Working on a Saturday. Hmmm, feels weird. Today Doug and I upgraded phobos and deimos to *drum roll please* RedHat 9. Then we spent ages getting them to talk to each other again but we were pretty persuasive and we sorted it all out. Then we restored the data we had backed up yesterday and they stopped talking to each other again ^_^. Fred was working on the tower, trying to make the EES (external equipment shelter), which is a big box full of important thing (camera controller, shutter controller, focus motor etc.), more accessible and easy to delve into. Colin was a no-show in the morning because he was feeling crook but in the afternoon came and helped Fred with the EES.

I got snowed on for the first time today! The temperature dropped quite a bit (well it felt like it anyway) and it was cloudy and all of a sudden there was white stuff falling out of the sky and all over me and everything else. Awesome! I tried to take a photo but you can't see anything. Later on I was walking towards the sun with a fall of diamond dust (lots of small particles of ice) flowing past me - it was beautiful. I still haven't seen any sun dogs yet, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

Today's highlight though was the end of season party for the whole station. It's actually another two weeks until the summer season officially ends but things are just going to keep getting busier and busier until then as everything is prepared for winter so the party was held early. The theme was "white trash" and some people went all out - my favourite was either the girl who came covered in scrunched up bits of white paper, or the girl who came with a fake pregnant belly, a black eye (also fake), an open bottle of wine that she was swigging out of and an outfit to match. I'll let you visualise it! Colin, Doug and I didn't bring anything appropriate, but Doug did consent to having his cap turned backwards. One big surprise was Jess Dempsey, a past UNSW student who is now wintering over here working on the VIPER project, fronting up one of the bands and belting out some great tunes.

No rest for the wicked though and to take advantage of the satellites being up I headed back out to the AASTO and started downloading upgrades for the new installs and restoring some more data. And writing some diary entries!!!


- Jessie