Sun Up, getting plastered, Action Film Party

Having said that I would have more time on my hands (this is technically true as I spend no time on my feet) and that I would update the blog, it appears that I have roughly the same amount of time free to do things. I now spend half my time at the Piggott platform (my work is there) and half the time on the laws (where I live). Every morning a couple of people get man-hauling harnesses on. I hop down the stairs and get dragged to work in a pulk sledge. There is a lot to do. I was supposed to be going out to setup an instrument about 15km away at Precious Bay but now I am not going. So I have to prepare everything and instructions how to do this for my replacement, Chris. Its all going well but its still a rush.

Before I was allowed to leave the platform I had to first get my first 'backslab' replaced by a proper cast. The backslap cast allows the limb to swell up which it does over the first few days. After this a proper cast is better as it will support the leg better.

Richard the Doc cuts off the backslap cast with the assistance of Nurse Dave.


Richard measures out a thin tubigrip sleave which is all the padding needed in a full cast. The backslab has loads of cotton wool padding.



Removing the backslab and supporting the leg. This is actually very tiring as the leg is surprisingly heavy.



The swollen ankle.


Nurse Dave points to the place where the bone is broken, whilst Richard gives my leg the last wash it is likely to have for 6 weeks.


Arrgh! The Pain. It wasn't painful at all just cold and wet.

We had this great idea to try to get the cast to be a bright orange (for those who know it we wanted the ventile orange of our windies and overalls). The plan was to mix in some yellow and red food colouring into the water used for the plaster of paris. Unfortunately the plaster didn't take to the colouring as well as Richards hands. Also when it dried it turned into a pink cast which was the one thing I was trying to avoid.



A job well done, what a lovely pink cast. Richards butcher hands tell their own tell.


Having plastered the leg fully there was a period of cleaning before the taking some more x-rays to check whether the bones were in the correct position. A load of these photos were taken by Dean the comms manager.


Setting the x-ray machine. I think Richard is becoming quite an x-pert.


Left alone while the x-ray is being taken.

Richard finishing off developing the x-rays.

The x-rays were a success and I will put them up as soon as possible. I have had another set since then and I will put them up as well to show my progress.

One of the other big things that has happened is that the sun reappeared. This was predicted to happen on or around the 11th of August. Last year it was seen 3 days early due to miraging during an early penguin trip. This year it arrived on the 10th at lunch time. In our sweepstake Tamsin guessed the correct time.

A contingent of sun worshipers went to prostrate themselves and offer thanks that the great eye in the sky has returned. I took these from the north window of the laws where I was waiting for my cast to dry.

The sun's disk pokes up above the northern horizon.

About half an hour later we all gathered for the sun-up ceremony where the youngest member of the base raises a new flag.

This year the youngest member is Jim the Chippie. In a typically Jim show he first pulled the flag up up-side-down and then the flag nearly blew away.

Jim fights the new flag.

The Flag the right way up finally and in the right position. Its not going to last long and in a few months will have been tattered by the wind.

Jim and his flag.

We had a nice cocktail night to celebrate the sun returning (we had this the day before the sun returned). We then had a BBQ on sun-up day which was nice. I only spent a few minutes outside as I hadn't worked out how to keep myself warm outside with a broken leg.

On the saturday we had Kirsty's birthday party. She decided that the theme would be action film characters. So everyone dressed up mainly as action heros.

Mark the electrician as Col. Jack O'Neill stargate command.

Alex as the Dread Pirate Roberts (not Zorro) and me as the Ugly one in The good the bad and the Ugly.

Dean an Richard decided to show me sympathy for breaking my leg and got plastered as well. Dean was 'Jules' Bond, an injured bond, and Richard was an injured stunt man.

The whole crew.

We also played some games including the cardboard box game. You have to pick up a cardboard box with your teeth and only your feet on the ground. The height of the box becomes less and less. Richard above showed an interesting by flawed method.

Pete the RAF man claps as Neil (Jack Sparrow) shows how flexible he is.

Ant the monkey man was very very flexible and used a number of methods.

Andy the generator mech was also great at this.

Tamsin (the Power Ranger) watches as Dean looks serious.

Kirsty the Birthday girl demonstrates how to be a tomb raider.

The party was great. This weekend we have a pub crawl where I will be dragged around which should be fun. I will hopefully have an x-ray update soon as well.