Time flies and it has been almost a month since my last update. It is all too easy to forget that there is a "real" world out there somewhere - things that concern us here are mainly the weather and the need to keep the station, our lifeline, operational.

The polar night has finally descended upon us and the sun will not rise again before early July. I was expecting it to be much darker until I remembered that the polar night is really only referring to Sun's altitude being zero or less (there is always good light until the altitude gets to about -7 degrees). The colour display every "morning" and "evening" is stunning ranging from deep indigo to ridiculously bright light blue and from peachy orange-yellow to rosey pink and crimson red, all colours being there at the same time depending on which direction of the sky one is looking at. I wish I was a poet so I could better describe it all!

We have just completed the first Hagg (Hagglunds all-terrain vehicle - see photo above) trip of the season. The sea ice needs to be of a certain minimum thickness before these vehicles can venture out but they enable travel even when the weather conditions exclude all other forms of mobility. You still need to mentally prepare yourself for the experience though - you are moving in a square box weighing several tons above an unimaginable volume of unimaginably cold water and the only thing that separates you from it is less than a metre of sea ice.

Whilst temperatures in the lower stratosphere are now suitably low for cloud condensation no PSCs have been detected at Davis yet. I am following the evolution of various chemical species within the vortex using the EOS MLS plots which are great for an overview of what's going on up there (http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/plots/mls/mls_plot_locator.php). The PSC modelling work is also progressing nicely and the current aim is to be able to quickly run all new incoming data through a standard set of models. The more I look at the data the more there is, as always. Where does one stop?!

I have also configured the CloudCam to spy the skies. It is a Canon 300D with a standard 18-55mm lens mounted on a motorised tripod thingy and a set of scripts controlling its operation. The camera takes one photo every 10 minutes and the system then stitches the images into a timelapse movie. Any aurorae in that part of the sky will also get captured as we use exposures of around 30 seconds at night time.

Apart from the usual routine and the preparation for the PSC showtime we are all getting excited about the biggest festivity of the Antarctic year - the Midwinter's celebration. It will be held on 21 June and traditionally involves a black tie dress code with a delicious dinner followed by the perpetual performance of Cinderella. This tradition dates back to Scott's and Shackleton's days and psychologically holds a great significance to the wintering expeditioners as it marks a turnaround point - from then on the days will again start getting longer and the resupply date will start approaching at an ever faster pace. However it is probably watching the beirded Cinderella with the rest of the gracefully hairy crew doing their uttermost to keep this tradition alive that will be the highlight of the night!

Again I feel so very privileged to be in Antarctica. It is simply awesome to be part of all the Antarctic traditions here and to be able to share them with the fellow winterers - we have a fantastic group of people here this winter and I know already that I will miss them when it is time to return to the real world.