An update from the arctic. Things have slowed down here adventure wise. What with MATlab and GUISDAP computer analysis all day long we havent had much time to go out. We also had a huge report to hand it.

Bjorndalen BBQ- For Margarete's birthday we went to Bjorndalen cabin again. Malibu is now completely broken, so my only method of transport was by sitting on a sledge attached to Dayle's scooter. It was shit scary but such good fun! My bum was very numb afterward.
We had an awesome BBQ. James found a random hole outside and decided to turn it into a chair. Two hours later two very cute and angry artic foxes came around wondering why his ars was in thier house! The were so fun and we played with them throwing snowballs to them. I think they just wanted thier hole back but they seems freindly enough.
On the journey back the sledge linkage broke, I was maybe too fat for it. The scooter kept on going, the sledge dug into the snow and I went flying 3 meters and found myself confused crumpled over my rucksack in the middle of the scooter track! Luckily it was just at the beguinning of town so I could walk back from there.

This weekend we went out for a nice pizza and a few drinks. A few turned into many as it always does and I eventually got home at 6am. Its so freaky, its light 24/7. You look outside and think its only 5pm, when its really 2am, my sleep patarn is completely screwed!

Last night Ben and Ruth (who are Jewish) calibrated a massive Passover feast. Yes its late but they just got the food sent from their parents. It was really nice to be invited and be a part of it. We didn't do the whole 6 hour ceremony we did the shortened version but we still had the bitter herbs in tears, unleven bread with horseradding for suffering, a lamb (paper mache) and lots more symbolic things. They sang the traditional sonds in hebrew and then provided a really wonderful meal. Afterwards we tried the traditional 100% proof plum brandy. My god that was good stuff, but resulted in another lost night though. Pics will follow.
Unfortunately my camera is completely broken so none will be mine and they will be harder to get hold of.

Easter Holidays

The holidays started with a lovely trip to Templefjord. We dropped a group of friends going on a 6 days skiing trip. The weather was lovely and the drive nice and brisk. The view in templefjord was beautiful when we got there. Unfortunately hundreds of tourists had scared of any polarbears around. There was a ship in the ice, the one they dragged in in January and destroyed all the sea ice for!
A great day out.

Snowboarding. I went snowboarding many times during the break. A few times just practicing where the kids learn to ski, and once in Fardalen, a huge slope you need to drive up with a scooter after. I taught Michie and Dayle how to snowboard, it was so funny, see the video!

Malibu broke down though, there isnt enough vlotage going to one of the cylinders, we got it working but its a tad crippled and its top speed seems limited to 60kmph, looks like templefjord was too much for it :-(

Easter day we bought loads of kinder eggs. As well as that we had a HUGE brunch where everyone contributed something, in the end we had enough that it couldnt fit on two tables and we ate untill bursting and still had loads left.
After brunch I went with a bunch of skiiers up larsbreen to snowboard. BIG MISTAKE, they went up the glacier with ease which I was sprinting through thick snow killing myself to stand up. At the top I lost a screw from my bindings and so my feet were loose. I had no control, I was shattered and so basically fell face first all the way down the icy glacier, I wanted to die, but I didnt.

Unfortunately lectures have started again. Moan is back, I like him, he can teach well. We are also leanring MatLAB which is useful so we can analyse ourselves the data we got at EISCAT.

This week has been great!

26/03/09 - My snowboard arrived, it looks pretty and is nice and shiny. I cant wait to take it out. Unfortunately the weather is too bad to do it today.

27/03/09 - Dayle and I have successfully rebuilt Malibu's engine again! And once again is alive!
Unfortunately on its maiden voyage the weather was so bad. There were huge drifts of snow which meant you couldn't see more than 2 meters in front of you. At one point Dayle suddenly stopped, I didn't so much and I bumped into the back of Dayle's scooter shattering the hood. DAMN!!!!
After 3 more hours of frantically gluing and tension strips we reconstructed the hood, all cosmetic, no structural damage, it just looks like Malibu has a broken nose now, Dayle isn't happy with me.

28/03/09 - Tested out m snowboard. It works fine, I just realised my boots are huge and only just fit in the bindings, I need to adjust them to fit into them properly. There is so much snow the board just digs in about 40cm and when you fall over snow goes everywhere, but its fun.

30/03-02/04/09 - We are doing experiments at the massive EISCAT radar facility this week. We have complete control of both the 32m and 42m dishes. We can control the directions and spin the 32m disk wherever we want. We can choose the pulse codes, duration, power output, everything. The facility and computer systems to control them are colossal, you can see where all our scientific funding goes here, and it's all in our hands, mew ha ha ha! The facility used up to 35% of the whole power output of the island!
It is extremely interesting you can see detailed structures of the ionosphere. After running our first experiment for 5 hours we have to go out to the static 42 dish and spend an hour shoveling snow from it, yes there was a lot and yes it really can effect the sensitivity of the experiments.

AVALANCHE, there was a big avalanche right between town and our barracks! Scary. Jenifer was at the bottom on the road when it happened and had to run screaming out of the way. Luckily no one was caught in it. It completely covered the road. The next day the police chief blow up the remaining cornises on the top of the peaks to stop more, but with little success. Now is probibly not the time to metion that a local died last week in an avalanche across the fjord on a scotter trip, the town was in mourning for a good few days.

We went on a small scooter trip to warm Malibu back into action across the bay. There is a small settlement jokingly called "Advent City". The view of the sun was beautiful and we found an old sail boat half burried in the ice.

Michie and I went on a snowboard session today. It was pretty much his first time. We went to where the school kids learn to ski. It was such good fun. I managed a whole run switching from side to side without falling over! Michie and I felt very happy with ourselves afterward a good session.
So we went out and had the most awesome Pizza in the world.