Really trying

Well, the last two posts were written in Germany and since then I have actually been in Iceland, working and playing and not dead to this world as people might think. Now I have got an internet connection in Hella I might just start blogging properly again. Although at this very moment I am not in Hella but at Baldursgata in Reykjavík in Sverrir's flat enjoying a lazy Sunday.

I want to start by saying that I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and that you anticipate and indeed will have a great New Year's Celebration tomorrow. I have had a very good Christmas in the Capital and vicinity, although I did have to return to the Far East (read: Hella) to work on 27. and 28. December.

When Sverrir and I were driving back on Friday I hit a snowdrift on the way and slid onto the other lane, turning 90 degrees before ramming the road barrier keeping the car from rolling uncontrollably down a steep hill. This is a very steep hill with the road snaking up along the way with many bends (For my Danish friends: tøser, det var der hvor vi blev angrebet af Amerikanerne-"blond and beautiful!!" på vores tur 2000). Unbelievably the barrier held (I mean, I've often wondered if they actually do, and now I can vouch for their sturdiness) in spite of me being positive that we were going down. I was just screaming my bum off until I realised that we were holding still and that nobody had yet hit us from behind and we were still alive and not hurt in the least. Yup, we were spared and even the car didn't show much damage. There was a lovely lady in a big 4by4 that was next to us up the hill and stopped to check if we were OK and then drove in our wake almost all the way to Reykjavík. Coming up the hill she had been careful enough not to drive too close to me and therefore she saw what was happening and didn't ram into me, thank God.

Well, we managed to get the car into town and parked it, it needs to see an orthopaedist to have it's wheel system thingies fixed as it rammed into the barrier with one wheel and is now slightly intoed. This is minimal compared to what could have been, so I am very relieved and thankful that I didn't hurt anybody by my crazy stunt.

Oh and by the way I have a viva (PhD forsvar) date: January 21st, approaching very soon!

Enough for now, I will keep you posted!

Update on previous post

I have just had my personal private parts fondled by a stocky German woman with a masculine haircut and bad skin. The only consolation is that her stony face did not convey that she was enjoying it. Yes, I had the bloody metal detector beep on me leading to my being shoved into a cubicle and body searched for ten minutes. Horrible, horrible experience, seriously! She had three goes at my boobies and a couple at my crotch as well. Finally, she fiddled with each and every one of my toes while she scanned my shoes. Yup, you don't get away with anything here at Frankfurt Airport...geeeezzzz!

I'm back!

Right, it is time I start blogging again now that I have moved out to the Icelandic countryside, so am away from not only my Danish- and British-based friends but also my family and Icelandic friends. On my old blog written in Icelandic I gathered quite a following (huhuhu) but now I must switch to the more applicable English language, maybe also Danish once in a while.

This little piece is written at Frankfurt Airport, where I have six hours to kill until flying back to Iceland. I have been attending a workshop and conference on equine reproduction in Leipzig where I gave two talks as an invited speaker. Great worker I am, just started on Monday at the clinic in Hella and already Thursday I am away travelling. Not a good foreboding I guess but it is a long time until I am next off to somewhere so exotic.

Socially, the workshop was good, as we were only a handful of people, all staying in the guesthouse where the talks were held. I met my coming external examinor for the third time and it was all very relaxed and friendly. Even so that I had to clean chocolate from her face with my thumb! So I am hoping my viva (transl: PhD forsvar/doktorsvörn) will be a breeze. Another guy had co-authored a paper with a guy with the last name of Rass (Icelandic for bum, røv) and of course I had to grip the edge of my seat so as not to laugh out loud. How can you take this too seriously?! However, the conference part had many more participants, around 250 mostly German practitioners. I met a few Danish colleagues that I already know, even one from my class (Charlotte Måtte Jespersen!).

Anyway, when I fly in to Iceland today I will be straight off to my parents' to collect more of my stuff to transport eastwards to Hella and will be back to work tomorrow. We've been doing pregnancy scans, castrating stallions and vaccinating a lot of sheep (which I think will cover much of the menu tomorrow) as well as treating mastitis and ketosis in cows. Beside this we are planning the coming breeding season, to get in problem mares before the season start and also we'll hopefully be doing some embryo transfers.

Right, let's see where this goes!