Cooking at Black Island

I have been getting out of my office and working at other offices. I have been answering the phone at Fleet Ops (the guys who drive around dozers and fork lifts and stuff), programing movies at the TV station... and just starting yesterday, volunteering at BFC (Berg Field Center) where they outfit all the field camps with everything they need (except things with motors in them...that comes from another place). I'll try to get some pictures of the BFC today. I think it has just become my favorite place to be down here. The lighting is great (incandescent, not fluorescent) and they have cozy/warm wood floors, they're organized (for the most part) and they have a kitchen area! Yay!!! A place to cook :)

Speaking of cooking, I just got back from Black Island this last Saturday. I was out there for a week, giving the cook a break. She came to town to sit in my cube and answer the phone (poor thing) and I got to go cook for everyone out at Black Island!



I think I got the better end of the deal personally... but she did get to take daily showers, hang out with her friends in the evening and also do laundry... Which are all things not possible to do at Black Island. Black Island is a communications location for McMurdo. There's a bunch of antennas, dishes and other various comms stuff out there. The two permanent residents out there are Tony, the BI manager, and the cook, Megan. Everyone else who goes out there is transient and only there for a few days working on comms things... IT guys and riggers. The max capacity out there is 8, although this year since there is a major upgrade on bandwidth happening, there has been an overload of IT guys there... Tony and Megan deserve a raise for sure.



So... since I was out there I got my fix on cooking. I cooked three meals a day for seven days... and did all the clean up too. The riggers were awesome though and helped me clean up after meals. They need to make a shirt that says 'I love riggers', I'd wear it.

Okay... I need to get back to work... and I promise I'll post pictures very soon!