"Long hair minimizes the need for barbers; socks can be done without; one leather jacket solves the coat problem for many years; suspenders are superfluous" -- Albert Einstein

I thought I should give my thanks to my good friends and ex-colleagues at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Cambridge who chipped in and got me the means to get this lovely jacket and environmentally friendly wind-up torch/radio. I did have to put an extra 73p to it though!

Preparations are ongoing. Essential winter survival kit has been packed (deoderant, DVDs, books, and nice comfy jumpers), vaccinations have been organised (I may be ill very soon), and teeth have been pulled (am sat here in pain as I type this!)

This next week sees the start of the pre-deployment training period, where I will be busy at conferences, first aid courses, field training and a large amount of cloud gazing.

The picture hanging on the wall is of my grand parents, by the way. Olive Blanche and John Preston.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" -- Confusion.

I started this blog with the intention of keeping friends and family up to date with the amazing adventures that I will have while employed down in the Antarctic. Unfortunately, the start of that trip is still a couple of months away, and yet the blog page I set up has been itching to be written on. So I'll explain all about the training I am undergoing in the various disciplines that I'll be working in.

My role will apparently be an even split between engineering and meteorology. Now the engineering side of things is OK -- I've been doing similar work since I started my apprenticeship 11 years ago. I'm comfortable with taking things apart, replacing stuff and putting them back together with copious amounts of sellotape, and hoping that they still work. Now the meteorology is completely new to me. Not only that, but they tell me that the observations I will make will be used in forecasts for the Met Office and also used to assess flying conditions for pilots flying near the base. And I had trouble saying "meteorology" a few weeks back. Still do actually. Hence, "met".

I've been attending quite a few talks by various BAS people over the past weeks, and it quickly becomes apparent a) how little I know, and b) how lucky I am to have access to the knowledge of these people.

My favourite new word is "palaeoclimatology".

A talk by Dr Martin Jarvis whetted my taste for Middle and Upper Atmospheric Physics. For example, some of the research being carried out at BAS (and so by the experiments at Rothera which I will be looking after) are heightening the understanding of how the Earth's climate can only be fully understood by considering the entire atmospheric system such as how totally separate layers in the atmosphere interact with each other, and even further afield, how the sun interacts with the atmosphere via the solar wind.

Exciting stuff for a geek like me.