Broadcast live to the web from a phone call

http://www.justgiving.com/Felicity-Aston Well today is the 17th of January it is exactly a hundred years after Captain Scott reached the South Pole - unfortunately over a month after Amundsen has already beaten him to it but I've been thinking about Scott and his men and the story all day as I've been skiing along. Scott is not really someone that people sympathize usually with or not sympathize but identify I guess, because they were all from a totally different age. I mean I can't imagine what the response would be if you told him for example 'oh there's a woman who is going to stki across Antarctica.' That idea would have been totally inconceivable to him that a woman would do that and yet his story i find is as captivating as anybody else and that the story I heard of as a child, I guess is where I first got this idea, that Antarctica was somewhere where you came to prove yourself and put yourself against nature - that sort of thing. A place where heroes were made. And I do think that Scott is a hero, but I think it's a real shame that he's been pulled apart in recent years. As a leader of teams myself in the past, I know how difficult it is to read people. And I think perhaps the greatest tribute you can be given as a leader is though the comments and the loyalty of the people in your teams. If you read the things that were written about Scott then, both before and after his death it is clear that they would have followed him anywhere, and they have a lot of respect and admiration for him. I think that should carry perhaps more weight than the analysis of the story when we know the outcome and that can't but colour our judgement, I think, the fact that we knew what the eventual outcome was. But the story of Scott is ultimately just a tragic human story where 5 people lost their lives - but they weren't the last people to die in Antarctica unfortunately. I'm an ambassador of the British Antarctic Monument Trust which is raising money for a memorial to the 28 men and 1 woman who died in the British Antarctic Territories. If you'd like to find out more about that - or even perhaps make a donation towards the momument being planned you can find the link on my website (www.felicityaston.co.uk) and read some more about all the people who have tragically lost their lives in Antarctica as well as the Scott party. So, I guess abit of a sad day really - and I just feel very fortunate that unlike Scott I have a plan B, I have a satellite phone and I can ring for help if things got really really bad. But, this close to the end of my journey, I thoroughly hope that I won't have to do that at this stage and that the only phonecall I'll be making will be for the planes to come and pick me up and take me back to base camp - sooner rather than later I hope, but we shall see. Plodding on everyday and making progress.

Seasons Greetings, this is Team Centrepoint's first diary call in the midst of a severe Antarctic storm. Everyone is well and in good spirits despite being tentbound for 15 hours. The storm has kept us busy, instead of burying our tent, by building a snow wall to protect ourselves which has now doubled as an outside toilet. We are currently working on three hour shifts to dig ourselves out of the snow. Tent life is just about bearable and we are keeping ourselves entertained and are now looking forward to a hot, rehydrated meal cooked by our chef tonight, Ben. I will leave you today with a quote from the great Captain Scott: "I can imagine few things more trying for the patience than long wasted days of waiting".

Hello I'm in the British Library a building I've been into many many times before until many many hours just working using the free Wifi but little did I know there was actually something better than free Wifi at the British Library. I'll just ___ one of the expressions. I've got loads and loads of amazingly famous things. The Magna Carta Shakespeare original things best of all though was the diary which Captain Scotts of the Antartic(?) recorded about ___ going I'm going outside there maybe some time and I actually got the actual diary page where he wrote that down that famous word amazing and I'm a bit impressed by that book. Now we're going down with this historical maps and I'm gonna open the greatest man in the world. More later.

David Hamilton interviews Scott Knowles, Scotland's Captain following their excellent win over Ireland on Day 3.