SANTAS GROTTO AND AN ELEPHANT SEAL

We live here in an oil heated cocoon where we can only engage with the astonishing beauty of our surroundings with a lot of expensive back up. So although the Antarctic is all around us it seems you can never quite touch it. That is why until recently man has never lived here, because you cannot live in such harsh surroundings without an industrial backup. There have been some, like Shackleton who have been forced to survive off the land for a year but they were lucky to survive so long.

For me the highlight of Christmas was 'the Queens Speech', delivered by our French chef Cyril, bedecked in a string of false pearls and delivered in a strong French accent which ever so subtly mocked this long standing British tradition!