On Christmas morning we very unusually opened up the base to take 25-30 kids (age 5 to 16) and a few parents for a tour of base. The group was in on Le Boreal which is a brand new ship that was built in Italy. Tommy and I volunteered to help Rob (the base commander) take them around and answer questions. We took an hour to show them what life is like here.

I then got onto Skype to talk to my family in Bermuda for an hour. With the bandwidth being so small we were each allowed to sign up for an hour long slot and everyone else was not to use the internet for the day except during their allotted time. It actually worked pretty well although at one point my calls were lasting for 30 seconds at a time! At least it didn’t rain or snow as any precipitation means our internet connection pretty much stops completely.

Alastair and I took some soup I had made over to the folks in the musuem who were working hard as there were three ships in on christmas eve and two on christmas day. Then we started in making Christmas dinner for 20 as the base commander who was going to make dinner went to bed sick for 36 hours. Alistair helped me a lot doing the dishes and making enormous amounts of yorkshire pudding.

Sam and Katie decorated the table beautifully with Sam also making a beautiful menu. Matt mech made up plates of pate and strawberry sorbet for starters.

At 1pm we were all to go for the annual swim in the bay however, only matt mech and myself were brave enough to go in. We went in seperately as he was waiting for me in the sauna and thought I had lost my bottle and I was waiting for him in the kitchen to come and get me.

Later in the afternoon we opened up presents with Tommy (being the youngest) passing them out to everyone. There is a lot of talented people on base with some beautiful pictures and drawings being given out.

As is tradition in my family we broke the gingerbread house and spent the afternoon eating all the sweets.

We had roast lamb, beef, turkey, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts etc. With the beef I cut off the fat and silvery bits, tied it up with string and covered it in a breadcrumb herb crust. I made some stock for gravy with the parts I had cut off. The turkey is not on the bone as the BAS policy is not to send meat with bones down. I was a bit worried it would go dry so Alastair beat it flat for me then I filled one breast with olives and the other with blue cheese rolled them up and tied them with string. Then fried them in olive oil, butter and herbs until they were golden brown all over, poured some white wine in the pan and let the alchol evaporate. Then covered in tin foil and let it slow cook for an hour and half – much to my relief it came out not to dry. The carrots were cooked in white wine, olive oil, thyme and lemon juice in the oven.

For dessert we had traditional christmas pudding, christmas cake (made by the cook at government house in the Falklands and sent down to us), Pavlova (made by Ruth the government officers wife) and I made buche de noel (or death by chocolate log). The log was chocolate cake rolled up with a filling of baileys mousse and topped with royal icing and chocolate icing. We played the After Eight game where you have to get the chocolate from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands – resulting in lots of great facial expressions!

We all rolled into our beds in the wee hours of the morning over fed after another beautiful day in south georgia.

BTW almost all the photos in my christmas eve and day postings were taken by Alastair Wilson.