Another Milestone in Life

This coming weekend Son-of-Furtheron is off to pastures new - although there is precious little pasture where he is heading!  He is off to Svalbard which is in the High Arctic - in fact it is the most northerly town of over 1,000 people in the world.  He has a great opportunity as part of his last year on his master course to go there to study the Northern Lights (or Radar Diagnostics of Space Plasmas and the Interaction of Solar Winds with the Earth's Ionosphere if you want to be technical about it!).  It will be 24 hour darkness when he gets there and for the first month!  It has recently been -20°C with a windchill taking it below -30°C.  So not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination.  By the time he comes home sometime in May or June it'll be a balmy -2°C and 24 hour daylight!  Frankly I think 24 hour daylight will prove more difficult to get your head and bodyclock around than the 24 hour night personally!

We're all off to Heathrow to wave him off on the first leg of the trip there - he'll fly to Oslo then take a domestic flight from there to the island itself.  I'm expecting much tears and wailing from Mrs F, his girlfriend who is staying with us and Daughter-of-Furtheron.  I'll do my best to grit my teeth and not show emotion... :-)

Once he has completed these studies he'll be quickly back to Wales to graduate and then... well we'll see, I think a PhD is his likely next course - he doesn't want to "sell his soul to a corporation".  Another big step in the Furtheron family annals and another milestone in life.

Comments

  1. unikorna3 January 2013 at 10:07

    I wish good luck to the Son-of-Furtheron :). I must be hard for you, but that's the course of things :). I greatly enjoyed the song "let me love you tonight" :), congrats and good luck this year on your journey towards stardom :).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3 January 2013 at 12:27

    Holy Adventure, Batman! First thought that popped into my head was, cold, so very cold! Then, wow, just amazing! What an amazing opportunity he's been given. I know it will be difficult for Mrs. F but he'll be home before she knows it (and before you know it, dad). I can't wait to see the pictures he takes, hint, hint, hint.

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  3. John Medd3 January 2013 at 12:50

    More power to his, soon to be, chilly elbow.

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  4. Judith3 January 2013 at 12:55

    Wow. Impressive! I wish him a great time and good luck, and for those left behind I send positive thoughts to get you through worrying about and missing him.

    ReplyDelete
  5. daisyfae3 January 2013 at 23:26

    What an exciting opportunity! Cold as it is, it's once-in-a-lifetime chance to immerse in scienctific research to the extreme! Looking forward to hearing more about this in the future!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kolley Kibber4 January 2013 at 11:15

    Oh, what an incredible thing to be doing. And what a clever chap he must be. I am in awe of him! Hope you'll be able to have enough regular contact to stop you all worrying - Skype is a godsend at times like this, and will help keep him sane in all those extremes of temperature and light.

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  7. The Unbearable Banishment4 January 2013 at 11:55

    What a smart lad. As I'm sure you know, you can only do these things when you're young. Once you climb off of toy mountain, you have to start making worldly compromises. More power to him. You should insist on photos and please post them here, if you don't mind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Furtheron4 January 2013 at 12:03

      Given his huge photography interest I expect photos - he posts his best stuff up on Flikr, once they appear I'll point people in that direction

      Delete
  8. Suburbia4 January 2013 at 19:14

    What a fantastic oportunity

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  9. Chelly5 January 2013 at 04:22

    Congrats to Son of Furtheron and to the whole Furtheron family. What an impressive milestone and what an exciting journey! Cheers my friend!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Liz Hinds6 January 2013 at 19:22

    I saw on facebook you'd been waving him off. Wow, what an adventure! Though you make it sound less attractive!

    ReplyDelete

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