News from Hella

Summer is here

2009-04-23T15:37:00.002Z

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

2009-04-05T21:22:00.002Z

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

2009-04-05T11:27:00.002Z

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

2009-03-26T12:27:00.004Z

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

2009-03-23T20:54:00.003Z

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

2009-02-23T22:01:00.002Z

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

2009-01-12T08:15:00.003Z

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!

Time for some news

2009-01-08T18:08:00.002Z

Now then, my dear friends. I'll start off with this:

Happy New Year !!!

If anybody is wondering why they didn't receive a card, the answer is simple: None were prepared, let alone sent. Sorry, but December just vanished into thin air somehow. I am grateful for the cards I did receive myself, it is always really nice to get news from my dear friends.

Now, the year has started with dark, foggy days filled with ill cows and so I am not enjoying it as I should. The day is growing ever longer, though, so hopefully the sun will be shining on my days soon enough.

The economic situation in Iceland is still getting worse for most people, and still none of the government ministers or bank directors are leaving their posts. There is a lot of activism going on in the country these days and it is great to watch. Only on rare occasions have I taken part, as the actions take place mostly in Reykjavik, but it's been great to feel the atmosphere and people's fighting spirit. In the meantime, a lot is going on on the Internet so I can follow the discussions there.

Right, this is all for now, will try to write sooner next time!

All set for a long winter of depletion...

2008-12-11T18:03:00.009Z

...as we wheeled home 23 kilos of foal meat last night. A local blacksmith offered me half a foal as he was about to send a couple to the slaughter. Looking economical depression and deficient food stocks in the eye I had to say yes, especially as I am a great believer in local food and self sufficiency in general. Also, foal meat is delicious!

So last night Sverrir and I found ourselves on a farm on the outskirts of habitation in pitch dark and strong winds, sorting our foal meat into goulash and various steaks. The farmer, a dab hand at deboning and sorting meat was so nice as to help us with the processing, whereafter we took the whole lot (meat from three foals) over to the next farm where they grow and sell pink trout and therefore own a vacuum packing machine! So there we stood in the kitchen packing and labelling until half ten in the evening. When we finally headed home the weather was crazy mad and we figured we probably shouldn't have been travelling on such a night.

Now Sverrir is poised over the meat kettles cooking horsemeat sausage processed and smoked by the aforementioned farmer and Lappi is chewing on a huge bone from one of the foals...cozy!

Oh, and of course I have to mention my two little nieces, one born on December 2rd in Reykjavík and the other on December 6th in Shanghai. I am thrilled to bits with both of them, although I will have to wait a good few long months to see the one in China - boohoo!

On Saturday last...

2008-11-24T22:18:00.002Z

...I was among 6-7000 Icelanders protesting against our government (as well as an agreement between them and the IMF) in Parliament Square. I was also among approx. 500 people protesting outside Reykjavik Police Headquarters, an action resulting in people being pepper sprayed after they had forced their way in. Me and Sverrir stayed well away but still shouted our lungs out.

I am amazed at the situation here, how corrupt bankers (or should I say wankers!) can still keep their positions in the banks, taking their time to hide away their sins and dirty laundry so that no one will know just how rotten their tiny little brains are.

However, I am really happy that people are putting pressure on the government to get to cleaning the joint, and to start by resigning their power!

Monday evening blog

2008-11-24T21:52:00.003Z

Right, now a bit in Icelandic. I have been 'klukked' so have to answer a few questions:

1. Fjögur störf sem ég hef unnið um ævina:

Símadama og vélritunarskass í verkfræðifyrirtæki
Skóflumaður hjá hafnfirskum verktaka
Starfsmaður í meinafræðirannsóknastöð laxeldisstöðvar í Skotlandi
Pössunarpía hjá útrásarvíkingum í Kaupmannahöfn

2. Fjórar íslenskar bíómyndir sem ég held upp á:

Dalalíf
Foxtrott
Bræðrabylta
Með allt á hreinu

3. Fjórir staðir sem ég hef búið á:

Hjallabraut 37
Hellubraut 6
Silkeborggade 34
Liberton House

3. Einn staður sem ég myndi aldrei búa á: Hella....wait....I already do!

4. Fjórir staðir sem ég hef heimsótt í fríum:

Edinborg
Cervinia
Ólafsdalur
Kjölur

5. Fjórir sjónvarpsþættir sem mér líkar:

Black Books
Look around you
Bráðavaktin
Fóstbræður

6. Fjórar síður sem ég skoða daglega:

mbl.is
facebook.com
worldfengur.com
baggalutur.is

7. Fernt sem ég held upp á matarkyns:

kjötsúpa
thai Green Curry núðlujukk
royal
súkkulaðibitasmákökur

8. Fjórar bækur sem ég hef oft lesið:

allar James Herriot bækurnar
The World According to Garp
Þorpið
Anna í Grænuhlíð

9. Fjórir staðir sem ég myndi helst vilja vera á núna:

Einhvers konar fagnaðarsamkomu í tilefni af afsögn Davíðs og ákvörðunar um að AGS lánið verði ekki tekið
....en á léttari nótum:
uppi í sófa með kærasta og kaffibolla á eilífðarsunnudagsmorgni
í gegningum úti í fjárhúsunum mínum á skikanum mínum við fagra fjallasýn og frelsi
annars er ég bara ágætlega stödd þar sem ég er...

Fjórir bloggarar sem ég klukka: Inga Lilý, Hekla, Tóta, Ólöf

Looks like I will be graduating...

2008-11-18T17:54:00.002Z

...but won't be holding my breath just yet. Today I managed to get through to somebody in the University to hand in the graduation form and make a payment off my credit card. When he asked who was the issuer for my credit card I told him "you don't want to know....it's Landsbankinn!" we both laughed about it and when he asked (just to be kind, I guess) if it translated to 'The Bank of the Land', I told him it probably should have stayed that way. Good old relaxed Scotland, made me feel good about the whole thing.

Positive, think positive!

Icesave

2008-11-17T20:12:00.002Z

Right, today the government have proposed (which basically equals a firm decision) that every Icelander - this includes everybody from baby to OAP - will have a huge loan to pay off in the foreseeable future. The numbers we hear range from 4,5 to 12 million Icelandic krona, which translates into roughly 2,000 to 6,000 Pounds Sterling, seeing that the krona isn't standing particularly strong at the moment! Still, this means that my two brothers' children set to be born in the beginning of December will be born heavily in debt.

And all the while we don't get any information from the government what exactly is involved in this deal of theirs. Apparently the International Monetary Fund have this as one of their conditions for their loan. It has been demonstrated before that the IMF have done spectacular jobs of bankrupting whole nations with these unfair conditions of theirs. Now we foresee that the inflation is going to be MASSIVE in the new year because of the IMF.

All of a sudden everybody is really set on applying for EU membership, because they think this is the only way out. I find this really sad. This will mean that we loose what little independence we still have and our agriculture and resources will be lost into the hands of the little bureaucrats of Brussels. Pitheeeuwy!

Apart from this I am good! I am singing in a choir now and we are giving an advent concert at the start of December. I found out at practice last night that we are each supposed to wear a shoe-length burgundy velour dress with a long cream coloured scarf hanging down on each side. Hoooorrrible! Apparently, I am borrowing of someone who used to sing in the choir, I am sure she is a whole meter shorter and a meter wider, so I will end up wearing a really, really short, really, really wide dress so will have to be at the back!

Finally, to keep up the good spirits, visit www.newiceland.net, it's what keeps us alive up here now.

Trying to keep it alive

2008-11-11T14:22:00.002Z

Yup, I will really need to get my act together here...it's not that there is never any news, but I think I must have less advanced (read: confusing) thoughts now than when I was doing my PhD. All this time alone in the car does not seem to be productive in terms of finding stupid things to write about (stupid things were the building blocks of my icelandic blog). I guess it comes from listening to the radio all the time and concentrating (yeah right!) on the driving.

These days it is mostly dark thoughts regarding people who spend beyond their (i.e. other people's) means and expect others to pick up the bill. Nobody wants to know that, right?

However, the weather is beautiful, it is sunny and frosty and why would anybody want to leave this spectacular country.

Landsmót Frenzy

2008-06-27T00:01:00.003Z

Hmm...I suspect that next week in Hella is going to feel like August in Edinburgh-crammed full of tourists and all sorts of people getting in my way when I'm trying to go about my business. Hella is host to the Icelandic Equestrian Games this year and just now they are working all hours to finish the following: the riding arena, the swimming pool and the petrol station. I am amazed that they decided to do up the latter two "quarter to" Landsmót, as everything is kind of stressing up around here. I guess people around here needed a bit of stress in their life, this will maybe get them moving faster than 15 km/hour in the main street, making me a bit happier!

Anyway, I am afraid that all this hoohah is going to cause me some road rage next week, seeing that trying to get to a bank via Royal Mile in August really got my blood boiling last year.

I seem to always have a night shift...the second one this week, after a weekend shift and two night shifts last week. Tonight I had a 2-day old foal to save, which apparently had been bitten by a predator of some kind-an arctic fox or a dog, I guess. Was trying to look for images on the Internet to show typical lesions caused by foxes or wolves, but didn't succeed. This is very close to being an unknown occurrence so I don't know what to think, really.

Anyway, must be getting ready for tomorrow's trip to the summer cottage after work, where we're going to get ready for my wee brother's wedding on Saturday!

Niihhgellahhh!

2008-06-05T21:29:00.003Z

What is it with Nigella Lawson? Her unhealthy passion for food is ridiculous! How she stands there gloating, pushing her boobies into whatever calorific creation she is working on. Then she always has to pick at the fridge in her satin nightie at the end of each program...aaarghhh how it bugs me! She can't stand being away from food any time of the day, as was apparent in a program of hers I saw tonight, in which she was shown sipping pea soup on the bus, in the park, in a cab...all supposed to take place in the same day. Honestly, how obsessed can you be?

Ok, this was the sour pill of the day. Really, I am fine, quite happy with things in general.

Iceland in a nutshell

2008-06-03T16:38:00.003Z

Well, well! Since I moved back home there has been a big earthquake and today they shot a polar bear in Þverárfjall, a mountain pass that I drove through on Saturday and again on Sunday morning. So it would seem that many of the clichés about Iceland, that I have been trying to dispel whilst living abroad and having people asking about the country, are actually true! So maybe I really DO live in an igloo and eat puffins for breakfast!

I am relieved that...

2008-05-29T19:12:00.004Z

...I wasn't in the abbattoir refrigerating room when today's earthquake shook the place. Yup, we had a "Suðurlandsskjálfti" today, which is the term used for quakes in the south of Iceland that reach a caliber over 6 on the Richter scale. They say it was about 6,2 and that is pretty big.

I was just back from castrating two yearlings (year-old horses) and worming a bunch of crazy cattle. I guess it wouldn't have made the task easier if the animals were going mad from quake frenzy. We were all hanging about in the clinic, prepping for the next task or tidying away from the last one when all of a sudden there was a booming sound and everything went wobbly. I had been feeling some shudders last night and this morning but it still took me by surprise. We all huddled in one doorway and then quickly ran out. Phew, it was ok here in comparison to further "south" (which is the term for "West" here) where many houses are now full of bashed stuff. I really didn't think of my house until I got home after work and waited a bit before opening the door, just to prepare for the ensuing sight. I was expecting broken glass jars on the kitchen floor but these were unnecessary worries, as the only thing on the floor was Björk's "Vespertine", whereas other CDs had just shifted slightly towards the edge of the shelf. Also, a whisky bottle was curiously close to the edge, so all in all quite lucky. This is a timber house after all, and the ground floor, so less damage could be expected.

And yes, the refrigerating room in the abbattoir was stuffed with carcasses of cows and horses in full swing while the quake lasted! The workers were in there at the time and apparently it was rather spooky. To tell you the truth it is quite spooky enough when you are in there among the carcasses, alone after hours and then the lights go out...!

A Horribly long Day

2008-05-13T20:36:00.003Z

When I was wee I had a bit of a fixation on factory work. I don't know why, but I guess I was fascinated with the organised repetitiveness of working at a conveyor belt. I used to dream of working in a factory, such as a fish plant or an assembly line so that I could stand there doing the same thing again and again with rhythmic movements.

Well, today I got the chance to live the dream as I got to do some locum work at the big abbattoir on the weekly day of pig slaughter. Needless to say the day was horrible. The noise, the heat and the endless line of pigs soon set me straight but the worst thing was the lack of organisation and nobody telling me what to do and how to do it. There is one useless person particularly that I am peed off with and I am planning to never do that person a favour again. It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth when a grown person promises something in order for you to do them a favour and then betrays that promise with a pack of lies. And then feeling that you don't want to do your work properly just out of spite is plain crap.

I am used to a tiny abbattoir here in Hella but in this other one I had to stand on a hoisty platform thingy with pedals that I kept accidentally stepping on, sending me rocketing sky high or plummeting to the floor. I am amazed that I didn't break my neck in there.

Anyway, when I got out of this noisy hothouse the weather was actually nice and I managed to do some garden work after I got home. All's well that ends well!

The lambs are poppin'!

2008-05-05T21:36:00.005Z

Oh dear, I thought of something really clever and deep to put on the blog today, but seem to have totally forgotten it now. My days are really busy at the moment, and so are the nights, as the lambing season is properly over us now and have already had a busy weekend shift pulling them out all over the area. It is one of the greatest experiences in the job, seeing the little things quivering and heaving for air and then hearing the first me-e-e-e (which is icelandic for 'baa'). However, a couple of them I haven't been able to save and then there are always the sheep that tear badly and the odd extruded uterus. All in all, good days. Also, the garden is coming on in leaps and bounds. Lappi and I are enjoying digging the weeds and tending the compost heap, as well as planting veggies outside.

Finally, evidence of sunny mornings in Hella:

Gleðilegt sumar! Summer is here!

2008-04-24T13:00:00.005Z

I am turning into the grumpy lady in the neighbourhood. I think this is the effect of living in very close proximity to everyone in the village. I really like it in terms of my work, seeing that you know where this dog and this cat lives and whose horse was brought in with a nasty wound. However, when I get home in the evening or at the weekend, I want to be anonymous, minding my own business in the garden. So I am still keeping the dream alive that I can move to a place of my own where I have acres to myself and my eccentric habits.

Another thing bugging me today is that Lappi seems to be having a teenage crisis a bit early, being disobedient on purpose, as if to try my patience. People that know me well would maybe know that I don't have a lot of patience most of the time! He seems hellbent on eating my 'gúmmískór'-Chech made rubber slip-ons traditionally worn in the Icelandic countryside. This in spite of him knowing from an early age that he must not, and has always obeyed by this rule. Also, he tears out the insoles knitted by my mum and chews on them. I am sure that he loves the buttery sweaty juice coming from these wonderful flaps of wool, but even sweeter must be the feeling of being naughty!

Today is the Icelandic 'sumardagurinn fyrsti', or first day of summer. Traditionally it is very wet, windy and cold, if not snowing, on this day. People will however persevere with going on parades and children will receive a summer gift of a rubber ball, skipping rope or summer clothes. This is a very Icelandic day and an official day off. So today I have been in the garden playing with Lappi and planning the beds (in my head, I am not doing anything yet as we can still expect snow) and the weather has been behaving so far. It is great to have a day off, as the last two days have been craaaazy at work. Everybody seems to be selling horses abroad these days (they must be getting a lot of Icelandic krona for their Swedish krona and Euro) and the lambing season is looming large, so the next few weeks are going to be manic!

Well, I guess it was about time people got some news from the wonderful town of Hella! By the way, I am not doing anything about my thesis corrections yet....yikes!

Lappi sees the world

2008-04-14T21:13:00.003Z

Went south for the weekend, all the way to Reykjavík, spending the first night in Hafnarfjörður at my parents'. Lappi came with, experiencing tarmac for the first time. Also, he had to be on lead the whole time. We had meat soup, my favourite, which lasted me and Sverrir two more meals at the weekend. Lappi was good and didn't harass grandmother which was a big plus in her books. Saturday we spent in Reykjavík after mum and dad had left for Snæfellsjökull glacier for some skiing. We took Lappi everywhere round town, even to buy wine and beer for the party we were going to in the evening. Had a picnic in a sunny park and everything was hunkydory. After all that Lappi was totally knackered and could sleep all the way through the disco party we were going to later in the evening.

*As you see everything revolves around the dog these days*

The party was great, I never knew there was that much disco music to be unearthed in the world! Well, it began snowing in the night and in the morning everything was again covered in the white stuff (no, not cocaine and not dandruff).

It was a bit hard to get to work this morning, but on the plus side I got meat soup for lunch from one of the farmers wives, so now I am saturated with the stuff!

Yup, life is OK, I guess. Just the time to start worrying about doing my thesis corrections!

Time for some news

2008-04-08T07:41:00.002Z

Tax returns have been handed over, the puppy is now formally mine and I am having a bit of nights with broken sleep due to his need for frequent visits outside. I am really enjoying his company and today will be our first day on the job together. It will be interesting to see how he manages. Other news, the snow is gone and the migratory birds are flocking to Iceland. Many of them will be flying over here on their way all over the country. Last night there was a lot of whooping swans squabbling on the river, a bunch of duck quacking, and my favourite the oystercatcher was peeping joyfully over mine and Lappi's heads around midnight. Lovely!

Last but not least, my parents were over for one night at the weekend and brought with them my brother Magnús all the way from Shanghai! It was a great time we had together and I look forward to the next opportunity.

Anyway, must get to work. Behave while I am away!

I am still here

2008-03-27T20:21:00.002Z

A few things have been going on although I haven't been writing much. First of all, Lappi has been visiting for a couple of times with great success. Then, I found a house and plot that I am now wondering if I should put in an offer for, for then to break down the house and build another one. Hence I have been finding out all sorts of info for the price of preparing a plot and the prices of building a new house. Well, a girl is allowed to dream, right? Apart from this, my time is spent on tax returns and knackered staring into space.

Update

2008-03-06T19:47:00.002Z

Yeeello! You might think that nothing much has been happening in Hella. This is untrue, as last weekend I got a delivery of my furniture from Copenhagen and me and the gang (Sverrir, mum and dad) managed to get them all in from the snow without much trouble. Earlier in the day we had a crazy snowstorm and I was getting a wee bit worried that things would all get wet and horrible. I even managed to get thoroughly stuck in the snow during my rounds and had to get a farmer to pull me up with his tractor.

However, we did get everything in really quickly and then had a nice evening, with mum and dad staying the night as the first couple of nightguests (apart from Sverrir). On Saturday we went to a riding competition in great winter weather of stillness and sun. Walked back home and had coffee and kept on putting things away and finding places for all my stuff.

Sunday I gave a little talk at a horse sales show and then made pancakes for my friends Diljá and Kristinn who were on a little drive in the countryside and were so sweet as to visit. A great weekend, I need more of those.

This weekend I am going into town, attending the opening of a photography exhibition as well as a punk concert. This means that I have to dig deep for my fancy clothes, they never get used here in Hella. I always look like a tramp these days! Anyway, should be good.

Tarrraaaa! Meet Lappi, son of Loppa

2008-02-24T16:13:00.002Z

This is Lappi in the arms of his new daddy-O Sverrir. He is now 2 and a half weeks old so I still have 5 and a half weeks until I get to take him home, but I will be visiting him again and also maybe borrowing him for an hour at a time when he is a bit more capable. Isn't he just adoooorable?!

First casualty

2008-02-21T00:20:00.000Z

Today I had a bit of a lousy morning as one of my patients died on me, just like that. It was a calving cow that couldn't take the calcium I was giving her. The calf died as well. Bummer! Then when I got back to the clinic Gummi was humming "Killer Queen" and ended up tracking it down on YouTube just so that he could play it for us all. I have to admit that in spite of me being rather down about the whole thing, he managed to cheer me up a bit. And it is a great song of course.

Now I am in my bed finally at half past midnight after driving 120 km tonight to put even more calcium in even more cows all over the place. One was totally 'stargazing' and cycling with all four legs but we managed to get her up after being doubtful about her for 1,5 hours. Anyway, have had enough for now and not even sure I want to be a vet anymore-I want to take up professional knitting. Now that would be a great job to have...

End of an era

2008-02-14T16:51:00.000Z

My dear readers, sorry for being so quiet. Me and Sverrir took a trip to Copenhagen to pack all my furniture and what was left of my stuff in my old flat and to hand over the keys to some real estate dude. This four-day trip was pretty rough on both of us and involved a lot of travelling and not much sleep.

On Friday night after work I planned to take the bus into town, but we had a crazy storm going and so they didn't drive further than Selfoss as the heath was closed due to high winds and slippery patches. So I was put off the bus there and had to sit in the petrol station for four hours waiting for the weather to quieten down so somebody could come pick me up. I wasn't alone for the whole time as I got into talking to a local (Benóný) who'd just popped out for some snuff and obviously was feeling a bit lonely! So Benóný kept talking at me for two hours and trying to get me a lift over the heath with every passer-by until dad and Sverrir got there to save me. At this point it was nearing midnight and we were in Reykjavík by half-twelve, and ended up getting only three hours' sleep before getting up early to take the fly-bus.

Once in Copenhagen we started to pack and clean and pack and clean. And kept doing that until we had delivered the lot with the shipping company and wrapped it all in sticky plastic. Well, when we got to the airport we were absolutely knackered, just hung there trying to stay awake. We were at Sverrir's around half-twelve, and boy, I was happy to get into bed-finally!

Anyway, now all my stuff will soon be found in one place after my having three different places of residence simultaneously!

Equus mortus

2008-01-29T22:07:00.000Z

Today I felt like somebody out of CSI, collecting DNA samples from a dead body. The dead body was a 29 year old mare that was supposed to be alive and I was there to sample, but who died during the night. I presume it was of old age, as she just seemed to have dropped dead out in the field. Her owner found her this morning when they went to gather the horses and she wasn't covered with much snow yet so it had just happened. However, when we went around lunchtime to the field to collect the sample the ravens had been at her and I had her empty hollow eyesocket "staring" me in the face as I rubbed cotton swabs in her nostril. Oh well, I guess it was her time and the best way to go was like this, quickly and out in the snow covered field. I should have taken photos today, as the light was fantastic between the snow showers, but didn't take the time to do it.

Hello world!

2008-01-28T19:27:00.000Z

Today the inhabitants of Siglufjörður in the Eastern fjords are having truckloads of pancakes to celebrate the return of sunshine to the village. The sun has not been seen there since november 14th, so every year they are really happy to see it again.

I am also really happy of course, due to the fact that just about a week ago I finished my PhD and had a good party involving a lot of champagne. Also the snow seems to be sticking for a bit. Last night I returned to Hella on the bus after a weekend in the city. Apart from me, the bus was occupied by children who were put on the bus by weekend dads, grannies or aunties. We had to pass the heath in a proper winter storm, seeing nothing but hail and snow all around us with high winds forcing in the bus windows. Behind me two boys of nine were chatting away and it seemed to me that they knew each other from their weekly trip on the bus. I enjoyed listening to their conversation:

Boy 1: "I am going to Africa, to Morocco this summer. I will see my granny and grandad"
Boy 2: "Is your dad from Morocco, and your mum?"
B 1: "No, she's Icelandic. I had a Playstation of my own when she was in the hospital"
B 2: "When did you first know she had cancer?"
B 1: "When I was 3. I only knew about the brain cancer later"
B 2: "So what sort of cancer was it to begin with?"
B 1: "Breast cancer"
B 2: "Is breast cancer contagious?"
B 1: "contagious?"
B 2: "Yup, can you catch if off someone?"
B 1: "No"
B 2: "How old was she when...."
B 1: "...when she died?...fifty"
B 2: "Jón Páll (Icelandic strong man and world's strongest a couple of times) was 26 when he died"

Life can seem so uncomplicated for children!

Winter Walk

2008-01-17T18:07:00.001Z

Went for a walk to the bakery today after discovering the bread I had was mouldy. Gave the rest of it to the little cold birds (snjótittlingar in Icelandic, literally means snowdickies, but I guess are in family with the similarly rude sounding blue tit). They went absolutely mad for the bread and fat meat that I gave them. I trudged on in the knee-deep snow, managed to fall once but made it to the bakery and back in half an hour. The Polish bakery girl was serving a Thai guy, in Icelandic, of course ;). Yup, little Hella is multicultural, just as any other metropolis!

Other news: Have been reading up on my referring papers today and trying to put together a list of stats questions for Darren, who was so sweet to offer me his help in the last couple of days before the viva. So, getting along ok. In an hour or so I will have to take a little brake for the handball game against Sweden in the European Championships. Will make good use of my time and have my tea at the same time! Trout and potatoes sound good?

Interesting choice of career

2008-01-15T17:07:00.000Z

I wonder, doesn't the phrase "erotic spy-thriller" sound like something you would like to do for a living? I hear this phrase a billion times a day in a radio ad for Ang Lee's latest film as I am sat in the car for a good part of the day.

Today I spent quite some time in the car, as it has been snowing like mad all night and all day and as everything was drowning in snow, I had to drive slowly on my rounds. Made it there and back again on an 80 km round trip where I had to plunge through meter-high drifts on the road and really enjoyed myself. We had an early closing, as everyone seemed to be snowed in and didn't make it to the clinic or were just curling up inside. When I headed home, after all my snow-plunging I managed to get the car stuck with one half on the drive and its bum sticking out onto the road. Nice!

Sunday afternoon

2008-01-13T17:50:00.000Z

Right, I had just curled up in bed last night and been reading the materials and methods chapter in my thesis when I get a call just before midnight. My help was needed on a farm 40 km from here for a downer cow so I got up and drove down there to get her a fix of calcium and other goodies. It was 2 o'clock when I finally got into bed again, and then I got a call for the same cow at 8 this morning. That's ok, I needed to get up early anyway to start studying, and it was a beautiful, albeit dark, morning. Just back from this call, another downer cow 40 km in the other direction needed a fix, so I set off. Just back from there, somebody calls with a colicky horse so I set off for there.

This was a mare stood in a fancy huge new stables (they definitely had room for a pony!) and approaching the place I noticed a steady stream of huuuuge american redneck Ford pickups heading up the drive. I sort of wondered if they were there for a show being held in the riding hall, but I really got a shock when I pulled up at the door, because there were 5 pickups and 8 large 4x4s (not that this is out of the ordinary on an Icelandic scale, we are the Texas of the north you see). Out of these cars came a load of middle-aged, well dressed and very clean people with chihuahuas (ok I'm making that bit up, but I'm sure there was at least one in every car, even if I didn't see them) and went into the stables.

I felt rather intimidated with having to infiltrate the group to find out who I was actually supposed to be talking to. However I swallowed my pride and entered in my dirty green overalls and stinky wellies armed with the oil pump and rectal glove and was met with some ponce who promptly announced "Yes, and today we have a horse with colic and here is the vet", making everyone give me an overenthused elevator-look. So I thought, "oh my god, now everybody is going to stand there while I stick my arm up this poor mare's bum and pump her full of oil!" Luckily they were there for some sort of introduction to the building itself and soon left me to deal with my patient. Turns out the guy helping me with the mare is an old friend of Sverrir, this is typically Icelandic. Not just that we often discover some sort of common connection when we meet new people but also that we actually dig until we do! When you here somebody is from Skagafjörður you start trying to connect them with everybody you know from Skagafjörður until you find the connection!

Well, the mare only had a slight impaction (constipation or hægðatregða to you non-vets!) so she got a shot of oil down her throat and some good stuff in her veins. Now, a raised pulse is one of the common colic diagnostic criteria to determine the severity of the case as it indicates the level of pain that the horse is in. Interestingly, in the Icelandic horse, this is of limited use because they are so damn hard that they hardly ever get a raised pulse even if they are in severe pain. Somehow I'm really proud of them! Honestly, this is very Icelandic and even if it isn't practical, I think it's cool.

Right, back to the books

Saturday thoughts

2008-01-12T22:04:00.000Z

I think I really need to get myself a gun. Honestly, it's stupid to not have one in the car for emergencies. I need a sheep gun, as they're known in Icelandic. Last night one of my patients needed a bullet in the head and the farmer took care of it.

Well, apart from that I have been dead busy all day with work so haven't even looked in my thesis yet. Yup, I'm a dead man.

What's with the designer edition sanitary pads? They were the only ones they had in the village shop and I sure hope they don't charge you extra for the designer bit, because it's just plain stupid. Basically, the individual wrappers have each their design with various squiggles and doodles, as well as the words "Lucky you" or "that time of the month". What's that all about?

TAB-thesis avoidance behaviour

2008-01-10T21:44:00.000Z

Yes, I've got it bad these days. Just back from the bathroom where I just HAD to clean my ladyshave with a wooden stick. It was severely offputting. Still had to do it! Made for much better entertainment than reading my stupid thesis.

Right, enough TAB, I have to try and read at least one paragraph tonight. Back on duty tomorrow night for the whole weekend.

Preparing for viva? Nyaaah!

2008-01-09T22:04:00.000Z

Oh dear, not going well with the studying. Not finding the time to do any reading because of a heavy workload and my recurring extremely lazy evening mood. So I guess I will have to resort to Plan B, i.e. the plunging neckline. Alas, my external is a lady, so probably will not be put off wringing the answers out of me, regardless of my dress code!

Friday again

2008-01-04T14:08:00.000Z

I am now back at the clinic after having had wormed 43 horses and been in the abbattoir, just had my lunch and waiting for some backup to cut open a cat which looks like it ran into the back of a bus.

Driving home tonight like usually on the weekends and going to leave my dear car Moli to be fixed. I think he might need an orthodontist instead of a wheelie-man because it seems that his lower jaw is the part which got put out of place. We'll see...lucky that I am expecting an office car next week which is going to be my mode of transport on my calls.

Right, best get on with things, the surgical tools have been boiling away for an hour now...

Really trying

2007-12-30T18:54:00.000Z

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

2007-11-25T10:32:00.000Z

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!

2007-11-25T07:56:00.000Z

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!