Mega High Tide

Thursday morning saw an unusually high tide, I was late for work because I was taking photographs. Alas I realize that I didn't get any shots of the hoards of gumboot clad Iqalummiut heading out on boats armed with buckets to harvest clams at low tide.

This week's tide table

The roadway to the breakwater was flooded

Normally dry shacks got their feet wet

There is a bench just to the left of the upturned boat, it was completely submerged.

We usually drive onto the beach here, these fishermen had to wade along one of the old breakwaters to their boat

Normally we drive our cars along the beach in front of the boat that you see floating in the centre of the picture

A Hike in Sylvia Grinnell Park

City of Iqaluit employees are fortunate to have two cultural days in addition to our vacation allowance. The days are officially for berry picking and clam digging but there is no requirement that you partake in these activities. As Blaine is away I decided to take Monday and Tuesday off to hang out with the dogs and catch up on some chores. This morning I took the dogs for an invigorating hike through Sylvia Grinnell Territorial park. Named after the daughter of one of American explorer Charles Francis Hall's benefactors, the park is just on the other side of our airport. 

The hike took us an hour and according to Google maps is about 3.6km, Johnny and Sage enjoyed chasing the ravens and roaming around enjoying the smells. Nunavut parks has marked the trail but doesn't offer a distance, only approximate times. From the main car park we followed the red trail which is a cross country scramble over the tundra along a windy ridge to the dizzying height of 68m above sea level. The trail brings you out at the far car park, which was the mid way point for the Terry Fox run. We then made a U turn and followed a neat gravel path back along the river heading downstream.

No photos as I didn't feel like carrying the big DSLR with me and it was cold, windy and raining. However it was a beautiful walk and I encourage all my Iqaluit readers to head out and enjoy it for themselves. I walked into the wind on the way out so that it was to my back on the return and suggest that you do the same.

You can read more about the park here.

North Mart Used Autos - Update

This weekend we actually went up to the vehicles on offer to check them out.

2008 Dodge Ram double cab Pick Up $29,094.92

2007 GMC Canyon crew cab $25,157.07

My favourite - they crossed out $20,988.95 and put it up to $22,677.90

awesome play on words

Is it just me or does the pricing seem a little odd? I am used to car prices being along the lines of $22,995 or $17,750 but I don't think I have ever seen it to the penny before.

S'Mores Pizza

I can hear all my non North American friends saying what is a S'More? It is such a staple of North American childhood and camping that the three people in whom I confided my S'Mores virginity screamed "What do you mean you've never had a S'More?" in disbelief. The name S'More is thought to be a contraction of the words some and more because once you have had one you will want some more. It consists of a marshmallow roasted over the campfire and then sandwiched along with a thin piece of chocolate between two Graham Crackers. What is a Graham Cracker, well not like anything else really so use digestives instead.

Last night I wanted to celebrate my new KitchenAid mixer by making up a batch of pizza dough, a task that my previous mixer doesn't relish performing. But I also wanted something sweet, then I remembered reading a recipe for S'Mores Pizza in my Guy Fieri cookbook . The pizza dough recipe that I like is from my Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip book. I use half bread flour and half plain flour only because bread flour is hard to come by here. The motor on my 575 watt mixer only started to get hot when the dough was ready which was fine by me.

I let the dough prove for about 40 minutes while I prepared my S'More ingredients:

• plain chocolate
• marshmallows
• toasted almonds
• Graham Cracker crumbs (yes you buy biscuits ready crushed in North America) mixed with melted butter and a little chipotle pepper

After the dough had almost doubled in size I used my ulu to cut it into quarters. Jamie says his dough recipe is for two pizzas but I make four out of it and still find the crusts plenty thick enough. I attempted tossing the dough but it never works for me so I sort of pull and stretch it instead. While my Canadian friend Nancy provided cultural guidance via FaceTime I cooked the plain base. Closely supervised I scattered the toppings in order - chocolate, marshmallows, nuts then biscuit/chilli mix over the hot base then put it back in the oven for less than 5 minutes until it looked about right.

 

Blaine got home shortly after the finished product came out of the oven and was pleasantly surprised by my baking adventures. He tells me that it was even better than the original S'More. I found it almost orgasmically good and swear I was on a sugar high all day today from the residual sugar levels.

Joint Emergency Services Ceremony

Sunday September 11th 2011 at 0930, Iqaluit Fire Department was the scene for a multi-agency ceremony. The event was organized to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks and to pay tribute to the over 1,000 Canadian firefighters who have lost their lives since 1848.

RCMP members were an impressive sight as they marched from their V-Division Headquarters to City Hall.

Representatives from Municipal Enforcement, Canadian Forces, RCMP, Iqaluit International Airport Fire Department, and Iqaluit Fire Department formed a guard on the tarmac in front of the Fire Hall. 

Deputy Fire Chief Blaine Wiggins was Master of Ceremonies, Councillor Stephen Mansell gave opening remarks on behalf of the City of Iqaluit, and Father Daniel Perreault from Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Parish led the service.

 

 

Firefighter Solomon Tagak read the roll call of those firefighters who lost their lives during the past year:

Alex MacDonald  Ottawa, ON

William Lawrence Prescott, ON

Terrence Graham  Saint John, NB  

Ronald Clowes  Grand Falls, NB

Alex Harris  Edmonton, AB

Nathan Jackson  Lac La Biche, AB

Bob Chalmers  Edmonton, AB

Francis Cardinal  Lac La Biche, AB

James McDonald  Winnipeg, MB

Brian Tilley   Edmonton, AB

Donald Massender  Tecumseh, ON

Timothy Whiting   Surrey, BC

Gary Kendall  Point Edward, ON

Henry Van Kessel  Lone Butte, BC

How I shop (updated)

Today someone who is moving to Iqaluit asked me about how we shop. I didn't have time to respond to the email at work but while I was walking the dogs this evening I had a brainwave... why not blog my response?

I don't like Arctic Ventures, although the little 'exotic foods' section in the back right corner can be kind of interesting provided you inspect the best before dates closely. There is not a big turnover in this section and the "new products" sign is looking older than it did when I arrived 6 months ago. The baking stuff is pretty good and you can get superfine sugar here which they never have at North Mart. The upstairs in Ventures is awesome (on an Iqaluit scale) the bookshop is comprehensive and you can buy furs and all kinds of things. Oh and the music played outside is very entertaining, Bollywood & Opera at full blast all distorted over the speakers in a failed attempt to reduce loitering.

My shop of choice is North Mart, yes I know it can be a pain to make your way through the mess of taxis and tangle of abandoned shopping carts then run the gauntlet through the lobby just to get in and there are never any shopping baskets but at least it is mostly sort of clean inside. I probably spend between $500 and $700 a month on groceries such as bread, fresh fruit & veg, cheese, meat, frozen fish (fresh stuff looks very suspect) and milk.

The weekly Metro flyer from Montreal is very enticing but with the different cargo rates for the varying food groups I find it all too complicated. A friend has a nifty spreadsheet that approximates the cost on your kitchen table, he tells me if there are any unmissable deals. Once we ordered a load of T-bone steaks which were amazingly good and excellent value. Sadly they have all been eaten and I am waiting for them to be half price again.

Baffin Canners is good if you can find it. I don't like the brand of milk they sell but it is the place for (frozen) cake and meat.

If you have access to the $1 per kilo staff rate for cargo with the airlines then you can happily shop online from the Country Grocer or Metro Glebe in Ottawa. This is a great way to stock up on heavy things like pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, canned fruit pie filling and frozen fruit and french fries. The HST rebate makes this even more attractive, but again only with that $1 per kilo rate.

We sealifted mainly for dog food so didn't really have a comprehensive plan for the human food component. Next year we will be shipping up much more. The 2.5 m3 500kg crate cost just over $700 to package and ship. Let's say that half of the shipping was dog food, that means it cost us $350 to get $1,000 of groceries here. By my crappy math that makes it 1/3 more expensive, which is much better than the 2 to 4 times more expensive that it costs here. i.e. a 1l carton of orange juice for $1.33 instead of $4, a tin of pumpkin pie filling for $5.33 instead of $9. Back though to the old issue of stumping up thousands for one grocery shop, and then having the room to put it all.

The airlines have very generous baggage allowances, two 70lb bags per person and a very liberal attitude to hand luggage. If you are strong (or have friends in Ottawa and Iqaluit to help you) and are willing to wait a day if your baggage gets bumped you can take them up on the offer that: "A maximum of three additional pieces can be accepted at check-in subject to $50.00/per piece" First Air and "Third & subsequent pieces accepted on a space available basis $50 per item" Canadian North. That is less than $1 per kilo so I say load er up!

[oops. I never claimed to be a math genius... you cannot determine the cost per kilo when the values in your equation are lbs... 70lb = 44kg in airport land so it is $1.14 per kilo]

The ratio of suitcases to giant rubbermaids / action packers on the Iqaluit airport luggage belt is 1:1. Buy the biggest container that is within your airline's required dimensions and a roll of duct tape, load it up, tape it up and pay your $150. Suggestions for your extra bags include frozen steak, frozen steak, frozen steak and toiletries. If they say the plane is full have them tag the steak as priority and leave the clothes to follow you later.

If you are visiting a friend or relative who lives in Iqaluit you will be issued a list prior to your departure from home. Pack your clothes in your hand luggage, your hosts will ensure your suitcases / rubbermaids are full to the gills.

Cruising Iqaluit

On Sunday morning we took the dogs for a drive over to the old runway on one of our scavenging outings. As we looked down the inlet we spotted a big ship in the distance so we drove over to the causeway to check it out.

Tourists in red jackets were ferried from the cruise ship to land where they boarded the yellow school bus which deposited them around town.

We spotted a herd in Sylvia Grinnell park where Johnny made a girl cry by following her around because she had a sandwich.

I found this bunch looking nervous by the visitors centre which is located down in our part of town.

 

This nifty covered vessel brought all the bags to the breakwater where they were thrown about by cruise company staff.

Our visitors flew out and another group flew in to take the cruise in the opposite direction. I believe it is an 11 day itinerary from Boston to Iqaluit and vice versa. Too bad the weather wasn't a bit nicer, there was a cold wind blowing all day.

Berries

On labour day (first Monday in September) we took the dogs for a walk in Sylvia Grinnell park. Autumn has turned the tundra into a beautiful blanket of colour that hides a tasty secret - berries. Fellow blogger Jocelyn has gone to the trouble of naming the three types of berry that grow here. I only collected a small handful which I ate as we walked but I may take a day off work for a more thorough attempt, the City allows employees to take two cultural days (Berry Picking and Clam Digging) during the summer.

 

our sealift arrives

We were not overly impressed by the "customer service" from NSSI Desgagnes. As I have not received a response to my request for clarification so I can only share with you my understanding of the process:

1. Wait for boat to arrive
2. Telephone NSSI office / beach shack 979 0002 which is never answered and does not have voicemail
3. Drive to NSSI office / beach shack which is never staffed
4. Telephone Desgagnes in Montreal who will advise you to repeat steps 2 & 3
5. Drive around sealift beach and compound (avoiding being run over by recklessly driven heavy equipment) looking for a) your crate and/or b) an NSSI employee
6. After approximately one week you will find someone who takes your PO Box number for billing and tells you that Hansons's will deliver your crate
7. On the same day you will receive a bill in the mail from NSSI Desgagnes to demonstrate that they had your PO Box address all along
8. Come home from work one day (August 31) to find crate outside house

Wasn't that fun and efficient?

You will then need a man and some tools to open the crate and carry the contents inside.

The main driver for our shipment was dog food. Johnny and Sage eat a brand that is not sold here so we either have to bring it up by boat or plane (Orijen never responded to Sage's letter). We popped a few things in the crate for ourselves too.

I spent Wednesday evening (after wings) arranging all the goodies down in the sealift room.