There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~Jane Austen

No photos this week, took the camera out on Saturday but the batteries were flat.  So you just have to believe me when I tell you that the weather was absolutely amazing.  Our first summerlike day.  The first of many I hope, but knowing Iceland, there will probably be a few winter storms before the sun stops setting.

Had an interesting weekend, probably too action packed for a woman of my age...(joke), late nights, probably too much red wine (no that is an oxymoron... never too much red),  an informal meeting of the cultural committee, grilling meat two nights in a row, lots and lots of lamb and then church and a visit to my uncles farm.  Yep, a classic good weekend was had.

Work is busy, but I am too too slack, need to get my act together or I will be in a frenzy in a few weeks time..... I really need to find my conscientious gene - I know I had one once....

My dear niece is facing Australian bureaucracy at it's worst...  it reminded me of some of the reasons I left that lovely country in the first place.  The bureaucracy here is heading in the same direction, which is a bit of a worry.  But, we have to look at the bright side - there is one..... yep, Copenhagen - it's lovely (I think that that is their town motto as well), the danes are ok and I think Vicki is going with her - which is good, otherwise I think that I would have had to find an excuse to go with her myself.  

Mum is good, old but good.  She boiled salted horse meat for me for dinner tonight.  (My sister is drooling, I know),  it's not my favourite food, but it's ok.... as I am at a meeting tomorrow after work she said we could have pizza!  Sometimes mum just says the right thing!  (She isn't a huge pizza fan), but sometimes you just have to have a fast food (and not cooked by me) fix.

Boring boring boring.... but hey, life is not always trips away, sometimes - well most of the time - it's best to be at home!

love to you all.... especially all my fishy friends that are having birthdays....

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend. ~Chuck Palahniuk

So I had a weekend away.  Twas very nice, the bloke took me to Myvatn a lake district in the North East of Iceland.  It's an annual thing - a snow mobile competition weekend that now includes motocross on ice.

 The boys and girl (Ebba - she is a super woman) brought their toys, not to compete but just to be a part of the whole feel of the thing.  I have yet to have a go on one of these, not sure that I ever will as I am not that competent on things mechanical... it's amazing that I ever got a driving license.

 The weather was amazing on day two... As the boys and girl and their toys were going on a snowmobile trip, and I was left behind... I decided to walk over to the Ice cross track and do a bit of a hike around the lake, or rather the craters that are near the lake.
From Wiki:
By repeated explosions in a number of locations, groups of craters built up and now dominate the landscape on the shore of Lake Mývatn and also form some of the islands in the lake. This type of lava formation is known as pseudocraters or rootless vents. A group of such craters at Skútustaðir on the south shore of the lake is protected as a natural monument and is frequented by tourists. Other pseudocrater groups in this lava field are in the Laxárdalur Valley and Aðaldalur. The formation of pseudocraters halted the advance of the lava in some places creating temporal lava lakes. The lava eventually drained from the lakes, leaving behind a forest of rock pillars. The biggest of these formations is named Dimmuborgir. At another place, Höfði, the pillars stand in the lake water. The lava created by the Þrengslaborgir eruption is known as the Younger Laxá Lava.
So I walked around the pseudocraters and took the following pics.

 the snowmobile folk on their way across the lake to meet up with others for their little excursion.

 So magical

 The ice crossers on their track on a frozen lake

 A half hour later the weather came in.  According to my snow mobile friends the weather hit just as they headed out on the main treck, they saw nothing and 50 people on ski doos, arctic cats, polaris and lynx machines followed one another for two hours....  bit sad really,  but it just means that next year, weather permitting they can try the treck again and hopefully see the landscape and appreciate it.   I meanwhile had got back to the hotel before the weather hit and was happy reading a book....  After they got back we went to Jarðböðin http://www.jardbodin.is/en/ I was going to borrow a photo - not possible... so the link will have to do.  Twas very nice and very relaxing.  The evening was then spent at the hotel at the other end of the lake where we met up with some fishermen on leave.... I think that this weekend is a very good weekend for the folk involved in the tourism and food and drink industry in the area.

 Some lovely fishermen,  the ones on the edges are from the Westman Islands, they had landed their catch on the east coast and had decided to spend their time ashore enjoying themselves, we first met up with them at Jarðböðin and then later in the evening at the restaurant.  Some people just have a natural ability to enjoy themselves.

 Some need to display more than required.

The trip home today was excellent, sun shining - lots of snow and blue skies and blue fjords.  Life just can't get better than this.

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call. ~Liz Carpenter

Mum is currently (and has been for a while) typing letters that her mother sent her into her little mac.  My amma Kristín had a tough life, but she was always quite happy and pragmatic about things.  The letters that mum is transcribing are all sent while we are living in Australia from 1968 till she had a stroke sometime after 1975, I should know the date, but I don't.  Hence, mum is not only transcribing letters, she is also embarking on a project that I asked her to do... write her memoirs.  An account from her point of view of the lead up and departure and first years in Australia.  She started yesterday, I will make it my thing (or I may ask one of my siblings) to translate this for the grandchildren that don't read Icelandic.  I think that it is important that we get first hand from the people involved information about those important decisions that ended up having such a huge impact on our lives.
Most of the folk in my family are hoarders.... it's a good thing I think.... some may disagree.  This hoarding means that letters are never thrown out.  One gem was uncovered recently and mum left it at my place and I posted it on a facebook site for my Icelandic cousins, I think though that it deserves a wider audience, and I am sincerely hoping that my sister will be ok with me doing this.  You see this letter is from my fathers father to my sister dated 18 April 1972 - my sister will turn 18 in september of that year.

These are just snippets - not the whole thing:

Firstly I want to point out that I am not going to tire you with a long prattle.  Your grandfather is getting old and all his thoughts and ways of speaking belong to a time long past, and are not compatible to the thoughts of a young lady today - which you are becoming.

You could imagine that an 80 year old man would have some life experience and knowledge about how to live your life in order to be content and make something of it.  I started to think about this and came to a negative conclusion.  Maybe 50 or 60 years ago an older man would have been able to give good advice that the younger folk may have been able to use.  Life was slower then.  Now times are different.  Developments have been so fast during the last 20 years in all areas of life, there have been so many changes in lifestyle and values.  Young people now need to view their lives from the position that they are in at the moment, and remove old traditions bit by bit out of their lives.  To this there is nothing really to say.  Mankind has always been trying to find ways to make life more favourable and because of this has come to "rule" over all other life forms.  All this rapid change in such a short time requires, especially of the young, a wider and broader education.  That's all I wanted to point out to you.
Young girls 16-17 years of age should use the time to 23 to acquire as much education as they can, before they commit themselves, thereby giving themselves at least one or two careers if they sometime need to support the home or if something else should happen.

.....

My afi was a forward thinking man.

and that was a crappy translation ... must get brother Jon or sister Unnur onto this!

What a loss it is that we now use digital and electrical means of communication... Who keeps emails that they received ten years ago?  What will the next generation have to look at and read that gives them an incite into their parents, grandparents thoughts and views of the world?