Met Training

Well, it's sure been a busy week.

Straight in at the deepend, I met my new colleagues (comrades...?) in the bar on Sunday night, and aided by a few beverages we soon clicked. They're a good bunch: Matt and Rob, going to Rothera station; Tamsin, to be working with me on Halley, and Cathy, former Halley winterer, now running the training for BAS.

We've spent the week at a nearby Met Office base, learning how to observe and report the weather. 80% of this is easy - reading instruments and doing a few sums. The remaining 20% requires a good eye and an artistics sense of judgement. There maybe only ten different cloud types, but a lot of them really like sitting on the boundaries!

After work we've been pretty busy with swimming in the sea, pub meals and a healthy ammount of 'bonding refreshment'. Tomorrow we're off to the RAF base near Newquay, taking in a spot of surfing en-route. This approach to business and pleasure suits me just fine.