30kg for six weeks

Less than one day left, and I have just finished packing my bags for 6 weeks in Antarctica. All the cold weather gear is supplied by IPEV (the French polar institute) and should be waiting for me in Christchurch NZ. I go through Paris, Hong Kong and Auckland to Christchurch, then fly to McMurdo, and then on to Concordia, so there will be no seasick posts from the Astrolabe this year - yay! The rest of the stuff I am taking is shown below:


And here is what it all packs down to:


Not bad, eh? It all weighs in at under 30kg (of which 9kg are scientific material we shall need in the first two weeks at Concordia): so whoever said girls cannot travel light should think again.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not quite finished packing: I am still missing the warm socks I got during last year's trip and my pocket knife, both of which are probably in my office. At least I hope they are, for I don't much fancy leaving without them!

PS: Found the socks. Still no knife...

PPS: Phew! Finally found the knife! It was at home after all...

Heads up

Hello everyone!

Yes, I'm still here... although you would be pardoned for thinking
I'd dropped off the planet somewhere... I can't believe it has been
three months since I last posted anything!

Just a quick heads up to let you know I'm off to Antarctica again,
and leaving this Sunday. This year's trip won't be quite the
adventure it was last year, as I know what I'm getting into this time
round! I shall keep you posted...

In the meantime, in keeping with the current Wordle craze, here is
one of the projects that has kept me from blogging over the past
three months (my latest contribution to the technical literature in
seismology).

Any guesses on the topic of this paper??