Catch up entries 3 - the last of these ones

Latest Catch up entry, written about the 21/12

On the way north I stopped off with Tash and Chris, drove right up from Andi and Sarah’s Halloween party, which was great although I did end up somewhat passed out in the front room with stuff written on my face. Fortunately not in permanent marker. Tasha had got some tickets for a play so I drove straight up and into Glasgow to meet them. Initially the plan was to meet them at theirs and we’d take the train into the city but there was some evil traffic so I was running late. We met up at a service station outside of Glasgow and we went into Glasgow in convoy, running from the car park to the theatre. I had no idea what the show was going to be, apart from the fact it had something to do with “Mrs Brown.” I thought it might have been something to do with Queen Victoria but it turns out it was about an Irish family and oh ye gods was it hilarious!!!! If you get the chance, there’s a whole set (four at the moment) of plays about Mrs Brown and they are very rude and very, very funny.
We had a relaxing day and then on my way home we dropped off at the Lecht ski centre for a days boarding. The nice thing was that pretty soon I was back to the point where I left of last season. By the end of the day I was getting some proper linked turns in, which was brilliant.
A couple of weeks after I got back up north work changed. We went from having just the four of us working 24 hours a day from Sunday night to Friday afternoon, doing 12 hour shifts, to working three (or two) shifts through the day from 6 am till the end of flying. There is now 24/7 cover provided by the regional unit but we have to use some of the charts from down south, rather than producing our own. That’s the bad side of things, but on the plus side we’re now doing many, many more briefings face to face with the squadrons, which is fantastic. I enjoy hooning around the camp in the works car and dealing with the squadrons face to face.
Apart from that I’ve volunteered to drive the weather survey van (some time, when I can) which is basically a set of sensors mounted on a small van, the idea being that we drive it on set routes in certain weather conditions, usually in the wee small hours. To make it a bit safer the office sent us on some skid prevention and control course (aka skid pan fun!) which was an absolute blast! I learned some things I hadn’t known before, including some emergency brake and steer techniques that were new. I still haven’t had the chance to go on a run yet but should get the chance once I’m back up after Christmas.
I’ve done a bit more on the slopes since the first trip back up, at the Lecht as it’s cheaper than Cairngorm and ok, the slopes and the snow aren’t as good as you’d find in France or many other places but it’s here and it’s enough to have fun with. When it comes down to it, I’ll take “fun” that’s an hour away from me and reasonably cheap, over “fantastic” that’s in another country and costs a bomb to get to any day. Especially if I can go there with friends. Of course, if I could go abroad with friends for about the same cost I'd be there in a shot (note to Tris, March good for you?).

Catch up entries 2

Second entry written about the 29/10/08

At the start of the year, actually at New Year's, I looked at what I wanted to do this year and of the four main ones (bike, drive, run and fun) I've amazed myself by completing one. Still got the first three left – to whit, get my bike licence, pass my advanced driving test and get fit enough to easily pass the Cranwell fitness requirements. The last, fun, partly covers not being single but is mainly about getting out a bit more and doing some stuff I wouldn't have thought of; not siting at home on my own every night. On both of these definitions I have succeeded. It's a bit odd that loosing three months down south has actually helped with parts of my aims. Not as much as I'd have hoped for fitness (my fault) but more than I'd have thought with the others. The bike test has been helped by the fact that the government have pushed back the implementation of the new test regime until early next year, so I've got a bit more time than I thought. For the AD side of things I'm going to have a serious look at the Kinloss group back up north, although I'm also going to get a different car as soon as possible. Not another new one, but something a bit bigger and with a bit more capability. After driving all the 4x4s down south I've realised that the bit more ability would have been great for the hills. It's not that my little Charade can't handle most conditions but I'm constantly driving it to almost the limit of it's range, and it does feel chuffing ridiculous when there's a whole row of big four wheel drives parked in the snow on Cairngorm and I'm struggling to get my snowboard into the city car that's hidden by the Landies either side. The fact I have to drop the passenger seat to fit it in is bad enough, although it was funny when I was happily driving out of the snow and the numpty in a big ol' Jeep was getting stuck. He just couldn't drive in snow, was revving the arse off the engine and getting absolutely no purchase. Don't get me wrong, I'm certain the car was able to handle the conditions but the driver definitely could not.
Anyway, I’m now on the way back from London and it’s been absolutely brilliant to see Tris again. I’d like to be able to see D’Abs and it'd be great to catch up with Rich, also getting across to the US to see Kev (actually I’d LOVE to be able to that one!) but time and money prevent those. Apart from that I’d have to say that once I’ve got to Andi and Sarah’s and stopped off with Tash and Chris, I’ll have seen pretty much all of my really close friends within two weeks.
I don’t know if I mentioned it in my recent posts (off line on the train so I can’t check) but a couple of days after I got back from the Falklands I hit a low point. I’ve hit these before, it’s a kind of after travel thing where you realise that the next day you’ll wake up and see the same thing you saw the day before. It’s not a new place and it’s not home. It’s something in between that isn’t so good as either and not as interesting as you’d like. At that point I was ready to call up my boss and ask for the 3 year tour of Gibraltar or a long tour down in the Falklands (preferable as Kate is down there!). Like I said, I’ve felt this way before but this was something different. I really just didn’t want to be in the UK at that point and while I think I know why it’s not something I can put into words. One of the reasons I didn’t was that I knew there was a good chance of seeing friends soon and so I held off. My family’s great but I know they’ll always be there for me, e-mail, phones and blueys aside, contact is easy with mum and dad and I think Matt understands.
As I said before, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see anyone, let alone almost everyone, but I’m so glad I was able to. What I’d hoped for actually happened, I’ve found an anchor to these green Isles (as an aside, if you don’t believe the “green and pleasant land” description, travel to somewhere with a much lower rainfall total then look at the grass and the trees here when you get back. This country is SO beautiful I was almost struck dumb when I got back. The sheer intensity of the colours and the vibrancy of the life was breathtaking!). This anchor is my friends. If the guys weren’t back here, and as much as I love my family, I’d have to say that I don’t know if I’d stay here. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this country. From the mountains of home to the rolling hills down south, from the vast emptiness of the Highlands to the crowded, noisy, smelly but ALIVE streets of London and Birmingham, from the snow covered north to the palm trees in the south, I love Great Britain. The thing is that I’ve seen a bit more of the world and I know that there are amazing things everywhere. The politics and the social situation in this country aren’t to my taste but I’d rather stay and try to help solve that rather than run away to New Zealand and with my friends here there’s no risk of me leaving any time soon.
So there we have it from the train back from London. I’ll write a bit more of this after Halloween and probably post it in a one shot deal.
By the way, I’m writing this on some of the new software I picked up in London. Still trying to source Leopard for the Mac but I’m working on the new version of Word for Mac and it’s rather sweet. Bit different to the NT version we use at work and pretty similar to the 03/04 Office suite. Might have another look once my pay comes in. I like open source software, and in the case of Office, NeoOffice (OpenOffice.Org for the Mac) is very compatible but I can’t deny that Microsoft (turn and spit) do make some decent software and with work going XP/2003 having a fully compatible system is likely to make things easier. Thing that’s been getting to me a bit recently are the adverts for Microsoft where people say “I’m a PC” where what they actually mean is “I run Microsoft, rather than Mac or Linux.” PC just means personal computer, so I’m working on a PC now, it’s just a Mac, rather than a Windows box.

Catch up entries 1

First entry written on about the 27/10/08

I can't really remember why I started this blog, I think it was probably just to keep friends up to speed with what was happening to me. I wasn't expecting anyone to read it, although it's nice that you do.
Anyway, I'm sat on a train heading to London, it's a sunny day with little cumulus clouds over the Cotswolds and it feels great to be travelling again. This strikes me as odd; less than ten days ago I was flying in business class across the Atlantic, yesterday I was driving back from Birmingham, so why does it feel so good to be moving again? It's not like I've had enough time to be in one place to get bored! I think Matt T had the measure of it over the weekend – I love travelling! Not just the seeing new places or revisiting favourite old ones, but the very action of travelling can be good. Admittedly, I'm in an economy seat (not the table one I'd booked either) and as it's half term there weren't any cheap tickets and there are too many kids for my personal tastes but even so, I'm speeding through the country with sun lit houses and open, autumnal countryside passing by, the music on my iPod is great and thanks to Sian I've got loads of extra music to sort though and rate. Might be able to pick up some decent software in the City as well, but we'll have to see how that goes.
When I was looking at having the two weeks off after flying back up north my plan was to visit as many of my friends as possible but I was half expecting not to be able to see any of them. Turns out I was wrong, even managed to get some quality time with my brother and a bit of culture as well!
I just sometimes feel when I'm visiting friends that I don't do enough. I know everyone will tell me I'm being an idiot, and in truth if anyone visited me I'd expect nothing except their presence, but still, I like giving people things, even for no reason. A fluffy penguin or fridge magnets seem small thanks for a quality time, but then I'm a bit daft about things like that.
On a different note, I'm going to try to do something with the pictures from the Falklands, even if it's just providing some unusual background images for anyone that wants them. Once I'm back up with my own net connection I'll see what's around online that you can enter photos in, competitions perhaps, although I think only about 6 of the shots would be worth entering in anything. Having said that, there's a magazine that takes pictures that people have uploaded and gives pointers on how to get better, and that is definitely something I'm going to look into. I don't want to sound cocky but I think with a bit of work I might keep surprising myself with the photos. I might even have a bit of a talent. And if not, then at least I'll have some fun on the way.

Links, 2,3,4

Okay, not a Rammstein related blog (although I have been snowboarding to the strains of Mein Herz Brennt of late) and I know I owe you all a catch up post (I've drafted a couple that I will put most of up before I head a bit south) but for now I'll just stick up a few links that I think you might enjoy.
The first is an optical illusion,
http://blogoscoped.com/files/stripes.html
which is just sooooo cool! Swiral might want to take care, the image appears to flicker a bit when used but I don't think it's a problem.
Next is the Boston Globe's Hubble Space Telescope advent calendar, which I hope will be up after Christmas.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/hubble_space_telescope_advent.html
Worth checking out just for the first animated image!
Next, still with the Boston Globe, is the firs part of their images of the year.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html
This is part of the Big Picture series (stick it on your feed reader, it's worth it!) and the photos range from the sublime to the astonishing to the disturbing to the gut wrenching and graphic.
Now for a collection of sceptical thinking blogs:
Bad Astronomy - Phil Plait's Science and Sceptical blog (and lots of Dr Who stuff).
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre's Blog, including his articles on critical thinking from the Guardian and lots about health scares and misuse of statistics.
Bad Martial Arts - martial arts without mystical explanations.
Finally, another webcomic:
http://dooomcat.com/wp/
Bear Nuts. If anyone remembers my Bondage Bear, it's kind of like that; care bears gone bad...

At work we've been trading maths jokes, including the "classic" one:
There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary, and those that don't.
And another one:


How is Hallowe'en the same as Christmas?



Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.

Sorry, even I found that one a bit bad.

When I finally catch up I'll tell you about the skid pan training, the snow boarding and the bed.
Not related stories, although that would be a good one!

More geeky than c:/Spot/Run

I'll have a full post up soon but until then there is a great "cartoon-off" between the New Yorker and Randall Munroe of XKCD which includes this picture:

If I say that most geeks wouldn't get the joke you might get the idea of how geeky this is, but I laughed lots. The joke relies on a property of higher dimensions and string theory, although the New Yorker was also right about String theory...

In case anyone is wondering, the joke I mention in the title goes:
c:/
c:/Spot
c:/Spot/Run
Run/Spot/Run

I'll soon have photos of what I've been up to the last couple of weeks, it's been brilliant!

Post dated - written first night back in the UK

So I’m back home, back to using a Mac, back to autumn, back to missing Kate and back to, well, back to Britain.
It’s been one hell of a deployment, all in all. I’ve seen some things that less than 1% of the UK have seen, I’ve travelled a LONG way, I’ve seen animals in their native environment, learnt lots of things about using a SLR camera, met a wonderful girl and had to leave her 8000 miles away, and have now got experience of flying in a number of different types of aircraft.
Would I go back? Hell yes. Even without Kate, I’d love to go back south; with her there it becomes more imperative.
Am I glad to be home? Yes and no. For one thing I’m not home yet, I’m at my parents. This is the first time I’ve felt this, that my parents house is not my home. I’m always welcome here but this is their house, their home, not mine. It’s great to see them and Matt, Becky and Ellen (who loved her penguin) but I want to see my friends, I want to get back to my flat and relax in my own (rented) place. Don’t get me wrong, it IS wonderful to be here and they are brilliant but a week or two here is going to be enough.
I’m starting to see what Twoflower meant in Light Fantastic when he said “you haven’t travelled until you’ve got back home.” Looking back through the 2129 photos I’ve taken, I stripped them down to “just” 437 good ones and some of them are really good, I won’t be short of good images for backgrounds for a while, that’s for certain. I’m going to get one of those digital picture frames and load the good ones onto it, but that’ll have to wait until the next pay check at least.
Obviously the biggest down side of coming home is leaving my girlfriend (still feels weird to be able to say that after all this time) and enter into a very long distance relationship. We’re hoping it will work but both of know that the distance is very large, four time zones and totally different worldviews. So we’ll see how it goes.
It will be good to see friends and familiar places again though, and to be able to drive my own car when I want, where I want and above 40 mph (!) will be fantastic. As it is I’m still a bit jet-lagged so I’m going to reset my body clock tomorrow and head into town, which is about10 times bigger than Stanley, and then maybe Cheltenham, which is almost 100 times Stanley.
Pubs and real beer are going to be good, having to pay more than £3 for a 6 drink round isn’t. And yes, for the guys in London, that would have been an expensive round. If you consider that a double of Bells was 16p in the mess, more than £3 for a single is going to hurt. How much it would cost in the capitol I don’t want to think…
I had some bad days down there, not all of them hangover based. There were a couple of days when my forecasts just wouldn’t settle, some days I just wanted to be home, and some days that it felt like I was really up the arse of the world. But not many, and most of them were at the start, before I found my feet and made the friendships and acquaintances that I did.
Flying over South Georgia I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d want to be, although I could think of some people I’d want to be there with. Some of my friends back here would have really loved it down there, Tasha and Chris especially.
I definitely drank too much and didn’t do enough exercise, but I’m surprised how little I’ve actually changed. Moustache aside, of course. I’m going to get my dad to take a few pictures of my with the south Atlantic facial fuzz still attached then it’s going!
Did improve my bowling though. I’ve also learned an huge amount of new weather skills as well. After all, I’ve been working at a level above my normal work standard with minimal information so getting back to Lossie with all the kit that is normal for a met office will be a welcome change of pace.
Actually, that’s another point, we’re changing at Lossie to have a regional unit as well as the local station one; and when I get back up we’re moving back into the office on the day I go home with the regional unit stand-up two weeks later. Joy.
Oh, and Richard, thanks for the great comment, I must say that was a really lovely poetic turn of phrase. And you're right, living on a mountain would be easier but I've tried that, the wind chaffs terribly. ..

My timing SUCKS. Seriously.

This will probably be my last post from the South Atlantic (this trip...) and five days ago I was really looking forwards to coming home.
I still am, mostly, but some things have happened in the last few days to make me wish for a bit longer here.
Since my last entry I was invited to go on a capability day by the RIC (Roulement/resident Infantry Company) which was the Rifles and is now the Green Howards (Yorkshire) where they showed us what they do, where they do it and make lots of things go BANG!
It was a good chance to see the range they use, for which we forecast, but most of us haven't been there. I got a panoramic of the range (which won't be posted) and some rather decent shots of things going bang. As I'm a civvie I wasn't allowed to shoot anything but did get to play with a sniper rifle that had been made safe.


Managed a couple of trips into Stanley and the road has been refilled. The first time I drove it, I managed to hold 40 odd mph for most of the way, feeling safe all the time. Unfortunately the last time the pot holes were starting to reappear. Not as bad as before (see previous entries) but enough to make 40 unsafe for many stretches. Ahh well, had decent stereo in the L200 each time so the trip was still good.
After this I got on another flight, this time on a Hercules C-130k. Supposed to be to the South Sandwich Islands but owing to a lack of air refuelling aircraft we only went to South Georgia. "Only" of course being relative.

When I can I'll stick up more photos, or have a look at my Flickr account, the link is in the "links" section on the right.
The Herc is an interesting aircraft, it was pretty full and all of us wanted the good photos. We were flying pretty low, about 1000 ft above the water, we were all wearing immersion suits (bit like dry suits) and one side door was open, as was the top part of the rear ramp. As there were protective nets over all the open doors to get clear shots you had to bag one of the small windows or get right up to the net. One guy had positioned himself lying down to get his lens out of the side door but was not going to move. I tried to get decent pictures then move out of the way, getting blatted by the wind and bounced by the aircraft.

On the way back we were escorted in by an F3, which was pretty damn cool!

The weather forecast was pretty much spot on for the whole trip, which is very satisfying.

The big bit of news this week: a couple of weeks back a new teacher came to the school here, called Kate. We got on great and a couple of days ago hooked up. I'm going to try to get a few pictures of her to put up, if she'll let me.
Yes, that's right, I'm no longer single.
The week before I fly 8000 miles away.
Arse.
You see what I mean about my timing? We both knew the situation at the start and are both a bit bummed by it. Her tour down here is for 2 years so there's a good chance I'll be back down before she leaves but even so it's not the best. We're going to see how things turn out but for now we'll enjoy the next couple of days together.
So I've gone from really looking forward to going home to wanting more time here. I never keep it simple, do I?

Volunteer Point and two new kinds of penguin.

I went to the northeast of the Islands today, to a place called Volunteer Point. It was windy but the sun was shinning.

We saw lots more penguins, the usual Gentoos

but also Magellanic

and King penguins.

I didn't get all the pictures I wanted, half way through I made a mistake with my camera and got the shutter speed too low, resulting in camera shake. Some of the pictures I got were alright though. Well, I think so, what do you think?

One of the things that was quite funny was that people would be focused on the birds in front of them and not notice others just behind them.

Kings live for around 20 years and can dive to around 1000 ft on their 500 mile hunting trips - that's 500 miles in each direction...

They feed their young for about 18 months until their first fluffy feathers drop off and the smooth ones for swimming come in. The youngsters are the ones covered in fluffy brown feathers.

The 'guins around this time of year were just about to moult, in one case already moulting.

So then it was back to the mess for tea and toasties.

Yarrrrrr!

Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Yarrr!!

Avast Behind (but I'm try to trim it down!)


Themed at http://www.weregeek.com/ (check out the steak on a stick as well!)





I still prefer ninjas.

Oi've been drivin' in moi carrrrrrr..

Or rather, borrowed one from the hire guys on camp, specifically a Mitsubishi L200 pick-up, which I rather liked. I had a day off last week at the end of the big exercise that was on (couldn't say owt about it last week but should be okay now it's over) so I figured it would be a good time to take a bimble into Stanley. A bimble is a trip out of camp. I didn't get a picture of the "Stanley - twinned with Whitby" sign but I will in the future.

So, driving on road in the Falklands...

The road varies between fairly decent surfaced road to dirt track with stonking great potholes in it, usually spaced just right to cause the vehicle to skip across the tops, loosing all grip and making the rear of the car snake out beautifully. If there aren't any potholes, chances are you're driving on a surface mainly made of small stones that will roll under the wheels, basically doing the job of ball-barrings in detaching your grip from the road. It's fun. Honest.
The speed limit on the Islands is 25 in the town (THE town, there's only one), 40 out of town and 30 on camp. That's camp as in Mount Pleasant, not Camp, which is a term used for anywhere out of Stanley, based, we think, around the word "campo" used for the farmland/hilly areas. Still with me?

As an aside, the clocks went forwards this weekend so Stanley and Mount Pleasant are now at GMT -3 hours but Camp is still at -4 hours as they don't use daylight savings in the same way as the camp do. So in leaving Stanley, you change timezones until you reach Mount Pleasant. This means we're 4 hours behind the UK until they put their clocks back, at which time we'll only be 3 hours behind. Clear, eh?

Anyway, back to the roads. As the car I was driving (which I would love for Christmas, if any rich nutters are reading) can be changed from 2 to 4 wheel drive on the move, I got quite good at slowing before the road surface changed, sliding into 4WD and avoiding the worst of the holes. It's only 35 miles to Stanley but it took me about 80 minutes to do it, which was fast enough, thank you very much! I think the record is unofficially 36 minutes but I'd like to live to see home again. Beside, fines for speeding range from £300 to £3000 with a night in jail so keeping below the limits isn't hard, even if the limiter is a bit faulty, as it was on my wagon.

About two thirds of the way to Stanley you start to see some interesting physical features on the hill side, the famous Falkland Rock Rivers, or Rock Runs as they're also known. I say famous, certainly famous amongst geologists. They are basically what appear to be rivers of rock that flow from the tops of the hills down to the sea. Theories about them generally focus on a glacial origin followed by extensive and extreme freeze-thaw weathering that results in very sharp rocks. I'll try to get some pictures next time. I was planning to stop but I ended up concentrating so much on not dying that I missed the chance.

*edited to add* I've managed to get some pictures of the Rock Runs, I'm afraid they were snatch shots from a helicopter so not as good as they could be but I think you can make out the way the rocks do seem to flow down the hillside. Looks like it could be an interesting topic to look into in more depth.

Around the same time you start time I started to see the signs warning of the major danger in driving off road without paying enough attention. Minefields.

Left over from the conflict in '82, these mainly centre around Stanley but are possible to find all over the Islands and are the only area that solid barriers line the road. You don't often see this sort of sign around in the UK.

There are stiff penalties for entering a minefield (aside from being blown up), as there are for making a mine explode. You might well be wondering why they don't get them all cleared, well, the important areas have been cleared but the locals have said that they'd rather the money and time went to clearing mines in other countries, rather than here, where everyone knows about them and can avoid them. That's what I've heard anyway, and if it's true then good on them!

In Stanley I did some touristy shopping (soooo many penguins!) and had a lovely lunch in the Malvinas Hotel. Do visit, try the squid rings! Then went for a pootle around the town, found a signpost


which reminded me of a bit in Pratchett's Jingo. The Ankh-Morpork soldiers had erected a signpost with distances to where they lived but as they all lived in one city all the arms pointed in one direction. At least this one had bits like "Oban, the long way round" - way before Ewan and Charlie!

Then a drive home and some time spent cleaning the wagon and I was done for the day.

I like these Islands. They're a long way from home but there's a good feel to them.

On a lighter note...

I was looking through the "my documents" folder just now in preperation for the next post and I came across what could be the oddest titled file I've ever seen. The file is called "Penis trees." I'd written it when I got in one night after a conversation on the mess quiz night. The contents of the file are as follows:

There are some things that, when said, stop you from being able to say anything else. "I'm pregnant" is one of them (not, I hasten to add, something I've heard in that respect), "don't move, I've got a gun" is another. Last night the phrase was "Yeah, I've seen the penis trees!"
We (the Met and ATC guys) were at a quiz in the Sergeants' Mess, which we won, and Gemma from ATC was talking to Yvonne about driving south on the A74; Yvonne asked if Gemma had seen a certain pair of trees. Turns out that yes, Gemma had indeed seen the aforementioned interestingly shaped trees. Her fairly loud confirmation of this resounded around the bar. There wasn't much that Tom or I could say about that really, both of us were a bit dumbstruck by the announcement, although we were wondering if the fruit drooped if not plucked in time. And how would one prune a penis tree?

So there we have it. It was that sort of night...

Farewell to a good friend.

I hope to have some good news soon, but right now it's a bit sad.
Crusty (correct spelling), the much loved long serving member of the MPA Met Office, has passed away.
He had been going down hill quite rapidly in the last couple of weeks, and in the last week seemed to loose some of the use of his back legs. The guys booked him into the vet on Thursday and on Wednesday night he had a seizure.
I was on nights so found out later that he had been put to sleep at the vets, we think he was suffering from kidney failure, possibly as a result of drinking from puddles contaminated with de-icing agent.
He had been with the office for around 18 years, making him somewhere in the region of 90 years old in human terms, after being found with his brother, Boddington, huddling in the office doorway. Boddington was adopted by air traffic and Crusty adopted the office, deciding that we were his best bet for copious amounts of food and warm places to sleep.
He gained his name after the move to neuter all cats on base resulted in 20 odd cats being taken to the dog section to see the visiting vet, where a combination noise of cats screaming, dogs barking and people swearing mixed with the smell of 20 cats relieving themselves all over the people carrying them. His scab didn't exactly heal cleanly, which is why he wasn't called "Cleanly healing wound."
Over the best part of two decades he became a much loved and respected member of the office, indeed many aircrew would look to see where he was sleeping, and base their view of the weather on this, surprisingly accurate, measure. By the heaters - it'll be cold, in his hut - it'll rain, in the open begging for food - you've got food haven't you? and it'll be mainly fine.
We buried him in the old enclosure and held a short goodbye with a flypast by the F3 guys, with a wake later that day, remembering him as friends should. For me his greatest moment was greeting the new boss by peeing on his corporate logo'd laptop bag. Take that branding team!
Of his preferred sleeping spots, the light-box (which we convinced certain aircrew was a sunbed for his arthritis), the printer (above the sign "cats are not to sleep on this printer!") and the gaps around the laptop all seem too empty and we all still look for him when we return from lunch. His plaintive mews for extra food are a silence that cuts into the day and his inquisitive manner when we try to draw up our charts will be sorely missed.
Good hunting little friend, may there always be beef and tuna, and a soft warm spot in which to rest.

Sea Lion Island - now with photos!

Yesterday was another good day. I had my day off and I was off to a little island to the south of the main islands called Sea Lion Island. I'm sure you can guess what it's famous for. The family that live on the island take weather readings for us and they'd had some problems with their barometer being out of calibration so I was asked to pop in and have a look at it. No worries. So we went over in the helicopter which is the first time I can remember being in a helicopter to tell you the truth. The Island is fairly small, 5 miles by 1, and has populations of sea lions, elephant seals, penguins (at least three types), birds of prey and other birds.

I made sure that I sorted out the barometer first, it being the most important part of the trip really, then I had a wander around.

From the lodge down to the beach I passed Falklands geese

and some penguins,

(looks to me like he's going "I thank you!")

then along the beach there were more birds

and a seal of some kind playing in the surf.

Walking along I met up with some of the other guys from the heli and they pointed me towards an Elephant seal and his mate, and bugger me those things are big!

The big males (we found 2 of them) are huge, grey and mostly covered in sand, the females are covered in a soft looking brown pelt but I wasn't about to get close enough to see how it felt. Not just cause there's a minimum approach distance, or just because it they're big and strong, and not just because they do smell somewhat of fish. More a combination of these. And she looked like she didn't want to be bothered so I figured it would be better to let her be.

There were also many Turkey Vultures

and Caracaras,

as well as some smaller birds.

Some bits made me laugh, one of the guys had his family along and when they stopped a couple of birds swooped to sit near by, obviously hoping for someone to die.

Cue Ice Age quote "unattended children will be eaten!"

On the way back I sat near the penguins and after a couple of minutes they all started to come closer and closer.

Gave me some pretty good photos, although I took almost 400 shots so I should have had a couple of good 'uns.I'm going to have to go back, there's a lot of the Island left to see, and I'd recommend it to anyone that's down this neck of the woods!

P..p..p..Photo a penguin!!

I finally got off base and got to a beach where there were some penguins

Yes, I've grown a 'tash. Don't worry my fond fans, it'll go soon, but it's a tradition thing.

These are Gentoo penguins, I'm hoping to get out to another island soon to get some pictures of different types.

"It's a trap! There's three of them! RUN!!"

They are great little animals, and not the only thing we saw that day.

Don't know if you can see it but in the wave is a pod of dolphins surfing the wave on the way in.

Next time I'll have the bigger lens with me to get some better pictures but it was still a good day.