Busy, busy

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. A lot of ice has slid down the glacier since then. We had a rush of ships on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week and I can't believe how busy we were. Two ships per day for the first two days then one on Wed - a total of 535 passengers passing through the Museum and the shop. Doesn't sound much but when they are concentrated into about 3 hours per visit that is an awful lot of people crowded into the little shop at once, all desperate to buy presents to take home. And when they are all wearing thick waterproof clothing and life jackets there seem an awful lot more of them!!! In between each ship the Museum has to be swept and mopped, and the shop restocked. I am now a dab hand at the credit card machine, can convert pounds into dollars and euros at the drop of a hat, and can smile for hours. On Monday we were invited onto Polar Star for dinner - a barbecue which was cooked outside but eaten inside in the warm. Huge prawns, steaks, and spare ribs, but - best of all ... salads!
The British Antarctic Survey base at King Edward Point (where we live and get our food) is supplied once a year by the BAS ships, but does get regular supplies of certain vegetables and fresh eggs from the Falkland Islands courtesy of the Fishery Patrol Vessel, Pharos, during summer irregularly every few weeks, depending on her timetable. All fresh stuff gets eaten quickly and we have to then rely on frozen meat, tinned and frozen vegetables and fruit, dried eggs and powdered milk. I've only been here 19 days but I already miss fresh fruit and salad, so it is a real treat to dine on a cruise ship and dig into big bowls of salad and nice puddings with fruit. Even our supply of chocolate and crisps here is rationed and it is up to the doctor to dish it out at the beginning of each month, and if you miss it then - tough! I managed to get a single Mars bar this time - but that's not a bad thing for me!!
Once we had watched the passengers leave on Zodiacs to return to the ship on Wednesday, and then saw the ship sail off, more sweeping and mopping, restocking, and cleaning the loos was done (I have a very important, technical job - but we all take turns and muck in), and we could take a nice breather - this time till 22nd December when our next cruise ship is due.
There is still plenty to do in the office but it is all much more relaxed.
There is one yacht due in on 8th Dec called Isatis. I met the people on the yacht in January 1981 in Ushuaia and was invited for meals on board and never expected to see them again - certainly not nearly 30 years later, so I'm looking forward to meeting up with them and finding out what they have been doing in the meantime.
On Friday night Thies and Kiki invited Hugh and I to dinner on their lovely yacht, Wanderer III. We had to go out on their small tender and again I was at risk of falling in the water amongst all the elephant seals as I stood up to climb aboard. The yacht is tiny and it is their only home. It is so cosy - I was sitting next to the little woodburning stove whilst Kiki cooked a lovely meal on their primus stove. We had olives and pickled garlic cloves for nibbles, ham in white sauce with asparagus, boiled tatties, carrot salad, and sauerkraut, and then a lovely lemon drizzle cake with whipped cream (it was Ewan's birthday so we toasted him with the cake!!!) After wine and hotlemon (cider vinegar and honey with hot water) we had to risk the little boat again to get ashore, and Hugh walked me back in the almost dark, torchless, braving the fur seals along the track. (Hugh does most of the maintenance around the Museum, is an amazing runner, and has to put up with useless females on the Museum staff who are scared of fur seals!)
Last Saturday was a glorious day so I decided to go up to Gull Lake for a walk. It is about the only decent walk you can do from base on your own, and I am too embarrassed and slow to ask anyone to come with me. Gull Lake is where the water for the hydro-scheme comes from. It is a beautiful clear freshwater lake up the hill behind Grytviken. I had my instructions where to go and was expecting a smallish lake with a nice path around it, perhaps the odd seat! Tough! It was huge, and there wasn't even any signs that anyone had been there before. Much of the surrounding land was rocky, and where it wasn't rocky it was boggy. And to add to the hard walk I had to put up with attacks from Antarctic terns who probably had nests nearby - these beautiful little birds can inflict nasty headwounds as they dive bomb any unfortunate walker, but I held my walking pole up over my head and they couldn't get at my head. Add in the hot sun (SG is right under the ozone hole at the moment) and for me it was quite a challenging walk. At least there are no fur seals up there to ambush me! I measured it on the map to be just over four miles, but it was difficult terrain at times, a steep hill up and down again, and it took me almost 3 hours! I was overtaken at one point by Hugh and Keiron jogging - Hugh later told me it took them about 30 minutes AND they were talking all the time. But I did spend lots of time looking at the view and taking photos and just enjoying it up there, and some people were really impressed that I had done it.
Every Saturday night there is a meal for everyone at the base and people take it in turns to cook. This week it was a Great British Pub Night, followed by a pub quiz. We had to wear fancy dress, so I wore my kaftan (that I use as a dressing gown) + lots of beads, and went as a hippy! There was either soup or prawn cocktail for starters, fish and chips, steak pie or mixed grill for main course, and bread and butter pudding or jam roly poly with custard or cream for pudding. And home made dinner rolls! The quiz was very funny, the team I was in came 3rd so we did not badly, and as soon as it was finished I had to go 'home' to bed, I was so tired and had cramp in my thigh.
I woke up to a nice Sunday morning which rapidly turned into a good reason for staying indoors - very strong winds with torrential rain turning into driving snow - not very pleasant. I stayed put until 7pm when about14 of us went to Pat and Sarah Lurcock's house for a sushi evening. As I left Larsen House and crossed the track I was faced with 2 young (last year's) fur seal pups and one of them ran at me - I shouted at it and waved my arms, but it just kept coming and I had to turn and run and leap up the metal steps to Larsen House. When I got back out armed with a bodger (fur seal protection!) they were nearly down on the beach and I could swear they were giggling about having frightened me! We had a lovely meal of sushi and great company and I staggered home at about 11pm.