Frozen Planet - Guest Blog II

Alexander Kumar is a 28 year old British doctor currently living at Concordia Station in Antarctica, where he and his colleagues are conducting Human Spaceflight research for the European Space Agency. The team are completely unreachable at the most isolated, coldest place on the planet until November. In Alex's second blog post he fills us in on his latest experience with his hat, which is hand-knitted by Sandra Manson in Jamieson & Smith's Real Shetland Wool. .................................................................................................................................................... Every month or so, we clean our melt water tank. The melt tank is how we get our water. We load fresh ice into the unit daily and then melt it. Every month the unit has to be cleaned. Before we clean it, we use the opportunity to take a swim in it. Bear in mind it is outside (and we live in Antarctica)! Having nearly lost my ears last time I swam, I decided to try out Sandra's Shetland hat. It was just the ticket - my ears survived. Here are some photos of me wearing the hat taking a swim in -78 degrees Celcius. You can see my colleague and Glaciologist, Sebastien Aubin, who was not so lucky to have a Shetland Hat- just take a look at his hairstyle... I was extremely grateful to have Shetland here protecting my head. Next time, I will take Sandra's knitted mittens in also. Cheerio, Alex ........................................................................................................................................................ Thankyou Alex, we're looking forward to the next instalment already! x