White Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas/winter solstice/holiday, whatever you were doing and wherever you are. Down in the Antarctic I'm still recovering from the Rothera Christmas carnage...

Festivities here kicked off with the notorious Rothera 10 km run, which was carefully arranged to take place during the windiest part of Christmas Eve. I survived the 27 knot headwind by slipstreaming someone dressed as a penguin when running into it. Despite the race being only my fourth run in the whole of 2005, I managed to finish 2nd fastest girl (out of a grand total of 5) with a time of 51.29 minutes. Naturally I celebrated this with a few ciders.

On Christmas Day we headed up the hill for a spot of merry festive skiing then returned to a traditional turkey dinner (huge thanks to our cook Izzy), complete with party poppers and crackers, and another party in the bar. All in all it was a lovely, stress free day and I was very happy to be celebrating it with new friends here in this fantastic place.

The sea ice finally blew out on Boxing day, so this week we have actually been able to start sampling properly. The voltammeter (my vile analytical instrument) even managed to work for a day before throwing a hissy fit, but that's a problem I'm leaving till next week now, because it's nearly time for the New Years party....

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

I hope you are all well, and wish you all the best for 2006, have a fantastic year!

lots of love

R x