Getting dressed in minus 40 temperatures isn't easy. When your clothes are like a board you have to spend ages beating them up before you can put them on. And boy does my toe hurt when I put my boots on. Still it makes for a bit of hilarity in the tent every morning.
The other clothing joke had to do with my rear. I'd spent a week with a sharp stabbing pain in my backside until Pen Hadow, the expedition leader, discovered that a needle had been left behind from the sewing – in my trousers. He got it out of me with pliers and exposing my rear was cold to say the least.
It was my birthday last week on St Patrick's day and when the supply plane eventually made it to us there was a little surprise for me from Pen. A children's cuddly toy in the form of a small duck. I'm not quite sure what he was trying to say, but that too has become a daily source of entertainment. I gather that was the only thing the pilot could find in the not-very-well-stocked shop in Resolute Bay.
It's weird how when you're out in the wilderness daft things can make you laugh.
Talking of my birthday, I'd like to say a big thanks to the team back in London and Manchester radio for arranging to get a message to my mum on the day. I hear she was pretty chuffed.
Progress since the resupply has been better than at first. That's partly to do with the fact that the weather is improving and Ann's done us proud weaving us in and out of the obelisks of ice. The temperature has gone up a bit – it's -34c – so now instead of having snow inside my sleeping bag it's soaking wet!
We've got back to our schedule of six sessions of one hour. That had slipped a bit because I'd been making a lot of stops to dress my frost-bitten toe. They put extra feet warmers and dressings in with the resupply so it's feeling a lot better.
We've been out for more than 25 days now and the magnitude of the length of this expedition is beginning to dawn on us all. We've probably got as many as 70 days left and that's really sunk in today.
