Whats new pussycat?

I told myself that I wouldn't get behind on blogging, but its not my fault I swear :P
After passing our cap last month we were booted to dial up. This is when A goes on internet hiatus.

This may or may not have trickled over to the last 13 days or so, 4-6 of which our little hamlet has had intermittent internet access because they decided to move the dish without warning - I don't even want to get into the bad timing and havoc, maybe in another post

The Nutrition North Canada program launched on April 1st (replacing the food mail program). There has been some mixed feelings to say the least or the actual savings vs the food mail program. I haven't been hear long enough to see the rise and fall of prices since the program was first announced last spring but, I'm not sure that the commentors are taking into consideration the mother of 4 on assistance who doesn't have the luxury of extra food in the cupboard to wait around for food mail or extra cash to stock up on sea lift. You also have to factor not only the cost of flying all of your groceries into your community, but the cost of staff and shrinkage from damaged goods, bad produce and theft. And please don't complain that bacon and ice cream did not get cheaper, these do not fall under the category of nutritious. I digress.

Lots of new faces in the store as a few people left. Head office decided create an 'office supervisor' position, it would be nice to see someone from Pond get the job. I did mention the position to one of our office staff as I thought she would be a good fit. She spoke with our manager and Winnipeg is making the final call, so she will need to dust off her resume. My fingers are crossed for her.
 
M finally found a hairdresser - thank goodness because his split ends could poke your eye out.

We both found some pretty sweet bikes, I was expecting to open a box of something archaic looking for $300, but I jumped on an took a little ride around the warehouse and fell in love.  Sadly, it's been a long while since I have found excitement in a new purchase. And with all the online ordering I've been doing rarely does the opportunity arise.  I can't wait to take that baby out for a spin though the hills of pond, camera bag in tow, snapping pictures of the sites. Fishing and camping trips, drunk nights on the patio. le sigh, hurry up summer!

An 11 year old and her friend stopped to talk to me as I was socking some baby stuff. As one of the girls showed me her new glasses with excitement, the next, buts in with just as must excitement,  announcing that she was pregnant. She very clear that she was 11 years old, and she was pregnant. Now I've had people tell me that girls usually start having babies here at 14, and my gut tells me that she was just trying to get a reaction, by for a moment I thought, my god, this poor child is excited.

Your heart breaks a little. How do you respond to something like that? I responded by ignoring it and talking to the other young girl about her glasses. In the south, reactions would be quite different.  When I see and hear things that shock and amaze, I always stop and remind myself that I am far, far away from home, and much farther from knowing about the culture and ways of the people here.

So that's are my catch up rambles for now. Provided the internet behaves, I'll post new photos and update you soon!

A

Day 24 - whole lotta nuthin

Nothing terribly exciting to report. Sorry.
We are just getting settled into our new home and new jobs, so we haven't had much time or means for any big adventures yet. 

I've been a bit bored at work lately, stuck working in the office filling in for someone on vacation. It's mundane as hell and I hate it, but I keep reminding myself I have it made here and to suck it up. I think it's cause I've been sitting behind a desk for so long that the thought of a new job where I could move about.

Well I got the chance to move about last night. We had a cargo plane come in with ~400 pieces of freight around 9pm. There was no one left at the store, so I volunteered to help my better half and the manager grab the stuff from the plane.  Well, hilarity ensued when 'a lady' hit the tarmac, one guy looked right at me and said "oh no" in the most worrisome voice. There was much laughing and warning me that boxes of KD were "heavy". Mild jerkiness from the co-op guy when he would try to make me miss a projectile box.  All in all I held my own and about 90 minutes later we filled 2 vans to and headed back to unload. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the plane, and the laughing/concerned faces. 

Tomorrow is my day off and I have just been booted down to dial up, so you may not see/hear from me til next week, but I thought a little follow up was due.

TTFN,

A