Random Writings

How did I come to be doing this? I’ve given up my permanent job at the BBC‘s R&D department to spend about eighteen months working on a research station in Antarctica. Some might say I was mad.
It was back in February. Croydon and the surrounding area was covered in a blanket of snow for about a week, and I arrived at work to find a copy of IEE Review on my desk. It’s a general journal published by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, although it now covers a broad swathe of technology. There, in the jobs section, amongst the usual assortment of recruitment agent ads (“quality jobs for top techies”, “RF designers, military applications, Hampshire”) was a single-column ad with a picture of someone putting on snowshoes. The British Antarctic Survey were looking for Communications Managers to work on their bases and look after HF (short-wave) radio and satellite systems, and administer computer networks. This sounded very much like my cup of tea. Particularly as Auntie Beeb was talking seriously about making a lot of the R&D boffins redundant and moving the rest to Manchester. So, I applied. And I talked about it to anyone who would listen. I’d like to thank my long-suffering housemates and close friends for putting up with me! Some weeks later I was invited to Cambridge for an interview…

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 5th, 2005 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Antarctica.