Back in the north

Ah, back in Iqaluit. I'll get used to this again....eventually.

It's not that I hate Iqaluit or that I've grown tired of it. It's just the last month has been pretty extraordinary. Travelling around Australia has been one of the great experiences of my life. All that adventure, wildlife, scenery and trees...it's been a great month.

And then I hit Iqaluit. It's a gray, cloudy day with a temperature around 9C. First Air left two of our bags behind in Ottawa (we got them later) and when we went to get groceries at NorthMart we were greeted by a public health nurse who gave us a friendly squirt of disinfectant to help combat swine flu, which has taken off in the Baffin region.

Oh, and then I read this story, which made me get up and move away from my recently repaired computer lest I pitch it through the window. I'll settle in a few days or weeks, I know I will. But it might take a bit longer to settle in after this vacation than in previous years.

So what have we been up to the last few days? Well, going flat out, really. Sunday morning we headed out to the airport to catch our flight. I think I'm pretty much convinced that if you're going to travel for 15 hours, then going executive class is the way to do it. Granted, I have no idea how much that ticket would cost - I imagine it would be brutal - but there's something to be said for a good, comfortable chair and decent food for a trip of that length. Cathy managed to get some sleep on the trip. Oddly, I didn't.

We arrived in Vancouver, cleared customs without incident, shopped at the Olympic shop and then hopped on the flight to Ottawa. At this point we were operating on will power and little else. We didn't see much point in trying to get any sleep at this point. The hope was to make it to Ottawa, get some food, bake it to our bed and breakfast and then collapse around 10 pm. We nearly managed that. I think we passed out around 9 pm.

We actually did all right on the jet lag front. Once we woke up on Monday we were over the worst of the jet lag and exhaustion. We weren't at 100 per cent and there was stuff we meant to get done in Ottawa but didn't simply because we were a touch out of it. Although we did remember to go back to the airport and pick up Boo.

I'll put up photos over the next few days, but his current look is not his best one. He was pretty badly matted when we sent him to Newfoundland for the month. So a trip to the groomer was inevitable. But dear god, they sheared him like a sheep. He's deeply ugly right now and seems a touch self conscious. Or perhaps after a month of being spoiled by Cathy's parents, he's just disappointed to find himself back with us.

So here we are, back where we started, just a month later. I'll get back to blogging on a regular basis again, I promise. Also, while there will be a few more posts about about Australia, the worst of it is over. So if you were tired of the travel posts and come here for, well, for whatever reason you'll get those posts again.

It's been a great month, but back to business...

Last Five
1. American gangster time - Elvis Costello and The Imposters
2. Weapon (live) - Matthew Good
3. Pump it up - Elvis Costello*
4. Songs of love - Ben Folds
5. Feelin' alright - Joe Cocker