Home Sweet Home

After almost two weeks since I stepped foot on Antarctica I've finally moved myself into the room I'll spend the rest of the year in (unless I get restless). I considered the layout, how much foot traffic would be passing, proximity to bathrooms, the view, wind noise, number of neighbours, and many other criteria.... then threw it all in the too hard basket and picked a room with a fuzzy green owl in it. The furniture is kind of modular; there are railings on the walls to hang cork boards of shelves from, and a lot of the floor stuff is on wheels. As there are only 14 of us living here over winter, and there are almost 40 rooms, we have enough space for each person to have one bedroom and one spare room for storage. That state that you actually receive your room in is entirely dependent on the good will of the departing tenant - some rooms were left spic and span, while others show more signs of being lived in: I discovered pens and tools in desks, the odd tissue box and moisturizer stashed in low drawers, bunny ears and a green grassy owl (which I've pilfered) in my explorations.

We are a bit lucky this year and got a shipment of new fancy-pants king-single mattresses, but the AAD neglected to consider that the bed frames are only for a normal single. I've elected to use the new mattress anyway, and at the moment it is just sitting on the runners. It may end up with a bit of droopage once the year is out, but that is a risk that I'll just have to take.
Here is my room:

And my storage room:

Clearly my time away so far hasn't impacted my natural neat-freak-streak ;) truthfully, I am just not fully settled yet. There are many more interesting things to be done, and I have little patience for unpacking or tidying when there are penguins outside.

We may as well also take a quick photo tour of the upstairs living area while you are visiting:

A Mawson plaque and portrait greet you as you climb the stairs

Here is the view I relax to

and the music I relax with.

It's home, it's Mawson

and Mawson likes a beer. 

One of the last sled dogs guards the dog room

which is basically a local museum.

Public libraries are an amazing resource if you want more info :)

The cinema is not pictured because it was in use while I had the camera out, but I'm sure you can imagine a dark room with a projector and lots of comfy chairs :)

Since we're on the subject of living arrangements, I may as well introduce you to the people I'm spending the next 12 months with. 

The crew from left to right, back row then front row:

• Charlie (and the chocolate factory...)- a plumber
• Your loving author, aka Pleb, aka minion- the Met Tech
• Linc aka Scrat aka BigDog aka Bossman- the Met Snr Observer
• John Leben- our intrepid station leader
• Peter L- Building supervisor, chippy, and second in charge on station
• Kim- the Kitchen Magician
• Trev- comms wizard and brewmaster
• Dr "Cut-it-off" Kate
• Rob aka Angry the dieso
• Paul- the dieso-in-charge
• Robbie the sparky, aka Roby Barker, Roby Wan
• Peter, also a sparky, aka The Count or PLC
• Ev, plumber number two, aka Goffy or "that Kiwi"

Our Field Training Officer, JB, is not shown because he got impatient and kayaked down south solo so he could meet us here. 

All told so far we are quite a happy bunch of misfits. Between us we cover veganism, vegetarianism, pescetarianism, kiwi-ism, exhibitionism, altruism, and probably most other -ism's you care to invent. I'm sure we're going to discover a couple more over the coming year.

Here's a sample of more fun photos

As a closing statement for this post, I would just like to mention that the Ministry of Clouds has finally advertised positions for next season. The Met tech and junior observer jobs are open to non- public service applicants, so if you're interested in getting paid to visit a colder, dryer, windier, more awesome place and have a technical or science-y (weather preferred) background have a look at the ads here.