The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. ~Maureen Murphy

So some of the political stuff has begun, I had to go and get my photo taken - I thought to just put a dash of makeup on and show up.  No, apparently I needed more work done - so I was booked in for a facial - the works.  I showed up and said NOOOOO that's just too scary, so instead I got the eyebrows dyed (took some convincing) and some makeup done - I asked for a natural look.

See that look of a rabbit or kangaroo caught in the lights... yep thats me!

There has been so much happening in  the last week and a bit.. so. Tuesday was the picture taking day, after that work took over - it's tax time here, so was busy at work on Wednesday, Thursday was a day off - excellent - it was the first day of summer according to the Icelandic calendar and as there was snow on the ground and frost in the air there is a saying about winter freezing into summer. However, what this actually means I have no idea and google isn't helping.  I think though, that it is a good thing as the first day of summer was spectacular.

Freyja benefited from the fact that the weather was so nice... we took an extra long walk up the hill.

Such a great day.  My brother Helgi and his wife were here for a long weekend so it was great that the weather was so nice.

The weekend has been action packed, the local businesses, schools and community council set up an exhibition of all that is happening in the fjord.  There were 70 booths with over 100 exhibitors - not bad for a community of just over 3000!  I showed up at 10 on Saturday in my role as hopeful candidate for the local elections, then changed name tag to go to the booth that my work and the local farmers were hosting - to show local production in sheep, horse, crop, fur, milk and cattle farming.  As well as what I do there - book keeping.  The atmosphere was so good, everyone very positive and at the same time surprised at what is actually happening in our little fjord - so much diversity - I think that this exhibit was a major boost to morale here.  Am so glad to have been a part of it.  Just found a link for you http://www.feykir.is/archives/22599 some photos from the exhibit - including a nice one of mum.

Also on the Saturday, there was a party for Bjarni Har - he turned 80 a few weeks ago but invited everyone to his birthday party on Saturday, for a while there he was worried that no one would show up - as the exhibit thing was happening - however, am so glad to report that the turn out to his little birthday bash was very very very good!   Which was wonderful he really deserved to have a good day.  For those that don´t know who Bjarni Har is - he is a local store operator - he works in the shop that his dad set up 90 years ago.  If you can´t find it - Bjarni will have it - it´s a general store that sells everything (so long as it's not fresh ie no milk or perishables - but everything else - he is also what used to be the local BP - British Petroleum - now Olís)  He also had the privilege of taking mum to hospital when I was born, and the 5 times after that when I needed stitches to my head - so all round great guy and I probably owe a bit of my life to him.. He is now my major supplier of vitamins as he calls them (cigarette supplier)   He stopped drinking many years ago have said that he had filled his quota.   I really must remember to take my camera to his shop to share his image and his shop with you. 

At four there was a funeral that I attended, a very very good friend of the family passed away - Dista,  Before we went to Australia she was our neighbour across the way,  Her children were our friends as we were all born at similar intervals.  Her eldest Valgeir is still one of the best friends of my elder brother Jon, Steini - Unnurs friend, Soffia - Hilmars and Guðný mine..  It was a beautiful service with some of the nicest psalms I have heard at a funeral to date ( mind you I tend to avoid funerals whenever I can)   After the funeral mum and I went to the wake - Icelandic wakes are all about food, and there is always lots of it - savoury and sweet - usually more cakes than you can deal with and talk about choice anxiety.  It's not about the food though is it.... however, I think that it's a part of the grieving process and good that it is institutionalised in it.  It also gives people an opportunity to meet and reminisce. 

After that we went straight up to Maggi's for dinner - well, we had half  an hour or so to let some food go down.. There we had a grilled leg of lamb, done superbly!  

The night ended up being a long one -  cousins met up and had a few beers and sleeping time on Saturday night was ummm.... 5 hours.. as I had to show up at the exhibition on Sunday.

So I turned up looking probably not so good at my political posting.. .which happened to be opposite my old workplace's booth Holaskoli - which was good as I could cross the walk way and no one thought anything of it.   I went and got mum at around 1 as she had to sit in for the red cross from 2 to 3, met lots and lots of folk that I had not seen for a while and tried my hardest to seem semi acceptable as a local poli.  We left just on four as we had another appointment.... the kammer kór - chamber choir was having a concert at 5 and as their number one groupie I just had to be there!  They sang like the angels that they are - I thought about, and should have, filmed on my crappy camera at least one bit.... but I knew that it would not do them justice.

After the concert we rushed home as we had dinner and theatre tickets.  Not knowing how good Ólafshús would be in their dinner service we went straight to dinner, we needn't have rushed as we were finished with our three course (wonderful) meal by seven thirty.  Had a lie down at mums for 15 minutes and then we went to the local theatre - It was the first night for the production - called "the people in the block". Surprisingly about people living in a block of flats, that get together to create a musical - so given....  the play is a musical and it is about people that live in a block of flats in Reykjavík.  It was good, actually very good, given that this is amateur theatre in an area that has a population of 3000.  I really have to keep reminding myself of how small the community is here and how rich it is of talent and ideas.... So lucky I am to live here.

That last sentence was influenced by the fact that as I write this Star Wars episode 4 (ie the first Star Wars) is on TV in the background.  Once upon a time I never realised how bad the acting was - and boy do I wonder how much wine old Sir whatshisname was drinking when he agreed to this...)  Chewy so far is the best actor of the lot!

So, even though I had an action packed weekend - I did miss a major event - the Tekið til Kostana horse show which was apparently AMAZIJNG.  one of these days I will make it to see it.  

Tomorrow night is the first of the community meetings to try and create some sort of political agenda for the coming elections.. Whoooppeeeee............will report later much later

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. Albert Pike

Today's quote is in memorium of the wife of my uncle Kári (dad's youngest brother), her funeral was here in Sauðárkrókur on Saturday and as a result there were quite a few relatives here that we don't get to see that often.  Eva was a wonderful woman, she travelled to New York to study music in the 50's, something that not many people in Iceland had the opportunity or the willingness to do.  She spent three years in New York, came back to Iceland and married my uncle, helped set up the music school in town and later became head master of the school.  I know my nieces and nephews that lived here all have fond memories of studying at the school.  I remember her from when I came here with my friend Tracy - we were naive 17 year olds on a big adventure.  Eva and Kári were so good to us and I will never forget the warmth of the welcome and the conversation - she always spoke to us as adults, never making any remarks about how young we were to be travelling such a great distance.  I loved her for that.

All of Bjössi's (dad's eldest brother) children were here for the funeral, and on Saturday night I got a really nice surprise - they were all out for a walk together and decided to drop by my place - I ofcourse took the opportunity and invited myself and Freyja along for the rest of the walk

It was a really lovely night for a walk, hardly any wind and really rather warm (for an Icelandic spring).  As you may all have realised by now this is like my second family,  

Freyja loved it - Rúnar took over the leash as soon as we left my place and by the time we got to Bjössi's she new all about "heel".  On our walk home she even managed to stay with me... today, however, was another story.  

Today (apart from leash arguments with Freyja) was another family get together - this time to celebrate the birthday of Atli Björn, he turned 2 on the 15th.

Ofcourse there was a feast.  - with all the family there 

So tomorrow another week begins, hopefully not as eventful as the last one, I think most Icelanders are of the opinion that last week seemed like one of the longest ever, starting with the publication of the black report, then the volcano erupting, floods and evacuations and then flight disruptions.  

Lets hope the volcano stops dispensing the bad ash and quietly bubbles and lava flows out without further disruptions to flights.  But as we know nature does what nature wants and we will all be subject to her whims, whatever they may be.

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. Fisher Ames

The quote above seems to be apt for the last few days in Iceland.  The Black report was published - all 8  or was it 9 volumes which looks at the financial collapse here in Iceland, it's build up and the fall out.  Including naming names and giving opinions on what could be done and what issues need to be looked at by prosecuting authorities.  Needless to say most Icelanders are feeling angry and depressed.  The politicians and bankers are playing the blame game... yeh what happened was wrong - but it wasn´t my fault etc etc.  As always I defer to the Icelandweatherreport for a more detailed and informed discussion on the issue.

In other news a volcano underneath the Eyjarfjalla glacier started erupting this morning resulting in a lot of melted ice moving down the river and taking out roads and flooding large areas of land.  www.ruv.is the news site has links in English for those that can´t read the Icelandic...  The ash is going 22000 m up and the prevailing winds are sending it towards Norway and Russia, which means that air traffic in Northern Europe will be affected.  For a change I am quite happy for the winds to continue to be from the North or the West... blowing the ash away from the island.  Yes, even after the report, I am still guilty of worrying about self interest.

The best thing so far out of the report is the ethics report which talks about what so and so did up to and during the banking collapse, here they point out things that certain people in positions of power or influence did that were not exactly illegal or criminal but were ethically just wrong.... it´s definitely causing a lot of discussion in the general community - and raises the question - what has happened to honesty and integrity???

Thats all for now folks.  Let´s hope the island survives this latest crisis - moral, intellectual and now physical...

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works is the family. ~Lee Iacocca

Well,  it's been a wonderful week and weekend, we had heaps of snow which has now all but disappeared.  The political life has not yet started - so life is quite relaxed - work is getting busier and I have a small job doing some translation work on the side - which is a good thing.  As this means that I will actually have to read some Icelandic, which in turn means that I may take some grammar and spelling rules in subconsciously.  We shall see.  So here is a shot from last weekends family dinner - this is the latest in the family - Steina and Sorins son Halli.  He is such a cutie... what eyes - what a smile!  Ofcourse the question of my maternal instincts came up and the biological clock - mine has expired... hence so nice to borrow someone else's if only for a few minutes¨!

















So this weekend was another mini family get together - this time mum's side of the family - my cousin Brynjólfur's daughter was confirmed today - this is a big deal in Iceland - a right of passage from childhood to adulthood.  We did not go to the church but went for the meal and cakes - yummmmmm I drove mum and my aunt Maja over to Húnaver (the next valley to the west) there we met up with the oldest of the sisters (it was her granddaughter being confirmed) and my wonderful cousins Sigga, Kristín and Ólína (and Brynjólfur ofcourse)














Don´t you just love the look on mums face!  Mum (83) is behind - Guja the eldest (89) is wearing green (by the way this dress was the dress that she wore at her daughter Ásdís's confirmation - some 40 + years ago - still fits! still looks great!  Maja on the right is second youngest of the sisters (77)... look good don't they!

This is Kristin - she is a classic!  Her dog had puppies recently - she has a British Bulldog sooo cute but ugly at the same time!  She absolutely dotes on her dog/s and told me today that the young pup that she is keeping from the litter has a chrystal collar Schwarovsky  ofcourse while mummy dog has one made of snake skin... Ah poor Freyja - she has so got to get her act together  -  maybe if she provides me with offspring I will upgrade her collar.... from hippy to bling.

This is my wonderful cousin Ólína and her daughter Eyrún... they are both just soo beautiful - both inside and out.  Eyrún is such a gorgeous kid, smart, happy and they have such a wonderful relationship - they are friends as well as mother and daughter!  Oh dear oh dear - does this sound like a woman with regrets about not becoming a mother... no, no regrets... am just so happy that other members of my extended family have procreated and have such wonderful kids.

To end:  some shots from the snow days that we had during the week - like I said - it's all gone now!

The horse statue in town that really looks nothing like a horse except when it snows!

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato

I am using Plato as my inspiration for this next faze of life that I am going into.  For those that haven´t been in the loop I made the big step last week of agreeing to be placed on a list for the local elections.  All Icelandic elections are based on preferential voting so you actually vote for a list of people (usually belonging to one particular political party although sometimes the lists can be based on a mutual interest / opinion).  There are 18 people on the list and in the local elections there are 9 seats on the council that you are going for.  Here there are 4 political parties competing in the elections.  The number of seats a particular party gets is based on the total number of votes as a percentage - and the people then that get on the council is based on where they are on the list.  I am in number 2 spot on the party list that has usually had between 2-4 seats on the council... so basically I have a lot of work ahead of me.  Why do this? Why not... I think that I guess it's time for me to continue to grow in life and experiences and this will be an amazing one.  Also, I think that at some stage it had to come to pass that I try giving something back to the community that I have chosen to call home, I just hope that I will stick to my principles and will do the best job I can.  It is going to be tough I know that.... but I will not make this blog a political one, so this will be the first and last time that I mention this - except of course for those occasions where something happens that I just HAVE to share... hopefully they will only be fun times!

In other news - we have new neighbours.  The house at number 13 on the main street has been sold, the owner is going to use it as a summer house.  He has a dog!!!!

So this is where Freyja has spent most of the weekend... checking out the neighbour... She is NOT happy with this turn of events and takes every opportunity to go and check things out.

What else... winter is back - with avengence

It was beautiful tonight on our walk, no wind, big flakes of snow and so quiet....

It has been a wonderful Easter weekend, I do love these five day weekends, still one day to go...  Unlike other weekends there were no nights out on the town, even though on both Saturday morning and Saturday night there was good entertainment on offer at Mælifell, Von and Matti from Pappar on Saturday morning from midnight till 4 (cover band .  but good value) and Páll Óskar on Saturday night (DJ, Eurovision star and the best known gay in Iceland).  I think I am either realising my age or just basically becoming a boring old fart.... hope not.... no can't be... Will try to make this up at the next available opportunity.

There was a family gathering on Friday which we couldn't attend as I had the honour of having Guðný's folks over for dinner... however, there will be another one tomorrow as my cousin Steina has invited everyone over for coffee and cakes - I do love how this family likes one another!!! Again, so blessed.

Trust that everyone had a wonderful Easter and that life is as good for everyone else as it is for me.