Saturday, August 30, 2008

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.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

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!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

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.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Queen of the skies

Had a couple of days off last week and managed to get up for a flight. Well, I say "managed," I got back to find a note shoved under my door that the aircrew had called us up and asked if we had anyone that would want to go flying so it wasn't me at all...

Anyway, we went up in a VC-10


and flew around for a bit, refuelling a couple of Tornado F3s

then playing "target" for them, (yes the nav is waving)
before we went around the Islands at fairly low level

and did a pass over Stanley and a few practice landings at MPA.
During this time, we (Yvonne, myself and a few others from the camp) had the chance to sit in the jump seat of the cockpit for one of the touch-and-go landings.

(I can't remember but I think in the two pictures to the right the crew are going "What's that?" "What?" "Up there?" "Oh crap, I dunno!"
That's where they touch down then power on and take off again. Smoother than most other aircraft I've been on, and more power as well, but then the idea of the VC-10 was "let's take an airliner and strap on four fighter engines!"


Managed to get a picture of the base and, 0ddly enough, in this image, I CAN see my house (well room) from here!

Didn't get any pictures from the seat cause I was too busy enjoying myself! Maybe next time.

Cats

As promised, here is the cat.


He's called Krusty, has a lack of green wig (sorry Rich, I'll look for one for him while I'm down here!) and he's 17 apparently.
He's also a bit of a shoulder cat....


It's really nice having a work cat, although he does tend to walk across the keyboard at the worst possible time and if you've got any food he's a real pain in the arse!
Some of the aircrew that come in for briefings look to see where Krusty is sleeping before they ask us anything - if he's in his box it'll be wet, if he's on the radiator it'll be cold and if he's being attentive and meowing you've probably got food.