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Published: January 22nd 2007
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The Special Stone
Unvailing of the rock with our building in the background This week has been absolutely mental in all respects of the word out here on the lovely Island of Adelaide. As I mentioned in a few of my previous updates, HRH The Princess Royal, or Annie to me now, arrived for 3 days of fun and games around the peninsular along with her husband Admiral Lawrence and a few other VVIPs including the Director of British Antarctic Survey, Prof Chris Rapley. Annie also brought along her personal security guard to ward off unwarranted Adele Penguins or Leopard Seal attacks while she underwent her stroll around the peninsular.
As ever, the Morrison’s team here carried on, regardless of the fact the entourage where passing by the worksite on another jolly, just as someone screamed “Oh for f***s sake!!!” as another job went a bit tits up. Welcome to the real Antarctica! Luckily we worked like ants and managed to get the whole of the South side roofing panels into position before Her Madge had the chance to unveil the “Special Stone”, with a plaque dedicated to her visit along with a time capsule which is going to be buried under the building containing numerous random items to be opened up in 100
Great Buns!!
Bit of an ice queen though if you know what i mean!!! years time. Don’t think I will be about for that one though.
The morning smoko (tea break) brought about a general hand-shaking session with the VIPs, with a lovely buffet lunch on the table with the Princess following around and having some general chitchat with all us ruffians. In all honesty she totally exceeded all our expectations and came across as a very nice old girl. Down to earth and willing to chat about most things (I never even mentioned Zara) she made her way around the group asking about backgrounds and years worked etc etc.
In the evening a very posh meal was organised with all the Vips along with most of the officers from the ship. I was fortunate enough to be sat on the table with the Captain of the HMS Endurance as well as the personal protection officer for Annie. For some reason though they sat me directly in front of Annies table, yet made sure my back faced her so I couldn’t cause too many offences. Oh well, next time. The man with the bulge ended up being an absolute scream, eating dinner and swapping dodgy tales with the skipper of Endurance. Had the rest
of us in stitches all night. The meal was washed down with good wine supplied from the ship for those special occasions, along with Gin and Tonics in the bar afterwards, complete with ice from one of the local glaciers, possibly thousands of years old. A night to remember for sure.
The following day brought about the start of the “British Winter Olympics” which was taking place up on Vals slope about 2K away from base. Due to my dodgy knee and the fact I still couldn’t take part in any of the events, I chose to be DES for the day, ferrying loads of crazy sailors and Royal Marines up to the site on the back of sledges towed behind the Skidoos. Up on the slopes we had all kinds going on, with ice sculpture, snowball launch, downhill and slalom ski/snowboarding, home made sledge runs and random snowball fights to keep the crowds entertained for the afternoon. Annie paid us all a fleeting visit when dropped off by the Navy’s Lynx helicopter, which landed not 10 meters from where I was sat chatting about our teams fabulous naked lady snow sculpture. For some reason the Princess went straight past
Bond.....Brooke Bond.
Guns at the ready for protecting the Princess our naked lady and started talking about the next work of art, a dodgy ship being painted red with food colouring. Obviously not a big fan of modern art.
Anyway, a great day was had by all and it hasn’t even finished yet. The evening brought about a BBQ on board HMSE and the chance to get drunk and dance once more as the ships band had the evening to show off to a different crowd. Now this brought about an unbelievable chance meeting once more as the band walked out to be introduced. Turns out the lead singer is only the regular singer down in my local boozer 10000 miles away in sunny Gosport. What are the chances of that???? Anyway, after the end of the evenings activities everyone said their goodbyes as the ship was gearing up to leave first thing in the morning, taking the Princess further North to check out some more British bases up the way, or, extend her little jolly before she heads back to what sounds like a pretty miserable winter in the UK.
Now, along with all the fun and games with Annie, we also had the pleasure of an ITN
The Royal Throne
Waiting to be christened by HRH team here, sending the first ever live link from Antarctica in a week longs special for the news back home. Lawrence McGintee and Mark Austin were here with their cameramen, wandering around on all kinds of jollies, while beaming back to you, the viewers, about how much destruction is being caused by global warming. The word on the street was that these were all very well taken back home, with my mate Bernard the drunken boatman being interviewed on the telly and then being followed on afters with an interview with Tony Blair!!
Ok, that’s about it for this week, im sure the rest of my updates wont drag on so much now the base is settling back down to its normal pace. I hope all is well wherever you may be and if you are in the UK, I hope the storms are easing off and you get to see a bit of sunshine before I next report back.
P.s. don’t be shy about saying hello and leaving a little message either on here or any of my other little web logs I have. While my knee is recovering I don’t get to go out and play so much
Zoom Zoom
Checking out the hardwear hence all the long updates!! www.eonsworld.piczo.com / www.myspace.com/pompeyeon
Laters!!!
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Lucy R
non-member comment
hahaha
i like your art, dude! Gosport gets EVERYWHERE man, PO12 forever!! Take care, loving the blog