Midwinter Celebrations

Previously I have described a regular week for life on BI in the winter months. But at the end of June we had a special week of celebrations for midwinter! Whilst we do celebrate Christmas and new years down south they come at a time when our field work is much more intense. However, midwinter arrives when most of our work is in the lab or office so we can take a bit more time to enjoy the holidays.

The distinguished 'gentleman's' club out in full force for the holidays.

Throughout the week there were various celebrations, from doing our fieldwork dressed like some of the first scientists to come south to days spent watching films or doing craft works and games on base. We began the week with an indoor beach party and ended with a pub crawl where each person decorated a different room of the base to look like a different type of pub.

What's a beach party without some frisbee.

Throughout the weeks 'holiday' we still had to complete our fieldwork which meant checking the wanal chicks, counting pintails and looking for leopard seals. Each one of these was done by taking it turns and more often than not carrying out the surveys together and taking the time to enjoy the season.

Looking for leps just outside base with pastries and a mug of 'tea'.

One of the highlights of the week was our midwinter games. We have to get quite creative down here when conjuring up different things to do and so we held the inaugural curling championships. Devising ways to make the 'stones' (coloured ice blocks) was fun and the ice in the bay outside of base made the perfect rink to slide them on.

The Olympians arrive at the stage.

The curling 'stones' (coloured ice and pan lids) worked very well!

Besides curling we also took part in welly-wanging and bodger throwing, whilst between events we decided to make full use of the ice and see how many different ways we could slide around and propel ourselves across the ice!

Getting traction on ice was interesting for the throwing events.

Ice, ice baby!

Of course the main celebration was midwinter's day itself. The day kicked off with the traditional breakfast prepared by the station leader, so Lucy made an amazing meal for us all to wake up to.

Breakfast time.

It wouldn't be a celebration without a special drink!

After we all tidied away the day was spent preparing for the dinner itself. With Lucy doing starters, Ian and I preparing the mains and James on desserts we were all busy in the kitchen for large parts of the day, working together to put together a meal to remember. By the time all the food was prepared and ready for the oven it was getting close to the evening and so we all got ready.

The whole team looking great!

We usually eat at around 8pm but on this occasion there was so much to prepare and eat that we actually started at a more standard 6pm. The food was absolutely amazing and everyone certainly felt full afterwards! In fact the leftovers lasted us the next few days as well!

An amazing midwinter meal.

Between courses we also continued the midwinter tradition of presents! Each year the wintering team draw names from a hat to see who we will be making a gift for. Then we take it in turns in the workshop to create some brilliant projects that we can then give on the day. As it happens this year Ian and James drew each other whilst Lucy and I exchanged gifts.

Opening our presents.

The quality was very high and we were all very much excited and thrilled to get and give our gifts. It was great to see people have similar ideas as well in the end as James and Ian exchanged boxes with BI motifs whilst Lucy and I gave each other bird themed wall mounted gifts. I was very happy that Lucy really liked her wanal coat rack whilst my pingu barometer, wanal thermometer and BI clock set is absolutely amazing!

Birders are always happy with bird gifts, especially when they are this awesome!

After the meal we all sat down to listen to the midwinter broadcast. A BBC worldwide radio show that gave special mention to the teams working in Antarctica and played our specific song requests. ELO's Mr. Blue Sky was our ironic choice!

Listening to the radio broadcast.

Of course, after the meal, presents and radio show the evening didn't end there. After starting off the evening so smart we ended up dancing for about 5 hours and fully enjoying our main day of celebrations down south.

And we started the evening looking so smart!

Even our teddies - Polar and Bear - enjoyed midwinter!

After a day of celebrating midwinter and a week of events and games - and of course continuing fieldwork - it was time to get back to full-time work. For me this meant a lot of labwork and a lot of report writing. But that doesn't mean the craziness of BI stopped. A week after midwinter we were introduced to our alter egos! Captain Yorkshire, SuperSpud, The Poker and Mothman and Robin (Hood) are now here to protect BI and all its wildlife!

Isolated on an Antarctic island for 7 months with no other people around, we aren't going crazy! Honest! How could we go crazy with these intrepid super heroes here to look after us all!