Accounts of living in Yellowknife (a work in progress, this site and my life)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Isnt it supposed to be cold up here?

Its been a long week and a seemingly longer weekend. The weather has been absolutely perfect lately. Mid to high 20Cs and sunny. Just now its starting to storm - lots of thunder and lightning strikes. Its raining so hard that visibility is about 50 metres.... some sort of gale. At times the weather here is very unpredictable.

Thigs to note:
1. My roomate mark arrived a week and a half ago. When not working we have been tearing up the town and on weekend days heading out to the lakes/rivers as the weather has been hot. Now im sorta sunburnt, definitely tired and in need of sleep and a week of work to recover from this weekend.

The gold range has come to be one of the most interesting places (bars) in town.... the crowd there is something unreal. Every time you go there you are guaranteed to see someone who is so weird that you laugh uncontrollably. For instance, the 40-45 yr old guy with the mullet, handlebar moustache, #85 football jersey tucked into white jean cutt-offs with no belt.

2. Dingys are fun. Bought some inflatable Crappy Tire 10$ special dingys and have been lounging in long lake in them.

3. Spent all this years savings on a trip to greece, not that i have any savings.... i have about 8 different carriers to get me there for all my flights. I will be spending a day in Calgary on the 22nd from 1030am to 1159pm when my flight departs for frankfurt where i will spend a night before heading to crete (jesse and ryan ill be emailing you about this calgary layover) . I will also be spending 2 nights in toronto on the return. I anticipate that as this is a rarity everyone i know should be on hand for the celebration. But, be warned that by the time I arrive there after the 2 weeks in greece I will be jetlagged, have had too much ouzo, be suffering from sunstroke, broke and probably just wanting to go home.

Bright and bushy tailed i will not be, but i will see you on the evening of the 24th and 25th, and morning of the 26th in toronto. I fully intend to mooch off of everyone there. Open up your kitchens, couches, wallets and liquor cabinets. I will send an email about this sometime in the coming weeks.

4. My DVD player just committed suicide. I cant get my movie out of it so will be attacking it with a screwdriver and a hammer to make an example out of it for any future dvd players i may own.

5. Im still really tired and am going to stop writing now. Go look at pictures.

Mark's first weekend - at the long lake

4am on the roof patio.

Dingys!

Sunset from the west window.

Long Lake. Beach and Airport.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Everything is...

...so busy.

Had some guests (friends of friends) visiting from toronto/waterloo. They stayed the week and I got no sleep. Work was difficult as I had to stay awake, and in play I was more than once referred to as the office drunk.

We visited the underbelly of yellowknife, canoed to a houseboat for dinner and drinks (my canoe had a hole in it) and saw the fine way of life offered by a squatter shack, and in between drank much beer. In between all this I played some slopitch, had the first party at my new place (apparently it takes me 6 months to know enough people for this to be possible) and managed to get to work each and every morning except for monday when i slept in.

I spent a couple hours at work in a boat driving around doing a site visit along a shoreline. Not the worst way to spend an afternoon. Maybe ill find some pics worth posting from that later, but no pics from the past week unfortuntately for you.

This week will see the end of my solitary existence as my roomate arrives from way down south. It shall also doubtless herald a new existence of professional insanity which I will welcome with open arms. But Ill soon need a vacation so I may go to greece... if anyone knows how to get there cheap from here, let me know.

The weather has taken a turn for the cloudy and mildly cool. It will be nice to see the stars and get some night time whenever that happens so i can actually sleep (which I no longer really do)... unfortunately, darkness = winter - so, I'd rather stay awake.

But now I go to sleep, its late.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Happy Canada Day, yesterday.

I spent yesterday on a boat for 11 hours of fishing - left at 6am and went up the yellowknife river and then down on the Great Slave Lake. I got almost no sleep the night before, but the fish were biting and we caught some 7 - 6 pike, and 1 whitefish. Nothing too big, but enough to eat for dinner. The water in great slave never really warms up, so the wind off the water was freezing.

Of course the one that got away was bigger than the rest.

I moved into my new place finally... so much nicer than that piece of crap apartment i was in previously. Also, its a 3 minute walk to work... so, im about 3 minutes late every morning. As for work, its gotten really busy - and as a side note, if any planner wants to work up here sometime within the next year... let me know.

I of course took some pics when boating. Youll probably be most interested in the houseboats.... there are about 30 and they come in all shapes and sizes - from a 2000 sq ft home on a converted barge to a sinking shed. They are entirely off the grid and would certainly be an interesting way of life. The controversy up here is that they dont pay municipal taxes, yet use municipal services.... however, dont seem to be going anywhere.

Anyway - i need to go find some food... so below are some pictures (the last 3 are left over from a post i started last week right before my internet went out for a few days... so enjoy them out of context).

Joliffe Isand and some of the houseboats anchored there. This island smells like sewage ive been told - as a houseboat owner you are supposed to take what they call "honey-bags" to the sewage lagoon for disposal.... but, when faced with taking them 7km to the lagoon or dumping them out your back door, laziness must often prevail.

There are probably 30 or so houseboats in Yellowknife.

Houseboats! Somewhat of a different lifestyle.... im not sure how you get home from the bar when living on these. There are no water-taxis here.

One of the nicer houseboats.

Some more houseboats.

Yellowknife from the water - oldtown in the foreground.

Part of Latham island.... connected to old town by a causeway. This island is owned by a native group.

Part of Dettah - a native reserve about 35km from Yellowknife.... theres not even a gas station here.

Someone left their dogs on a tiny island near dettah... i think they wanted to come with us.

Its a big sky - thats Yellowknife on the horizon.

Its a big lake.

Some little island.