Can you hear me OK? I need a bit more on the foldback. One two. I think the cable is too short and I'm missing a mike.

Well, uh, thanks for turning up and maybe even passing up a part of tonight's Australian Idol to be here. Now that this blogspace has been set up and there's a good ten kilobytes of space (oh, at least) freed up on my web account, the pace is going to be furious for the next six months. I'm leaving you all this summer, leaving you to your sunburn and seabathing and sand-in-your-swimmers, and trading it in for seasickness, shivering and snowblindness. I'm getting on a ship which will sail right off what used to be the edges of the world map, heading even more austral than terra australis, heading straight to the heart of Here-Be-Dragons and you know what? It could be quite a bit of fun.

You can look over my shoulder if you like. You can even whisper in my ear.

Here. Daily. -ish. Slush is the most complete first-hand account you will ever read about a modern-day science mission to Antarctica.

Tomorrow: extracts from training manuals, including the Official Australian Government Guide to Survival: how to build a snow shelter, how to sling emergency huts under a helecopter, and the best way to club a seal. I kid you not.