Water’s Edge, Iqaluit, NU

SUNDAY

There aren't a lot of restaurants in Iqaluit and just a couple are open on a Sunday evening ... and it seems like they are just fine dining restaurants.  I'm more of a pub chick but I was hungry so I went to the Water's Edge for supper this evening.

When I got there, there was just another guy at a table.  I was told I couldn't sit wherever I wanted in case the tables were reserved.  Fair enough.  I was seated in the worst spot ... in the middle of the room by the inside door.  Every time someone walked by my table, it trembled, which was annoying.  Other people started coming into the restaurant without reservations and being sat at better tables so I asked to be moved.

Here's the view from my new table by the window ...

There were no burgers, wings, etc. on the menus (though I later heard a guy order chicken fingers from the kids' menu) so I ordered Slow Roasted Alberta Prime Rib with garlic mashed potatoes and no veggies.  The prime rib was really tender but I had ordered it medium but it was mostly rare.

I noticed there was no Yorkshire Pudding on my plate so I had to ask my server for it.  I love Yorkshire Pudding but this was more like a cornmeal muffin.

Kickin' Caribou Pub, Iqaluit, NU

TUESDAY

I conducted three enrolment seminars and did some one-on-ones this afternoon and this evening and got back to my hotel about 8pm.

I had a late supper at the Kickin' Caribou Pub.

Intent on the Blue Jays game

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was wing night ... so, of course, I ordered wings!  I got them with sweet Thai chilli sauce and they were really good!  They were baked rather than deep fried and tasted like a whole chicken you'd roast on a Sunday.  The sauce was good too.  I'd get them again!

The Granite Room, Iqaluit, NU

I had lunch today at the Granite Room in the Discovery Hotel, which was a ten minute walk from my client's site.

I ordered chicken fingers and fries (it was $20).  It was good.  I used the honey mustard dipping sauce.

Book ~ "The Scam" (2015) Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

From Goodreads ~ Nicolas Fox is a charming con man and master thief on the run. Kate O’Hare is the FBI agent who is hot on his trail. At least that’s what everyone thinks. In reality, Fox and O’Hare are secretly working together to bring down super-criminals the law can’t touch. Criminals like brutal casino magnate Evan Trace.

Evan Trace is running a money-laundering operation through his casino in Macau. Some of his best customers are mobsters, dictators and global terrorists. Nick and Kate will have to go deep undercover as high-stakes gamblers, wagering millions of dollars - and their lives - in an attempt to topple Trace’s empire.

It’s a scam that will take Fox and O’Hare from the Las Vegas strip, to the sun-soaked beaches of Oahu’s North Shore and into the dark back alleys of Macau. Their only backup - a self-absorbed actor, a Somali pirate and Kate’s father, an ex-soldier who believes a rocket launcher is the best way to solve every problem. What could possibly go wrong? 

Everyone thinks Nick is a con man and thief and Kate, an FBI agent, is trying to catch him.  But in reality, Nick had been caught and is now secretly working with Kate and the FBI.  Only a handful of people are aware of this.

Their latest case has them trying to bring down Evan Trace, who runs a money-laundering operation through his casinos.  But then Kate gets a call from her father, Jake, that his friend in Hawaii has been attacked and his food truck blown up by Olika, the major drug distributor for a Japanese crime syndicate.  Jake wants revenge so Nick and Kate decide to readjust their plan to including also bringing down Olika.

Nick and Kate put together their team which includes Jake, a former Somali pirate, an actor who takes his parts too seriously, a dad who build treehouses, a buxom redneck who wants to drive anything (regardless whether she's had training or not) and an awarding winning special effects artist.

This is the latest in the Fox and O'Hare series ... I've them read all and enjoyed them.  I liked this book and the story ... it was interesting to see how they pulled this scam together.  Yes, it's far-fetched at times so I had to leave my sense of belief at the door and go with it ... and I was okay with that.  I liked the writing style and thought it flowed well and found it amusing.  It ends with a cliffhanger.

I liked Kate and Nick and enjoyed their interactions and banters.  I liked the other supporting characters.  They were fun and quirky.

I hope they continue with this series.

Storehouse Bar & Grill, Iqaluit, NU

I had supper this evening at the Storehouse Bar & Grill.

Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park Reserve, Iqaluit, Nunavut

I drove this afternoon to the Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park Reserve, which is about 1km west of Iqaluit.

There were a couple roads to follow.  I took one that veered left to the top.

I walked up the trail.

I walked around a bit ... there was lots of space to hike and the views were amazing!

The Gallery Fine Dining Room, Iqaluit, NU

I had lunch today at the Gallery Fine Dining Room in the Frobisher Inn.

I ordered a Nunvut Burger and fries (I swapped the cheddar cheese for mozzarella cheese).  It was a really good burger.  The bun was soft and the burger was juicy and tender.  I'd get it again.

Apex, Iqaluit, Nunavut

This morning I drove to Apex, which is about 5km SE of Iqaluit.

Apex was the place where most Inuit lived when Iqaluit was a military site and off-limits to anyone not working at the base.

I took a right down a road to the beach.  It was 5C (3C with the windchill) so I'm glad I had my hoodie and a jacket.

Book ~ "Always Watching" (2013) Chevy Stevens

From Goodreads ~ In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people and she has the desire - healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.

When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her - and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?

And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most … and fight back.

Sometimes you can leave the past, but you can never escape.

When Nadine was younger, her mother took her and her brother to live in a commune run by Aaron Quinn for eight months.  It wasn't a happy time for Nadine.  She is now claustrophobic and assumes something at the commune had caused it.  Now in her fifties and widowed, she works in a psychiatric hospital helping others.

When a patient named Heather is admitted after a suicide attempt, Nadine discovers that they have a lot in common.  Heather and her husband had been living in a commune run by Quinn.  When they left, Quinn had said that they would be punished and bad things would happen to them.  In her unstable mind, Heather starts to believe this to be true.

Talking with Heather starts to stir up long forgotten memories for Nadine and she becomes determined to find out what happened to her at the commune and hopefully shut it down so others won't be damaged as she was.

In the meantime, Nadine's daughter, Lisa, who is in her twenties, ran away seven years ago and has been become an addict.  Nadine has over the years tried to find her and bring her home to get cleaned up.

I thought this book was okay.  Reading about the commune and the charismatic leader's ability to have such control over people was interesting.  In this case, it came down to hope for a better life and weed.  I thought the writing was okay ... I found it dragged a bit in some places.  It's written in first person perspective from Nadine's point of view. As a head's up, there is swearing and descriptions of sexual abuse of children.

It was nice to read about a character my age for a change (most heroines are in their twenties and thirties).  Nadine was trying to deal with a bunch of crap from her childhood and how it affects her today.  Though I know Lisa had addiction problems, I didn't find her likable at all and had no sympathy for her.  If I'd been Nadine, I would have written her off a long time ago.  You can't help people if they won't help themselves ... and Lisa was so nasty.

Iqaluit, Nunavut

I have enrolment seminars to conduct Tuesday to Thursday this week for a new client in Iqaluit.

Iqaluit is the largest city and territorial capital of the territory of Nunavut. It was officially called Frobisher Bay until 1987, after the name of the bay on whose shore it is on. Iqaluit is located on the south coast of Baffin Island at the head of Frobisher Bay. The population is about 7,000 (the lowest population of any capital city in Canada).

There is no flight from Toronto so I had to be on the 7am flight to Ottawa and then catch the 9:15am flight to Iqaluit (there's only one flight a day).  So for Tuesday's seminars I'd have to travel tomorrow.  I've never been here before and wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to come again so I came a day early so I can spend tomorrow exploring.

Here's the airport ... we deplaned outside.

It was 8C/46F (3C/37F with the windchill) ... quite a change from hot and humid Toronto!

Here's a tour of Iqaluit.

The Iqaluit Airport

Welcome!

Book ~ "Charlie, Presumed Dead" (2015) Anne Heltzel

From Goodreads ~ In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price - young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler - who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. 

At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. 

Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London - then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own. 

 No one knows whom to trust in this thrilling tale of suspense and deception.

Unbeknownst to each other, Aubrey and Lena had been dating Charlie ... Aubrey for a year and Lena for three years.  They discover each other at Charlie's funeral.  A plane he was flying crashed and all that was found of Charlie was his bloody jacket and he is presumed dead.

Lena can't believe that Charlie is dead so convinces Audrey to travel to Mumbai and Bangkok looking for him.  Along the way, they pick up clues that he may indeed be alive.

This is the first book I read by this author and I have to say I wasn't all that crazy about it.  I thought it was an interesting premise but it fell short for me.  The book is written in first person perspective from Aubrey and and Lena's point of view and second person perspective from Charlie's point of view ... the chapters alternate and you know who the focus is because of the chapter headings.

In the first part of the book, both Aubrey and Lena kept referring to their secrets, which was awkwardly handled ... like "Oh, I hope Lena doesn't find out my secret" but it wasn't revealed at that time.  It was probably done to build some suspense for the reader but I found it annoying.   I found some of their interactions farfetched.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Audrey and Lena are both in their late teens (Aubrey has just finished high school and Lena is in university).  Lena comes from money and has no problem footing the bill as they travel from Paris to London to India, etc.  They started off as strangers thrust together because of Charlie's infidelity and the possibility that he may be alive.  I didn't find either of them likable.  I know they were young but some of the decisions they made were dumb.  Charlie sounded like a jerk or a nut and I found it hard to believe he was able to be as manipulative as he was.

I thought the ending was lame and disappointing.  After investing the time into reading the book, my response was "Huh?  That's it?  That's how it ends?"

Hyatt Regency, Montreal, PQ

I had training in Montreal yesterday and today (the company I work for is based in Montreal).  I had a client meeting yesterday in Toronto so missed yesterday's training but got to Montreal in time for cocktails and supper.

Since I was just staying one night and wouldn't be in my room much, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency since it is close to where I needed to be.

Here's my room ...

The bed was comfy!

Here's the view from my room ...

Knitted dish cloth

I finished a dish cloth this evening.  It is a quick and easy pattern.

I used cotton yarn and 4.5mm needles.

Cast on 4 stitches.

Knit 2, YO, Knit to end.

Turn work.

Knit 2, YO, Knit to end.

Turn work.

Keep doing this over and over and over and over and over until there are 56 stitches.

Knit 1, K2tog, YO, K1, K2tog, knit to end.

Turn work.

Knit 1, K2tog, YO, K1, K2tog, knit to end.

Turn work.

Keep doing this over and over and over and over and over.

Cast off the final 4 stitches and darn in the ends.

Book ~ "Things You Won't Say" (2015) Sarah Pekkanen

From Goodreads ~ How far would you go to save your family?

Every morning, as her husband Mike straps on his SIG Sauer and pulls on his heavy Magnum boots, Jamie Anderson tenses up. Then comes the call she has always dreaded: there's been a shooting at police headquarters. Mike isn't hurt but his long-time partner is grievously injured. As weeks pass and her husband's insomnia and disconnectedness mount, Jamie realizes he is an invisible casualty of the attack. Then the phone rings again. Another shooting but this time Mike has pulled the trigger.

But the shooting does more than just alter Jamie's world. It's about to change everything for two other women. Christie Simmons, Mike's flamboyant ex, sees the tragedy as an opportunity for a second chance with Mike. And Jamie's younger sister, Lou, must face her own losses to help the big sister who raised her. As the press descends and public cries of police brutality swell, Jamie tries desperately to hold together her family, no matter what it takes.

Mike is a cop whose partner, Ricky, was shot.  Ricky has a long road to recovery and will never be a cop again.  Mike carries around the guilt that it could have been him and distances himself from his family.  Declining therapy and mediation, he goes back to work even though his wife, Jamie, doesn't think he's ready.  While out on patrol, Mike shoots a teenager while trying to break up a gang fight.  Needless to say, this makes things worse as there is an investigation.

Jamie is mom to their three young children and stepmom to Mike's son, Henry.  It's all she can do to take care of the household on her own while trying to reconnect with Mike.

Lou is Jamie's sister.  She works at a zoo and is especially attached to a pregnant elephant, Tabitha.  She tries to give Jamie as much support as she can.

Christie is Henry's mother.  She quits her job in a hair salon when she is approached to work for a private investigator to catch cheating husbands.

This is the second book I've read by this author.  While I enjoyed The Best of Us, I wasn't crazy about this one.  I found it a bit draggy and thought the writing could have been a bit tighter.  It is written from third person perspective with the focus shifting between the various characters.  There is some mature language and adult activity.

I can't say I liked any of the characters.  I wish the story had started before the shooting of Ricky when things were good between Jamie and Mike when they were likable ... I  might have developed a connection with them.  When the story begins, Ricky has just been shot and Mike is dealing with it ... and Jamie is trying to deal with Mike dealing with it.  Mike had shut her out and Jamie was always trying to work her way back into his affections and attention.  Things got worse when Mike shot the teenager.  I thought it was good that Jamie had her younger sister, Lou, around to help her but I found her odd.  There was way too much focus on Lou and her love of animals, especially Tabitha.  I found it took away the focus from what I thought was the real story of Jamie and Mike.  Christie was good to have in the story as she caused more tension between Mike and Jamie but her character was ridiculous and there was a lot of unnecessary focus on her too.