Sunday 19 August 2007

Inaugural Blog

Hello Friends and Neighbours,

Welcome to my blog! Obviously, as a blog newbie (or "n00b", as the kids say these days), I may not get it perfect from the start, but if you bear with me, I'll get the hang of it.

The main purpose of this blog is to document my first season in the Antarctic - hence, the title. For those of you who don't know, I have just wrapped up a 3 1/2 year PhD at Cambridge. Upon finishing, I had a very tough decision between two or three exciting jobs/opportunities - but in the end, I had to go with the one that would actually pay me to ride around on a skidoo.

The current ship-out date is Oct. 20, when I will fly down to Chile. From there, I visit Rothera station briefly, before getting to my new home, Halley V. My job will be to monitor and survey the Brunt ice shelf, upon which Halley V sits. In the meantime, right outside my window, Halley VI will be built, a brand new research station whose modules look a bit like Imperial Walkers.

However, until then, I remain here in my room at Wolfson College, with much less interesting things to discuss. We are in the Cambridge doldrums here, where nobody is around, and nothing happens. I may have to start packing my things, as I will move out in a month and go back to Canadia for a bit. Stay tuned to this channel to find out how many boxes I will use, and other fascinating tidbits of information.

Actually, I do have something interesting to talk about. Very often, my criteria for a perfect pub is discussed and debated. I shall lay out these criteria in my next blog entry. I would do it now, but I need to stretch my meagre amount of comment out for a few months, before things start happening. So, there you go.

Talk to you soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ryan,
Great to hear about your upcoming adventure and we will be following it. How wonderful for you. Take care. The Lynches.

julien said...

Halley VI looks much funkier. Good choice!... please arrange a guest room for me, I want to come (just for a week-end though).
Once you're there, tell us which are you favorite pubs around as well.
Good luck, Ryan,

julien

Murphy said...

I'm gonna duff you up.



Big time.