Sunday, January 08, 2017

I come and go, I know.  Been to Hawaii, and Winnipeg.  A bipolar holiday.  Winnipeg is not my favourite place on the planet, but there was a conference on Arctic research that I've been to before, and so Winnipeg it was.  Hawaii was much nicer.

I'm going back to England at the end of February, but for now I'm here.  Back in the cold and dark, with my dog.  Week after next will be Taloyoak, week after that Kugluktuk, to run some courses.  I enjoy the teaching, which surprised me.  The travelling is a bit hairy, in the north, woke up in the morning I was supposed to leave Gjoa Haven to pea soup fog, which stops the planes here, as does the brewing blizzard on the day I was supposed to leave Kugaaruk.  But both times the planes came in and I left, a good thing in Gjoa Haven as the hotel was booked up for the weekend and I'm not sure what I would have done.  I worry I've used up my luck and will get stuck this time round...

Mum and Dad are in Australia with Graeme.  Roy's thinking about moving to Vancouver Island.  Ian's got a job, he starts tomorrow at the psychiatric hospital in Edmonton, and is packing to move closer to work.  Rachel is coming home, end of April, to live with us again.  Eric mutters about going back to school in the South, Kirsten and Jorden are contemplating a move to BC.  Everyone shuffling around.  The house in Edmonton will get sold.  Time moves on.  I'm finished a year of my PhD.  Amazingly I've managed to meet all the goals set for this year, academically, and should be able to start the process of data collection and analysis this year.  Historical child sexual abuse interviews by the police.  And that's a conversation stopper, let me tell you.  People ask, "what are you studying" and I tell them, and they don't know what to say.  I think (as another sexual assault researcher said) that they'd rather I said "freshwater trout" or "boreal ecology".

The sun will be back soon.  I miss it.  There was a tiny sliver of reflected light from below the horizon, today right at noon, but it will be showing above the horizon on Thursday.  Probably be cloudy.

No comments: