Summer Holiday - Day 7 (Harrogate)

Harrogate holds a lot more family history than I knew before this trip. On Day 7, I went by various important spots in town. On our way to Marks and Spencers, Heather and I left the car near where my mother was born and where Heather lived for a few years.

After shopping we drove by where my mother spent much of her early childhood. After picking up Grandma for lunch we drove by the hotel where she and Grandpa stayed on their honeymoon! Talk about family ties!!! We had lunch at the newly renovated Squinting Cat.

Having had so much for lunch we just had egg sandwiches and cake for tea that evening while watching a marathon of Grand Design.

Summer Holiday - Days 5 & 6 (Chesterfield - Hadden Hall - Harrogate)

On Day 5, Joss and I visited Hadden Hall. Unfortunately, my camera decided to be uncooperative that day, so I have no photos. :( We ate at the other local pub for dinner that evening - The Wellington Hotel. I enjoyed a delicious apple crumble with custard for dessert!!!

The next day it was pouring rain. We ran a few errands in town and retreated indoors for some coffee/hot cocoa at Caffe Nero. Due to the downpour, my comfy red sandals were destroyed - they bled red all over my feet and the upper soles wore away and once dried, they did not smell good. :(

Before my departure, George and I visited "Revolution House" where conspirators plotted to bring William of Orange over to England. After this educative stop, I took the train to Harrogate to visit Heather and Grandma.

It was also raining in Harrogate when I arrived in Harrogate, but we got my luggage into the house without too much trouble.

Day 6 in Harrogate was fairly relaxed. Heather, Grandma and I went to ASDA for their weekly grocery shop. We ended up watching television and chatting much of the afternoon and had Chinese take-away for dinner.

Summer Holiday - Day 4 (Chesterfield)

Carol came up from London for the afternoon on Day 4. We ate lunch at the Thai Pavillion restaurant.

We wandered around the Medieval fair taking place in downtown Chesterfield.

We tried to have an 99 Flake (ice cream cone with flake chocolate), but all the vendors had closed. :( I would have to wait until another day to fulfill that experience! Then we said our farewells to Carol at the train station.

Summer Holiday - Day 3 (Chesterfield - Bakewell - Stoney Middleton)

I arrived in Manchester and tranferred to trains to get to Chesterfield. After lunch, we headed to Bakewell for the afternoon. I sampled a Bakewell pudding for the first time (or at least the first time in my memory!). We also visited an embroidery shop...dangerous to the wallet! ;)

On our way back to Chesterfield we stopped by some well-dressings in Stoney Middleton. These are made from wooden boards covered in clay and then flower petals are imbedded in the clay to create pictures.

That night we visited a local pub called the Cock and Magpie for dinner.

Summer Holiday - Days 1 & 2 (Iqaluit - Ottawa - above Atlantic Ocean)

The journey began with a flight down to Ottawa. That evening the Shad gang gathered at East Side Mario's for dinner and to catch up before people head out in various directions.

The next morning I joined the choir for a quartet and had hamburgers at my brother's place. I did some last minute shopping and then headed to the airport for my overnight trip to England.

Trip further north

On July 14, I got to go up, up and to the top of Baffin Island. I accompanied colleagues on a visit to the closed Nanisivik Mine site. Here are just a few of the interesting pictures I managed to take. They're a little out of order thanks to the upload function on my blog. ;)

One year...

So, as of today I've been living in Iqaluit, Nunavut for one year. People have mentionned that I should do a post on how I feel after a year. At times it's hard to believe that it's been a year, but at others it seems like much longer.

For instance, one of the landmarks that first struck me when I arrived was the igloo-like building of the Kamotik Inn. It was a restaurant from the 1970s that was rumoured to be closing on and off again for a long time. Rumours proved true this weekend...the K-Inn was there on Friday, but torn down and completely removed when I wandered by its former location this lunchtime.

The St. Jude's Cathedral is also progressing onwards. I first visited Iqaluit for the official groundbreaking of the Cathedral. Last summer it seemed to remain mostly the same, but this spring they've started building upwards. The hope is that the Cathedral will be ready for services on Christmas Eve of 2009.

On a more personal front, I've managed to do some interesting traveling in the past year. As of May 2007, I had never visited any of Canada's three territories. I can now say I've visited Nunavut (and live here!!) and the Northwest Territories. In September 2007 I stopped in Coral Harbour, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Repulse Bay. In November I went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. In January I travelled to Vancouver for a tradeshow. At the end of February I was in Toronto for another show. In April I went to meetings in Baker Lake - the geographic centre of Canada! That's pretty good when you factor in my trips to Kansas and Virginia for holidays as well!!

I've sung in several Iqaluit Community Choir concerts, including wearing an amauti for the singing of O Canada in three languages (Inuktitut, French and English) on Canada Day! At church I'm starting to sing solos during communion services and am helping the organist pick out new pieces to learn with the group.

I've even started playing softball in the past few weeks...the aches and pains won't let me forget it!

I still go to the movies quite frequently. I've wound up seeing quite a few films that I otherwise would not have due to lack of options, but I've realized that I'm not as scared by all the action films as I used to be. Pushing the envelope and all that. ;)

I've made some headway with work projects too. Completing publications like the Nunavut Overview is definitely rewarding. Meeting Nunavummiut and industry leaders through outreach activities is also great.

I've also met a great group of people. Nunavummiut are friendly and welcoming. People come and go so much that we're always meeting new people and learning new things.

What more can I say? Until next time...