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Cities in the Snow
It seems to me that we create cities wherever we live, however much we try to escape them. And when we hate them, we go further remote just to repeat the same mistakes. At the risk of sounding overly...
View ArticleWinter begins
If a mother’s love could be shown in presents, I think my mum has just succeeded! The summer crew have left at last and it’s time now to settle in for the winter. First we picked rooms out of a hat...
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Photoblog
Greetings from Antarctica! An Argentine helicopter Two BAS ships at Halley Me at my lab Penguins messing up my clean air And finally… manhauling stuff to my lab
View ArticleImmensity
I do love it here. It’s so vast, so expansive, never-ending. We were talking about Space earlier, and going to the moon (was it a hoax, wasn’t it? The first time I’ve not found myself surrounded by...
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Sundown
I’ve experienced a new dawn today. Seriously – my own Spring has sprung. I’m so relieved. Yesterday, the sun set for the last time until August and I think, in retrospect, that I have been feeling a...
View ArticleTime
It’s been a while – thanks for prompting me. I have no excuses except to say I’ve been working on the Halley May webpage which I hope you’ll enjoy. A refreshing change from my usual drivel, this one...
View ArticleAn Average Day
While writing my weekly letter to my Granny yesterday, I found myself stumped for words. Stumped for material more like. What to say? Nothing has changed since last week, there is no news to report....
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Winter
We’ve had some beautiful skies lately. Fire red. What’s another word for sky? That whole space, dome, all the air, that void around you, the entire thing, the bell, the hemisphere is seems, fills with...
View ArticleWHOOOSH
I left the lab late today, around 9:30 pm, but it had been a productive afternoon so I bore no grudges. A nice little blast of work to clear my conscience for the weekend. Truth be told I haven’t done...
View ArticleDaylight
had brunch with my friend Geoff today, and he turned to me and asked: "does Rhian ever have a day where she just goes to work, rather than being blown away by the fabulousness of where she is?", Felix...
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Zen Ice
I’m not sure if Emperor Penguins are right at the top, or the very bottom, of the karmic evolutionary scale. "Who would be an emperor penguin?" has not been uttered infrequently around here lately....
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Equinox
I am becoming a little bored of being electrocuted every time I open the fridge door. Or, for that matter, touch a handrail before climbing steps into a building. And then I get a shock, once indoors,...
View ArticleMidnight light
When I first came here, I was mesmerised by continual light, the midnight sun, the beauty of the ice at all times of day and day. I couldn’t understand why both blinds and curtains were firmly closed...
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Back at Halley, briefly (we hope!)
Dear Granny, Thankyou so much for your last two letters that I haven’t yet responded to – one of October 15/16th and the next, which I just received today, from the 23rd. I hope you received the...
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Windy Bay
I’m lying on the snow, emperor penguins all around. Once you get used to the sight, the sound and then smell are probably the most noticeable things. The constant cooing, deep throttle cooing: da da...
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Sunburn
I got fried today. Toasted, roasted and turned on a spit. Or at least my face did. For a team of caucasians who haven’t seen the sun for six months, and, when they have, have had every inch of flesh...
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Contact!
Yes, its true, it’s true, it really is. And you had to hear about it from someone elses web diary! Apologies. The winter is officially over; we’ve had our first visitors. It’s true. Bizarre, odd,...
View ArticleGetting chilly
It is all too easy for gnarly Antarticans emerging from a dark and cold winter to become dissmissive and patronising about the soft summer with all its light and relative warmth. "You think this is...
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Tourists!
I’ve had in mind to write this piece all week but every day something new arises that makes the week even more extraordinary. So much so that the initial inspiration now almost smacks of the ordinary....
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Christmas Eve
It’s 6am on christmas eve and I’m struggling to stay awake for the last two hours of this 12 hour shift. These are always the hardest. When it’s quiet and warm inside and sleepiness creeps back in...
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Normality
I’m writing to you on a Sunday afternoon, the rugby on, fairly loud, in the background. South Africa v Ireland: surprisingly up-to-date by Halley standards as the game was only played about 2 months...
View ArticlePenguin Soup and Dozer Wars
Well, the title says it all really. The cute fluffy penguins are all dead now and Halley has been transformed back into a construction site full of boys and their tonker toys. And it’s still a great...
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The Birth of Icebergs
I’m not sure why I’m destined to love one of the most remote and inaccessible places in the world. Perhaps it is just one of those quirks of character that define who you are and which, try as you...
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Jolly
I have just been on a most spectacular jolly down a fjord on (in? at?) South Georgia. Drygalski Fjord. Spectacular. Even those who had seen rock in the last year were staring with gaping jaws. And...
View ArticleRhian in America
Much to my surprise, I love America. We spend a lot of time in Britain bitching about America, Americans, Americanisms and of course the American administration. It’s very easy. But whenever I come...
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