Settling In

I arrived here only four days ago and have been so busy ever since. But very happily so! I now know my way around the Museum, have dealt with customers in the shop, know where most things are on the base where the Museum staff live (KEP) and am getting quite used to the fur seals - they are very fierce if you get too close, and have only just started coming ashore to breed and are still in low numbers. Apparently the place will be crowded with fur seals before too long, huge big males, very fierce and protective mothers, and tiny pups (who are aggressive from the word go!)
My first task in the Museum was to spring clean two of the rooms and exhibits, with a couple more to do this coming week. It gives me a good chance to look around at all the exhibits and get to know a lot more about Grytviken and its history. It is lovely to see photographs of old friends and people I worked with in the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge in the '70s - Nigel Bonner, Peter Prince, Inigo Everson, Duncan Carse, Sir Vivian Fuchs and lots of others - a real nostalgia trip for me.
Every Saturday night there is a big meal at the BAS base at KEP, to which all the 'residents' on the island are invited. This week it was the turn of the Museum staff to cook a meal and we chose to do a 'carvery', with three different roasts, lots of veggies, and puddings. Tony (Museum manager), Julia (the other Museum assistant like me) and Hugh (who maintains everything in and around the Museum) prepared the meat and all the vegetables, and Lindsey (curatorial assistant) and I made two different crumbles (and custard) and two big trifles. No trifle sponges in the big food store, so I had to make the sponges (and we had enough left over to make a small Victoria sandwich cake for afternoon tea with raspberry jam and butter cream ... mmm!) Everyone dressed up for dinner in the base dining room, lots of posh glasses on the table and wine, and the food was soon enjoyed and demolished, and we all retired to the bar except the washer-uppers. They are all really friendly here and do everything they can to help when I am lost, or can't find something or need to find out anything!! There are about 30 people here, including the new incoming scientists and staff for the next year, but after a couple of weeks' handover some of the 'old' ones will be leaving and numbers will be greatly reduced. That's a shame when people like me are just getting to know them!
The food store is wonderful. Imagine being let loose in a small Tesco store, with a basket, and being able to help yourself! Of course it has to last the year so we can't go crazy, and things like chocolate and crisps are rationed (the base doctor has responsibility for handing them out!!), but there is a mind-boggling choice of foods to use. It is my turn to cook for the Museum staff (only 5 of us, thank goodness!) on Tuesday so I'm trying to think up something impressive to cook - but might start off simply with my favourite - shepherd's pie. We only have a certain amount of fresh veg at any one time, so I'll have to use Smash for the potato topping!
As it is Sunday, most people have gone off walking in the hills around KEP and Grytviken. I needed to download my photos from my cameras and catch up with lots of bits and pieces (still sorting myself out) and do some laundry, but I'm just about to go out with a picnic and my camera to walk round the base and take photos of all those beautiful animals out there. I'll sit quietly somewhere and just soak it all in. This is South Georgia to me - the wild snow-capped mountains surrounding the bay here, and the amazing wildlife living so closely to us. It is not quiet here, with the sound of the seals and seabirds, the waves and the wind, but it is so very peaceful.