Monday, January 09, 2006
posted 1/09/2006 10:19:00 PM UTC+12, McMurdo Local Time
posted 1/09/2006 10:19:00 PM UTC+12, McMurdo Local Time
Not a whole lot of interesting new stuff today. Tonya has rotated into Jody's position at fuel pits (we work pit shifts on overlapping 2-3 week rotations,) so we basically sat around talking about bike touring, traveling in New Zealand, Sudoku, and random stuff in between fueling three skiers and zipping over to the transition and back to swap snowmobiles. Ours started blowing oil the other day (shot head gasket,) so we've been using an old loaner called "Frankenvinny." Scary name, which is appropriate as it's one of the old Alpine 1s that only have one ski is therefore a bit unstable, likes to follow grooves in the snow (plentiful at the airfield,) and has a turning radius comparable to the Queen Mary. Also visited a bit with Jay Hay, one of my cargo friends, and think I'm getting things lined up to get some training time in a widetire 950! (Mid-size Caterpillar loader with forks and big snow tires - cool machine)
Had dinner (lunch for me) at the strip, which was nice because the night firefighters out there had recently made waffles! At the Willy field galley, there's a waffle iron and a bucket of batter in the fridge, which I personally think is absolutely brilliant. Only problem is that usually the iron is cold and I generally don't have time/patience to let it warm and cook a waffle during my food break. Tonight I was lucky though, so it was a big Belgian waffle smothered in butter and honey for me!
So, lunch kind of made the day. Then, we got to leave a bit early since there were no more planes to fuel! The coffee house was closed, as was the galley (for a DV reception...argh!) so I was pretty lucky to discover that someone had grabbed the chess boards out of the galley beforehand and put them in the lounge upstairs in 155 (the building that the galley, computer kiosk, store, barbershop, and some dorms are.) Won a game of chess, a first for me on this continent, so that was cool. After the chess was over, I headed downstairs to see if the reception was done so I could eat my evening meal, but alas it wasn't. Sat down at the computer to write this, and by the sound of things that too just long enough for the galley to reopen!
Life is food.
Had dinner (lunch for me) at the strip, which was nice because the night firefighters out there had recently made waffles! At the Willy field galley, there's a waffle iron and a bucket of batter in the fridge, which I personally think is absolutely brilliant. Only problem is that usually the iron is cold and I generally don't have time/patience to let it warm and cook a waffle during my food break. Tonight I was lucky though, so it was a big Belgian waffle smothered in butter and honey for me!
So, lunch kind of made the day. Then, we got to leave a bit early since there were no more planes to fuel! The coffee house was closed, as was the galley (for a DV reception...argh!) so I was pretty lucky to discover that someone had grabbed the chess boards out of the galley beforehand and put them in the lounge upstairs in 155 (the building that the galley, computer kiosk, store, barbershop, and some dorms are.) Won a game of chess, a first for me on this continent, so that was cool. After the chess was over, I headed downstairs to see if the reception was done so I could eat my evening meal, but alas it wasn't. Sat down at the computer to write this, and by the sound of things that too just long enough for the galley to reopen!
Life is food.
