Summer is here

Today is the first day of summer, which is a national holiday in Iceland. I really needed a day off after a hectic shift last weekend so am enjoying time for myself. Unusually enough this day is actually quite summery, with me being able to work in the garden in shorts without being cold, even though it has been raining once in a while. Was out doing the beds I hadn't done yet, transplanting tomato plants and playing with the compost. Sverrir was raking the lawn and Lappi was playing with a ball so we were looking like a proper suburbian nightmare!

Diary of a drug smuggler

Wow...being a reporter must be great-all the fantastic pieces of information you get to relay to your fellow citizens, making you feel like it's all worth it. The reporter who has been following the bowel movements of the Belgian drug smuggler caught at Keflavík Airport last week must be experiencing his proudest moment to date.

I kid you not, we have been informed of his bowel movements (or the lack thereof) a couple of times a day since his capture, as if the nation actually is at the edge of our seats waiting to see if he poops. And by the way, he managed to escape on the way from customs to radiology at Keflavík Hospital and was found trying to move his bowels in somebody's storage room. And finally, sometime tonight he managed to poop some drugs through his arsehole and this means we can all go to bed happy and relaxed...oops, actually not yet, as they don't know if he needs to go some more!

Easter will be cozy

Met my newest niece at the weekend. The lovely Ásta is in Iceland for the first time, as she was born in Shanghai in December. Her entourage of course includes her two brothers Boggi and Örn, who to my relief are just as sincere and boisterous as ever, and the parents Hekla and my big bro Magnús. Fantastic to see them all and now we are looking forward to staying in a cottage together over Easter with everyone else, including my other lovely niece, Charlotta Karen. So the next three days at work should be easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Frábært vörumerki

Nýja Europris sjampóið mitt heitir glemo, sem hljómar næstum eins og SoulGlo. Það er rosalega kúl.

I bought a new brand of shampoo in Europris (akin to Lidl or Aldi, but even less food and even more strange stuff like chainsaws) the other day. It's called glemo, which reminds me of the fabulous afro product SoulGlo. Liking it a lot!

Mrs. Robot-son

Af hverju fannst Japönunum sem fundu upp kennslukonuvélmennið nauðsynlegt að það gæti sýnt undrun, hræðslu, fyrirlitningu, reiði, gleði og sorg? Eru þetta einu og nothæfustu tilfinningarnar sem barnakennari þarf að geta sýnt? Þarna á meðal er auðvitað fyrirlitningin mín uppáhalds. Ekkert lærði ég betur en það sem mér var kennt af fyrirlitningu. Númer tvö á listanum mínum er svo hræðslan. Uppáhaldskennarinn minn í barnaskóla var eilíflega hræddur, nema hvað!

Edit: So sorry Bea, I know I should have posted in English as well! The post was a comment on a newspaper story on the preschool teacher-robot from Japan reported to have the ability to show the following emotions: surprise, fear, contempt, anger, joy and sorrow. I wonder if the inventors saw these as the most useful emotions harnessed by a preschool teacher? My favorite was of course contempt. Number two, I think is fear, as of course my favourite teacher was forever scared shitless!

Lazy weekend

We had a great relaxing weekend doing nothing but enjoying each other's company, going for a walk and eating good food. Last night we had ptarmigan for supper, two birds that Sverrir shot in the autumn. He skinned them by the back door with white feathers flying about, Lappi standing in awe and keeping his distance so as not to intimidate the alpha dog! I have never had ptarmigan before and it was yummy!

Oh, I never mentioned we are attending dog training on Thursday nights, trying to get Lappi used to other dogs and to learn that he should always obey us, no matter how pretty next door's Rottweiler is. We were advised to get a pliable leather lead for him, but as we couldn't get one ready made we asked the local saddler to make us one. We are really happy with it and it came at a reasonable price in addition of supporting our local craftspeople. At the same time they fixed my old travel chest which had two broken leather handles, but is now looking fresh and cool again thanks to Söðli the saddler.

The Alpha bitch

If Lappi ever doubted that it is me who brings home the bacon in our house, after last night he doesn't need to doubt any more. I went out around 8 last night and returned home with a 16 kg piece of smoked foal withers in a black bin bag. This is the last piece of the half-a-foal we bought a month ago. I then proceeded to chop up the thing into smaller pieces with Lappi hovering like mad around the whole business. Luckily, it is frosty these days so we managed to put the meat out in a closed box for chilling until we manage to find freezer space.

But maaan, this is a lot of smoked meat!