An Uneventful Week

I am going to apologise now for a short and rather boring blog post. This week has been remarkably uneventful. 

On Monday we took Joe (Sparky) and Daniel (Higher Predator Scientist) to Sorling for their St Andrews Holiday. Poor chaps had some awful weather and were hut bound for an afternoon but Daniel was in heaven living in the middle of the largest colony of King Penguins in the world. I think he took more photos in his 4 days there than in the rest of the 6 months. 

I spent my week inside engine bays or underneath RIBs doing 6 monthly services on the engines or, when the weather was just too poor, scraping the remains of the old keelguard off the bottom of Alert. The only excitement (well I am not entirely sure that is the right word) was when I was in Prion’s engine bay and slipped. To stop myself from falling in the bilges I stood up rapidly, unfortunately very hard into the engine bay doors support. I managed to gash my head and give myself a nice dose of concussion. At least it gave Hazel something medical to do when she cleaned me up and glued the cut closed. It was a stupid mistake and one that I have learnt my lesson from. I will NEVER be doing that again. 

The base as a whole had a lovely dinner at Carse House (Jo Cox’s house) on Wednesday. She taught us how to clean squid (they go inside out very easily and then the right way even easier, it is quite cool). Because we had some spare we then had Calimari for lunch which was a real treat. The dinner consisted of marinated squid stuffed with feta and paprika, lasagne made with mince that Hazel and I had to make from a huge chunk of meat (we have run out of mince) and then for dessert we had chocolate cake made by Sue. It was a real treat, especially since it came unexpectedly midweek. We talked about a whole range of things, from splicing two sorts of daffodils together to make a new type, to the political situation in Argentina and that effect on the Falkland Islands etc etc. It was really very nice. 

Unfortunately when we returned on Friday to pick up Joe and Daniel the conditions deteriorated fairly rapidly while we were out there so the trip home was slightly white knuckled to say the least. We all got home for tea and medals which was the main thing and boy was there a lot of tea drunk. 

RIB in the wake

Speedy Gonzales!

 The weather over the weekend was filthy so the only walking we did was rather close to home. Hazel and I took a quick walk over to Maiviken and then had a well earned cup of tea in the hut, steaming gently. We then almost couldn’t bear to go back out into the pouring rain but Hazel set a good pace and the return over Deadman’s Pass, via Cardiac Hill, was quicker than I thought it was going to be. On Sunday we had a sunnier and more leisurely walk to Penguin River where I spent a happy ¼ of an hour playing pebble tennis: you through a stone straight up (not on your head) into the air. Then as it comes down you throw a smaller stone at it and try to hit it. It sounds deadly dull but it has occupied me for hours and I was once not bad at it, I have obviously lost the knack now.

The only good thing about the changeable weather was that on Saturday evening we had the most incredible rainbow. I am including a picture but it can’t even begin to capture the beauty and grandeur of the drizzle and the sun on the mountains, all crowned by this glorious shock of light and colour The weather unfortunately looks rather like it is going to stay dismal for the rest of the week. Other than keeping an eye out for more fantastic rainbows I think it might be time to find some inside jobs!!

Rainbow

Today (13^th) is my birthday so I will sign off this short post by saying “Happy Birthday Me”. Have a good week.