An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ~George Eliot

Life goes on although political uncertainty is all around. See that great Calendar on the Wall - if not make the shot bigger. It is a gift from Anja and Michael, who came to visit me this last summer along with their children Claire and Reid and Anja´s sister Hemma and her husband Stefan. It was so great having them here (am sure I blogged about it) anyway, they made this super cool calendar with photos from their trip here on the rock in the North.. Love it. Hemma also remembered that I love choral chants - so she sent me a christmas cd of choral chants.. how great hey!!

Back to reality .. Iceland is about to get a new government - probably by Saturday. It is to be a minority coalition of the centre left and the left green party. The progressive party (call them country - ie that is what they used to represent - the farmer and average joe that lives in the rural districts - although they seem to be moving away from this old base) has said that they will support (ie not infringe or try and be obstructive - mind you they still want to see what the other two are thinking of doing before agreeing to anything.) This coalition is short term - electioins are to be in April - May at the latest, but the big news seems to be that the person chosen to be the representative of the position of Prime Minister is a woman called Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. She has been in politics for just about forever. A true "socialist" in that she believes in fair play and in justice to the poor and unempowered. I like her. What seems to be making the foreign press buzz is that not only will she be the first female pm in Iceland she will probably be the first pm in all the world who is openly gay.

This week saw the coming of my incumbant - ie finally the guy who is to replace me arrived. So my time at Holar will soon be coming to an end. At the moment I am going there a couple of days a week, once the end of year accounts are finished and I have done my bit for the auditors it will all be over. The end of another era in my working life..

Freyja sniffing - it is what dogs do.

And to end it all a picture from the meat bar at the shops - it´s þorrablót time - the time when we do our libations to Thor - and give thanks to the end of winter (hmmm.. well surviving the dark) and eat all our pickled, smoked and otherwise cured food stuffs. If you make the picture bigger the stuff being sold is from the top on the left - head cheese I think it is called in english sviðasulta in icelandic. Next down - pickled rams testicles followed by lundabaggar (also pickled ) this is that choice part of the lamb that covers the rib cage (ie very fatty) next down is pickled front bit of stomach .

Now heading right from the bottom up... pickled whale. whale cheese... pickled liverwurst, and at the top pickle pig cheese thingy....

Of the above - my favourites and the only thing that I eat of this fare - is pickled rams testicles (love them) and pickled liverwurst.. yep - the rest I can leave on the plate.... Other goodies we eat are smoked lamb, unleavened bread, dried fish, sheeps head (not made into a gelatinous mass - ie the "cheese" stuff) . We had our first Þorrablót last weekend on Sunday at my cousins house - just a family do and it was so nice.

Well, time to walk the dog.