The Clothing Distribution Center

This is the warehouse with the massive amounts of ECW gear for Antarctic use. It's much reduced from what it must have been at the beginning of the season, lots of empty spots.

No size 14 or 15 Baffin boots for me. No Carhartt overalls to fit me either.

A slight glimpse into the Christmas music charts

So, in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand (in fact, perhaps all around the Commonwealth) there is a tradition of popular bands producing special songs for the Christmas season. These are often ridiculous versions of classic Christmas songs, or even more absurd new songs. Was watching the television in my hotel room last night (as I don't have a TV at home, they do catch my attention...) and saw a number of strange music video sights. A few of them appear here...

- The Darkness, Christmas time (YouTube link)
- Billy Mack, Christmas is all around (YouTube link)
- Elton John, Step into Christmas (YouTube link)
- No Doubt, Oi to the world (YouTube link)
- Run DMC, Christmas in Hollis (YouTube link)
- The Killers, Don't shoot me Santa (YouTube link)

Okay, there's a real mix of sublime and ridiculous in there. We return to physics, Antarctica, and travel soon...

In Christchurch

So, I made it here, but haven't been online much. The hotel network is expensive and keeps kicking me out. Am in a little Internet cafe down the block from my hotel.

That's my hotel, the Novotel, in the background. In the foreground, building construction. There's a lot of construction and repair work going on in town due to the earthquake back in September. Earthquake damage and repair photos coming soon...

Going to get my cold weather gear tomorrow, and then fly southward the day afterwards.