The food was, as always, fantastic. The cooking staff prepared numerous turkeys, mashed potatoes, various pies, all the normal-type stuff. It was fantastic. As shown in the picture, we had wine stewards, pie stewards, even whipped cream stewards. If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you can even see the treat brought to me by one of the stewards: A Diet Coke! This was the first carbonated beverage I've had since leaving the states. It was of New Zealand origin, so it tasted slightly different, but it was still great. (Pay no attention to the date-stamp from my camera.)
What made the whole evening even better was the company. While all of us would prefer to spend the holidays with our immediate family, we found great comfort being with our South Pole family. People that were complete strangers 4-6 weeks ago, are now almost like family. It was a great environment to be with such good friends. After dinner, the music and partying started. After checking out the dancing in the galley, I wandered out to the Summer Camp Lounge where the music was really cranking. I'm not much of a dancer, so I left after a short stay. Shortly after I got back into the station, a fire alarm was sounded (it was about 2am). The voice of the alarm stated the fire was at the Summer Camp! I quickly began to put on my fire fighting gear. About the time I was reaching for my coat, the intercom told us all to stand-down. So I put my stuff away. 5 minutes later, another alarm! This time I was almost to my SCBA (Air tank system) before we were told to stand-down. So I put my stuff away. I went into the hallway and found Ethan our Fire Team leader. We were having a discussion when...you guessed it, another alarm. I was just reaching for my helmet when we were told to stand-down. Later, the rumor was that some people were wrestling where the party was and hit the alarm. Who knows. It was good practice for getting the gear on and off.
So, after a refreshing two days off (I slept like a rock for those days) it was time to go back to work. Our Heavy Vehicle Maintenance shop is missing a guy, so my shop has been asked to do some preventive maintenance on some generators which are away from the station. These are 6-cylinder Caterpillars housed in shipping containers. The small environment helps keep the room warm while we're working. Some of these units even have heaters in them. I have been so comfortable, that I have taken-off my jacket. The work is pretty easy; mostly changing oil and various filters. My partner Anthony, who used to work for a Caterpillar dealer, has been checking the valve clearances. This task is nearly identical to the same job on a Volkswagen. It's even easier than when I did the valves on my Triumph America motorcycle.
So, we're back to it. We get another 2-day weekend around Christmas.
