September 2023 was the last poor excuse for a post I could muster up! Sorry about that but at least you’ve been spared the constant whining. Downside is that you’ve missed out on the ins and outs of the past few years both good and bad.
Mostly good though.
Shit. What’s happened since September 2023, since loudly declaring to all that would listen that Id never return to Antarctica, that my last summer was the worst summer ever and I was finally done with it all and wanted to get back to life.
That little ‘real life’ experiment lasted about 7 months.
Of course I’m back in Antarctica (freakin hypocrite that I am), sciencetech’ing and wintering over (this time for a short 9 month season) foregoing the usual stressful summer season madness for a more sedate run through the long night (heh, wanker ) into whats becoming early retirement and part time participation in ‘the real world’.
It’s currently 5th July 2024 and I’m doing quite well thank you very much. This kinda thing is getting easier now and have a rock solid routine (healthy mind, vitamins, supplements plus exercise intermixed with bursts of loud swearing and stomping of feet) to keep me sane. Winter only seasons are absolutely the way to go.
Fuck Summer, with its hordes of super keen scientists and ridiculously positive new people and stress and relentless blinding sunshine. Give me the cool embrace of 6 month night with endless starry skies and 12 people I can escape from at a moments notice. Mmmm. Love it.
It’s been a good season so far. Getting all the work done easily, the crew is small and quiet (12 peeps), everyones just getting stuff done then doing their own thing. Zero assholes. Zero drunks. It’s MAGNIFICENT.
McMurdo has undergone massive changes to the culture over the past few seasons – bars have closed, standards raised, alcohol reined in, assholes ejected. Not everyones happy about it, and its a bit ‘ho-hum’ compared to previous debauched seasons, but it’s definitely a welcome breath of fresh air by all account.
Scott Base, never one to have an original idea, has carbon copied elements USAP and the AAD policy in a relatively feeble last minute attempt to stay out of the spotlight, their hand being largely forced by the scrutiny USAP has been under lately. It’s not a terrible thing as New Zealand has its fair share of assholes that cause trouble for the rest of us. Not this year though, at least so far.
Antarctica New Zealand has bigger headaches with their fancy new pie in the sky Base being effectively cancelled, having their half billion dollar piggy bank taken away (not before wasting 102 million dollars on a science fiction project thats now pretty much cancelled mind) and told to go away and have a good hard think about the future of the Scott Base while they try to put together yet another Project Management Team (after most of the last team resigned in thinly disguised disgrace and scuttled away) and yet another Expert Consultative Group and Special Steering Committee to shoehorn Uncle Alberts Building Company and Aunty Minnies Consultancy access to the public money trough so they can snort down their share of the hundreds of millions left on offer.
None lose their jobs. Executive renew their contracts. Smirk and lie and pat themselves on the back as they obfuscate and distract and redact at every turn, polishing their precious golden turd until theres nothing left to polish. Right up til that last second when they pivot. Everyone else involved pulls the ripcord if they can, well in advance of the announcements and resigns before the shit hits the fan. Slink away. Move on. $102 million (probably more) of public money gone. Mismanagement? Nah, It was the Pandemic. It was Inflation. It was Antarctica. It’s redacted. Aww well. What a shame. Next please.
Grrr.
Anyway not my circus, not my monkeys – enormously frustrating though watching this organisation lurch from one clusterfuck to another with a new stream of incompetents, nepo-employees and mates of mates rolling through in a steady flow with zero apparent accountability or oversight. Makes for good chitty chat around the morning tea table here though as we speculate how much more taxpayer money ANTNZ will burn before getting this Base rebuild finally done. 2028 is the date they plan to ‘turn the key’ and whether that key is to a new Base or to a jail cell remains to be seen.
Personally, it would seem that I’ve pretty much moved to New Zealand. The last of my personal gear was shipped across in 2023 and I’ve been doing some part time IT work and hopping around Housesitting gigs in Christchurch between seasons. Not terribly stable but have managed to salvage the semblance of a normal life at least in the down time. Found a girl, bought a car. Normal shit. Still homeless and wandering but managing to keep things moving forward somehow.
No travel though, and I miss that terribly. Maybe this year, back to Thailand for some dental work and Instanbul for another look around that part of the world. Who knows. I cant plan more than 2 weeks ahead at the best of times so best not try to look ahead too far.
Anyone want a visitor?
maybe more later…
Man Down! 