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!

Time for some news

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...

...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...

...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

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...

...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

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

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

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!

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

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...

...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

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'!

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: