I just have to share a little moment with you. I’m sitting in my lovely lab 3 workspace this morning doing some freewriting (think of it as a pre-workout stretch for writers) and I look up at the laptop, which is sitting at the back of the bench.
A year ago, or probably two, or maybe as many as three years ago, I downloaded a desktop wallpaper from the Australian Antarctic Division’s website, which shows two people putting up a tent with a background of snow, ice and rocks. I put it there as a visual reminder of Antarctica every time I was on the computer (which is a lot of the time). It was also (Byron-hippy-alert) a visualisation of the place I really wanted to visit, a way of picturing, on a daily basis, my goal to go there. So it’s been in front of me for a long time and several times I’ve thought of changing it but haven’t got around to it. It’s certainly not the most picturesque shot of Antarctica or anything.
So, for some reason this morning I look at it with new eyes. It looks really familiar. Is that just from seeing it every day for a few years? I peer more closely. That rock formation in the background… could it be?
I quickly start iphoto and scroll through my pictures of the field trip with Dave. At Platcha Hut, the second place we stayed, there was a beautiful cliff opposite the hut and I took quite a few photos of it because of the blue sea ice at its foot and the big dark dolerite formation running through the centre of it.
Ah, you guessed it. It’s the same formation. The photo that’s been on my desktop all this time is the view I looked out at from Platcha Hut. They often take people there for field training, so the AAD shot was probably taken when people were being trained to put up a tent, and the hut is out of shot.
What are the chances of that?
And if that didn’t make the hair rise on the back of my neck – how about this? The snowy plateau in the background of the shot is Ingrid Christensen Coast.
Spooky. Wonderful.
Have a great day
Jesse xxx
PS. I looked at the date on the file – it’s been on my computer for more than two years.
Blackadder Blogs 
Pretty amazing – from a fellow hippy! ; )
Oh and “fast ice”, meant to write after that post; think of steadfast; holding fast. Probably Old English.
XX
That is so good – just goes to show, visualisation works. And you know what a hippy I am Jess. Loving your blog – you are a natural. Maybe I should be doing more writing stretches?
Four years ago, a desktop-wallpaper-hippy-visualisation incident led me to the house I would buy and live in so happily … so I felt such a buzz reading about your Platcha Hut experience. Big smiles to you, Jesse. X
You dream it, you put it out there and it will come. So true and so wonderful. Dont take this the wrong way but I’ll be mildly disappointed when you come home because I won’t be able to read your delightfully entertaining blog every day. Any chance you could blog from home?
Jen XX
I adore this story!!!
What an inspiring story, Jesse. As Goethe said, ‘Whatever you can do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it – begin it now’. This has magic in it.