.....and everyone else has disappeared off to the hills, leaving me behind to enjoy the peace and quiet of a deserted base! A lazy couple of hours in my kaftan in the dining room catching up with emails (oh yes, and while I'm on the subject of emails, there is nothing to stop any of you emailing me and telling me what YOU have been doing ... hint hint!!) before doing my share of the housework in Larsen House - tackling the communal kitchen. We have been sharing it with a great team of builders from the Falklands and it's a case of whose nerve gives out first and does the washing up, filling the dishwasher etc. My, this is gripping stuff!
Yesterday's excitement was a documentary team from South Korea who are visiting South Georgia on the yacht "Golden Fleece", who came in to the Museum to film the exhibits. And on yet another domesticated vein, the Villa - our new home - is nearing completion (and with it the loss of our friends the builders on the next Pharos trip back to the Falklands) and someone had to find the curtains that used to hang in there from a large shed, wash them and get them ready to rehang. Now anyone who knows me will know that I HATE hanging curtains, but there was no-one else to do it, so I spent yesterday afternoon washing them and hanging them in the domestic part of the Museum to dry, ready to rehang in the Villa. Now it turns out that we will have to delve in the same large shed and find all the furniture we need, and manhandle it into the Villa before we can move in. Why me ........?
The fur seals are increasing in number along the track between King Edward Point and Grytviken making the walk to and from work interesting! There have been two or three occasions where a young fur seal has rushed up to me aggressively and I have pointed the handle of my walking pole at it (not the sharp pointy end in case I have had to use it!) and the beast has backed away. I don't think I'll ever be relaxed about fur seals but I am getting quite fond of them. Some of the huge males - in big fat breeding condition - that are spaced out along the shoreline have nasty wounds from fighting each other to establish territories. Some have females with them now and some of those females even have little black furry puppies. Most of the mothers have that contended look about them, but I certainly wouldn't venture too close. The puppies bleat like lambs and look so cuddle-able, but I have been told that they are vicious from birth! The elephant seal weaners just get bigger, as if someone is blowing them up with a foot pump. They spend most of the day lying on the shore or the track, regularly clearing their nostrils with a snort that sounds like a sneeze. They have mucous-y noses and I think their nostrils get stuck shut and this is how they get to breathe again. If they fall asleep on the shore line it is not uncommon to see one of these 'babies' lying with its head completely submerged in seawater, just lifting its nose from time to time to breathe. Yesterday we had about two inches of snow, and from the office I could see what looked like a small rounded island close to the shore with snow on top and it turned out to be a very large elephant seal with its head and tail underwater - when you think that these seals can dive to great depths for anything up to two hours, and commonly for 20 minutes at a time, you can understand why lying with its head under the water is not a problem. We are so lucky here having these animals so close by, and we have to walk round them - they don't move for us!
Tonight we have been invited to the base as usual for supper. Sam the doctor is cooking - I think it might be Swedish meatballs. They have a map on the wall in the base dining room and when someone cooks a meal from a different country they can colour in that country in 'their' colour, and Sam is intent on colouring in as many as she can!
I've been getting on with stuff in the Museum this afternoon, but must pack up now and go back and get ready for supper. This is the last meal we will have with them before the winterers who have been here for two years leave - I've only been here for 3 weeks but even I will miss the 'old' ones! Our numbers here will drop by half when the Pharos leaves to take them all back to Stanley. Right - now to brave those fur seals ....!
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