License to Fly
I lost my driver's license sometime last week (the physical photo ID part, not the legal ability to drive), which has been a pain in more ways than I anticipated. I couldn't check my mail this week because I'm on general delivery and needed photo ID to check, and of course there is the impending dread that I may need to drive a car for some reason that I can't even imagine. I don't own a car, and everywhere in Iqaluit is within walking distance from my house, as long as I'm willing to walk for a while. The other day I walked to Upper Plateau (the fancy neighbourhood that complains about the city a lot, from what I hear from my city staff connections) to buy a plate of Filipino noodles, and I underestimated the amount of snow on the hill up to Plateau. The trip there took me 50 minutes, but at least I had a warm plate of noodles during the first half of the walk home. Cold noodles after that. I regret nothing.
Getting noodles has turned out to be one of few things that I can do without a valid piece of photo ID. Not included in the list of things that I can do is board a plane within Canada. That normally wouldn't be a problem for me, but now I live in a city surrounded on all sides by snow and nothing else, and if I want to leave and not die in the wilderness, I have to leave by jet. As things will go, I also lost my only piece of government issued photo ID one month before my time off work during which I planned to visit Lac La Biche. After some research and help from my mother, I learned that I could use two other pieces of government issued ID to replace one piece of photo ID on a flight. Then began the sinking suspicion that I had somehow misplaced my SIN card and birth certificate. I was sure I'd put it somewhere safe- where it couldn't be found easily if someone broke into my house. Unfortunately, I am about as smart as a common house robber when it comes to finding things in my own room, and I spent around an hour and a half searching for my ID. I have learned that in many cases past Aliya is a lot smarter than present Aliya, but past Aliya's biggest shortfall is by far her confidence in present Aliya's memory of things that occurred literally two months ago. Past Aliya, with her great intelligence, sat down immediately after moving into her new house, tucked her SIN card and birth certificate into an envelope, labelled it 'ID' in red sharpie so that it couldn't be accidentally thrown out, and tucked it between the mattress and side frame of her bed. And that is where present Aliya (another 'past Aliya' now) found her SIN card and birth certificate, still in the envelope. Guess where I'm putting my ID now? Probably the exact same place. Maybe I'll write a note for future Aliya so that she doesn't move out without it.
Fortunately, I now have enough ID to get on a plane- I will be landing in Edmonton January 25 at 11:45 pm, God willing. This is definitely the longest time that I've spent away from my family, and it will be good to see them again. I'm also counting it a victory that I got all of the flights for under $1500 (not by much, but it still cost less than it sometimes is...). Flights from Ottawa to Iqaluit are incredibly expensive, because one airline (Canadian North) is the only airline that flies here and they have the market cornered. They have been known to force out other airlines trying to fly this route by lowering their prices temporarily to put the other airline out of business. And people keep dropping $800+ per ticket to Ottawa.
What else are we going to do?
- Aliya
Getting noodles has turned out to be one of few things that I can do without a valid piece of photo ID. Not included in the list of things that I can do is board a plane within Canada. That normally wouldn't be a problem for me, but now I live in a city surrounded on all sides by snow and nothing else, and if I want to leave and not die in the wilderness, I have to leave by jet. As things will go, I also lost my only piece of government issued photo ID one month before my time off work during which I planned to visit Lac La Biche. After some research and help from my mother, I learned that I could use two other pieces of government issued ID to replace one piece of photo ID on a flight. Then began the sinking suspicion that I had somehow misplaced my SIN card and birth certificate. I was sure I'd put it somewhere safe- where it couldn't be found easily if someone broke into my house. Unfortunately, I am about as smart as a common house robber when it comes to finding things in my own room, and I spent around an hour and a half searching for my ID. I have learned that in many cases past Aliya is a lot smarter than present Aliya, but past Aliya's biggest shortfall is by far her confidence in present Aliya's memory of things that occurred literally two months ago. Past Aliya, with her great intelligence, sat down immediately after moving into her new house, tucked her SIN card and birth certificate into an envelope, labelled it 'ID' in red sharpie so that it couldn't be accidentally thrown out, and tucked it between the mattress and side frame of her bed. And that is where present Aliya (another 'past Aliya' now) found her SIN card and birth certificate, still in the envelope. Guess where I'm putting my ID now? Probably the exact same place. Maybe I'll write a note for future Aliya so that she doesn't move out without it.
Fortunately, I now have enough ID to get on a plane- I will be landing in Edmonton January 25 at 11:45 pm, God willing. This is definitely the longest time that I've spent away from my family, and it will be good to see them again. I'm also counting it a victory that I got all of the flights for under $1500 (not by much, but it still cost less than it sometimes is...). Flights from Ottawa to Iqaluit are incredibly expensive, because one airline (Canadian North) is the only airline that flies here and they have the market cornered. They have been known to force out other airlines trying to fly this route by lowering their prices temporarily to put the other airline out of business. And people keep dropping $800+ per ticket to Ottawa.
What else are we going to do?
- Aliya
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