fruchtzwerg's world

home

2012-01-29T20:30:00.003Z

home is here:

and if you look closely, you can even see my flat.

i had to leave this place once, i might have to leave again, but i will be back.

long distance relationship joys

2012-01-22T23:17:00.002Z

solar storm + satellite phone = lots of frustration. and northern lights.

tough choice

2012-01-06T21:43:00.003Z

thoughts while cutting some bread for dinner:
ooooh, how i miss german bread! full of seeds and yumminess!
but at least norwegian bread is quite decent.
and in germany, i couldn't lie in the snow and watch the northern lights dancing over the sky!
(can you guess what i've been doing this evening??)

so, here's the choice:

incredibly good bread in all sorts of varieties, and throw in some amazing breakfast rolls for good measure, but a boring night sky

or

decent (but not great) bread and the view of northern lights outside your window

i think i know what i go for.

(if you want to see the awesomeness of the northern lights up here, check out hanneke's blog!)

happy new year

2012-01-01T14:44:00.004Z

finally, finally, fit enough again to get out on the water, i used the good weather yesterday for a short new year's eve paddle in the beautiful mørketid's light:

unfortunately, a kayak is not a very stable platform for photos in low light conditions...

the evening was spent most pleasurably with raclette and watching quite impressive fireworks - seems like norwegians are more enthusiastic about blowing up stuff with bangs and sparks than germans!

and then the joy of poor satellite phone connections, while it's great to be able to speak at all to a person camped somewhere on an antarctic ice shelf at the moment, it's incredibly frustrating if the conversations consists mainly of broken up signal. oh well.

the chattiest cat i know and some other news

2011-12-29T13:16:00.005Z

time to bring in a cat to this blog! may a present: the cat from upstairs:

i'm looking after him while my landlords are on xmas vacation. i swear it's the most talkative cat ever! he's meowing or making some sort of sound most of the time. probably telling me off for not spending more time with him or not feeding him more...

meanwhile, the snow has come back (yay), the cold from hell still resides in my chest and makes my ribs hurt pretty badly (urgh), and shovelling snow is no fun when having to think through every movement to minimise the pain. also, while i'm cuddling the cat, my bf is busy in that far away place called antarctica and you can follow the project's progress here:
http://icerises.blogspot.com/
and of course follow them on facebook if you're on there as well. if you're a teacher and have interested students, you can also send them emails and questions directly to the ice shelf.

enough of a break, back to the snow! i need to free the car...

2011-12-25T17:28:00.000Z

gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights

2011-12-18T20:23:00.005Z

"Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. ... gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights." - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speech at the United Nations human rights programs headquarters earlier this month, in honour of the International Human Rights Day.

i'm in awe, i would not have expected such a clear message on gay rights from the US Secretary of State. my respect, and i applaud to a speech that is well worth listening to or reading through the transcript.

absolutely gorgeous

2011-12-01T21:16:00.000Z

dagdraumar from Allan Wilson on Vimeo.

and even more on that conference...

2011-11-23T22:38:00.002Z

i got away from the talks with the impression that i'm hopelessly behind - i'm not on twitter, hardly use facebook, blog only here and very very occasionally for work, don't have a linkedin account or on any other professional network like it, i'm so 20th century.
just saw that one of the keynote speakers, somebody with a rather huge online presence, twittered about my talk. and got replies from other twitterers. and new information. a good thing, i guess, but still, do we really have to shout out to the interwebs and anybody who could remotely be interested aka bothered to read what we're doing and thinking every second??? is that really valuable outreach and science dissemination?

more conference snippets...

2011-11-23T11:00:00.002Z

i'm the only female speaker. WHAT??? and it's not a hardcore science conference in a STEM field where one could, maybe, potentially, sort of expect something like that, it's about publishing of research. wow.

gotta love it

2011-11-22T12:59:00.004Z

am at a conference at the moment, at the northernmost university. listening to an excellent talk, in case you stumble over his name listed for a talk, go and listen: cameron neylon.

but i digress, the fun bit: even the vice-chancellor of this university is on facebook while listening...

fram strait 2011

2011-10-22T23:14:00.004+01:00

some impressions from the last cruise to fram strait:

and more photos as usual on flickr.

back on land - the signs

2011-09-18T11:49:00.003+01:00

moored up on thursday during breakfast and since then:

- 2 glasses of fresh milk as soon as the food delivery made it to the ship

- 1 interview with the local paper

- 1 long walk with friend and some rain

- cinnamon bun and a damn good hot chocolate

- people watching with friend

- 1 new jacket, bought under the bad influence of said friend

- FRESH VEG!!!

- two pubs and an almost falling asleep fruchtzwerg

- a damn early morning to bring friend to the airport

- 1 meeting

- too much time in the office

- too many emails to read

- too much rain

- dinner with friends

- sleep in

- sort out some kit

- paddle!!!

- run :)

- more rain...

updates about cruise and trips will follow shortly.

i'm embracing the winter...

2011-08-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

... and turned the heating on. hmpf.

and in just over 24 hours, i'm heading north again, back to this:

and this:

better go and find hat, gloves and down jacket...

summer, where art thou?

2011-08-09T19:48:00.006+01:00

3 posts ago, i admitted that it's finally summer. a month on, i think autumn has arrived..... in between, i've been on summer holidays, yay! and there even has been a day when not only did i paddle without a cag, but even in short sleeves:

more often, it looked like this though:

or even like this:

and the forecast kept saying partly cloudy.....

nevertheless, the holidays were great! we started in kalle, a super popular climbing spot on lofoten and used the sunshine on our first day for some climbing. unfortunately, the super keen climbing friend who wanted to join us couldn't come and it started raining, so the rest of the holidays was spent paddling! some really great spots like:

kjerkfjorden near reine on the westernmost of the three big islands of lofoten,

the southern tip of the island sneaking past the famous maelstrom, the biggest tiderace up here (we saw 7 sea eagles in 2 minutes from our campsite that night, wow!),

paddling with orcas in øksfjorden thanks to the guiding expertise of jann from lofoten kajakk,

and trollfjorden with hurtigruten (check out the last pic, can you see mr d?? look closely! yep, that's how huge these walls are!).

after a bit over a week on lofoten, we started travelling back north again via vesterålen. if you're in the area, make sure you stop in nyksund, fantastic place!! a former fishing village that has been abandoned over 30 years ago and is now being claimed back by an alternative community.

and then senja, this amazing and underrated island. well, underrated by those who don't know it, and to be honest, one almost wishes that it stays this unknown gem so that it does not get run over by tourists like many places on lofoten.

the first time i have been on senja was 4 years ago and purely land-based. last time, in june, i managed a tiny little bit of paddling in ersfjorden. but the one fjord i really wanted to paddle was mefjorden, which is flanked to the north by those incredible mountains that basically form a wall along the entire fjord. and so we started at the bottom of the neighbouring fjord, paddled towards the headland, camped, and went around into mefjorden the next day. lovely swell, wind and waves kept us entertained until we were well inside the fjord... but then, for a little while at least, the clouds lifted and let us enjoy the full view!

a great paddle and a nice taster for a trip around the entire island :)

less strenuous and less dramatic was the last paddle of the holidays: nice and gentle around sommarøy and hillesøya, camp fire on the beach in the evening, perfect end!

oh, and the first night in the van!! which was a good call because it started raining and raining and raining again sometime in the early morning....... as if the weather was trying to chase me back into the office!

the paddle wagon :)

respect

2011-08-01T20:38:00.004+01:00

Ondskap kan drepe et menneske, men aldri beseire et folk. - Jens Stoltenberg in his speech in Oslo, 25 July 2010.

the reactions of the norwegian people and their leaders, both political, royal and others, deserve our deepest respect. again and again, i am impressed by the speeches of the prime minister stoltenberg, crown prince haakon and others following the terror attacks. if you understand norwegian, listen to them or read them, if you don't find somebody to translate them for you.

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/smk/aktuelt/taler_og_artikler/statsministeren/statsminister_jens_stoltenberg/2011/tale-ved-statsminister-jens-stoltenberg-.html?id=651789

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/smk/aktuelt/taler_og_artikler/statsministeren/statsminister_jens_stoltenberg/2011/statsminister-jens-stoltenbergs-tale-pa-.html?id=651840

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/smk/aktuelt/taler_og_artikler/statsministeren/statsminister_jens_stoltenberg/2011/statsministerens-tale-til-minnemarkering.html?id=651931

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/smk/aktuelt/taler_og_artikler/statsministeren/statsminister_jens_stoltenberg/2011/jens-stoltenbergs-tale-i-central-jamaat-.html?id=651933

http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/smk/aktuelt/taler_og_artikler/statsministeren/statsminister_jens_stoltenberg/2011/tale1.html?id=651974

http://www.kongehuset.no/c27817/tale/vis.html?tid=92966&strukt_tid=27817

http://www.kongehuset.no/c27008/tale/vis.html?tid=92854&strukt_tid=27008

and many more: http://www.h-avis.no/nyheter/her-finner-du-alle-de-fine-talene-1.6385985

norway can be proud of its people and its leaders.

ja, vi elsker

2011-07-30T10:11:00.002+01:00

ja, vi elsker dette landet - yes, we love this country. this first line of norway's national anthem has been in my head since hearing the news of the terror attacks on the 22. july, the date no norwegian will forget.

on that day, we had been out on senja, norway's 2nd largest island, and paddled from øyfjorden into mefjorden and all the way down to mefjordbotn, through some interesting swell and waves around the headland, with visits of otters and sea eagles, and then along this fantastic row of mountains rising straight from the fjord. mefjordbotn greeted us with a nice beach to land, unfortunately on somebody's private ground. however, because this was norway, we could just land, get ourselves and our gear sorted, before i walked back to where we started the trip the day before to fetch the van. on the way to the van was a tunnel and i hoped to get a lift to avoid having to walk through this rather badly lit hole in the mountain. however, what i found at the entrance to the tunnel was yet another sign of what makes this country: a postbox of the type nearly everybody here has for their mail, filled with high visibility vests to put on while walking or cycling through the tunnel, with the request to just leave it in the box on the other side. practical, responsible, trusting the people who would use this- typical norwegian. i did get a lift in the end, a car pulled up as i was entering the dark.
on the return to mefjordbotn, a short chat with the house and beach owner (a fit 70+ year old man) about paddling, his experience of germany (6 months in kiel), and the norwegian abilities of my fellow paddler (same as the english of this guy - none), and we were welcome to drive the van to the beach to load the boats the gear there.
the night before, we ended up in this beautiful bay in øyfjorden, that on the map looked like the perfect camping spot, in reality was a swamp or meter high grass though. searching for a place for our tent that was in a reasonable distance from the two houses (one of which looked very deserted) was difficult. as we were walking back from what we thought should work, the guy from the other house appeared and showed us the place he thought would be best - right in front of their windows! for those who don't know about the norwegian allemannsretten, you are basically allowed to camp everywhere, as along as you stay at least 150m away from houses. we were well within those 150m and spoiling the fjord view, but he insisted that we put our tent there.

there are many more stories like this, like the chat with the paddlers we met at the ferry, paddling with jann on lofoten, getting ready for our first overnight paddle of the holiday in the middle of a village. and there are all the details from daily life that reflect the practical approach that is so typical of this country, the security and safety one feels here (lack of a spare house key? well, just don't lock the door...), admittedly also things that drive me crazy (det ordner seg...). all these make this country and its people so loveable, they make me want to live here, and they make me so angry and sad at the attacks.

so far, the reactions have been incredible. they reflect the norwegian spirit, with its strong belief in this country, in the traditions, the openness, the faith, the confidence in each individual and the society, and the considered and thoughtful approach to crises. i hope norway manages to get through this without losing what makes it so unique. ja, vi elsker dette landet - and nobody should be able to destroy this spirit.

holidays!

2011-07-09T08:21:00.003+01:00

i'm back from the high north and it's time that even i admit that it's summer (even in northern norway)... so for once a photo not showing only snow and ice but also some green!

i'm off on holidays, cross your fingers for some decent climbing weather!

sobering

2011-07-05T09:42:00.003+01:00

this morning came a reminder of the inherent dangers of heli work:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article4164810.ece
i'm glad that my friends at airlift are safely on Lance or at home.
my heart goes out to the families and friends of the crash victims.

rest for mind & soul

2011-07-03T17:01:00.003+01:00

i've been back on svalbard for about two weeks now, and have one week left before holidays slightly further south but still above the arctic circle.

it seems like i spend more time up here than in tromso this spring and summer. this latest trip north is more welcome than ever as it provides an opportunity to rest my mind and soul, solve some of my private problems, and work in peace and quiet away from the office at home. i start feeling more like a (sort of) local and less like a visitor (not a tourist!!), and i just wish i wouldn't have to leave again in 6 days. some good conversations and time with the person who turned my world upside down last autumn seem to have helped to get back some inner peace, let's hope it lasts.

i'm currently reorganising my photos (new camera = running out of storage space for the photos!) and hopefully there'll soon be some from the spring campaigns and the various trips on svalbard online.

sunshine

2011-06-09T22:44:00.002+01:00

ok folks, today is definitely a better day, i finally, FINALLY got a van (yay, mountains and fjords, here i come!), the sun was shining and is supposed to shine throughout the weekend (fingers crossed), and i was out on the water. distraction helps. and so do your emails, thank you all!
just need a cure for too much thinking when trying to sleep now.

break(down?)

2011-06-08T20:12:00.002+01:00

everything is better after a decent workout. right? RIGHT???
i've been home for exactly a week before i hit the road again (well, the air and the railway tracks really) and spent a week in germany for some data work. now i'm back and have a break of not quite two weeks before the next trip. if people think that i might be running away from something because i can't stay in one place for long - they might actually be right. now that there is some space for rest, at home on my couch, or in the night when trying to sleep, i feel like i'm falling apart. my brain wanders off on some thoughts i'd rather not think about, thoughts that just make me want to run away and hide in some dark corner.
and i'm so sick of not having somebody around the corner who really knows me, knows what's been going on in my life over the last 31 years (10 would do as well), where i could just show up and get a hug.

reality hit hard

2011-05-23T19:26:00.004+01:00

ok, i'm back. i'll admit it and stop hiding. and by back i mean not only back on land but back south. still above the arctic circle, thanks goodness, but... instead of this:

or this:

i now have plus 10 degrees and rain. fair enough, there are some flowers around, but still. could somebody please tell me why i shouldn't be depressed?

a more positive post about the past two months will come once i've recovered...

the sea ice is calling

2011-04-03T08:43:00.003+01:00

we're off again to fieldwork, back to the north of svalbard (or as far as we get depending on the ice conditions). i'll be back in a few weeks, hopefully with plenty of new photos of ice, people, and polar bears!

spring!!

2011-04-02T17:24:00.005+01:00

after the snow storm, it snowed nicely and slowly for a couple of days bringing lots and lots of powder and the longing to go out skiing... obviously, being not exactly experienced and not the best of skiers, i played things safe and only went on off-pistey trips a) when i could see further than 5 meters and b) where the slope was no steeper than 25 degrees. the first outing was on the weekend with a couple of friends, with snowfall, wind, and low vis (i.e. 10 meters... J ) ...

a few more of this sort of trips and i can happily go skiing blindfolded! the powder was well worth it!

then, monday, suddenly, spring came to the north with fantastic sunshine and superb, stable conditions. and i was stuck in the office with cruise preparations.... luckily, a couple of postdocs convinced me to join them and their friends for a morning tour on tuesday (aim to be back in the office for lunch :) ).

stupidly early on tuesday, they picked me up, i hoped my boss wasn't looking out of his window (i live in the flat underneath), and we drove over to kvaløya and to the start point of the trip up gråtinden. got to the top at around 10:30 i think. well, not quite to the top, the last bit is a rather narrow ridge and since the snow was still pretty fresh and hadn't stabilised, we decided not to do the final, potentially avalanche risky bit. so back to the first summit, nice food and tea break in the sun (felt properly warm!) and then .... down!!! through awesome powder!!! what a morning :) we didn't make it back in time for lunch though, got stuck in a queue due to a traffic accident for 3/4 hour. nevermind...

and, this is norway: back in the office, the bosses and colleagues happily chatted about skiing trips and totally agreed with our choice of priorities ;)

spring??

2011-04-01T09:52:00.002+01:00

as posted before, the weather has been, uhm, unsettled for a few weeks. a week ago, during a phone conference, folks were all over the moon about the superb spring weather in the UK and in Germany, while we had a snow storm. this is what the house looked like the day after:

and in the following few days, tons of new snow came - fantastic for skiing, a bitch for the car: digging it out or clearing the driveway before and after every trip!

very unusual

2011-03-22T16:42:00.004Z

just realised that i forgot one very very important (to me...) detail about the ringvassøya trip: pretty much throughout the entire weekend, in the middle of all the snow and cold and wind and cold hut and all, i had WARM FEET!!! might seem trivial, but those who know me, also know that it's not. it's more like a miracle. a super uber miracle.

i achieved it to a great part by investing in the warmest non-hardshell but still standard non-polar super extra design touring boots evah, they cost a fortune but they rule! ha!

i wish i had found the equivalent set of gloves yet...

reminder to myself - better winter times on ringvassøya

2011-03-21T17:09:00.006Z

i'm lost between linux and windows 7, serial and ethernet ports, ctd components and sea ice equipment, packing lists and pro formas, +5 degrees and rain and sleet and snow. totally lost with the serial to ethernet and talking to instruments issue and not making any progress. for days already. £)($(&@^£*$^&£($%*)@(*£_$*$(%^*$&^%)@£(!!!!!

so, to remind myself of better times, some crappy photos of a weekend trip to ringvassøya. mr d and i tried out our lovely shiny new fjellskis and went from simavika to ringvassbu, a nice hut in the middle of nowhere on an island just north of tromsø. the good camera stayed at home, no space in my backpack*... and having the proper camera would have slowed me down even more ;)

it tooks us a fair amount of time to cover the 10k to the hut. i blame the new skis and the chatting... the weather was quite nice, overcast and pretty flat light, but at least stable and not too windy. we arrived at the hut when it just started to get dark. and by the time the hut was warm and dinner was ready, it was blowing a gale outside... which only grew stronger till we went to bed and i think both of us were wondering what to do if the wind didn't stop the next day... it was interesting enough to make my way to the outhouse, i certainly had no wish at all to attempt the ski back to the car in complete whiteout and storm! luckily, it calmed down and in the morning, everything was calm again and covered in a new layer of snow.

on the way back, the joy over the downhill skiing got the better of us and we overshot... so back up a hill and across to join the path back to the car again. which meant that we were again on the skis for quite a while, but got some extra downhill practise :)

it was an absolutely beautiful trip with nobody else around once we left the dog walkers area. gorgeous hills, looking forward to explore them on fat skis and on foot in the summer!

*and i admit, i forgot the small camera and the only left was then the one on my ipod... how bad is that...

i hate cold hands

2011-03-07T19:25:00.003Z

blue fingernails because i've been sitting in my (warm) office and working at the computer, wearing long sleeve thermals that nicely go over the wrists with holes for the thumbs. seriously, what am i supposed to do??*
and my wrists and fingers are hurting for days already now because they're constantly cold.
i'm just fed up with having to take care of them all the time, having cold aches because i have to strip the skins of the skis or because we stop for lunch. or because the walk from my flat to the start of the skiing tracks doesn't keep them warm enough although i'm already wearing warmer gloves than i need for the skiing after the walk.
started wondering today if it got worse over the past years. hm. and am scouting every shop at the moment for new & better glove solutions, fieldwork is coming up. might have to add to my collection of a dozen pairs for the arctic...

* wrist warmers sometimes help, but even with them i usually end up with sweaty but cold hands.

better (winter) times

2011-03-02T17:47:00.003Z

it's rainy, windy, and miserable outside, all the snow is getting washed away in this week of horribly warm temperatures (+5!). time to post photos from a better day, a nice winter outing that involved a mountain with pretty views, sunshine & powder, and me falling a lot on the way down...

boah ey!

2011-03-01T22:36:00.002Z

even after having spent four years in an english speaking country and having spoken more english than german for over 6 years now, there are some expressions that just fit better in german. "boah ey" is one of them. it pretty much sums up my feelings about the bloody paper at the moment: relief, being sick of it, a tiny bit of pride but also knowing that it's gonna be torn apart by my co-authors, being just glad that the most difficult step is taken - i have a complete draft!

now it can stand in the corner for a day, then spell checking, checking that i haven't written only complete and utter nonsense, and then off for comments.

things i realised once again while working on this manuscript: i just can't deal with ms word, that program so totally puts me off working on a document! everything started getting better again once i transferred the manuscript back into latex and could work in my favourite text editor again: vi :)
also, i need people's comments. as before, i feel that the text is not great (or rather rubbish), but i'm just useless at editing without the input from others. even if the input tells me to start all over again.
and did i mention that i hate writing? my aversion to making phone calls is still worse, but boy, it's not helping!

anyways, time to go to bed. cos the other thing that reconfirmed itself: writing just works better in the evening...

northern life style

2011-02-23T08:20:00.004Z

the first 15 minutes in the office today were spent checking emails, news, and .... watching a guy clearing a porch roof of almost 2 m nicely packed snow. bet he's warm now.

p.s. and it just started snowing again :)

this made my monday morning

2011-02-21T08:32:00.002Z

from the journal of are you fucking kidding.

gotta love the winter!

2011-02-19T18:41:00.003Z

just back from a topptur (i.e. walk up a mountain with skins on your skis, have a food stop at or near the top, and ski down and enjoy yourself :) ) but before i post anything i have to catch up with last weekend's trip!

four of us went to lyngen for a nice weekend in the jaegervasshytta, a hut of the local hiking club. very cosy hut, incredible landscape all around, and one of my friend brought her three dogs. finally an opportunity for some skiing with a dog!

we had brilliant weather with lots and lots of sunshine, but it was also freeeeeezing cold! a quick trip a couple of hundred meters up the hill behind the hut while the oven in the hut got warm, and some flat skiing with fat skies kept me warm while moving. i definitely need another pair of skis though, no chance of keeping up with the others on their fjellskis except for when i had the help of the dog :)

papers, what a pain...

2011-01-29T22:11:00.003Z

it's about 1 1/2 years since i first submitted my thesis, 1 1/4 years since the defense, 10 months since finishing the corrections, and guess what, i'm still working on the big thesis paper. 'still' is probably a bit misleading though: i opened the document today and saw that i haven't modified it since july. since the day before graduation in fact. wow!! (i have looked at it though, i have a printed copy and it's full of scribbles and thoughts etc.) i spent considerable time thinking about it, shame that that is not visible in words and well-phrased sentences and paragraphs in the document. why is writing so horrible?!?

for excuses, i have an expedition, two cruises, a new job and a move to a different country, unbloggable issues, and well, it's paper writing, that's explanation enough for any delay...

also, in the meantime, plans for three (!!) manuscripts have started developing (plus one that would be really cool to write, about stuff i do beside my real job and totally not natural sciences :) ). i really have to get my ass into gear and JUST WRITE!

update

2011-01-27T22:13:00.001Z

internet! at home! yay!!!!

not that that helps when the time at home is mostly spent sleeping...

the curse of too many options

2011-01-25T17:17:00.003Z

last friday morning, it rained and rained and rained and i thought: great! i can happily enjoy the film festival, meet friends for dinner, and spend the rest of the weekend at home catching up with reading, writing, and be lazy. maybe go for a run. friday evening, the rain had turned into snow and the problems started: i should go skiing, i should make use of the snow, reading and writing can wait!

so off i went, skiing on saturday, watching films saturday and sunday, meeting friends for dinner, spending a bit more time outside enjoying the snow. reading and writing had to wait.

now it's tuesday, i overslept today thanks to too much activity last weekend and trying to catch up with a few things yesterday. i really really really would like to go telemarking but it's too late again, wonder if i even will make it onto the lysløype or if it's just gonna be a run. but tomorrow, tomorrow, i have to get out on the telemarks. because thursday it's gonna rain again. and anyways, thursday is kayaking day, right? at least i said i'd like to join the trip. oh, and not to forget climbing, i have to get fit again, don't last five minutes on the wall at the moment, that's just wrong! ah, but the writing needs to get done at some point. and my data work is just starting to get really interesting, i could easily spend the night on plotting and calculating and analysing stuff. and there's this conference in town this week, i should go to some of the talks. and hang on, weren't there about ten thousand other things i wanted to check out?????

there's just too much to do here, the days are way too short, and i should make up my mind and set some priorities...

update in bullet points

2011-01-20T14:28:00.005Z

powder in france :)

- the sun is back! finally, a bit of sunshine reached my office, first time since november!

- christmas vacations were great, two weeks of solid skiing. only work done in that time: reading nature and the first chapter of the turbulent ocean.

- the pre-christmas time was hectic, the post-christmas time is just as busy, but finally, finally, i'm spending the majority of my work time on data analysis and this stuff called science, yay!!!!!

- however, fieldwork planning season is in full swing, figuring out who is going where, which instruments are needed, which instruments have to be built and tested first, where are we going to do what anyways, and so on and so on.

- speaking of data: remember that i spent ages working on adcp data collection and processing etc? seems like i'm back at it... this time for my own work though, progress!!

- i'll miss the best part of the skiing season here due to fieldwork, but i started to make up for that by going skiing during the week. after work. i love this place...

cycling silk

2011-01-07T15:12:00.003Z

wow, i have posted ONCE in december?!? sorry for this lack of activity on here. as a feeble excuse: it was super busy in real life.

until i manage to put together a decent post, here's some advertisement for my friend kate: she's left today from canada to istanbul to cycle the silk road and explore transboundary conservation. she's awesome, her past expeditions were awesome, i'm sure this one will be awesome, so follow her:

http://www.cyclingsilk.com/blog/

and if you have some money spare, consider sponsoring her.

Happy Antarctica Day

2010-12-01T09:11:00.000Z

http://www.apecs.is/antarctica-day

random bullet points...

2010-11-25T08:54:00.005Z

(... because my camera is again at home when there's a moment i'd like to capture for the blog. and i don't have time for a proper post.)

there's a decent amount of snow up here and my brand new track skis got used for the first time on monday: skiing under northern lights!!
it's mørketid (= "dark time") now, which means that the next time i'll see the sun is on the trip to germany in a couple of weeks.
instead of sunlight, we get super long dawn and dusk with awesome colours. right now, the moon shines through a thin stripes of bright pink clouds above the mountains to the south - what a view when sitting in the office working on big, annoying documents!
understanding a meeting held in norwegian where details of certifications and aviation rules and regulations are discussed is waaaaay easier than following a seminar on improving communication held in nynorsk.
yesterday morning, i was greeted by a dead bird in my office - tonight, i'm gonna watch 9 others eating said bird. i'll stick to the green beans. happy thanksgiving!

summer on svalbard

2010-11-19T16:06:00.004Z

so, summer. seems like ages ago, but really, it's only been a few months...

this past summer i was extremely lucky to spend a month paddling and leading up on svalbard.

we went out with 20 youths from all sorts of backgrounds from the UK and introduced them to camping, sea paddling, mountaineering, scientific fieldwork living in the arctic, working as a team, challenging yourself, all things that belong to a proper expedition. this time i was also fortunate in that i had support by two other science leaders and could spend more time helping mr d with the overall organisation and simply enjoying ourselves.

our basecamp was in adolfbukta, looking out to nordenskjølbreen. what a life, with such a view in such an environment!

more photos are on flickr and I'll keep adding them. apologies for not writing a decent report on what we've been up to, but there's too much. like paddling in brash ice, getting drinking water from icebergs, paddling surrounded by fulmars and puffins and seals, making bread and donuts on campfires, endless tales around the fire, bear watches, analyses sand samples on the beach, visiting ghost towns, beach olympics, and so on and so on. if you want to hear more about the trip, come over and visit!

running under the northern lights

2010-11-04T11:42:00.002Z

that's what i did yesterday evening. on snow and ice with my lovely new (bright yellow) running shoes that have a very nice sole with plenty of studs :) and a few interruptions because i had to stop so often and marvel at the northern lights...

simple joys in a material world

2010-10-26T15:47:00.002+01:00

I rejoiced today in the view (and use) of my cutlery which i had packed away over six years ago.

there are more moments like that to come - my stuff has arrived in the far north! if you're in this part of the world, you're cordially invited to dinner (or tea or lunch or breakfast) as soon as i have unpacked everything, because i have now pots! and pans! and plates! and glasses! and, of course, cutlery!! might even get some food at some point.

you're also invited to test-sit my rocking chair, but that's gonna be my favourite place most of the time :P

ps. life's busy at the moment, but photos and posts about the last months' travels are in work!

strange place this...

2010-10-04T11:41:00.003+01:00

this is the view out of my window:

and this is a few minutes walk away:

and two weeks ago, i was in the arctic, one week ago i was in northern norway. no wonder my brain doesn't quite seem to cope with the temperature (it is warm here!), the people and their behaviour (it is sort of north america and this part of the islands is very very touristy in), and did i mention it's warm here?!?

say hi to jack

2010-09-30T11:25:00.001+01:00

isn't he just adorable? 14 weeks old.

you'll never guess...

2010-09-20T17:47:00.004+01:00

... what i've been up to today!

but first things first, a new blog post on here is the sign of the end of this summer's field trips. well, almost, i'm still up on svalbard (and it's snowing), but i'm back in internetland. we got back to longyearbyen on saturday, in time for birthday celebrations in town for one of the guys from the cruise, and slept through most of sunday as a result of that...

today, before the snow arrived, i had to get out though, get some fresh air and excercise on land after almost six weeks on the ship. while in longyear, i'm staying over at a friend's aka the northener, and he, two other friends of his, and i ventured out on the hills around town on a - here it comes - hunting trip! yours truly, the so totally not meat eater, joins a hunting trip! they were after ptarmigans and while i was of course hoping that the birds would stay away, they found plenty. no wonder, the birds were so stupid that they came flying back after being shot at!

tomorrow, i'll leave this amazing island and fly southwards. all the way to tromso for now. pics from the last two months up here will appear here soon, i promise, but it might take me until after hawaii.... life is hard....

oh, for those of you who understand norwegian, if you want to find out what we've been up to on my first cruise this summer, check these links:
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/troms_og_finnmark/1.7250186
http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/228788/

away - where else?!

2010-07-16T19:48:00.003+01:00

i'm off to svalbard, fram strait, the arctic ocean, and tromso, back online in two months or so. have a great summer everybody!

ps. the weather forecast for longyearbyen for next week: rain. every single day.

english summer

2010-07-12T09:54:00.001+01:00

it's been gorgeous for the past couple of weeks, warm and sunny.

my parents are coming over today. it started to rain.

mud games

2010-07-06T18:29:00.010+01:00

the entrance to the cave

with cycling, hiking or scrambling out for the weekend, the sea boats on their way to svalbard, the river levels super low, and the prospect of leaving the uk soon, mr d took me on my first ever non-touristy cave trip. might seem stupid, in the middle summer, but as we drove over to the peak, the weather confirmed our choice by threatening with rain :)

mr d in a rather tight passage...

so off we went into a nice and easy cave that didnt require any technical stuff other than torches but offered lots of crawling on all fours through puddles and mud... great stuff, i should have started that earlier: finally an activity where it's a real advantage being small!!

nothing for people with claustrophobia, definitely something for people who like rock formations. not for people who don't like getting their hands dirty, definitely something for those who like exploring. absolutely amazing what there is to see in this very easily accessible cave that has groups walking through rather too often.

oh, and when we got out again, the sun was back!

the lycra is not to blame

2010-07-04T22:10:00.004+01:00

that was one short trip. four days on the road, three of them with a painful knee. this time, the pain did not go away. 450km after the start, i gave in, made the sensible call, took the train, and headed home. scotland didn't help the motivation either with rain, more rain, a damaged chain, and the usual midges. oh yeah, and the hills. those were hard work, lots of sweat, and gorgeous views, as always. and the satisfaction once you got up them.

anyways, svalbard is calling, two weeks to go, and i better get that knee back in working order!

on the road again

2010-06-24T01:05:00.002+01:00

because i have too much time and not enough to do before the summer, the expedition and cruises, the move, and the trip to hawaii, i'm off cycling across britain. on my own and with limited time, so let's see how far i get..... at least i've got some lycra to help my pedalling :)

THE job

2010-05-31T14:22:00.002+01:00

Friday was supposed to be a nice day on the beach and possibly enjoying some surf in cornwall, instead it turned into the saddest day in a long while. we were at the vet with mr d's dog already last week and got the warning that he might not live very long and unfortunately, she was right. after still seemingly being well and running around like a puppy on thursday, his respiration collapsed on friday and we had to put him down.

leaving for the conference on saturday was hard and the sad mood made celebrations of the email i received later that day difficult, although it's the news i've been impatiently waiting for since march: i've got the postdoc in a project that reads like my science dream and is based in the city i love and wanted to move back to since i left. a weekend of very mixed emotions. anyways, from autumn onwards, i'm looking forward to your visits in northern norway!

r.i.p.

2010-05-29T20:37:00.004+01:00

i hope there's a dog heaven full of treats for him.

am i crazy?

2010-05-27T12:45:00.003+01:00

(rhetorical question in the title, we all know the answer, no?!)

i'm sure mr d thought at several points in the last couple of weeks that i'm totally insane. the latest example which led to me getting super exciting yesterday night at the view of a tiny parcel was my fancy of nice stationary. good pencils to be more precise. one particular mechanical pencil to be as precise as i can get. you see, my loyal pencil that got me through maths studies, countless lectures, seminars, conferences, two theses, pretty much all my research to date, gave up and broke. at first i could still sort of making it work, but a couple of weeks ago, i had to give in and admit defeat. and because it's a german pencil and i'm in the uk and decent stationary shops are few and far between over here, i couldn't find exactly the same again. but no other would do! finally, the internet came to my rescue, i managed to track one down, ordered it, and it arrived. and the happy look on my face when opening the parcel most certainly made mr d wonder who he's let into his house...

ps. the pencil arrived just in time, i'm off to conferences again on saturday, so posting will remain light and irregular, apologies!)

and back again

2010-05-21T12:24:00.004+01:00

how did i ever manage to do a phd with all the stuff one can easily fill the day with??? i feel like i have hardly been at home since the last entry, but that's not quite true. just felt like it. however, it's been busy. from a firearms training day (oh how i HATE weapons!!!) in the north to the next day in the peak to the following day in london to a sick mr d to prepping for the summer to coming up with a smart presentation to a day in tromso (with the day before and after travelling...), and in between keeping the dog from chasing the white-feathered blackbird that had a nest in our hedge, i really wonder how i ever fitted in work. oh, and the entertainment by listening to how the brits try to deal with a hung parliament, priceless entertainment and distraction...

at least it's proper spring and almost summer here! after seeing all the snow on the hills around tromso, i really appreciate the green, the flowers (even though they give even the dog hayfever), and the fact, that it's warm enough for sunbathing...

back

2010-05-05T00:11:00.004+01:00

i turned my out of office reply off today. guess i'm back.

we arrived in the falklands on the 24th. the islands welcomed us with sunshine, a pleasant surprise! which meant that the unloading of the science gear went more or less smoothly in nice weather. in the afternoon, when we were finished and finally out for a walk, the rain came back though - no outing on the falklands without getting soaked!

a short walk saturday was followed by a long walk sunday out to the lighthouse on cape pembroke and sore legs on monday... which was ok, monday was packing day anyways. and tuesday morning we were off to fly back home! very brief stop on ascension in the dark, 19 hours flight in total, on time arrival in brize norton, three hours drive back home, and i was ready to go to bed...

thankfully, the first weekend back was a bank holiday weekend, and mr d and i headed out to anglesey for a bit of sea kayaking. the annual symposium was on as well which left mr d catching up with people and talking shop for way too long while i played in all sorts of kayaks, trying to find the right sea kayak for me. the weather held, the wind was not too bad and the rain mainly fell during the night. sweet.

now it's back to work, dealing with all the things i blissfully ignored during the past few weeks...

homestretch

2010-04-22T05:50:00.004+01:00

we're definitely on the way home now. we've stopped at south georgia for a boat transfer (and didn't get to go on land :( ), anchored in cumberland bay for the night, saw a stunning sunrise (and things got rather silly on the monkey island with a spot of shoot the shooter and lots of cameras), and then left at 8am sharp for the falklands. and promptly ended up in clouds and fog again... luckily, they lifted again and we were treated to more sunshine :) finally!!! after 4 weeks of clouds and fog, i started feeling rather gloomy...

apart from that, there's a lot of packing going on, we've run the last salt samples (super triple yay!!!!!!), people are busy processing data, the chemists are busy running their backlog of samples, and we lost the first dataset: a bug in the firmware that hasn't been fixed, means that almost all our ladcp data is useless. damn!

apparently, the mod flights are operating and civvies get priority, so we're all optimistic that we'll make it home next tuesday! guess what, i'm looking forward to cooking my own food! and hopefully, weekend after next, i'll be on the water again, but in a small boat! :)

2010-04-20T06:12:00.002+01:00

(crossposted on the ANDREX diary)

The last CTD is in the water! CTD number 98, although we have done a few less... We have braved wind, waves and lots of fog and are now on the shelf south of South Georgia, at the end of the second transect. In a few hours, we should get to King Edward Point to pick up those scientists who do not overwinter at the base. Keep your fingers crossed for calm seas and nice weather and you will get to see some photos of this amazing island in the next diary entry!

The last watch is on at the moment and we have had our very last 1 o'clock dinner - the most fun meal of the day! Jamie, the second cook, worked nights to provide us with his great food and the duty mess rocked with up to 10 of us in there in the middle of the night! Guess tomorrow night, we will find Jamie in the bar, enjoying his well deserved drink!

The physicists are done with their shift work after this night, however, some of the chemists will continue to work 24 hours a day to finish as many sample analyses as possible before we get to the Falklands.

The ash cloud is still topic of conversation, surprise... The news in the ship's newspaper that the government is thinking of bringing in the Royal Navy only supported the idea to continue on the JCR across the Atlantic. Somehow, nobody is particularly eager to sit out any delays on the autumnal Falklands! One more week to go, let's hope the wind blows the ashes out of our way!

autumn in the weddell sea

2010-04-14T06:00:00.002+01:00

we're a bit stuck. it's definitely autumn down south, the wind is howling and the waves are big. ish. too big for ctds. on sunday, we finished the first transect, everybody was happy that it was done and the line which was started last year and had to be abandoned due to a medevac was finally complete. from there it went straight to the beginning of the second transect - till the wind and the waves stopped us. that was monday evening and since then, more then 24 hours, we're waiting for the waves to calm down. two days of science time lost. and the ship keeps rolling.

whales, penguins, and easter bunnies... oh, and some work

2010-04-07T04:11:00.003+01:00

busy days here on the ship! whales swimming past, penguins jumping all around the ship, storms and nice waves keep us entertained.

and mr d's easter bunny was finally aloud out of its drawer and briefly ventured to the bridge, onto the monkey island (where it was very cold and windy and the bunny was scared that it might get blown away!) and to the main lab on easter sunday. and it survived another day!!! because it had to see icebergs first before it would give up its life and provide some much needed high quality chocolate :)

and of course, there's lots of ctding going on. lots. creating lots of salts that need to be mined... oh joy.....

we're about halfway through now, at least timewise. if the wildlife keeps showing up as regularly as it did so far, it'll be another great three weeks, all fingers crossed!

sampling

2010-03-26T05:15:00.005Z

the first watch is over, it's quarter past two in the morning (hence the amazingly fast internet and the opportunity to upload at least low res photos...), and i'm ready to go to bed! the sampling has finally started: two CTD stations in our watch, that's quite a start! sampling the ctd is quite different from my previous cruises, no quiet work around the water bottles, on my own, working in my own time. instead, it's a frenzy with people sampling for stuff like CFCs, noble gases, a variety of tracers, oxygen and carbon species, and of course the standard salts, and queueing for the bottles.

the chief scientist on board...

the first proper ctd!

we're now a week at sea and already we've seen more wildlife, land and icebergs than during the entire last cruise to the southern indian ocean. amazing!!! we've seen dolphins, whales, lots of birds of course, penguins in the water and on icebergs, sea ice, and a pretty cool small volcanic island in the middle of bransfield strait. let's hope this continues!

sloooooow...

2010-03-24T00:47:00.003Z

the internet, not the ship. the ship is progressing nicely towards the peninsula, we're now in the northern drake passage. the internet however is a real pain in the backside. hence the lack of piccies and more updates. sorry guys! once shifts start, i'll be awake in the middle of the night when the internet might perhaps be a wee bit faster, i'll try to upload some photos then.

meanwhile we've done the first test cast, sampling training for a variety of chemical analyses, refresher in the use of the lovely salinometer, stopped in the falklands, processed the first batch of data with some debugging on the way, first round of circuits leading to a few very very sore scientists, and saw whales, dolphins, seals, penguins and albatrosses. so all well on board!

next stop: stanley, falkland islands

2010-03-20T01:24:00.002Z

the cruise has started! we're finally at sea steaming south towards antarctica!
after a long wait, the containers finally arrived this morning and the labs are now filled with boxes, bottles, instruments, cables, and all sorts of stuff and the aft deck now houses two lab containers for the co2 and nutrient people. as with every cruise, there has to be something that goes wrong: some of the equipment didn't make it and is somewhere in limbo - between woods hole, immingham, monti, and who knows where. bugger!

anyways, everybody is happy that we're finally on the way. first stop will be stanley for a quick change of the et support guy, then it's straight to the antarctic peninsula!

to keep me entertained and sort of fit (the puddings here are as good as ever, let's see how disciplined i'll be throughout the cruise...), mr d and i agreed on a challenge: 1000 miles cycling. spent the first half hour on the bike today and was already wondering what i let myself into... oh well. you can track my progress on the new counter on the right...

waitin'

2010-03-18T21:40:00.002Z

still in monti, still waiting for the containers. they were supposed to arrive at the ship around lunchtime today, latest news is that they'll be delivered tomorrow morning. let's see...

meanwhile everybody is looking for things to do but preparations for the cruise are sort of stalled because, surprise, we need the containers.

it's great to be back on the ship though. slowly, the faces of the crew become a bit more familiar, names will take a while longer. the ship feels like home again, getting some tea in the duty mess, strolling around on deck, checking the latest music on the shared drives, life is good! i do hope though that we can get cracking with work tomorrow and leave uruguay!

at sea!

2010-03-17T11:10:00.002Z

it's quarter past eight in the morning, just had a nice hearty breakfast ship-style, sun is shining outside and it's nice and warm, first meeting with the other physicists in 15 minutes and i guess then it's setting up computers, instruments, routines etc. this means, I'M BACK ON A SHIP!!! YAY!!!

we're currently alongside in montevideo, uruguay (no piccies yet, but long time readers might remember, i've been here before). waiting for more equipment to arrive (all fingers crossed please) before departing to the weddell and scotia seas. internet connection is sloooooow, so there won't be too many photos on here, i'm afraid. there should be more photos and more regular posts on the cruise blog though, so check it out:
http://www.classroomatsea.net/andrex/diary/

tonight is the night

2010-03-14T14:36:00.003Z

we never dated. instead, we plunged head first straight into a relationship, including moving in together which very fitting to us was planned and arranged before anybody thought of anything more than friendship. we've not once been on a "proper" date like the ones brits seem to spend years with before finally committing, and it's become a standing joke between us. tonight, things will change! mr d asked me out, and i'm excited like a teenager...

before then though, i better get the rest of my to do list ticked off and ideally even start packing. luckily i save a lot of time by not doing stuff like make up and trying to figure out what fancy cloths to wear - neither make up nor fancy cloths are in the house.

life is overtaking me

2010-03-12T16:57:00.003Z

i feel like life is moving way too fast, like it's overtaking me and i'm trying to keep up but am falling behind...

since the last post, which is only a week ago, this is the second day i'm actually at home. while the weekend was being away for fun (i.e. long walks/paddles), monday and tuesday were spent jetting to northern norway and back and trying to sell myself as well as i possibly can (after a rather nerve wrecking trip involving snow, strong winds, closed airports and cancelled flights), wednesday was selling our favourite volunteer young scientists organisation to the director of my home institute and emptying my desk, and thursday passed catching up on sleep. today is the day to tie down loose ends (and there are many), tomorrow i'll waste my time at a sort of meeting for the summer trip, and sunday i'll probably be packing and packing and packing. cos monday, I'M OFF TO SEA, YIPPPIIIIEEEEHH!!!!!!!!

oh, and in between, the last corrections to my thesis were approved and all that's left is sending in two hardbound copies and attending graduation.

so, if anybody wondered what i was up to lately, here's the answer: i don't know, life just got carried away and i tried to follow.

Save the poles

2010-03-05T20:52:00.003Z

Instead of following my whinging, follow my mate's journey to the north pole!

antony jinman is finally on the arctic ice skiing to the north pole and you can follow his progress here:
http://www.antonyjinman.com/expeditions/northpole2010

and while you're on his website, check out all the other awesome stuff he's done and he's planning to do and support him and his efforts promoting science education with his charity Education Through Expedition!

online presence

2010-03-05T09:39:00.002Z

in case anybody ever wondered why i'm not blogging under my real name nor want my real name ever mentioned on this page (or on flickr) or why i don't post photos on my real name facebook page or join all and every group with the stupidest of names or link to this blog: go read this.
and i so totally am on the job market at the moment.

i'm still not in the chirpiest of moods, but the sun is shining and i better go and catch some of that light before i once again get lost in front of the laptop.

mixed bag

2010-03-04T13:09:00.003Z

random bullet points:
- pissed off with myself because of yesterday's performance
- pissed off with the neighbour's eternally ringing house alarm
- standing in front of an entire mountain range of work and not sure where to start
- looking forward to a one-day stint to favourite town in favourite country next week, shame i don't have time (or money) for a longer trip
- super unfocussed and rather cold today
- looking forward to ship time and to composing the automatic out of office e-mail reply
- marvelling at a bird that regularly visits our garden: a blackbird with white feathers!!! have to get a photo of him/her

a day better spent in bed.

holy smoke

2010-03-02T12:55:00.003Z

just got a phone call from norway, people want me to come over for a job interview! w0000t!

so much for raising the heart rate...

and that's for a job i applied for a couple of weeks ago, composing the cover letter on the spot, about a couple of hours before application deadline... and i thought i don't really fit the job descriptions but you never know...

there are two more applications about to be sent off, so stay tuned for future developments!

the upgraded van

2010-02-11T12:17:00.003Z

the van received an upgrade: after months and months of longing for them, it finally got roof rack! and they were put to good use last weekend:

sorry, the pic is a bit dark but obviously on the way to the river we were to eager to get on the water... so this is after a few hours paddling and more importantly, after wrestling with the rather heavy boats to get them back up there. there's a reason why i'm called zwerg...

the river was pretty high btw, which made the journey relatively fast, but unfortunately also meant that most of the rapids were rather washed out and really easy to paddle. not that it's the most difficult of rivers anyway. but it's the closest white-ish water to home.

not the best of days

2010-02-10T12:22:00.003Z

i meant to blog something slightly more meaningful today, but...

DAMMIT!!!!!!

i'm finally working more seriously on the thesis corrections to get them done and back to the examiners hopefully next week. what did i do first thing this morning? DELETE THE FILE WITH MY REPLIES TO THE COMMENTS!!! ARGH!!!

not helpful.

89 - updated...

2010-01-28T09:31:00.004Z

that's the number of abstracts i have to review at the moment. (i know, it could be worse, some sessions have 160+...) for some of them i can claim conflict of interest - is it very bad to be happy about a way to reduce the pile? and did i mention that i'm not a biologist and they're all biology abstracts??

and i feel with all the non-native english speakers who have to write in english and are struggling. but seriously, if one of your co-authors is a native speaker, is it too much to ask to have it proofread???

UPDATE: there was a bit of wishful thinking.

thursday morning: yay, we're almost done, just have to enter the final grades and sort out the proper ordering of the presentations, easy.

thursday afternoon: - help help, can you help?

- uhm, maybe?

- here you go, 90 applications with at least one abstract each to review.

friday afternoon: still at it. didnt i have a job at the moment??

have to say though, it's really fascinating reading through the applications and good training for my own future applications! and this time it's all frozen water stuff, terrestrial or marine. i can deal with that...

8

2010-01-20T19:50:00.003Z

how difficult can it be to cut 8 words off an 308 word abstract??? who came up with the 300 word limit anyways???

UPDATE: i cut it down to 298 in the end. two potential words wasted... whatever.

wow! britain in white :)

2010-01-10T18:40:00.004Z

snow is beautiful!

from here: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2010007-0107/GreatBritain.A2010007.1150.1km.jpg

2009 in pictures

2010-01-05T14:19:00.007Z

january: cold grit climbing, cold paddling, cold everything. lots of work.

february: the cold theme continues, here with a frozen kinder downfall. more work.

march: cold climbing pays off: my first e1!

april: while it's getting warmer in the uk, we head to norway for some fun in the cold! the first telemarking experience.

may: fruchtzwerg goes mobile and gets a paddle wagon!

june: work is going mental, the paddle wagon is used for moving house, but weekends are there to have fun :)

july: the thesis is in!!!!!!! and then off to norway, where the midnight sun weaves its magic.

august: leading on glaciers, paddling around nordkapp, and lofoten rocks!

september: norway. what more do i have to say? climbing, hiking, paddling, driving the entire length of the country. brilliant times!

october: back to the grind. the first workshop i organised. and a recce in east greenland.

november: lots of work, lots of paddling, a new boat. oh, and the viva.

december: a symposium, a trip to whistler, xmas at home, and new year's skiing in france.

it was a good year, let's see what 2010 brings!

happy holidays

2009-12-22T19:22:00.003Z

this is probably the cutest version of a christmas song i know, just watch the reindeer :)

White Christmas - Free videos are just a click away

i wish you all happy holidays, whichever, however, and wherever you celebrate. hope to see you again next year!

climate change frustration

2009-12-05T06:32:00.003Z

some of you might have heard about the email hack at the climate research unit, one of the research centres of my university, and the ensuing discussions and allegations made by climate change sceptics. if not, here's the latest press release from uea and the latest bbc article where the email hack plays a role. both contain links to previous articles explaining the entire story. go and read them.

i'm pissed off by the entire debate, and i'm even more pissed off that i can't blog my opinion about this because as part of uea and bas and therefore nerc, i have to defer any questions and requests for statements to the media relations folks.

the only thing i can do is to ask everybody who reads this blog to THINK for themselves and question and scrutinise the media reports following the arguments of both sides. i'm pretty sure i know which side has the way more substantive, sound, and thorough evidence.

off again

2009-12-02T17:06:00.003Z

the last few weeks passed in a whirlwind of trips across the country travelling to meetings, the viva, paddling trips, and meet ups with friends. and the fun continues! i'm off to canada, the west coast this time. so if you don't hear anything from me, i'm enjoying the conference or am whizzing down the snow packed hills of whistler :)

fernweh

2009-11-24T12:14:00.003Z

rain, rain, rain, it's wet in britain. that combined with flooded towns and villages combined with mr d's upset stomach meant that instead of going on our own little paddle adventure we spent the weekend at the kendal mountain festival listening to lectures and watching films about other people's adventures. and now i really have to keep reminding myself, that i've been an awesome trips to amazing places (and will be away again soon) before my fernweh takes over again...

what do you think?

2009-11-19T19:33:00.001Z

what is worse: an absolutely shitty internet connection or no connection at all???

just tried to participate in a conference call, boy, that was hard work...

post viva fatigue

2009-11-17T12:15:00.003Z

this past weekend, i was supposed to go paddling (like the last two weekends, and again somewhere involving 4+ hours of driving). when the alarm rang saturday early morning, mr d somehow miraculously managed to get up, make a cup of tea, and then realised that i was dead to the world. and stayed in that state for another four hours till about 9am, when i finally woke up. (i had not even heard the alarm... or noticed that he got up...) if i had come back from unitown really late on friday evening, fair enough, but no, i was in bed sort of reasonably early. the build up during the last couple of weeks with work, prep, and other activities, and then the actual viva just was enough to demand a break and a weekend at home. which was spent very pleasantly doing some shopping, a bit of climbing at the wall, a bit of paddling on the local tame river, a lot of sleep, a trip to the cinema, and cooking some very yummy food :)

today however, it's back to normal and we'll set off to scotland in the afternoon!

for all practical purposes: here's dr fruchtzwerg

2009-11-13T09:15:00.003Z

thanks everybody for the good wishes and for keeping your fingers crossed, it helped!!

there were a lot of jokes about how long the viva will go on for, because my internal examiner set the time: 3pm! surely, everybody wants to go home at 5 or 5.30??? and my supervisor reserved a table for dinner at 7 and we would have to fit in a trip to the pub for celebration drinks before heading into town as well!?! and seriously, what time is that, 3pm, leaving me to get properly nervous because it's so late!?!

well, what can it say, it went extremely smoothly, a few hard questions where i happily could answer "i don't know!", a few glances at the watch marvelling at the speed at which the examiners raced through the chapters , and after 1h 40min (!!!!!), we were through and i was asked to leave the room... must be one of the shortest vivas ever... a few minutes deliberation, and then the verdict: for all practical purposes, i can consider myself now a doctor! :) and by 10 to 5 everything was over...

what's left now are a few minor corrections, getting them approved, print and bind the final version and hand it in.

thought this morning: now, finally, when getting emails and letters addressed to dr fruchtzwerg, i don't have to feel like i'm somehow pretending to be something i'm not and i'm deceiving people. sweet.

at last

2009-11-11T15:12:00.002Z

tomorrow is v-day, so please keep your fingers crossed (from about 3pm onwards...) and direct positive thoughts to the english flatlands! and if you happen to be in norwich: regardless of the results, we'll go for drinks and dinner, so let me know if you want to join!

november blues

2009-11-10T20:31:00.003Z

england is very VERY grey at the moment... which is sort of good for paddling - plenty of rain equals plenty of water in the rivers. for my mood during the week, however, i could do with some sunshine. and just to remind myself, that england can be very colourful as well, this photo from two summers ago, taken during a paddle on the norfolk broads. (might have posted it before, can't remember.)

egg&spoon

2009-11-04T13:29:00.002Z

if you're in london on the 6th december, check this out:
http://theeggandspoonrace.blogspot.com/
and
http://thenextchallenge.org/2009/11/eggs-and-spoons-and-choices/comment-page-1/#comment-296
participate in the race and support my mate tim from the next challenge!

monday...

2009-11-02T13:45:00.002Z

just because playing with gimp and greenland photos is sooo much more fun than, uhm, say, work.

ocean acidification video: the other co2 problem

2009-10-28T11:25:00.003Z

if you haven't seen this yet, have a look:

that's what school kids can come up with after a school visit by some scientists. how cool!

greenland

2009-10-25T13:58:00.004Z

last week, we spent four days in east greenland to explore the area around kummiut for a bses trip in 2011. what an awesome place!!!

after a night in reykjavik, we flew to kulusuk with a stop in constable point, way north near scoresby sound. thanks to brilliant weather (the clouds staid over the sea and away from land), we got an incredible view over the mountains on the flight along the coast.

letzt woche waren wir fuer vier tage in ostgroenland, um die gegend rund um kummiut fuer einen bses trip in 2011 auszukundschaften. was fuer ein unglaubliches land!

nach einem uebernachtstop in reykjavik sind wir via constable point (im norden, in der naehe von scoresbysund) nach kulusuk geflogen. dank des hervorragenden wetters (die wolken sind brav ueberm meer und weg von der kueste geblieben) hatten wir eine super sicht ueber die berge.

in kulusuk, we met lars, a danish guy who came to east greenland 8 years ago, originally to sell greenland stamps, but who is now running a tourist business with boats and places to stay. he took us to his place in kummiut, a small village an hour's boat ride up the fjord from the airport.

in kulusuk hat lars, ein daene, der vor 8 jahren nach groenland gekommen ist, um groenlaendische briefmarken zu verkaufen und jetzt sein geld mit tourismus verdient, und abgeholt und per boot nach kummiut gebracht. kummiut ist ca. 1 stunde bootsfahrt von kulusuk den fjord hoch.

kummiut

lars, the master of the boats and the dogs

during the boat ride, the studying of maps and gaping at mountains and icebergs started... was a bit surreal, 24 hours earlier we have been sitting at manchester aiport!

waehrend der bootsfahrt fing das brueten ueber den landkarten und das staunen ueber die landschaft und die berge und die eisberge an... es war schon ein wenig seltsam, vor 24 stunden haben wir noch in manchester am flughafen gesessen!

(click for a larger version!)

what followed were three days zooming in and out of fjords looking for potential campsites and a place for basecamp. apart from lars, we also had martin with us, who runs kayaking trips out here and could show us the best spots. we went to the karale and knut rasmussen glaciers and stopped at the ex-us army airfield in ikateq. absolutely mad, like other us bases in greenland, the americans left at a 24h notice and left behind all their rubbish, including thousands of oil barrels that are now lying around and rotting away, the oil contaminating the ground.

was dann kam, waren drei tage in verschiedenen fjorden auf der suche nach moeglichen campsites und einem geeigneten ort fuer das basislager. ausser lars war auch martin mit von der partie. martin veranstaltet seit einigen jahren kajaktrips in der gegend, kennt sich also bestens aus und konnte uns die besten plaetze zeigen. und so ging's zunaechst zum karale- und zum knut rasmussen-gletscher mit einem halt unterwegs bei der ex-us basis in ikateq. aehnlich wie die anderen militaerstuetzpunkte, die die amerikaner in groenland waehrend des 2. weltkriegs und des kalten krieges hatten, wurde dieser innerhalb von 24h stunden geraeumt und entsprechend aller muell zurueckgelassen. nun liegen dort abgesehen von lastern, hausueberresten und anderen maschinen tausende oelfaesser herum und rotten vor sich hin, waehrend das oel den boden verseucht.

ex-us base in ikateq

at karale glacier

the following day, lars drove us to sermilik, the so-called ice fjord because it pretty much always is filled with thousands of icebergs, making shipping rather difficult. october is quite late in the season (in fact, it snowed every night!), and the sea ice started forming in a lot of places. when we got off the boat in tinit and had a look at the ice fjord, it was pretty obvious that we wouldn't get in there...

am naechsten tag fuhr lars und nach sermilik, den sogenannten eisfjord. eisfjord, weil er mehr oder weniger immer voller eisberge ist, die das befahren reichlich schwierig machen! oktober ist recht spaet im jahr (wir hatten jede nacht neuen schnee!), und meereis fing an, sich zu bilden. als wir in tinit an land gingen, um einen blick auf den fjord zu erhaschen, wurde recht schnell klar, dass wir da nicht weit kommen wuerden...

south view of sermilik fjord

tinit

instead, we explored another potential site for basecamp which is absolutely stunning!! so, if in 2011 you're looking for the bses kayakers camp in greenland, check the tasilaq fjord!

stattdessen sind wir zu einem anderen moeglichen ort fuer das basislager gefahren. fantastischer platz!! wenn ihr also 2011 auf der suche nach dem bses kajaklager seit, kommt in den tasilaqfjord!

tasilaq fjord

after a couple of days in tiny kummiut (340 inhabitants), we then went to tasiilaq (ammassalik; almost 2000 inhabitants!), the capital of the region. huge! with huge buildings! and a huge supermarket! and a museum and souvenir shops! bit of a culture shock...

nach ein paar tagen im winzigen kummiut (340 einwohner), sind wir am dritten tag nach tasiilaq (auch ammassalik genannt; fast 2000 einwohner) gefahren. tasiilaq ist die hauptstadt der region, und riesig! mit riesigen gebaeuden! und einem riesigen supermarkt! und einem museum und souvenirlaeden! ein leichter kultuschock...

tasiilaq

a choppy boat ride brought us back to the airport in kulusuk the next day, and two hours plane ride later, we were back at 15 degrees and rain in iceland... way too short a visit to greenland, there is sooo much to do and to explore! let's hope i make it back there for the exped in 2011!! and who knows, there's a house for sale in tinit, which even i could afford...

am naechsten tag ging's zurueck zum flughafen, diesmal war die bootsfahrt etwas schaukeliger... und zwei flugstunden spaeter waren wir wieder im 15 grad warmen island. der aufenthalt in groenland war eindeutig zu kurz, es gibt einfach viel zu viel zu sehen und zu erkunden! aber mit etwas glueck bin ich 2011 wieder zurueck! und wer weiss, da ist so ein huebsches haeuschen in tinit, das zu kaufen ist...

the dream house!

(more pics as usual on flickr!)

deep breath...

2009-10-15T11:47:00.002+01:00

the workshop is over, and the to-do list grew considerably over the two days i didn't check my email. wow. and tomorrow, i'm off to greenland for a week, recceing for a trip in 2011.

i started sorting pictures from norway and a few made it online on flickr. check them out there, the blog posts about the trip are in prep.

polar explorer

2009-10-02T17:00:00.001+01:00

antony jinman is gonna talk at the workshop i'm organising - how cool is that?!?

libraries - you gotta love them!

2009-09-29T11:25:00.002+01:00

over the summer, i spent a good number of hours in various public libraries across norway, using their fabulous free wireless internet access. now i'm sat in the cardiff library, escaping the fangs of starbucks and the likes who want you to buy stupid bonus cards and stuff, and work on organising the upcoming workshop. again this is possible thanks to the brilliant library facilities: 5 floors full of books and with full wireless coverage. what more could i ask for?
so go and use & support your local library!

back

2009-09-19T18:43:00.003+01:00

just a quick note: i'm back in the uk, safe and sound, and the sun seems to try to make the return more enjoyable by shining bright and warm :) monday will be the first day back "at work"...

almost homebound

2009-09-07T12:50:00.004+01:00

how weird. i just booked the ferry that will take me away from this country. the country i love and want to live in. the ferry to go "home". wherever and whatever that is at the moment. some day in the future, home will be in norway.

lofoten rocks

2009-09-03T16:41:00.003+01:00

that's it. i'm on lofoten, last day, we're in a pub about to have our farewell dinner. climbing here has been absolutely fantastic, what a place!!

last week, we had fabulous sunshine, this week mighty wind and rain. managed to climb some stunning routes in even more stunning surroundings with gorgeous views, great rock, superb lines. shame it's over already, and tomorrow the drive south begins. should be back in the uk in about 2 weeks. see you then!

lebenszeichen

2009-08-16T11:10:00.003+01:00

incredible, the first part of my time in norway is almost over. after driving up to alta, 10 days paddling and 14 days mountaineering, we're now at a campsite in alta (with wireless internet!), sorting out kit and gear so that everything can be sent back to the uk and the kids are ready to fly home tomorrow. a proper update will follow at some point, when i can get my head into writing mode again. here just some piccies from the last four weeks.
if meanwhile you'd like to find out more about our expedition, check this: http://bsesarctickayak09.blogspot.com/

away

2009-07-15T19:53:00.002+01:00

i'm away on expedition, promise to take lots of photos and post some when i come back. no internet for at least a month, next to no internet for another month. back in september. until then, have a great summer!

after-thesis-life

2009-07-14T00:02:00.003+01:00

that was the first weekend in three years without thinking about what i need to do for or working on the thesis. wow. felt great!

went climbing in the peak sunday, first time in weeks, and first time on proper limestone, even with multipitch! a little bit of prep for lofoten :) the weather played along and at the end of the day, we had glorious sunshine!

this morning, in a very last minute action, the van was fitted with a towbar, so who knows, i might be towing trailers with kayaks around northern norway this time next week... will be interesting!