Sunny days in the sea ice

The internet appears to have suddenly become super fast, so I am just going to crack on with the blogging before it returns to its usual, painfully slow, pace.  In the last few days I have taken somewhere in the region of 700 photos.  This makes it extremely tricky to decide which ones to put up here and is also causing me a massive editing headache.  We appear to have pleased the weather gods in some extraordinary way, and the last few days have been indescribably spectacular.  In view of this I will again keep the twittering to a minimum and just share some of the many pictures taken.

The day spent at Vernadsky (now run by the Ukrainians, but previously a British base called Faraday) was easily one of the best of the trip so far.  As can be seen below, the scenery was terribly nice, the Ukranians extremely friendly and welcoming (the home brew vodka would almost certainly cause permanent blindness if drunk in sufficient quantities) and the penguins delightful as always.  I'm not sure what I've done in a previous life to deserve all this, but it must have been something pretty epic!





It's possible I've got a bit carried away with the fish-eye lens recently



Penguins on icebergs - happy days!



Taken at about 1.30 am - as close as it gets to sunset here

Other than taking an obscene amount of pictures, I have continued to laminate anything I can get my hands on.  Now that I'm vaguely trusted in the engine room, the sign making possibilities are seemingly endless, and there is a reasonable chance I will use up the entire ship’s supply of laminating envelopes before I’m done. 

In other news, the rowing machine has sadly lost its attraction for me in recent weeks.  However, in view of the slight jaffa cake issue I have going on at the moment, exercise is basically mandatory.  An alternative had to be found and I have now moved from the gym to a cargo hold and started circuit classes for one.  As can be seen from the picture below, this isn’t exactly a luxury exercising facility, but the wooden crates being stored there give off a rather pleasant woody aroma so it's not all bad.  I have also managed to procure a pair of boxing gloves so I can punch the bag to my heart’s content and found a polystyrene box so I can reach the pull-up bar - what more could a girl possibly want?