It has been a month since the raising of the flag and my last post. With the rising of the sun and more natural light now throughout the day, the second wave of winter trips are well under way with most of us having already had our week off. There are one or two more to go, with a couple of teams out in the field at the moment.
During the last 4 weeks I have had a week of nights, followed by a week off for my winter trip. We made and submitted our film for the 48 hour film festival, then watched the films made by other bases for the competition and submitted our marks, we currently await the results.
With everything on base calming down except the weather, i thought it would be a good time to update the blog and to add the missing post of midwinter's day, which was slightly overshadowed by the wedding.
Midwinter's Day 2017
The best way to describe what midwinter's day means to the people wintering on Antarctica is to share the news story from the British Antarctic Survey's website dated 21st June 2017.
As darkness cloaks Antarctica, science and support staff wintering across the white continent will today celebrate Midwinter’s Day – the shortest day in the Austral winter. With some staff experiencing 24-hour darkness, this day represents a turning point where the return of the sun gets ever closer.
Aurora Australis looking south from Rothera Point in Antarctica (Photo by Neil Brown Rother Plumber)
In a tradition that goes back to the days of Scott and Shackleton, BAS staff at Rothera, Bird Island and King Edward Point Research Stations, will celebrate with a festive meal and exchange gifts. Prime Minister Theresa May has sent a letter congratulating BAS staff on the achievements of this year, and wishing them a happy Midwinter's Day.
A highlight which brings family and friends closer, is listening to the BBC World Service's annual Midwinter's Day Broadcast. This year's programme is presented by radio DJ Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music and will include personal greetings to everyone working at BAS's Research Stations.
The world-class Polar research carried out by BAS scientists continues throughout the year, so festivities must fit around ongoing science and maintenance tasks. Some of the fun activities this year include "Winter Olympics", breakfast in bed served by station leaders, and exchanging home-made gifts with each other.
It really felt like christmas, with the whole event starting 22 days before, with Maz and Jen taking thermal liners from 11 boots and putting stocking fillers in them and hanging them in the dining room as a bootvent calendar. We then picked a number out of a hat and whoever had number one would open that days gift and start the countdown to midwinter's day. This was slightly off putting for me as it gave a visual of how many days i had left to come up with a menu and a plan of action.
The bootvent calendar, with all gifts generously
donated by Maz and lovingly put together by both
Maz and Jen
Will takes his gift
Day 17 and Mabell opens his boot, nice penguin socks!
I was day 21, which meant only one more day to get my prep done
I got a small reading light, a pair of Star wars socks and some
sweeties. Thanks Maz
It did work, honest!
Day 22 and all gifts have been opened
With every gift opened and another day gone, more happy
midwinter messages are received from other bases on Antarctica
and the back wall gets filled.
With only hours to go before the big day, there is still a lot of
prep to be done. here steve is working on his course for
tomorrows meal.
Here, i am preparing the saddle of rabbit, which
will be the second course
Steve making noodle cakes
Ingredients for a chicken mouse, which will fill the tortellini.
The salt came from ryder bay and the cream had been used
in the Bonner lab previously for ice cream made with liquid
nitrogen. It tasted ok?
Midwinter's Day
After 3 full days of preparation and working 14 hours a day, i think i had everything done to produce a good meal, given the fact that i too had to sit down to eat. Which meant all courses needed to be at a stage ready to finish the dish in order to serve and sit. This meant a lot of running around, as not only did i have 9 courses but i also had a broken toe, which slowed me down quite a lot!
It felt good to make it to the actual day, with everything ready and organised. I didn't have to worry about breakfast, as our station leader Paul Samways had volunteered to not only cook a brunch for everyone, but he also delivered tea and coffee to the rooms of anyone that wanted a lie in. This was a bit of a treat for people and great for me, as i could take my time getting into the kitchen and actually got to sit down with the others to enjoy a cooked breakfast. It was really nice to be served poached eggs on a muffin with smoked salmon topped with hollandaise sauce, and a lovely way to start what was to be a very long day.
Paul serving Jen Doc her poached eggs
After brunch, we were told to make sure all the gifts that we had made were well wrapped without names on them and placed on the pool table in the bar. The giving of the gifts would be explained when the time came. I just about had time to wrap my winter gift in a pillowcase, place it on the pool table and get to the kitchen in order to get the bread started, the dining room set and the kitchen organised ready for the main event.
The presents all wrapped and set on the pool table
The dining room, laid and ready
Kitchen organised with food on trolleys in the order it will be served
We were to meet in the bar at around 3:00pm for a toast and the reading of a few messages and midwinter greetings, before the giving and receiving of our gifts. It would then be down to the dining room where the meal would start at approx 4:00pm.
There was plenty of time after brunch to relax and just soak up the atmosphere, I was still busy making the bread, but managed to finish with enough time to go to my room, shower and change into my suit ready for the festivities.
Here a few of the guys have time to play a board game
When it was time to meet in the bar, Paul Samways poured us all a champagne and we toasted midwinter's day. He then read a few messages, including one from the Prime Minister and explained how the giving of gifts would work. Paul would start by giving the gift he had made to the person he had made it for, who in turn would then give his gift and so on, until all gifts had been given.
Paul reading out some well wishes
The first to receive their gift was Tom (Field Guide), given by Paul
Tom with a mounted Ice pick
Tom then gave his gift to Joe (Electrician)
Joe then gave to Maz (Meteorologist)
Maz gave to Theresa (Dive Officer)
Theresa gave to Will (Vehicle Mech)
Will gave to Mabell (Genny Mech)
Mabell with his mounted ice pick with framed winterers pic
Mabell gave to Brownie (Plumber)
Brownie gave to Rio (Electrician)
Rio gave to Jen (Doctor)
Jen opening her engraved Jewellery box
Jen gave to Paul (Station Leader)
Paul admiring the view from his office window that Jen painted
Then we had to go to Blair, as Paul gave his gift first. Blair
gave to Zac (Boatman) an electric light from an old primus stove
Then Zac gave to me
Funny guy! I opened a pair of crutches to aid my walking
with my broken toe
He then gave me my proper gift
A framed and mounted collection of knots.
18 knots for 18 months
A lovely gift and very well made.
My gift was made for Denzel (Matt our Vehicle operator)
I made a clock out of salt dough, made from the
salt collected from Ryder bay. The clock has pictures instead of numbers
and had to be baked and painted. I will add a post on how i made this later.
I think he liked it?
Denz then gave to Banana Ben (Marine Biologist)
Ben made a chess set for Alan (Comms)
Alan gave to Bradders (Field Guide)
Bradders made a clock for Steve (Field Guide)
Steve gave to Zoe (Marine Assistant)
In fact Steve made a few things for Zoe, including this back pack
Zoe gave to Julie (Field Guide)
This was a framed pencil drawing of their first winter trip together
Great work by Zoe who made the frame as well. Lovely gift
Julie gave to Blair
A coffee table made from an old nansen sledge, amazing work.
Blair had already given his gift, so it was left for the last two to
swap their gifts. This was between Mucky (Plumber) and Ben K
(Electronics Engineer)
The table of winter gifts
Once all the gifts had been exchanged, we posed for the midwinter's day picture.
A lot of time and effort had gone into the making of these gifts, plus a lot of cursing, swearing and endless sleepless nights. But, some very impressive skills have come to light, with the workmanship and creativity of these presents being nothing less than amazing, and now they have been given, you can sense the relief that has been lifted from everyone standing in this picture.
With all gifts given, it was down to the dining room to start the meal. I quickly got changed into my chefs kit and started to get the first course under way.
Midwinter's Meal
This was a menu sent to me from Cambridge
showing the Midwinter's meal from
21st June 1945
Compared to mine at Rothera 2017
Preparing the butters to go on the table
Butter presented as a rose
First course was the Risotto of crab with avocado
Ice cream
The meal under way and waiting for the next course
Second course was the Saddle of Rabbit with a tarragon Tortellini
on a bed of Tomato Couscous
Third course was Tournedos of Sea Trout with Crayfish tails
Spiced Puy Lentils, Herb yoghurt and Parmesan Crisp
I then served a homemade Mango Sorbet as a palate cleanser
5th course was Steve's 5 spice Pork belly on Crisp noodle cake
with Asian Veg Salad
It was at this point in the meal where we had a break to go over to the Tower in order to listen to the Midwinter's broadcast which started at 6:00pm. We quickly cleared down while i put everything on hold and prepared for the next course, we then put on our outdoor gear, made our way through strong winds with 22 of us squeezing into the Comms Tower to listen to Cerys Matthews present the Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast. With music and special messages from home, along with greetings from sir David Attenborough, Michael Palin and Bill Bailey, it was a programme enjoyed by all and well worth listening to.
Once we were all in the Tower and comfortable we were each given another present to open, this time it was a gift from home, unbeknown to us our families had sent these during the summer, which was a lovely surprise. But the best surprise for me was the first message to be aired on the radio was from my two daughters and my grandson. I was gobsmacked!
Here is a link to the Radio programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056bgm4
To skip to the Rothera section you need to scroll to 10.20 mins, this starts with Bill Bailey sending greetings.
It was a good programme and lovely to hear voices from home, it was also a welcome break from the meal, which we had to get back to once the programme had finished.
I decided to do another little appetizer here, just to start the next part of the meal with a taster of Scallop Ceviche marinated in Lime and Lemon. This was served in an egg cup and gave me time to get the next main course on the go.
6th course Scallop Ceviche
7th course Rack of Venison with Buttered Greens and chocolate oil
8th course White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Milkshake
and Lemon Biscotti
The meal was finished nicely with a selection of lovely cheeses that i acquired from the ships during the summer and a homemade walnut bread, baked fresh that morning, this was accompanied by homemade chutney's and pickles. The Meal started at 4:00pm that afternoon and finished at 10:30pm that evening, it was nicely paced over 6 hours with an hour break for the broadcast. I think everyone enjoyed the meal after what had been a long and tiring day and while a few retired to the bar, I retired to my room for some much needed sleep.
It had been a very busy few days for me with a lot going on, but it was now my time to have a break and i had been given the rest of the week off. So with no winter present to think about and nothing happening until the Wedding, I enjoyed my time doing nothing for 4 days. Perfect!
