How cool? Ice Cold!

In every sense of the word, the information and interactions on the following link are 'cool'!!

Summer On Ice

So just a short post today - go check it out. It follows a few of the scientists who worked in the Antarctic over summer. Scott Base is now all set up for the winter season and I for one am looking forward to IceFest this year, which celebrates the opening of the new Antarctic Summer season and the first flight down since the beginning of March! For more info on that, check out this link:

NZ IceFest 2014

And an antartic picture to honour all this icey goodness

An upright icicle outside Scott Base, Ross Island in Antarctica, 2008

One Year To The Day

Just last week on the 7th March 2014 it was exactly one year to the day since I last stood in Svalbard.

The day after, 8th March 2014, I was a guest at my first wedding at Otamatea Marae (my ancestral marae, I have relatives buried in the cemetery!).

The wedding was excellent, good food, some dancing, and plenty of wonderful stories and traditions. But after being out under the hot, burny sun for an afternoon - which I enjoyed, dont get me wrong, my jandal tanline is under improvement - I was reminded of this time last year, when the sun that I had seen definitely had not felt at all warm, but was welcome none the less.

I spent something like 72 days without seeing the sun. It made me realise that our bodies are certainly linked in some way to sunrises and sunsets, the circadian rhythm running through our lives. But I dont want this post to be too reflective... Despite the sunshine reflecting off the ocean just outside, the cicadas singing their hearts out, and the smell of warm soil and plants growing...

This is going to be the story about my trip to see the sun return. I have blogged about this earlier (see Trip to See the Sun Shine)

To see the sun return in Svalbard, it requires hiking up a mountain, Trollstein (so named due to the large rock sitting atop it, kind of like a troll) on a particular day in February. I was to ski up, on borrowed cross country skis. Now, I was certainly still a beginner skier. I still am. It doesnt come naturally to me at all (Perhaps because my ancestors all kept their feet firmly planted either on the ground or deck of their wakas/ships).

The top of the mountain is in sight, with foggy cloud approaching...

But I made it most of the way, on my skis, without falling over. I took them off when I was close to the top as they started sliding backwards, and I didnt want to be skiing backwards down this mountainside!! Remember, I can barely ski forwards...

Taking them off and walking the last bit was great. Most of the town were also heading up the mountain to see the sun peek over the distant horizon and it was quite a communal occasion. At the top however, it was cold. Bitterly cold, that seeped through my gloves and I had to keep jumping about to keep warm! Further, it was cloudy.

That should have been a bit of a let down, getting to the top and seeing nought but clouds, but it wasnt. I had climbed a mountain (mostly in skis), which is certainly an achievement. And walking down, seeing the moody grey colour of the fjord surrounded by white snow, that was certainly something.

The view down Longyeardalen on the way back to town

This story doesnt have such a happy ending, no skiing off into the sunset or anything like that. I ended up incredibly sick with the flu, two days after, and spent my final two weeks either in bed, or trying to write my PhD.

However, it has meant that on a day such as this, with the sun beating down and vitamin D coursing through my veins, my PhD written and submitted, no skis in sight, I feel invincible!!

As for Writing Boot Camp though.... Eep I fell off the wagon! Ah well, better climb back on...

Being Concise

Lesson #3. Be concise. Make every word tell. Make your point well and once. Then Shut Up.

Okay, writing boot camp is getting hard. I would say I have ‘hit the wall’ like they do in marathons, but its only my third day so I cant have hit the wall. Yet. I want to write about that feeling at a later date, so cannot have it too soon! Today the lesson is about being concise. The first draft of this piece was not very concise. The second draft was a bit better. The third going over though, that really narrowed it down. However it meant that I had to write MUCH more than the 250/250 words each time! 

This task was quite difficult. One: I am very chatty, and no one can tell me to be quiet while I type (Actually I often get told to not hit the key board so hard. Cant they see I am furiously trying to concisely share my points!!). Two: I am not sure what point I am trying to get across.

And this is not ideal when trying to be concise.

Is there a better way to write that I wonder…

This is not ideal when being concise.

There, that took it from ten words to seven! Right now, I am not convinced that this post is going to meet the Lesson #3 objective however, as I am yet to come round to making a good point. How about this: Sometimes, writing is hard.

You write what you read - Boot Camp Day 2

Lesson #2 of writing boot camp states that "You become a better writer by reading. You become a better reader by writing" (http://ajjuliani.com/10-lessons-improve-your-writing/).

I was once told that what you read tells something about yourself. If anyone was to check through my library lending history they would be confused as to what was going on! Since handing in my thesis, I have been gorging on books. Books of all sorts! Particularly books on how to grow gardens, improve soil structure, companion planting, and no-dig gardens. But not only that - fantasy fiction. I am endeavouring to catch up on the latest popular stories, Game of Thrones, Divergent, and so on.

I find a real joy in reading. During my thesis I was very much not in the habit of reading though - all my efforts went into reading published scientific papers about flower colour, plant reproduction and floral pigments. But since handing in, there is this real freedom to read whatever I want! I have been reading classics (Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence at the moment), various romance novels, fictional novels and lastly, cook books.

Oh how I love to read cook books!! The current cook book is "The Art of French Cooking" by Ginette Mathiot. And looking at the pictures, dreaming about making my very own brioche and petit fours is enough to entertain me for an entire afternoon! I was surprised actually, as the techniques that are explained in the beginning of the book are reasonably straight forward - French cooking so far seems to be just a series of steps, like all other cooking. And the end result looks so beautiful! (in the pictures of course, I havent tried any of the recipes yet). Next on the pile is 'A Taste of Persia'.

Im not sure how reading cook books will impact positively (or otherwise) upon my writing style. I do enjoy them regardless, and anyway, all reading must have some beneficial effects. Even if it shows what 'not to do'. Right?? Classic novels must be part of a good reading diet, however and the local library has a section of them so you know what they are.

Thinking of Classics, I found my copy of Wuthering Heights yesterday when I was unpacking some books. I have read it many times, but I enjoy it every time I turn the page! Something about the tortured love between Catherine and Heathcliff, out on the moors of old England... The Bronte sisters are excellent for moody, pained love that inspires thoughts of grey-purple, brooding romances. Love it. Lady Chatterly's Lover was quite different, likely due to being composed during quite a different time in societal history. I am definitely a fan of romance, but it took some time to understand what was meant by 'pressing up against each other till they reached a crisis'. Perhaps due to my upbringing in a different time of history and language, I read 'crisis' as something going quite wrong...


Now, boot camp states that I should be writing 250 words morning and evening, every day for ten days. I wonder if writing 500 words all at once is considered good form, or cheating the habit...