My CSA dates are May 17 - June 14 and so it would be safe to assume that a ticket to reflect that would be issued. By Wednesday when nothing appeared, I emailed HR - no response. On Thursday morning I shopped for $250 of groceries (got some strange looks at Sobeys as I weighed them to meet my 2 x 50 lb baggage allowance) home to remove the excess packaging and distribute them into my two duffels. I phoned duty travel and was advised that I didn't have a ticket yet. I phoned HR and the clerk conferred with a coworker in local dialect using occasional English terms such as emergency, urgent and my name in between my the Inuktuit words, then returned to the line to say calmly that a request had been sent, my form was awaiting signature at the office of the Assistant Deputy Minister (likely due to cost as purchasing it this close to departure would be off the scale) and would likely be issued before the end of the day by 6pm. I explained that an early morning flight wouldn't be possible as I have to drive three hours to the airport, store my car and check in two hours before the flight (foreign concepts to northerners who take ATVs to the airport 5 min away in their community). At 5:45 pm I received an email with flights attached with a departure of 7:45am the following morning, flying straight through from Halifax to Pond Inlet. Racing the clock I phoned the clerk, again explained that I was NOT going to drive all night and requested a change to later in the day and overnight in Ottawa, she agreed to contact duty travel and I offered to stay in Ottawa for the weekend if that helped. About 45 minutes later I received an email from duty travel with a change to my 4:10 pm departure, an overnight in Ottawa and flights through from there Saturday am, meaning at least a brief visit with the Ottawa daughter which was my goal. The struggle is REAL!
Cooked a supper for two of chicken, asparagus, and tostones (fried plantains) which I won't have for a while. Hid anything I don't want messed with in my absence, played with the groceries/luggage, crocheted a bit, chatted online and finally crawled into my own bed for the last time in a month. Despite all the hassles, I am excited to be going to a new community and pleased to be working for a bit. If you're wondering where Pond Inlet is...just Google it :) And of course stay tuned for photos as it's a beautiful spot I'm told and this time of year in the north is breath taking on the floe edge!
Up this morning for last minute prep and final readying. Off a bit early (which was a good decision with all the holiday weekend traffic) and arrived at my nursing class buddy's place to store my car in good time. She offered to drive me to the airport, I cancelled the cab and off we went. Relatively painless check in, a few glitches with the change in ticket, but with all the weighing and re-weighing the bags were 49.8 and 49.2 lbs respectively. Now that's an experienced packer - didn't have to take out my boots, that's for tomorrow am.
So...departing soon. Next post....north of 60. Later
