Simple joys of living in my small village are numerous!

For example I was just taking a walk with Happy. A friendly neighbour passing by in her car stopped and asked if I wanted some good tomato/salt beef soup! Of course! I went by her house, said hello to her husband, picked up some soup and walked home with the soup in one hand and Happy’s leash in the other.

Merci!

This morning my boss asked me to find out something specific about a government program for her. So I started at Services Québec. The lady of course didn’t know, I’d already searched their website and didn’t find it either. So she sent me to the regional division of the Ministère. They sent me to a sub-office in Havre St-Pierre. That sub-office sent me to the one in Sept-Îles! And that one wanted to send me back to Services Québec! I told the lady there all the places I was sent to and she said she’d call me later with the info. Phew.

I felt like Astérix and Obélix in Les Douze Travaux when they have to get the laissez-passer A-38! Arghhhhh!

I went for a quick walk with Happy. Usually I go at the end of the street near my house where the (rough) road continues but there are no houses. But today I learned another dog got hurt by porcupine somewhere around that area so I decided to go elsewhere with my dog!

I went near the beach, along the shore, walking back towards the village. It’s a nice spot too, especially at sunset. But today there’s no sunset. It’s been raining a lot, and now it’s misting. When going on my walk with Happy I noticed two tents. Poor dudes, camping in this weather! If I were them I would have made back up Couch Surfing plans for if it was rainy! Ahhhh. Well I hope they enjoy their stay in my village and they don’t get too cold.

In the evening I like watching tele on the couch… Laying down comfily with a blankie. Happy’s usually sleeping in her bed in the room. Sometimes during ads I get up and surf the net a bit at the computer. Infaillably, each and every time I sit down at the chair, I hear Happy get up and come see me in the living room. Then she sees nothing much’s happening and goes back to the bedroom. That’s why I love Happy. She’s very loyal!

The best bowl of Cheerios has tons of fresh strawberries and blueberries in it! And it’s eaten on a sunny patio! Mmmm!

I hoped the water would be as calm as yesterday (was like a mirror) to go kayaking today. But it’s a bit windy… So I don’t know if I’ll go. Might change my plan for the day!

This morning I got up at 6h30 to go salmon fishing! It takes 10 minutes drive to get there, then 35 minutes walk at my comfy pace, so by 8h I was at the river. Surprisingly I was all alone! No one else!

There were tons of salmon! At this one spot there were always 4-5… A couple would move up the river and more would arrive at the spot to have a rest. I fished, changed my fly often, made sure it would pass right in front of them, but nope. Not a bite. Not a sign of interest. So after 2.5 hours of trying to fish I left with nothing. It was still fun though! Seeing them there, swimming up river, jumping!

And oh yea, there were a LOT of flies. The tiny black ones. Arghhhhhh! I put my net jacket when I left the house and didn’t take it off all morning… Just opening the zipper a bit to drink/eat quickly closing it up again… These flies get in everywhere! You have to put your socks over your pants, tuck your shirt in your pants, wear a hoodie… And on non-windy days the net jacket is an essential survival tool!

After work I called J. asking if they were going boating… She didn’t know… Later when she was done work I got a phonecall! Yay! They were going out! There wasn’t much wind, the water was very calm.

We went near Île Verte for a snack… Smoked salmon and crackers. The fisheries guys came to see if we had cod in our boat… Lots of people are jigging cod illegally. It can be a big fine! Soon, this weekend, the legal recreational cod fishing starts!

Then it was whale watching time. And what a show we got! Two whales came to play around our boat.

They’d circle it, go under, come out of the water right near us, look at us, show us their fins. Wow. And for a long time too! About 15 minutes I’d say. After a while it almost felt like they were sharks circling their prey! But they weren’t malicious. Only thing that could potentially happen is they’d knock over the boat while surfacing too close/showing their tails/fins… But what a show it was! AMAZING!

Along with the Winter coat comes Winter… And with Winter comes Christmas and New Years! I remember last year I swore to myself it would be my last NYE in Blanc-Sablon… Too boring, nothing happening. So now I have to find a good place to go for NYE and make some plans!

In Iceland I discovered 66°North clothing. I loved everything in their store and would have bought some there and then, except my suitcases were over-full. This Winter it would be time to buy a new really warm Winter coat. I could buy a traditional Kanuk, but I was thinking of getting a 66°North parka! I really like this one. But sizing might be difficult without trying it on for real, even with their size chart… So I don’t know if I want to risk ordering it online from Iceland!

Happy’s so cute. I’m sitting at the computer. Her way to say “play with me” is to drop a toy of her choice near me on the floor. She has tons of toys laying on the floor all over the house… Balls, plastic squeeze toys, tug toys, Kong, bones, etc. And it’s funny to see how she always seems to pick a different one!

This evening J. helped me fix my salmon fishing line… I learned the special knots… I’ll have to practice them not to forget! She did give me a drawing of how to make the knots but I suck at looking an image to make a knot… I need a real-life demonstration!

Maybe after supper tomorrow, at about half-tide, I will go to Brador East to fish a bit… At least practice my moves!

I like rainy days because I can do things inside without feeling guilty… Because on sunny I have to be outside and being inside is a waste of nice weather!

Today was a really bad weather day… Strong winds, rainy.

I filed papers that have been accumulating in my humongous “to sort” pile… I hadn’t filed anything since February 2008! Crap! It looked like a huge mess, but there’s a system. Each paper is looked at and placed in the appropriate pile according to the date before going into the filing folders.

I still went out with Happy 3 times for walks around the block. It’s actually nice walking in the wind/rain… Because I’m well-dressed! I put on rubber boots, rain pants, rain jacket, tuque, scarf and little gloves!

At 5h30 I got a phonecall! It was J.&M. inviting me to go salmon fishing with them. So I got up, dressed, packed a little lunch, took Happy outside and ate brekky while doing all that. At 6h I was at J.&M.’s and we were on our way to Brador East.

J. stopped to fish at the first pool, M. and I continued walking to the second pool, about a 40 minute walk total. Two guys were already there fishing but nothing caught. M. taught me again the technique quickly, because I’d forgotten (I only went once last Summer and caught one right away).

I tried fishing in safe spots, where there’s not many trees to get your fly caught in when making the moves! The fish weren’t biting much. Once the fish moved about 10 cm to the right where my fly was passing, but apart from that there wasn’t much interest. I fished a bit, changed the fly on the line, fished more, took breaks watching others, fished some more… Once J. took me in her fave spot a bit further down the river, but my fly got stuck on a really high branch! I try getting it out but had to cut my line to free it! I didn’t learn how to make the knots for my “avancé” so I spent the rest of the morning watching… But we didn’t stay long after that happened.

On our way back we passed by the first pool for a few minutes. M. tried his luck there and caught one! Yay! We weren’t coming back empty handed!

In the car coming back we were all hungry… J. mentioned how she’d like a pouding chomeur, I said I’d rather a chocolate pudding cake. And amazingly mom brought me some for my dessert tonight! Mmmmm! She’s telepathic it seems.

Ohhhh it’s tough this morning. I really felt like staying in bed and sleeping in. Even Happy would have let me! When my TV went on (my alarm) she got up, got excited a bit, but then went back in her bed. I would have slept, watched a movie, lazied around…

But I’m at work.

More than three weeks ago I asked a handyman to come help me put up a shelve in my craft room… The room has been a mess since then… Today I got tired of waiting! I went to the hardware store and bought the supplies: metal brackets, gyproc plastic thingies, screws and a pine wood board. I was going to install the shelve myself!

I measured things, used the level and installed each bracket. The first bracket took a bit longer, but after I had a good system going for the other three. The easiest was screwing the pine shelve onto the brackets. Later on I got a bit of “holding up” help from mom and S. to secure the shelve unit underneath. And it was all done! Yay! This weekend I can organize my craft room a bit better. And it’s nice to have the floor free of boxes… Now they all go on the shelve!

In previous trips abroad I never bothered before filling out the tax free receipts when I shopped. But this time in Iceland I did it… At 4 shops I got little receipts. I dropped them off at the Tax Free counter at the airport. Recently they were credited to my card, for a total of 41.67$. Yay! Cash back!

Also, when I stayed in a guesthouse in Iceland I was charged 6000 kronas more than my original booking… I only noticed it a couple of days after. I then emailed the guesthouse hoping to get it refunded. Right away they agreed to do it, but I didn’t have the money back on my credit card… Until yesterday! It’s 55$! Good!

It’s with cents that you make dollars, with dollars you make hundreds, with hundreds you make thousands… And millions… And billions… And trillions…