And then there was one...

This time last year I noted that only four British veterans remained from World War I. Sadly, three of those grand old men, Henry Allingham, Harry Patch and Bill Stone, passed away during the last twelve months, and this year's remembrance service in London was the first to be observed without the presence of anyone who fought in the Great War. The fourth member of the group, Claude Choules, now resides in Australia, and at 108 he is one of only three surviving WWI veterans in the entire world; 109 year old Canadian John Babcock and 108 year old American Frank Buckles are the other two.

Remembrance Day is a holiday in Nunavik, primarily to mark the signing of the James Bay Agreement, and I think that the time is long overdue for November 11th to be observed as such on a national, if not global scale. Thanksgiving is already celebrated in both the United States and Canada, but I can think of little else for which more thanks should be given than the sacrifices made by all those who have fought for their countries over the course of history.

May we never forget.

Lest we forget

It was Remembrance Day today; here in the North, remembrance focuses on the anniversary of the JBNQA, but I wanted to mention the events at the Cenotaph in London. Just four British veterans remain from all those who fought in WW1. Just four. Think about it. Four out of all those millions. Very soon, the Great War will officially no longer be in 'living memory.'

So no funny observations or trivial comment today.

Henry Allingham, Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Claude Choules, we salute you.

A week is a long time...

In the words of Gary Glitter - probably not the best role model for a teacher, I know - 'Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again!' I've been very neglectful of the blog this past week, and I promise to do better in future!

Well, what's been happening in the past week? We had Halloween and the prerequisite party last weekend, I invited friends over and actually cooked for them this weekend - I'll just give you a few moments to take that in - and in between times there was an historic, era-defining election that you may have heard about, the result of which installed a vibrant, 47 year old into power with the largest victory at the polls in nigh on a decade..

So, with that election in mind, I'd like to congratulate Mr John Key on becoming the new prime minister of New Zealand, and I wish him every success in guiding his country through the tough times ahead.

We are currently in the grips of a 'severe wind warning' here (fnarr, fnarr!), but with no snow at the moment there's no prospect of a blizzard, which is just as well considering we have the next two days off. Monday is a pedagogical day, or 'Ped Day' for short - our equivalent of a training day - so whilst it's not really a holiday we have no students in, and Tuesday is the holiday to mark the anniversary of the James Bay Agreement, an auspicious date in the history of Northern Canada.

Consequently, I should have plenty of time for new postings this week, assuming that there are no lawsuits filed following the digestion of the pizzas I made for my guests on Saturday, so tune in again soon to catch up on the wacky shenanigans that go on up here in Arctic Fun Land!