The House & other Arctic musings

Pins on a map

This afternoon, as I walked from the plane to terminal in Iqaluit I looked back to a beautiful slim crescent moon, followed in the sky by Venus and Jupiter. As the sky has deepened tonight I can't seem to keep my eyes from drifting up to them. It is a nice way to (almost) end my trip. One more leg, tomorrow, and I'm home. 

I've been travelling this week for work. And I have travelled the length and breadth of Nunavut, and not just figuratively. From 73° North, south to 62°. From 68°W in the east, clear across into the NWT capital of Yellowknife.  It was eight days, for three and a half days of meetings.  That saw me stop in all three regions of Nunavut: The Baffin, Kitikmeot and Kivalliq and seven communities including two territorial capitals.

Some of the places were new to me, new pins in my mental map of Nunavut. Even though a couple of the new places, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak, were simply stops at the airport enroute. Cambridge Bay, on the other hand was a welcoming place were we spent several days. Although I didn't get to see much apart from the hotel and the meeting rooms I liked what I saw in my short walk. I had hoped to get a chance to see and photograph some of the many Muskoxen in the area, but unfortunately they were quite far from town while we were away and time wouldn't allow it.

Travel isn't always easy up here, and there were glitches along the way. But that is all part of the experience of travelling in the Arctic. I spent time with fellow bloggers, Craig, Megan and a brief visit with Tara. People I usually only get to talk with through their blogs or facebook. We had good sessions, and I once again am coming back inspired by my fellow Economic Development Officers, men and women who I hope are appreciated by their communities, because of the awesome work that many of them do.

Checking in to my hotel tonight I found that I lucked into a huge corner suite, complete with a king sized bed. Alas there is no one to share it with. I miss my wife and kids.

I miss home. Tomorrow, barring any of those northern travel glitches and weather permitting, I will be home. And that is where I long to be.

Hello, is it me you're looking for?

I caught a glimpse of the fireworks from Winterfest the other the day. We had stumbled into a Formula Taxi race somehow, and were speeding through the city. The last time I'd been going that fast in a city was during a high speed chase through the streets of Saskatoon.  But as we approached downtown we could see the fireworks framed by the highrises. It was an interesting view of them, quite enjoyable, apart for the fearing for my life part.

But here's the thing. During the ride I missed two phone calls and a text message. I'm not, in any way shape or form, what you would call "Cell aware". I live my life quite happily outside the cellular phone system, but on my last trip south we got one, so Leah could get in touch with me easily.

But it is really outside of my consciousness. When it rings it is just some random noise coming from my pocket. I'm not trying to ignore anyone really. I'll pull the phone out to have a look at the time and there will little notices "6 text msgs" "3 missed calls". And I set it to vibrate, but I never notice the damn thing. The only time I've realized my phone was vibrating was when I had it in my hand.

This isn't a phenomenon isolated to this trip either. On my trip to France in 2007 I rented a phone over there. I was in a kilt for much of the trip and the only time I knew there was a phone call was when some stranger would approach me and say "Your sporran is ringing".

Technology, who needs it?