got our breath back we went down to the Gentoo colony to complete the real business of the day.

Gentoo Creche

When it comes to it we will have to weigh 50 chicks which by that time will have moulted into their adult plumage and be staying in crèches waiting for their genes to tell them to go to sea. Imagine playing rugby and chasing a grubber kick along the ground. That is the closest thing to catching a penguin I can think of. They dodge and duck like Johnny Wilkinson and once you have caught one (by literally throwing yourself on top of it in the mud) you have to take great care that they don’t do you or themselves damage. Luckily when I mishandled mine and it got a peck to my jaw I was shielded by my buff but I was still a little bruised. After a triumphant token weighing by both Daniel and me we went and had lunch in the middle of the beach at Tortula. As we walked we got a lesson in how to handle and sex pups. I can see that one’s trousers could get a good mauling if one isn’t careful.

We found a beautiful Blonde pup with a lot of spirit. It was a distinctly good day and yet again I found myself in awe that I actually get paid to sit on a beach in the sunshine watching pups playing and males fighting to a background of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world emphasised by the bergs in the foreground.

Blondie pup on the beach



Blondie pup playing

Saturday was spent returning to Maiviken for a jolly with Rod, Joe, Keiron and Sue and then in the evening the builders put on a ‘disco in Disco’ to celebrate New Year and the fact that they have nearly finished in Discovery (Disco) house.

The next time I write this blog it will be the start of a new year. Whatever happens in 2013 I am sure that I will be kept on my toes not only by the wildlife but by the job and I am looking forward to every minute of it.

Happy New Year

Catch you on the flip side.