Friday, September 28, 2007

It arrived!

My Parka arrived yesterday!!! Here I am modeling the new coat that will keep me warm in the coming months! :)



Mining Week travels

This week I had the opportunity to visit four more communities in Nunavut. Flying across to the mainland, we stopped in Coral Harbour to refuel.










We then proceeded on to Chesterfield Inlet.








The second photo is of a hospital built in the 1930s.






The third photo showed how long the painted greeting had been there...since Chesterfield Inlet became part of Nunavut (and stopped being a part of the N.W.T.) in April 1999!!!
















The final photo was as we boarded the plane to head to Rankin Inlet for a night's rest.









We crashed for the night in Rankin Inlet and then had a bit of chaos finding out how and when we would be going to Repulse Bay.







Eventually it was sorted out. We got on board and headed out...

















We arrived in Repulse around 11am without any more trouble. Then we tried to get lunch, but no one at the local hotel knew we were coming! So, we bought lunch at the local co-op then went in search of the Hamlet Office and school.














We had some time to wander around Repulse Bay before the evening presentation. I got a nice picture of the sun starting to set over the bay.






I also took a few other pictures around town... I even made it to their version of NorthMart: Northern.





Finally, before we flew back to Iqaluit, our co-pilot "de-iced" the plan manually for us. :)

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Times they are a movin' on

So, it's been a little while since I last wrote. We've been going through waves of coldness and mixes of snow/rain. Most mornings we now wake up to frozen puddles and a light layer of frost/snow on the ground.


For the past few weeks I've been preparing for Nunavut Mining Week and it finally begins tomorrow! Of course, they have to turn the power off in most of town tomorrow just to add to the excitement, but we will survive. After all, we have to use generators for power in the park anyway! So, tonight I must set alarms on none-plugged in devices in order to ensure I make it to the park on time. Activities include panning for gold, the rock doctor, surveying, and of course...hotdogs! Hopefully we'll get a good turn out. My pencils and activity books are ready to be distributed...hope that they actually attract our target audience! Anyway, I need sleep....and to figure out what to wear in order to stay warm, but also be able to move about easily tomorrow. Hope to have pictures to share again in the near future. :)

Ta ta.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Welcome to September in Iqaluit

September in Iqaluit is full of surprises?!? On September 6 we had snow. September 7 brought winds of 57 km/h (35miles per hour) with gusts of 74 km/h (46miles per hour)...I'm starting to think my face does not need exfoliation since I get sand blown in my face at high speeds anway! ;)

First week back at work since my trip down to Ottawa and Virginia has been busy. Preparations for Nunavut Mining Week continue at a quick pace. On Thursday I saw "The Invasion" at the movies...the three of us who went together were laughing most of the way through...hopefully we didn't bother the other movie-goers too much! Tonight I'm going to a bar/restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow is "sign-up day" at which you sign-up for recreation activities for the coming year. After that, I think I'll collapse for the remainder of the weekend.

Until next time...