Summer is here…sort of… | Sybaritica

Well, the first day of June did not dawn particularly nicely for me. Here in Iqaluit, most of the snow has gone within the city but I was up in Hall Beach on Court circuit and it was rather grim and nasty for most of the time. Still, I arrived home yesterday and it so happens that I have no further circuit travel until the end of July, nor, for that matter, do I have any trials or other work here in Iqaluit for the next seven weeks. In a sense, I have thus started my summer ‘vacation’ and though that is a bit of a long stretch without much income, the break will be especially nice following a particularly grueling circuit…

After 5 days in Hall Beach, the Court was scheduled to move on to Igloolik for another few days. Above, you can see the Court party (yours truly is in the light colored jacket) aboard our limousine for the trip to the airport. The anticipation was that we would have a fifteen minute flight to Igloolik, a nice supper, and then a fairly leisurely evening before court the next day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way…

The Judge and the court staff were booked on one flight, while the lawyers were all another that was scheduled to leave within ten minutes of the first. As it happened, though, the landing visibility was poor and, although the Judge’s aircraft took a chance and made it in, our airline, after a long delay, decided not to even try and we ended up flying all the way back to Iqaluit. We arrived at 9:30 pm (after having had nothing to eat since noon) and had to fly all the way back to Igloolik the next day.  As a result, we lost a whole day and had a pretty brutal time making up for it. Thankfully, we managed to get home without too much in the way of further aggravation.

This, by the way, was a notice posted in the cafeteria of the hotel in Igloolik, and it illustrates on of the realities of northern living. Even here in Iqaluit, the prices of certain  items food in the few months before the arrival of the annual Sealift can skyrocket and, in the outlying little communities it is even worse. In southern Canada, you can buy a can of Coke for less than a buck so, as you can see, $5.25 is quite a difference.

Anyway, the circuit is over and I have a nice little break ahead. In July, I am scheduled for hand surgery (not fun), but I will be having it in Ottawa during the week coinciding with the National Criminal Law Conference, which I am also attending. I’ll get lots of opportunity for some restaurant adventures and get too see what interesting culinary things I can find in Chinatown once again…

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