This week marks my first week as a Station Leader in Antarctica…………….. only I’m still not quite in the big freezer.  I’m sitting in an office waiting for the rest of the team to arrive and impatiently organising all the last minute packing and ordering and starting to mildly hyperventilate at the thought of forgetting something important.

How do you think of everything you might need for 10 months with no access to shopping.  How much moisturiser, shampoo, conditioner, smelly candles, books…………….OMG what if I forget the body moisturiser and my legs turn to snake skin!!!!! It’s a valid fear in an atmosphere of 0% humidity, its so dry that you get spontaneous nose bleeds.  I have bought a ultrasonic humidifier for my bedroom to try and combat it a little.

I also have a small problem with my hair and eyebrows………… I have a very heavy, blunt fringe and I am useless at cutting my own hair, I get all confused looking into a mirror and trying to be coordinated.  So I am thinking of getting my hair cut really short all over and trying no poo and no dye while I am away……….. but I’m going to pack an emergency stash of shampoo and hair dye just in case it is a disaster.  Must not forget deodorant either, I accidently did that on a week long bush walk in 35 degree heat + no water + only 2 tee-shirts, I couldn’t smell myself but apparently the six people i was walking with said that I honked.  On the up side we did not get harassed by any mallee bulls……….

My hair style is concerning me a great deal, I am slightly worried that we might find aliens down there and I will be all over the news doing live crosses to the world and I don’t want to look like a fat bikkie chick with no hair so I also need to purchase a stylish beanie to top off my King Gee workwear……………….. I am thinking that I will look like this with short hair and this is a good look tough but feminine, some thing to aim for in a blokey world like Antarctica….. 

but I think it may end up looking more like this……… so a beanie may be helpful.

On a serious note have found that men’s King Gee’s do not fit women.  Well not women with hourglass figures, they have high crutches and no waist the shirts also have no allowance for a DD chest and so you have to get really big shirts.  Then I discovered that King Gee now has a ladies section, what a great invention and a start, after all it is not that weird to have a woman appear in an Industrial setting.  However while I am on a clothing rant, what is it with designers who make women’s clothes for traditional male areas and their obsession with hot pink!!!!  Seriously try to find a women’s motorbike jacket and you are faced with lurid hot pink – its plastered all over helmets, jackets and pants.  It is the same in work-wear, in an attempt to appeal to the female market stripes of hot pink on pants, shirts and shoes are plastered around.  I have worn hot pink once, on a handbag and I love it but not on my work wear it is just a little to cutesy.  Points for trying but play attention, a flattering fit is far more important than splashes of hot pink, people notice we are female we don’t need to advertise it.

So beanie, workwear, boots, shampoo / apple cider vinegar / bicarb soda and moisturiser packed now what am I going to do to entertain myself for 10 months…………………