Saturday, December 31, 2005

Last days...

...of 2005, of course. It's been a crazy year for those of us living in Casa Iqaluit. We spent most of the first six months apart, what with Cathy living in Rankin Inlet and me still in St. John's. The only break in that was a trip to the Dominican Republic. Then Cathy gets home and it's massive wedding planning and moving up north time. Then we have the actual wedding (mostly a blur) and followed by moving up north. Then it's several months of unemployment for me before landing a job and, well, it's been a year.

Personally, I think it's been a pretty damn good year. Yeah, there have been downsides - the prolong unemployment streak, not having Cathy with me for six months - but that's far outweighed by the good, such as getting married, having good jobs and for the first time in ages, finally feeling settled.

We don't know how long we're going to be in Iqaluit. There are any number of people who say they planned to come here for a couple of weeks and that was 25 years ago. Maybe we'll be them. Maybe we'll be out of here in five years. I don't know. But at least we're not planning on when to move or what we're going to have to do in a year's time. The worst bit of planning we have right now is if we're going to go to Ottawa for Easter or still trying to get to San Francisco this summer.

Those are nice problems to have.

Internationally, as I mentioned before, it sucked. No other word for it. A pretty terrible year. The only up side was watching George Bush suffer and flounder. But my problem with that is watching one of the great countries flounder around and tear itself apart under inept leadership. And there's three more years of it yet to come. That's unfortunate.

Anyway, here's hope for a better 2006 for all. It will be a quiet New Years for us. We wish we could be at our friend Anne's for her annual Scottish New Year's celebration (mmmm, haggis), but we'll just have to call instead.

Enjoy the fireworks wherever you are and have a drink for us.

To absent friends....cheers.

Last 5 on iPod
1. Love and peace, or else - U2 (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)
2. Txalaparta - The Chieftains (Santiago)
3. Jingle jangle - Hot Hot Heat (Elevator)
4. Chin up, cheer up - Ryan Adams (Demolition)
5. When rivers rise - Spirit of the West (Tripping Up The Stairs)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Life is profoundly unexpected. Glad that your year was overall in the positives Craig (getting married should definitely put you into the positives I imagine ;)

Also thankful that I was able to participate in some of it this year. I hope you and Cathy have a joyous new year and that 2006 dawns bright and clear for you. While it is certainly too much to ask for a perfect year, I instead wish for you the opposite of the curse: "I hope next year brings steady times with joy, happiness, love, travels and enjoyments of the simple things in life."

All the best for you and your blog too :)

Cheers
Dups

(who will try his damndest to call)