Home, the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. Robert Montgomery

Ok so off we went to London. Breakfast at the airport was all important - I had already had my cheerios and súrmjólk, so I figured a corona and a pack of crisps was the right start for a holiday in London...



We had an amazing time, day one was spent at the tower and checking out the ravens - the best thing about the tower really - apart from fish and chips.. I kid ofcourse, but hey...

Nice fish....

The evenings were spent around the kitchen table enjoying the latest in crisp varieties... cajun squirrel, onion bhaji, chili chocolate, builders breakfast, fish and chips, and one more that I can not remember... must have been bad.

We went on the eye... twas well... a good view... but for someone suffering from a fear of heights it was well... I could have lived without it.. Nah, am glad we went up.

Finally managed to catch up with my most dearest childhood friend Dom and his wife Yanira, the nicest people a person could ever have the honour of calling a friend.. and the best thing is - nothing changes that.

The British museum was also on the list of things that should be done... and what is better than a case full of cat gods.

My beautiful niece Olga... a great host and a wonderful human being!!

The ancient house in Walthamstow.. a great name for a great house, which unfortunately is no longer a pub, nevertheless we managed to find a few others.

This was the Freehouse, which had a fine selection of ales and quiz nights each week where you could (if smart enough) win 250 GBP... worth a trip back me thinks.

Then we found another place that had pie... hmmm meat pie... also has karaoke and bbq... and also a good selection of ales and a great loo.

but all good things must come to an end and now I am home sweet home and happy again.. (not that I wasn´t happy before) but hey it is always good to be home.

“You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; Samuel Johnson

Yes off to London early on Sunday morning. Will hopefully have lots and lots of great photos from the time there to show you folks..

So far the plan is to arrive around midday on Sunday, go in the evening to experience Snowman play an accoustic show. Then just let life take over till Wednesday when we go and meet up with nephew Nick and the band he is currently playing with... and Friday fly back to Iceland... so basically the trip is totally unplanned and will just unfold.. and hey - London... so much to do - so much to see ... so many ales to try..

I need probably not mention that I am going to miss the dog...

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. ~Herman Wouk

Freyja playing with her toy dog...

Tax time in Iceland and I have done 2 so far only around 30 to go.... hence the non blog... It´s also blizzarding outside at the moment...

London in 7 days time! Can´t wait

You're not 40, you're eighteen with 22 years experience. ~Author Unknown

Guðný and Maggi both had birthdays on the weekend so we decided to have a little party. Guðný turned 40 and Maggi 35.

The birthday toast... twas getting on in the evening and folk were quite happy....

Oh yeh and the skeleton theme - Guðný in case you didn´t know is a forensic archeologist - her main love in life is checking out the remains of the very very deceased.

We invited over 20 people and my house was pretty well full - but comfortably so. Guðnýs sisters Bryndís and Sigga and I did the catering... We catered for 50 people, so tonights dinner will be left overs....

This was the table of rubbish - that had not been put away from the night before- I couldn´t find my camera when the table was full of food.... maybe I will get a copy from someone else so that I can share the feast... Anywhooo as you can imagine the next day I spent resting and washing up - which is something that I actually do love to do after a big bash. Also the weather - see photos below - was not exactly condusive to doing anything much....

The glasses awaiting the washing.............

Snow day.....

I have uploaded a heap of photos to flickr for those that care to see...

The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire. ~Sharon Ralls Lemon

I worked a 10 hour day today - the first in the new job. This is only cos its VAT time, deadline on Monday and I am totally not sure I am doing things right.... need tomorrow just to make sure that I haven´t stuffed up completely. After that I start doing tax returns... I hate tax returns - I don´t even do my own.. Oh well, now is the time.

So as all of Freyjas other walks today were fairly short I decided to treat her with a walk up the hill and around the paddocks. As it was still light - sunset isn´t until sometime between 6 and 7 now and the sun is actually on its way up when I walk to work at 8am. Won´t be long before we have no night at all... I can´t wait.
I am always a little concerned taking Freyja up there as I know that there is nothing more in the world than she would like to do than run and chase animals - especially horses. So I was mean and kept her on a lead the whole time.
Ofcourse we met some horses in a paddock and Freyja took delight in barking like a mad dog... the horses didn´t seem too concerned - they took off - then came back - took off again etc. I tried to video this but the quality is crap - they should be in my flickr in case you are interested.

I took the opportunity to take some photos of the town and the developments at the wharf. It´s starting to look quite good and hopefully, the town council will take on board the information from the town meeting about setting up an outdoor rec area around the new quay - one idea is for the little sail boats to have a facility there - should be nice.

And as we came back down the hill the sun had all but gone behind the mountains.

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.

I was going to post some photos and then realised that they were of the same old thing as usual... snow, darkness and food.

These last two weeks have been rather busy, especially this last weekend. Yesterday the family was over for dinner (dads brother his wife, children, grandchildren, along with me Maggi, his sister Kristin and her boyfriend Reynir). The menu was pie themed, fish pie, beef and mushroom bake, egg and bacon quiche, and for those not pastry oriented I had a fillet of horse goulash. All served with mashed potatoes, peas, corn, salads and the like... I call it a success as all the food was eaten. Mum supplied two great cheesecakes with berries from last autumn, one blueberry the other strawberry... just yum.

Saturday night was the last night of Þorri (The feast of Thor - ie that food again), twas yummy. A great night with great people (I have somehow been allowed to join the group of people that work at the museum, for the national heritage trust and for the Institute of Natural History... so the conversation was lively and fascinating. I really love these people..

Tonight was dinner at my cousins, lovely lamb.. just can´t beat it - she is a natural entrepreneur... runs the cafe at the outdoor museum and the handicrafts store here in town... Anyway, her latest idea is to try and get the old post office building and turn it into a net cafe and information centre. It's going to be great... So sister dear - there is a vacancy for you here - in case you are interested!!! Brothers and brother in law - I am sure that your handymanny skills would be appreciated any time you are here.

Mum is in Hveragerði "spari dagar" with the oldies - its when the old folks go off to a Hotel in the south of Iceland, spend time eating, drinking, dancing and generally just having a good time. I can´t wait to get old. They have a better social life than us middle aged folk.

Boring post - but informative to the relations...

More later

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers

Yep some more Þorrablót (ie libations to Thor)... some sheepsheads. Maggi actually cooked these and brought them to our private Þorrablót (the Þorrablót for those not invited to Þorrablót).. You see these things are a country thing.. so you need to be invited by a farmer... Usually we get to go with my aunts family from Akrar.. this year they decided not to go.. hence we were þorrablótslaus.. ie without ... so we did our own..


It was yummy. Although it must be said that when we were at the supermarket deciding which choice cuts of sharp and pickled whale to buy the guy behind the counter thought us well below par... What I liked Guðny didn't what she liked I vetoed... however we decided that a little bit of this and a little bit of that would probably do us well.. and such was the case.. a lovely meal was had followed by a game of Islandsspil - Icelands answer to TP ...

Just to give an idea of the temps here in the last couple of weeks.. This is from inside my house - the pantry - 1° C Just as well the rest of the house has geothermal heating.

To totally change the subject this week has been a tough one for all in Aus. I can not imagine what it is like to be in Melbourne right now. I think that I would be a blubbering mess if I was there. It is bad enough logging on to theage.com to read about what has happened. My thoughts are definitely with my antipodean friends.

To finish it off.. Freyja at the dinner table wanting to create her own blog..

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~William Blake

We have had the most beautiful - rather chilly - winter weather during the last couple of days. Most days the wind has been rather mellow and not howling from the north and the temps have been around -10°C. These pics are from my walk with Freyja on Sunday. Don´t you just love the blue...

As usual on a Sunday - not much happening...

A view to the south.

another southern view - here you can see the new quay that they are making.

Boring post - but the pictures say it all. I love winter...

Oh and knudsen - the brits I think are rather pleased with their Icelandic winter woollies - we can´t send them our geothermal central heating so we sent them what used to tide us through the cold winters, great looking fluffy itchy sweaters.

The cure for capitalism's failing would require that a government would have to rise above the interests of one class alone. ~Robert L. Heilbroner

I will be posting a few of these walking in the snow vids...

So it has happened - we have a new government and I must admit that I am optimistic about what they can do in the short time that they have in power - elections are planned for 25th April.

The Independence Party - hereinafter referred to as the dicks (that got us in this mess) are all crying shame on their previous coalition partners - saying that it was all their fault that everything was delayed and nothing was done... The Central Bank Chief - David Oddsson (public enemy no1 has left the county - on holiday - or something) anyway he got his walking papers the other day and has told the current pm what she can do with them... ie he refuses to budge... Such a dick...(head of dick party once upon a time). Our PM (yes the first openly gay pm in the world - have you noticed how we Icelanders love being the first or the best or the mostest - so glad that there are not more of us... Hitler would have been scared).

Anywho. check Aldas blog - icelandweatherreport.com for proper information on the above.

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.

Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. ~Author Unknown

I think the quote of the day says it all.

Maja asked that I give my take on what is happening in Iceland. Well, I guess to put it simply I am just fed up with all of them. The government has done little to nothing ever since it first was aware that the banks were in trouble. The fact that people did not realise 4 years ago that there was something not quite right with Icelandic finances tells me that the folk that were profiting were willing to turn a blind eye to all the dubious and unethical goings on within the finance sector.

Now the government is facing daily protests outside parliament (a situation totally unheard of here) and are basically ignoring it. The leader of the centre left party said that the people that were protesting weren´t representative of Icelanders as a whole.. cough cough - who are they then representative of????

Today the minister for commerce (and banking) resigned. He also called for the sacking of the head of the Financial Services Authority (the people that should have been blowing whistles and prosecuting our rich bank owners) and the board of the FSA has also resigned. - finally someone said that they would take political responsibility so hats off to him. Björgvin is his name and during the crisis he has seemed to be doing his best - but unfortunately he should have been doing something months ago (esp when he was at a meeting in the UK with Darling) anywho, if I want to be cynical then I would say that this is also a very good political move on his part and that he is getting himself ready to take over the leadership of the centre left.

On other matters, both leaders of the coalition have growths, one in the brain (aparently not cancer - but she is undergoing extensive treatment because apparently it keeps growing back and does so at a fast rate) Geir H Haarde our prime minister has been diagnosed with cancer and will be going for some sort of treatment this week. He is not resigning but has said that he will not be leader of the party for the next election. Their combined excuses for not resigning and not calling an immediate election is that it would cause too much instability... again cough cough... have they looked out the window at the hundreds if not thousands shouting for their resignation and saying that the government is useless.

The country- progressive party changed its leadership last week - got in a young bloke who, although he had worked for the party, was not a member until just before the party meeting. He has declared that the progressive party would support the centre left and the left green party should they wish to take control now and rid the parliament of the independence party (rightish and have been in power for far far too long and are also the ones protecting David Oddsson in the central bank - who in my opinion should shoulder a lot of the blame of what has happened here). I think that there is a lot of support for this within the centre left - but the leader and her followers don´t want to give up the coalition.... crazy, Anyway, there will be elections in May - but is that soon enough. Given that protests like the ones taking place at the moment have never happened in Iceland before then I would say that May is not soon enough for change and that it is just a matter of days before the current coalition government fails.

Thats my take on it. I still think that Alda on the icelandweatherreport is the best blog to read on everything that is happening - she is also much closer to the grass roots of what is happening in the capital. We here in the North neither profited from the banks, nor have we been hit as hard (as yet) by the fall of the financial sector.

As the swedish professor at Holar said - Iceland is a very exciting place for academics to study human behaviour under crisis...

In another 3-5 years there will be numerous case studies written in economic, business and sociological texts...

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea. ~Isak Dinesen

I went for a walk with the dog on Saturday down to the sands by the mouth of the river. It was an incredibly beautiful day, cold but no wind. On the sands we found a lot of ice that had been swept on shore. The ice is formed on the river and is then sent back to shore by the ocean currents. It is amazing the beauty that nature can form.

A pity my photography is lacking...

so pretty

It didn´t hurt that the ground was covered in a little snow and again - no wind. It is amazing what a difference that makes to a day here in the north. This is Tindastóll - mountain chair - that hovers over our little town.

To the south is Mælifell, and the sun. It doesn´t get much higher than this during this time of year. The picture is taken just after midday.

And my favourite view of the island Drangey.

Life is good.

Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway. ~Author Unknown

Came home early today to go to the docs to get some penicilin to stop the sore throat from happening - I have had a bit of a cold for about a month and in the last few days it has decided to flare up and give me a blocked nose, blocked ears and aforementioned tickly throat. Not to worry - it will pass as it always does.

Now some folk asked about the Icelandic horse and whether we eat them. Short answer yes.
http://freyjadog.blogspot.com/2008/10/lovely-horse-is-always-experience-it-is.html was a previous blog that I did on this subject after having gone out to a "horse feast".

In Viking times the eating of the horse was a very important part of any feast, so when the catholics took over they banned the consumption of horse saying that it was a sign of heathenism. So for a couple of centuries Icelanders starved rather than eating their horses. Horses have played an extremely important role in icelandic history and still do today. They are unique in that they have not been mixed with any other breed, they are hardy, live to a great age (in horse terms) and were extremely important in agriculture referred to as the nations most important servant. Today they are bred for either riding or eating. It´s a fact of life - like cattle/cows are bred for meat or milk, sheep for meat or wool.

Some interesting sites for information on the horse and what is happening in relation to it's development as a separate industry (tourism, hobby, export) are http://en.eidfaxi.is/ a general site in english for Icelandic horse enthusiasts. http://www.skagafjordur.is/default.asp?cat_id=1635 unfortunately only in Icelandic and still under development - this is the site for the Historical centre for the Icelandic horse.

Enough on horses - as my niece Maja said - they are great for riding, cuddling and eating....

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week. ~H. Jackson Browne

On Christmas night itself -
so a wise man writes -
the lads were all restraint
and just stared at the lights.

Then one by one they trotted off
into the frost and snow.
On Twelfth Night the last of the lads used to go.

Their footprints in the highlands
are effaced now for long,
the memories have all turned to image and song

Ah yes tomorrow is twelfth night, what an amazing two weeks we have had, a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I have Olga and Ross to thank for much of this - it was so nice having them here and I will admit that the new years was probably the best that I have had in my 46 years on this earth. Such a great night, food, drink (whatever was available as I could not make the grog shop in time - damn work) playing games, firing off Hallgerði langbrók (Hallgerður of the long pants), dancing, playing more games, making a snow man head and finally hitting the sack at 7am or thereabouts - I walked the dog before going to sleep...

I have also started my new job, at the farmers advice centre, general bookkeeping... it´s just gonna be fun. This ofcourse means that life will be changing in many ways for me - I am downsizing - not because of a recession - but because life should be fun - work should be fun - the people that you care about should not have to hear about your crap job and the crap that happens there every day. So my resolution for 2009 is to smile more, enjoy life and not let the job affect me and those around me.

Also, 2009 is going to be brilliant - there is going to be a wedding here!!!! Hope I don´t let the side down and can organise this... I figure that the KISS system is the way to go, if not - bugger.

Take care folks... and remember - life really is what you make it - if you don´t like how it is - change it.

Guest blogger - cos I am too Slack - Welcome Mr Ross Di Blasio

Ha-lamb or la-ham, this is what we ate for New Years Eve dinner twas very delicious especially the onion wrapped in smoked bacon with rosemary. This ha-lamb was quite a weird cut of meat, I think it comes off the sheeps back, You definitely can't buy it at Coles (Australian Super-Market) it was salty and had a nice crispy skin and boy was it tender.



The meal was so good Amma didn't even realise a photo was being taken. Amma is awesome.



Ok jumping back a few days but probably just one day on Olga's birthday she was Christened, this was so we can get married in the local church next July, anyways this is Olga and her Godparents. They didn't think it was a good idea for her future husband to be her Godfather, it is a bit weird...it is also a little bit Icelandic.


Back to New Years Eve night, the snow just kept on falling and falling, it is a very funny site watching Olga try to catch snow flakes in her mouth.... she is special? Has anyone tried to make a lifesize snowman, well it is very hard and it kept falling apart. So it was much easier to build a head, Sigga supplied the carrot and BROCCOLI ? and we made the most of it. We also made snow-angels and threw snowballs and I wrote my name in the snow, which was extremely difficult after several drinks, it was not very legible.



The beautiful snow covered Saudarkrokur.


OK and this is our very own fireworks i think it was called Mrs long knickers. Just watch the Video

Thankyou and goodnight
Ross
xx

OOOps

This is what happens when one shares a computer... my blog is over on Olga's
so go to her to see what i had to write.. which wasn´t much.. but as I am here I will log a couple of other photos

ma talking to my brother on the phone

hmmm waiting...

Am I supposed to be happy?

Freyja is a tad pissed off as I got a book about how to train ones best friend.. She thought it was below her. Afterall, Freyja is top dog and even if alpha male thinks things should change... hmmm dream on

Kertasníkir - Candle Beggar

The thirteenth was Candle Beggar-

´twas cold, I believe,
if he was not the last

of the lot on Christmas Eve.

He trailed after the little ones
who, like happy sprites,

ran about the farm

with their fine tallow lights.

This is olga, by the way, Sigga has entrusted her yuletide-lad review to me - since I´m hogging her computer anyway, I may as well be useful!

So yeah, candle stealing man. He was really hard to take a good photo of, maybe Sigga will edit it later and add another. I think this guy was one of my favourites, along with the door slamming guy. And he seems to be the only non-food related one... Unless he´s eating the candles.

Also, I really like the idea of all the farm children running around their wooden houses with lit candles, and being stalked by a yule lad, no less. Sounds like a blast!

Anyway, Ross and I are looking forward to a lovely (and hopefully white) Christmas here in Sauðárkrókur, I hope the rest of you have an exciting and fun-filled Christmas of your own!

x

Kétkrókur - meat hook and St Thorlak's Day - Þorláksmessa

Meat Hook, the twelfth one, his talent would display

as soon as he arrived on Saint Thorlak´s Day.

He snagged himself a morsel of meet of any sort,

although his hook at times was a tiny bit short.

St Thorlak's day is Iceland's patron saints day. St Thorlak did not officially get recognised by the catholic church until 1984 when John Paul II decided to do so (probably politically correct at the time) Thorlaks sainthood was confirmed by the Icelandic parliament in 1198 - so it took the church a while to respond...

What is special about his day is the fact that alot of Icelandic people choose to eat what I term rotten food. Skate is disgusting...

The following is from fisheries.is and basically tells you why it stinks and why I don´t eat it.

"Icelanders prepare the skate by salting or fermenting it. The Icelandic way of fermenting the skate is quite simple; the skates are put in a pile on the deck of the boat or on the seashore, and there they lie for a few months. During this process the urea in the blood is broken down into harmless ammonia compounds. Harmful bacteria that would otherwise cause the flesh to rot (to become putrid) are kept away by the high acidity and by other harmless bacteria during this process. It is commonly thought that Icelanders eat putrid skate, they do not! The skate is not putrid! The Greenland shark is processed in a similar way. However, the shark is eaten raw while the skate is always boiled." (putrid or not a fish that is left to lie for a few months......)

"The strong ammonia smell of a well-prepared skate is supposed to stop your breath temporarily and clear your sinuses. It is supposed to be a good remedy for the common cold. Research has not supported that."

It is eaten with boiled potatoes and some put putrified melted animal fat on it as well.... mmmmm

Actually the people that eat it declare it delicious. I just want to know - if it is so delicious why is it not always on the menu - why only on Thorlak?

It´s nearly Christmas and I am still not ready...