My time here in Ottawa (Carp) was spend just chillaxin’, veggin out, and enjoying the last of the greenery that I would be seeing for 10 months. Oh, how I already miss my green trees :-(.
Being the crazy branch of the family (yes, the crazy branch - or the slightly twisted and warpped branch :-) ... or perhaps that one branch that just juts out of the tree making it look a little freakish but not Charlie Brownish) that moved all the freaking way up North has had it’s perks. I’ve been able to see more of my relatives this year as a traveller (or hobo, or lost child) than I think in the last 10 years. It was great dropping in on my relatives (with plenty of notice) and crashing with them as I traveled between Arctic Bay - New Brunswick and New Brunswick - Arctic Bay. Can’t wait for next year!
This morning I got to wake up at the freaking crack of dawn (and I mean crack of dawn .... the sun wasn’t even thinking of getting up yet, and I was a zombie) to finish getting ready for the rest of my journey back north.
Getting checked in @ First Air was a breeze (compared to usual leaving Ottawa) - no arguments over my luggage and I only had to pay an excess baggage fee as all of my bags were - just that one pound underweight! Mwaa-haaa-haaa! It was great! I had totally expected to be paying for at least one overweight bag -nope! My last minute shuffle of some stuff must have evened out the weight distribution.
Breakfast, was ... well... was the best freaking cup of coffee I had ever had. Now, this might also be because it was my LAST cup of Second Cup coffee for the next 10 months (hint-hint-nudge-nudge - ahem - cough - care package - cough - ahem) - thankfully I do have a crap load of Starbucks headed my way as well and still have one bag here that I will be brining over to the RCMP detachment tomorrow as my coffee maker is packed and my water is a little funky - I think I just have to run the lines a little as I’m sure the water has just sat there all summer.
So, I’m sitting at gate 17, drinkning my third cup of coffee for the morning, when I hear my name (well .... kinda .... Aeroplan butchered my name and combined my first name and my middle name all into one name of Kendraann - which confused the gate person) .... Well, my heart practically stopped and everyone had their eyes glued to me as I was walking up to the gate. Random thoughts were going through my head “I really want to finish my coffee!”, “Dear God, what did they find in my luggage?”, “What did I leave where?”, “Crap, don’t tell me my flight to Nanisivik is canceled....”. I get there, say hi, and then was given another boarding pass .... well, kinda. What it was was an extra receipt for my extra baggage stating that I had already paid for it and that I shouldn’t be charged again in Iqaluit. Phew!
The flight to Iqaluit was uneventful. Although I did have the sweetest seat in the whole plane - ya know that seat right behind the emergency exit that has all of the leg room? Yeah, that was me. Got some pretty good pictures too of the landscape while in the Air as well (as last year I didn’t get any even though I requested a window seat and was given a window seat but this lady and her kid refused to move out of my seat - grrrrrrrrr!!!), so this year, I made sure I was first on that plane (after those traveling with kids).
We made it to Iqaluit on time .... which left me with 2 hours to kill before my next flight .... I went for a nice walk around town and nabbed some pics of some really landlocked “ice bergs” not really icebergs .... but to a southerner ... they are icebergs.
Went back to the airport for 1:30 figuring that we would be doing the pre-boarding thing soon ... As I am sitting in the airport, I can feel something wet in my bookbag. Oh-oh, my eyes practically pop out of my head as I dive into my bag and pull (or whip) out my MacBook. Phew! It’s not wet! So, of course .... I”m left wonder what has caused this wetness .... my contacts. Somehow, an I am assuming that it has something to do with the changes in pressure while in the air, all of the contact solution in my case was pushed out of the case leaving my contact in the case with no solution. Freaking, I fill the cases back up and tripple wrap them in bags (as I did not want them to leak all over again). Lesson learned? Wear your contacts while in the air. (Mom, if you are reading this .... can you see if you can find one of those old school basket contact cases? or visit the eye doc and ask what I can do to avoid this from happening again? As we all know I will probably have a couple of trips out this year).
Well, 2:00 PM came and went, I’m standing around the tourist keosk chatting away with a gent from NFLD who was heading out to Pond Inlet, when one of the CTSA (the dudes that screen us on the flight) piped in asking what I was doing in the North. I told him I was a teacher and the conversation went on from there. He’s been trying to find a way for his daughter and her boyfriend to apply for teaching jobs up here, but wasn’t too sure who to contact or even what positions were still available. I told him all about the Education Canada Network that lists all of the education jobs across Canada and let him know about the NWT teacher induction program (that we all have to apply through for teaching jobs). If only I got a kick back for every person I ran into who eventually came up North to teach :-).
Finally, at 2:50 we boarded our flight - after those of us getting off in Nanisivik were given our green sticker of death - we were not a happy bunch - and we were in the air by 3:00 - only half an hour late. That left me sitting in the plane wondering if my ride back to town was going to wait for me or figure we got bumped along the way ... he waited for me - and even was able to connect with a pilot that he knows at the same time. Thanks for picking me up Mate!!!!!! You have my utmost gratitude!
I finally get back to town sometime around 7:000, drop my bags off, do a quick sweep of the house to see if anything was missing or out or place (nothing noticed so far - and my room was still locked up when I got back), and then head over to J's to pick up a pair of my speakers so I had some tunes to listen to while I was finishing gathering all of my left over sea lift so we can start moving it up to my new place tomorrow. We wound up talking for a little bit, I got the scoop on what’s been going on in town for the last little while (oh ... the stories), and then get a drive back to my place.
I get home, plug the speakers in and figure well, I might as well try to get on line as my roommate did not cancel our internet over the summer. Well.... either we are having issues with the internet or somehow the autopay feature got buggered up cause all I am getting is the blinking lights of doom. Sigh... no internet yet :-(. At least I have cable! I could watch some tv while I pack .... nope, no cable either. Dang! Oh well... I just turned the music up nice and loud and cleaned / packed. I’m almost all done.
Kinda funny when you start to clean and pack ... you notice how much you actually do have. J asked me how much of my sea-lift I had left and I said not too much, mostly pasta, rice, tomato sause and muffin mix .... boy was I ever wrong! Looking at these pictures you would wonder why I even placed another sea lift order. Well, hang on Mom before you start to freak out. Most of this stuff I didn’t order again as I had half cases of things ... I really only ordered things that I needed (like pop, Perier, Ravioli, Tang, Canned Fruit and Veggies). No pasta (other than Mr. Noddles), no rice, no muffin mix, no oatmeal, no cereal, no brown sugar ( I think). I am beginning to wonder how I am going to stuff all of this in my new place ... but once I take what I need to have in the cupboards out, the rest I can store in my room / entry way as there is a ton of space there. I’m not too worried ... yet. Worse come to worse, I’ll just give a couple of people a call and ask them if they need anything to hold them over until their sea-lift comes in. On the bright side, though in doing sea-lifts, I don’t have to buy too much at the Norther - so my grocery bill is relatively low each month. Usually it’s about 250$ as I tend to order fresh meat from the IGA in Quebec at least once a month and fresh fruit every two to three weeks . But this year, I am going to try to not have to buy too much extra stuff. I am going to somehow get through all of my sea lift.
So now, it is late, 11:00PM, I'm sitting here on my futon, in my room, surrounded by boxes typing this up .... of course, I am never a fan of sleeping on my own in an apartment (or house). Even at my parent’s place, I still slept with a hockey stick / shovel near by just in case - although, I didn’t bother at the apartment as there was really only one way into it - but I did sleep with the phone, I have my nice shovel under my bed within reach and the emergency number on my speed dial on my phone just in case. I know, slightly paranoid eh? I think we are all a little paranoid at times though - the world is a changing place. Mom, don’t panic - I am perfectly safe! I just take safety to a whole new level :-).
Night everyone! With any luck I will get back online soon!
Rest of travel pics here
1 comments:
I won't panic! I know you can take care of yourself. Just keep your doors locked, OK?
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