This is what I did on Saturday, which is just another workday here.
The alarm goes off at 6:30. I grab my shower things in the dark because my groovy roommate Tatia (pronounced "Taysha") has a later shift in the galley. Down the hall to the common bathroom, shuffling in slippers (vegans don't look: lovely fuzzy sheepskin slippers from NZ, mmm). Back in the room, light on now, Tatia grunts and pulls the covers up. I put on: *socks and sock liners, light thermals under office clothes, *wind bibs, polarfleece vest or *jacket, *neck gaiter, fuzzy hat, big *red parka (name tag so you can tell whom you're talking to outside). *=Gov't Extreme Cold Weather issue. This is enough clothing for the 2-minute walk to the galley in bldg 155. I slow down because the sky is blueing but stars are still out, Southern Cross right overhead. Observation Hill is a black triangle against the gradient of medium to dark blue. Then I speed up again because my nose hair is frozen.
Breakfast is homemade yogurt and granola, fresh-baked apple bread. Yum! The winter-overs are all excited because the last Winfly plane brought in the first fresh fruit they've seen in a long long time.
The Helpdesk office is in the upper floor of the Crary lab. Once you get into the building through the big walk-in freezer doors it could be any science lab, until you get upstairs into the library and see the view down the slope of the hill across the frozen bay to Mt Discovery and the Royal Society range, and you see the colors slowly slowly change through the course of the whole day. The moon has just been full and it hangs just above the mountains, which slowly turn purple then pink and orange and sometimes there's a band of fog above or below the moon which also turns colors and sometimes the shadow of the hills behind the station is projected on the fog or ice haze or whatever it exactly is. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately the Helpdesk office itself is a small windowless office next to the library.
Work is mostly answering telephones, along with some routine tasks. We have a pretty wide range of users and some idiosyncracies built into the system. I'm learning from Jen who knows an awful lot.
At 8:30 I skip out for the drivers' briefing and receive my Antarctic Driver's License. Yay! Main points: how to use the special brake system that, unlike normal hand brakes, doesn't freeze here; people with their parka hoods up can't see or hear you coming; and always chock the wheels. They're still talking about the management yoyo who parked on a hill awhile back and chocked the uphill side of his wheels.
At lunch I run up to the greenhouse, which has no windows. It has an awful lot of lights though, and the walls are covered with reflective sheeting. Plants are grown hydroponically. It smells very good. Unfortunately the guy who runs it couldn't make the volunteer meeting so I have to wait to get my hands dirty.
The afternoon is pretty routine. I pop out into the library when I have the chance and gape at the view some more. Light slowly creeps away over the mountains.
Dinner and all the winter-overs are building themselves huge salads. They're pale but happy. Well, some are pale and grumpy. I hear lots more stories from past seasons and there's a small but intense napkin fight.
I'd better go back to my dorm and change now, there's a band playing at Gallagher's (the non-smoking bar) later tonight and if there's dancing I'm guessing the place could get pretty warm - it's not THAT big.