Happy Birthday, Dad - 09 May to 15 May

Today marks the 56th anniversary of my father's birth, so happy birthday Dad, have a great day. In a strange coincidence, my team is the 56th since the establishment of a weather station here on Gough, people were here, building the station when my father was born, interesting no?

The Moon at dawn

To follow on from last weeks post, I have emailed several people with whom I was planning on doing a PhD this year, to ask about doing a PhD with them next year. I have promised not to leave suddenly for an island and hopefully they will believe me! There are a wide variety of possibilities open to me, including the possibility of doing a PhD partly in South Africa and partly in Australia or even wholly in Australia. In fact the choices are so wide and varied that it will make it difficult to choose just one. I have even been offered the chance of of staying for another year on Gough but I don't think that I would do that, the appeal of home is far too strong. I have been away from friends and family for five months now and with only four months remaining the idea of making the four months into sixteen is crazy!

Work-wise this week has been fairly quiet, just completing the finishing touches to the moorhen cages and erecting the large aviary. Somehow, the minor last minute things have taken longer than it took to build the cages themselves. It always seems to happen that way, just when you think that you are done, you realize that there are still just a few things that need doing and before you know it, three days have passed and you are seemingly no further. They are complete and the large aviary that Graham and Kalinka built last year has been re-erected so now all that remains is to "furnish" the cages with branches, plants, soil, shelters and feeders and they will be ready for their occupants.

The "battery chicken" moorhen cages.  Each cage is divided into two sections which will each house a single moorhen for a total of eight moohens.

I think that this island life, living in such close proximity with so few other people would make for the most fascinating sociology study. It is difficult because the moment that one person is annoyed with another, everyone knows about it and is affected by it. Avoidance is impossible without being noticeable. If the team was larger, like on Marion where there are around twenty people, I think that it would be a lot easier because it would be less obvious that you are angry or avoiding someone else. It is still better than SANAE however, where the team is eight people and they spend around five months cooped up indoors without being able to go outside and without seeing the sun. Now that, that would be difficult!

The large 5x2x2m aviary which will house eight moorhens communally.

I should mention that the crew of the boat that exploded were taken off Tristan and arrived at Simonstown on Wednesday. They were taken to hospital in Cape Town and happily, all are expected to make a full recovery.

I apologize for the overdose of sunrise/sunset photos this week but almost all sunrises and sunsets here are so spectacular that they deserve to be immortalized.

Have a wonderful week.