Where to begin? Well.....I am north of 60 but there's been a fair bit of living in between the last posting and this update.
I started out on Sunday afternoon after the shore captain arrived with fish for all his girls. There was halibut and haddock enough for everyone - me and the three daughters - and so I packed the bags of seafood and cold packs into my luggage and headed down to store the car. That is where things got interesting. I sent a text (as requested) when I got within half an hour to the guy at the storage facility. Thought it was strange I didn't get a reply but continued on. No one there when I (and a few minutes later the teacher daughter) arrived. So I sent an email, a voice mail message with a number to call me back and another text. It was clear that this was not going to work as an option for me to store my car this trip. So....we headed back towards to the city. We had originally intended to eat at Pizza Delight but when the final decision to store the car in the daughter's driveway (full garage) was made we opted for supper at Ela's:
where we enjoyed pitas with dips then chicken with saffron sauce, roast potatoes and veggies. When the #2 daughter commented that I was taking the situation pretty well I acknowledged that I was doing better now that I'd eaten - how could saffron chicken be wrong? So I left the vehicle in their driveway and the daughter and son-in-law dropped me back to the ALT Hotel. What a spiffy joint that is. The lobby is straight out of Norway and the rooms are very swish. No fridge though so that meant a few trips to the ice machine to fill up the trash can to store my fish in. A great sleep and then only a few steps to the departure area of the airport.
My travel partner was already checked in, through security and waiting at the gate. A painless check in with an agent who was very tolerant and decided not to charge me overweight on the 4 lbs in my bag. On to the flight and one of the CHNs from my first contract in Cambridge Bay was on the plane with her family coming back from vacation in Newfoundland. Had a chance to catch up on the work news in Pearson while we waited for the flight to Edmonton. The usual flight of oil field and mine workers and I took the opportunity to watch Internship - a comedy to pass the time about two older salesmen going to Google - made me giggle. What did not make me smile was when the flight attendant told my young travel partner (on her first flight to Nunavut) that her ticket had a sandwich and snack attached to it and gave her the choice of wrap or baguette. I took out my credit card and decided that I'd buy food too (something I NEVER do on flights) and asked for a flat bread pizza but the flight attendant said "sorry we're all sold out" so I put my Visa away with a scowl. To her credit my colleague did offer me part of her snack but by then I was too spitey to agree. Must've been beginners luck because I checked with the travel agent who books for us (asking where is my sandwich?) and she advised they don't book food with the ticket, my travel partner got lucky. My younger travel buddy asked me "why I didn't have a pension?" when I explained my reason for working north so I told her that "old folks like me fought for the right for pensions to be transferrable, so now people her age benefitted as it hasn't always been the way it is now."
We arrived on time in Edmonton and navigated the ritual of luggage retrieval, shuttle and hotel check in. Then we decided to rent a vehicle (office in the hotel) for the afternoon to go grocery shopping. It was only $15 - $20 and a quick process, so something I'll be trying on. I did my grocery shopping at Walmart and was assisted and driven back to the hotel by the nurse daughter. She was amazingly perky for someone just off nights with only two hours of sleep. The electrician daughter joined us as soon as we returned to the hotel and we had a great catch up. Through some miscommunication, there was only one action packer stored with daughter #1. I had said to her younger sister "does she have both my action packers?" and most of us would understand this to mean more than one. The answer had been "yup". Yet when I asked the electrician daughter for the other tote she looked surprised and her sister said "oh I saw that in the barn before I moved out here". "So you mean to tell me that I left it in NS as I thought it was in Alberta, you knew it was there and then I asked if your sister had the action packerS and you said yes?" Ummm, well yup, I guess that's it. The oldest daughter (always the problem solver) suggested a cheap tote to make the trip north once and be used to store my 'stuff to be left' in. Thus we journeyed to another Walmart for this on the way back from supper. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at Japanese Village and then headed back to the hotel. The oldest drove back to her place as she had work in the morning, the youngest hit the sack and was out like a light from all the sleep deprivation. I checked in online for my flight, packed and stored my groceries then sent the totes to the hotel roll in cooler for retrieval in the morning. I readied everything so I could sneak away quietly without waking my sleepover guest and crashed myself.
Tuesday morning was an early start as my eyes were open before the 5:30 am wakeup call. A quick out the door, kiss and goodbye for the sleeping daughter and down to the lobby. The totes were retrieved from the cooler for me - much better than wrestling them out of the room on a cart - and out to the shuttle. Over to the terminal after dropping off lots of blue collar passengers flying into the mines and oil patch and listening to an American hunter boast how he was working on his North America 29 (he explained this was a trophy list from a certain group) which included caribou, dahl sheep, bears etc. This is why the flight had so much excess baggage with all the ammunition, firearms and huge tote bags. In to the gate, check in and what a hassle - why must I get the person in training? Fully booked flight, so one of my bags (the non perishables) wasn't made priority, long lineup at the overweight baggage scanner - military group going to Resolute Bay, although security wasn't as bad as I have seen it here.....it was 75 minutes from hotel lobby through to security in the end. Outside to board the flight and then.....we wait, and wait as a mechanical problem is fixed. It's the altimeter so no one grumbles that it's not necessary but after two hours we're all getting kinda stiff from being jammed into the seats and not having gone anywhere. The repairs are finally completed and we are off, but the concern is now that we have missed our connection. The announcement is made that our flight in Yellowknife is being held and we will connect after all. Yeehaw! An uneventful flight (the best kind) and we're down in Yellowknife, booting it over to the small room which serves as Canadian North and First Air terminal and then outside to catch the turbo prop to Nunavut. There are beautiful fall colours in the hills surrounding Kugluktuk as we come in for the landing and I visit with patients and health centre staff at the terminal. Another stop in Cambridge Bay and a visit with the Regional Manager who was meeting a nurse on the flight and then off to Taloyoak. We all traipse into the terminal and I say goodbye to the my travel partner, who still has two more take offs and landings before reaching Gjoa Haven. I wish her well in her adventure. I find that no one has come to get me from the health centre - yes the flight is late but I still need a drive (coworker shunning is never good) - I could have called for a lift but when I find I've been stood up, the RCMP Cst. meeting someone else on the flight offers to drop me at the centre and even carries my one action packer (second tote didn't arrive with me) up the steps and into the entryway. "Thanks a bunch" I say to my boss and coworker who look at me with surprise when I open the door. "Hah, I love you too!" and then I realize 'it's good to be home' and am off up the stairs to settle in. First step is to wash the clothes in my duffle bag as the fish leaked on them. Sigh. My internet is activated so I catch up online with folks and find my buddy in Iqaluit has flown out of Gjoa Haven with the homecare nurse who was supposed to orientate my travel partner, so much for that idea. He also tells me that there was a helicopter crash near Resolute Bay, where they were checking ice conditions, with three fatalities. Sad.
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| Ice in the ponds |
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| Tuktu in the fall |
Wednesday was a day of welcomes and the usual routine. Just slightly rusty after my eight week vacation but quickly back into the swing of things. The usual walk ins and appointments in the morning and prenatal visits and school kids immunizations in the afternoon. My second tote was delivered by Canadian North and the young fellow even carried it up the stairs for me. Nellie had taken first call, so I at least had the evening to take a walk down to the shore (brrr ice is forming), put away my supplies, cook my fish and catch up on my rest. The hunters have been getting a lot of caribou as they are passing by Taloyoak in their fall migration and are really fat. There was a lot of construction activity in
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| The open ocean |
the hamlet as the projects wrap up for the season as well as containers from the barge which arrived last
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| Containers everywhere |
week. There are three barges which will bring supplies in the sea lift. First was the COOP, next week is The Northern Store and the last will be a general barge. All kinds of new supplies needing to be stored for the next year, we received our shipment of oxygen cylinders (obviously they can't be flown in) and lots of office and medical supplies to find spots for.
Today I was on call and it was a busy morning with screaming kids, complicated appointments, and lots of phone calls. The usual. The afternoon was well baby immunization plus some urgent calls. I asked Nellie to consult on one of the patients she has seen last week who had returned and he was rude to her saying that she hadn't listened to him or treated him properly. She promptly left the office. I thought to myself that perhaps he was out of touch with reality to do something so dumb as insulting the indeterminant (full time) staff member. It was one of the visits that became the longest running saga since Bonanza. Sigh. This evening on call so far has been one of only phone calls and baking lessons for my coworker who learned to make scones tonight. She had some wonderful orange infused dried cranberries which made delicious scones. I got to taste one without having to make them - perfect set up. Off to settle in with one ear cocked for the on call phone.
