The odd couple

Most of the teachers who went south for Easter returned yesterday - I say most, because there are still one or two who, for various reasons, are not back yet - and with James and Sophie already having returned my house sharing adventure with Jacob has now begun.

As I have said before I am ostensibly a private person, preferring my socializing to be done on my own terms, but when one considers that my reintegration into society is now less than a month away, a little company is probably not such a bad thing. I used to love watching The Odd Couple when I was growing up, and over the course of the next few weeks we'll be finding out which one of us is Felix and which one of us is Oscar.

On the work front, most of my students don't return until tomorrow so I had myself a personal ped day today, and with this Friday being Culture Day I only have a three day teaching week this week. Nice. So, bearing in mind the possibility that I might actually be leaving a few days earlier than planned - more on that later in the week (maybe) - I make it that I have just thirteen, perhaps fourteen, teaching days left in the North. It's the beginning of the end...

Back to work

I'm now back in Kangiqsujuaq, where it's only marginally colder than in the UK (-26 at the time of writing) and although my journey was relatively uneventful, especially compared to the one I made before Christmas, First Air managed to leave my suitcase in Montreal, along with the baggage of many of the other passengers on my flight. It's often a case of cargo or passengers in the North, as opposed to cargo and, but at least I didn't have too many essentials in my case and I can get by until it arrives.

Seeing as half my students haven't yet returned I made today into an unofficial ped day for myself, but it should be back to business as usual tomorrow, or at least as usual as you can expect in these parts. It's always interesting to see just who does and who doesn't return after the Christmas break, both in terms of students and staff, and I know that the school is at least one teacher down due to the fact that the chap who was meant to be replacing my erstwhile neighbour James, who is now on paternity leave, has not shown up.

So, if anyone fancies coming up to teach some Social Studies and Math for the next two or three months, there's a classroom waiting for you...

Not such a grey day

I am now in a much better mood.

Since my last post my flight home for Christmas has been moved forward two days, Monday has been made a ped day (just this particular Monday alas, not every Monday), and yesterday Queen's University won the Vanier Cup, the Canadian college equivalent of the Grey Cup which is, in turn, the Canadian Football equivalent of the Superbowl. For those of you not in the know, Queen's is based in my adopted home town of Kingston, and yesterday's 33-31 victory over the University of Calgary saw the Golden Gaels mount the biggest second half comeback in Vanier Cup history after trailing 27-7 at the break.

The Queen's football team is known as the 'Golden Gaels' because of their garish yellow - sorry, golden - jerseys and the fact that all the players speak fluent Gaelic. I actually made that last part up; the 'Gaels' part of the name is apparently in reference to the University's Scottish heritage, and although I was jesting earlier the team's fight song is partly sung in Gaelic. It is known as 'Oil Thigh' after a phrase that is sung repeatedly - to the tune of 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' or 'Glory, Glory Hallelujah' to common folk like us - in the chorus: Oil thigh na Banrighinn a'Banrighinn gu brath, or 'College of the Queen forever.'

Speaking of the Grey Cup, which we were earlier, it's the Grey Cup final tonight, with the Montreal Allouettes, last year's beaten finalists, taking on the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I have no real affiliation with either team, but as Corner Gas is set in Saskatchewan I guess I'll be cheering for the latter.

Go Riders!

Buffering...

It's been a relatively relaxing last few days, and in exactly five weeks time I shall be back home for Christmas (weather and flights permitting, of course). Our holiday on Wednesday was followed up by two ped days, so I should feel refreshed when I return to school on Monday. Or at least that's the plan, as I've spent most of today being driven to despair by my internet connection.

I'm online and I can use Skype with no problems, but accessing any web pages is next to impossible. I think half the town's population must be downloading movies today, slowing everything to a crawl; it's as if the internet is being filtered through a giant piece of muslin. The visiting computer technician at school has informed me that Kangiqsujuaq has one of the quickest connections in the North though, so I guess I should be thankful for small mercies.

And for the chocolate cake I made earlier.

Mussel man

At the end of our ped day yesterday a few of us went mussel picking, another activity I can now add to my list of firsts; I went picking for cockles in Dorset when I was young but never, I think, for mussels. I returned with a modest haul, which I'll attempt to cook today, but in the winter the harvest is likely to be more plentiful, although the activity then becomes far more interesting.

Once the bay is entirely frozen, it is possible to venture below the ice when the tide is out and retrieve a veritable bounty of mussels before the waters come back in once more. Such a method of mussel picking is unique to Kangiqsujuaq, and you can read more about it here. I have a few months to ponder whether I will take up the opportunity to join the winter mussel harvest, and if I've been able to take out some appropriate life insurance by then I think I'll have a go. For now though, I shall confine my adventures to the kitchen, and I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow!

A sight for saw eyes

Whilst nowhere near 100% I'm still here, so you can call off the search parties. I stayed at home yesterday, but a few hours of daytime TV convinced me of the need to return to work today. In actual fact, the cable service went down for a few hours during the day, maybe due to the high winds that gave us a weather warning for a brief period; winds like that in the winter are going to give us some spectacular blizzard days!

As I said, I still don't feel too well, but being a typical guy I haven't yet paid a visit to the nursing station. Whether I have H1N1 I'm not sure - it could be R2D2 or C3P0 for all I know - but I guess I ought to get checked out if I don't feel better soon. We have a ped day on Friday and this, coupled with the Labour Day holiday on Monday, at least gives me a long weekend in which to recover; a story I heard today also made me realise that perhaps I should show a little more resolution.

The council are laying new water pipes in the street where our friends, the Beatties, live, and as they were leaving the house yesterday morning one of the workmen was attempting to cut a pipe with a circular saw. I say 'attempting,' because the saw proceeded to bounce off the pipe and cut into the poor man's face and neck, narrowly missing his jugular but leaving a huge gash from the nose down. A bag of frozen peas quickly appeared to act as a cold compress - I think this was actually the reason for their invention - and once the ambulance arrived the Beatties made their various ways to work. When the first of the Beatties got home at the end of the day there were still workmen attending to the pipes, and guess what? One of them was sporting an impressive display of stitches from his nose down to his neck.

They breed them tough in Canada.

Calming down

I now feel a little calmer following my vitriolic outburst yesterday - sometimes it's good to get things off your chest, such as hair if you're an Olympic swimmer - and I am currently content in the knowledge that today is the last working Friday of the school year. I shall just give you a moment to digest that fact....

Next Friday is a ped day, and the following Friday (May 8th) will see me catching my flight home, weather permitting. I add this meteorological proviso because, after our relatively tropical start to the week, we actually had a blizzard warning in place today, although nothing actually came of it in the end. Once we're into May there should be no such problems, but you never know.

In the meantime, I've been relaxing this afternoon by revisiting Grow Cube. This game was introduced to me some time ago (thanks, Sally), but there are plenty of variants once you've cracked the original. Try it here; in a couple of hours from now you'll wonder where the time went!

Five day weekend

Towards the end of February I lamented about the unchanging weather and hoped that March would bring us our first blizzards of the year...

...they're here!

We've had worse in the past, but as I write I can just about make out the house across the street (and it's not a very wide street), whilst the (fool)hardy souls that are actually outside very soon fade from sight, as if devoured by some all-powerful white mist; imagine Field Of Dreams, but substitute snow for corn and you'll get the picture. I've still not located my keys, but I've had some spares made up, and if I lost the originals outside, well.....there's no hope of finding them now!

We also have a ped day tomorrow, and when you couple this with the fact that I was off sick yesterday, it's like having a snow and spew induced March break (OK, I didn't actually spew yesterday, but I like the alliteration back there so indulge me).

So how does one use such unexpected time off? Enroll in that online Masters course, possibly? Finish reading that book on the Zen of seal hunting perhaps? Finally get round to sorting out that mountain of unpaid bills? Maybe I could give the apartment a good clean? Or how about putting in some microwave popcorn and catching up with all those episodes of CSI New York, NCIS and Bones that I've recorded and haven't watched yet?

I'll let you decide...

TB or not TB

We had a pedagogical day today - which is second only to a snow day in these parts - a pedagogical day (or ped day) providing an opportunity for paperwork, staff meetings and games of solitaire on the computer rather than actually teaching.

The day ended with our staff meeting, the agenda for which was as lengthy and mundane as usual, apart from the very final item. There, at item 16, beneath such important issues as 'first aid course', 'fire drill' and 'new sewing classes' was the word 'tuberculosis'.

Cue alarm bells.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this warrant being just a little higher on the agenda? At least above sewing classes? When we finally got to point 16 we were told that there have been a number of cases of TB in town recently, but that we weren't to worry as you had to be in the same room as a sufferer for lengthy periods to contract the disease, and even then they'd have to cough all over you.

So that's all right then.

Good job we're having the first aid course.