UK Training
Met training in Cambourne
Climbing masts in Taunton
Abseiling in Derbyshire
First aid in Derriford
Fire training

The Voyage South
Crossing to America
Montevideo
The Falklands
Sub- Antarctic Islands
The Brunt Iceshelf

Halley Research Station
Living on an ice shelf
Summer
Winter
Recording the weather
Holidays

Once the snow is melted it's pumped up to the platforms but it's still rationed to stop overuse. We have no baths - instead we have showers and you have to turn the water on, wet yourself, turn the water off, soap up, rinse yourself and that's it - 30secs of water max! When I first arrived on base Paul explained this procedure to me he warned me not to take what he called "hollywood showers", a long luxurious shower.

Clothes washing is only done on the day that you are down to do gash (base house-work). I only got around to washing some of my outdoor clothes once a year and they started to smell very unpleasently of Avtur fuel and paraffin.

Food
When the ship arrives in December it brings all the food for the year. The "freshies" get eaten first before they go mouldy - although the wise chef cooks and freezes popular items. The onions and oranges lasted into the start of winter but by then we were mainly on frozen food and tins. Once the frozen food and tins were used up we moved onto dried food. Staples included; powdered milk, dried onion, dried meat and dried cabbage. Canned potatoes were yukky and through an ordering mix-up we had enough weetabix to last 50 years.

The best bit of the whole Antarctic food experience was the vast amount of chocolate that arrives on base and needs eating. When I was out camping last year I ate a 50g bar of dairy milk chocolate every day!