Iqaluit's Igloo Church

Now that summer is here the construction industry has just exploded. The short construction season is dictated by the weather and I guess you can't convince someone to fly up from Montreal to work in -40. One of the most iconic projects is the reconstruction of the Anglican Church which was (according to this CBC article) badly damaged by fire in 2005.

They have been working on it for almost two months now. Last week one of the ladies that works in the office on the other side of my building, who enjoys a view over the city, called us over to watch the spire being lowered into place by a big crane. The church is located right downtown so it is a predominant feature of our eclectic skyline. I am told that the old church contained beautiful tapestries depicting Inuit in bible scenes, I don't know what the plans are for the refurbished interior but am looking forward to seeing it when the church is completed.

Mosquitoes

The mosquitoes in Iqaluit are numerous and large, however they are also very slow which makes them easy to kill. When it is windy they struggle to fly so you can for the most part enjoy a walk without constantly waving a hand around your face. Some of them are very strong fliers though, last night it was blowing a gale but one still managed to seek me out as I took the dogs outside for their bed time toilet. As I type I am trying not to scratch the itchy bump it left on my arm just before it died. On windless days you walk around with a black cloud swarming all around you. Some people wear mesh full face hoods, sort of like bee keepers. I opt for a liberal application of Eau de Camping (aka Off) which seems to do the trick. Happily I do not react as badly to the mosquitoes up here as I did to the one that got me on the wrist at the golf course in Kahnawake - those Mohawk mosquitoes are vicious!

Ireland & Scotland

I wrote this post on the road but evidently failed to publish it...

Holy cow what a trip this has been! I thought that I would have time to blog during our travels but we have been going non-stop. Bon Jovi are on tour in Europe but their schedule is not as punishing as ours. Blaine and I are so proud of our parents for their stamina!

We spent 3 days in Ireland checking out Dublin and Belfast... The whole holiday is a (drunken?) blur so I am struggling to recall the order of events. I believe that our first day in Dublin was spent doing the bus tour and visiting the Guinness Brewery, Kilmainham Goal, Dublinia and the Jameson's Distillery. In the evening we went to the Brazen Head pub for a drink and then got some Chinese takeaway in Temple Bar. The next day Blaine and I took the train to Belfast for a very interesting bus tour around the peace walls and such. The northern Irish are very proud that they built the Titanic, Blaine bought a t-shirt proclaiming that the Titanic was "built by an Irishman and sunk by an Englishman" I got a Titanic Swim Team one. Back in Dublin we went to the pub again but with the parents this time and we all ate a feast then listened to some real live Irish music.

On Wednesday morning we checked out of our apartment and flew to Edinburgh where we stayed in a beautiful Georgian apartment in the new town. Blaine and I went to the Cafe Royal for drinks and dinner with Rhona and Duncan before they set off for Glastonbury. Thursday morning I ascended the Nelson Monument atop Calton Hill and was rewarded with spectacular views over the city. We lunched at the Bow Bar in the old town and then took a bus to Leith where we tried to see the Royal Yacht Britannia but it was well concealed from anyone unwilling to pay an entrance fee. Back in the city we dined at the Kennilworth pub on Rose St, as featured in the CAMRA book of historic pub interiors. Our final day in the Scottish capital featured more of the same... Strolling around the old city soaking up the atmosphere and drinking real ale.

Digital Scrapbooking - Sunday Roast @ The Doghouse

My first attempt at digital scrapbooking using Photoshop CS5 and the free Happy Go Lucky collection from Shabby Princess.

Don't Upgrade to iPhoto 9.1.5

On Sunday afternoon I complied with my Mac's desire to run a software update. When I next launched iPhoto I found that all the nice coloured icons on the left hand menu are now grey which initially made me think they were not functioning, not so they are meant to be like that now. Worse than this however was that none of my photos displayed when in the "all events" view nor as thumbnails in the event itself. When I double clicked to open the image it deigned to show itself, but then promptly disappeared when I reverted to the thumbnails. 

I quit and relaunched the application, rebooted the computer and repeated for good measure but nothing worked. the application decided that it wanted to spend 3 hours detecting faces (a feature I do not use or want to use) so I left it to its devices to see if that would fix things. It did not. Eventually it did decide to provide me with thumbnail previews once in an individual event. However, it showed the same single image of Blaine in Paris as the thumbnail for every photo in the entire library.

It did not take long on Google to learn that 9.1.5 has been unkind to other mac users so I decided to roll back the update. This required several hours on Google and various forums to identify the best route, Apple support does not describe how to "un update". To employ a belt and braces approach I quit iPhoto, ran a time machine back up and made a FAT copy of the albums that I had added since Sunday. I opened applications in finder and then entered Time Machine, went back in time to Sunday morning (right clicking then get info to ensure it was iPhoto 9.1.3), another right click then restore to... navigate to the applications folder in the wizard and enter your administrator credentials when prompted.

Relaunching iPhoto I was delighted that the anticipated results has come to fruition, my library was unchanged but the application version was rolled back. My double back up was unnecessary, but you can be certain that had I not spent the time doing that then it would have all gone wrong. Oh important note, when you relaunch iPhoto be sure to check the skip 9.1.5 box or you will be doing this all again.