Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. ~Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas

The Christmas tree lights were turned on on Saturday, the weather was crap - windy and snowing and cold, however the turnout this year was the biggest I have ever seen here. I think just about all town folk were here to get into the Christmas spirit. All the shops in the old town were open for business and were offering hot chocolate and cookies and at the museum the women from the afterschool care and kindergarten teachers had hot lamb soup and a market in the old black house (used to be used as the bootle depot). Sirrí thinks that about 400 people had come through there.

Another attraction was the polar bear that was shot in summer... He is rather cute, quite big with sharp teeth...

a small video of when the yuletide lads arrived

At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year~Thomas Tusser

I don´t know if this will work..... Freyja playing with her Santa hat - or rather it was probably Olga's/Kristinn's/Anna's santa hat..

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles. ~Author Unknown

Just a few shots from today..

Storm outside and lights from the chrissy tree

One little princess, who can't understand why I did not want to spend half an hour outside doing walkies...

Chrissy decs on board

Sex on television can't hurt you unless you fall off. ~Author Unknown

The big storm hit, and the chef from the restaurant came over to tell me that mums tv aerial was probably about to dislodge itself from her house. Called the local electrical/tv/aerial people to see if they could help.. . All the ladders were out, so they didn´t know what they could do. Later I noticed the aerial was hanging by one nail so mum called the rescue squad.... and they came....

yes its snowing and there was a howling wind.... I don´t know if this is a part of their usual thing or whether it being a relative answered the phone triggered the response....

these wonderful people are relatives... as are most folk here.. the guy on the right is Valdi P son of Pési frændi (mum's side) and the girl on the left is Runa Birna daughter of cousin Jóhanna (dad's side)... have I told you how much I love this town!.. anyway aerial is no longer in danger of destroying upper window and mum will soon be connected to tv via the telephone line.. no more aerial required.

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown

I am working from home today as the storm was enough to deter me from attempting the trip to Holar. As a result I have both the work pc and the home pc on the go. I can not seem to connect the work pc to the wireless network here at home so I am connected to work via the home pc and doing the work on the work pc with a memory stick for transferring data between the two. On this memory stick were a heap of photos that I had on the work pc... One of which is the photo that I posted. This is the family at Christmas 1967, just before we went to Australia.

Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions. ~A.A. Latimer

This beautiful creature is the latest edition to my extended family, my brother Hilmar sent me the pic last week and I thought I should share it with one and all. Hope he doesn´t mind!!


Borrowed the above picture from Skagafjordur.com as I forgot to take a photo of it on the weekend. As you can see it is starting to take shape.


Currently trying to do a forecast for the 5 year plan for my current place of work. It's probably the 5th 5 year plan I have done... so you would think I would be getting good at it or could use some of the old plans to get the new one done quickly, but oh no, plans change so the figures change and in the end I have no idea. Boring I know but I had to get this off my chest.....

In other news we are expecting a big snow storm tomorrow, - am thinking of taking work home with me in case I get snowbound in SKrok tomorrow as this budget thing has to be finished by Friday...

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb

Night is settling in in Iceland. The full moon the other night brought some relief added with a little snow, since then, the snow has melted and so the darkness is quite overwhelming.

Ice is forming on all the puddles and so the going is sometimes quite hard, especially if there is a thin layer of snow on top of the ice...

There is a new quay being built just down from my place, which means that walks with Freyja are now longer - we get to walk out on the quay and bark at the ducks, this is a view back to the lit pathway up to the cemetary.

In other news... we still get a couple of hours of daylight a day so I went and took some photos of places that I now only see in the dark. Working out of town means that I only see my locale in daylight on weekends. Here we can see some of the work that has begun at Kaffi Krók, a new foundation for the northern end. The concrete is being set under winter concrete bags.

This is a view from the new quay over to the new KS garage, and such is the weather at the moment - very grey.

a quick shot of how far out they have come - apparently the entrance to the harbour will be only around 80m.

The weekend has been quite busy, Friday night a few folk over for pizza, Saturday night Skúli´s big 50th birthday bash, today the elderly folks choir combined with the kammerkór - the choir I went to the Faroes with. Actually really quite good fun. Then tonight we went and picked up the cross stitch that I have spent more than half a life time finishing... It was one of those things that I would start and leave and start and leave and getting it framed has taken a decade, 9 years of me not taking it to a framer and 1 year spent at the framers..... It is really quite hideous, but there is a lot of blood sweat and tears in this, I think I got the pattern when I was 14 (got it from mum... she was going to do it when she was young), then the threads when I was 18 and the first stitch was made when I was 21. I finished it sometime in the 90´s - and here it is...

Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends some thing. ~Paul Valery

A rather monumental week for S'krók. Kaffi Krók, Michelsens, Sýslumannshúsið was torn down. I had the day off due to the fact that i decided breakfast was not going to remain in my stomach, so when the dog demanded an outing I took the camera and documented the destruction.

It is not really visible here but they did try and keep the southern end in tact - removing the northern addition (left on the photo), this is because the southern end (on the right) was to be preserved or at least tried to be reserved.

the northern end... me trying to see if gunnþóras doors were still there (they are of cultural significance - believe me.. finger paint on doors.. yes it is something to preserve).. anywhoo, i saw no doors just the artwork on the walls.

this morning.. it was all gone.. . not good...

I should explain, the southern end if kept a little in tact was under preservation law and so in rebuilding would not need to comply with EU regulations and funds would have been forthcoming for rebuilding in the original style, now that nothing is left, there are not as many options for outside funding. My opinion is that the house was a mess and some contingency plans should have been done months ago, but hey, who am I?

Going to work, fog was settling in to all low lying areas.. we had a sunny day at holar but apparently the fog was quite thick in S´Krók

the video of the dog, that has taken for ever to load - which eventually did not load is not worth watching, unless you like to see a dog chase an empty bottle of coke around a house and also only if you want to see the amount of dog hair on the floor... I wish I was more like maja and enjoyed the vacuum cleaner... sadly like my dog I hate the sound of suction.

Are those the magic fairy wands glistening on the tree or only winter icicles that I see? Author unknown

You know how it's been snowing here. Well, the weather has turned. Now we are in the plusses and all the snow is melting away... not good. Anyway, see my house in the above picture and the big icicles coming down off the roof... Grýlukerti (Grýla is a troll and kerti means candles).. Anywho...

They started to slant inwards as you see above - you can also see that one of the windows is open (it always is, it is one of two windows in my house that can be easilly opened and closed)... anywho......

This is the repair job - an icicle went straight the glass and left a rather remarkable hole... These windows are all being replaced next summer (6 pained double glazed), but in the meantime I guess I am actually going to have to get new glass for it..... Mind you the rosemount casks do make a statement.

And finally the snow angels. Freyja is actually being a major pain in the neck at the moment. She is malting and by that I mean huge chunks of hair are coming off her and coating every conceivable surface in the house - including me and all my clothes...

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera. ~W. Eugene Smith

webcam sauðárkrókur

I did it!! Yay for me. the link is to a live feed from down town S´krok... just so that you can check out the traffic.

I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood. ~Bill Watterson

Once upon a time there was summer

Then along came the snow....

I am soooo bored

If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve. ~David Sedaris

Maja punched me..... if I knew how to link - I would - note to self - something to learn when Olga comes at Christmas.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago.

Where was I 10 years ago - I think Melbourne / Sydney...

Just looked in the photo album - only way to remember
1. Working for Siemens Australia
2. Living in Melbourne
3. Had visits from mum, anna and Maja
4. Went to Toronto for a job interview - we both agreed that it wasn´t for me to transfer to Canada
5. Was made integration manager for Siemens takeover of Westinghouse in Australia, which meant commuting between Melbourne and Sydney

5 things on my list of things to do today
1. Go to the bottle shop
2. take the dog for a walk
3. finish the lighthouse
4. cook dinner
5. walk the dog

5 snacks I love
1. salted potato chips
2. popcorn
3. corn chips
4. wine (and yes it is a snack)
5. toast

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Buy Briemshús and renovate it
2. become a partner in THE restaurant/bar operation in town so that they renovate Kaffi Krók asap
3. Pay for all the family in Aus to come to Iceland for a proper family reunion - with everyone.
4. buy a new car
5. go on holiday to somewhere warm and pay for all my mates to join me. (maybe rent Maria´s flat in SA)

5 places I have lived
Skógargata 5b Sauðárkrókur Iceland
Banach Street 15 and 25, Maddington WA
Forrest St Cottesloe WA
Antmannsstígur Rvk Iceland
Laufásvegur Rvk Iceland
Caroline St Sth Yarra Victoria
Kings Rd Five Dock NSW
Kleiner Schäferkamp Hamburg Germany
Skógargata 5b Sauðárkrókur Iceland
- more than 5 but hey.

5 jobs I have had
Shop assistant Coles WA
Data entry Iceland and WA
Assistant to the British Consul in Iceland
Bank clerk
Public Servant
Commercial officer and manager
Controller
Admin Manager

Again more than five...

5 people I punch
Maja beat me to it....

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne

Today is officially the first day of winter in Iceland, and it certainly pulled out all the stops in order to make sure that we realised this - more on that later.
This week my friend Rachel came to visit me, Rachel lives in Hamburg, but is originally from Melbourne, we met in Hamburg when I was living there. The visit was a spur of the moment thing and I thank her for taking the time to come up here to the frozen north! Good for us Icelanders to get some Euro´s spent in the country. Here is Rachel on the hill above town - see those great mountains. I do so love this place!

On Thursday night I invited Maggi and Guðný over for dinner - we had roasted sheeps back... yummy!! followed by the usual berry dessert - this time with strawberries from mums garden, blue berries from the hills above town and blackberries imported from somewhere... as usual it went down well with copious quantities of red wine.

´We don´t usually go out on a Thursday night - but as Rachel was here we made an exception to our normal drinking rules and went to Mælifell, THE bar in town. Rachel found our references to THE shop, THE bar, THE restaurant quite amuzing (you see we only really have one of each... bit like the third world really - but hey - have you heard - there is a recession)

As you can see the bar was a bit deserted. We managed to have a good time, played a game of pool and drank a beer or two. As THE taxi driver was not answering his phone I decided to brave the elements and the possibility of losing my license and drove Maggi and Guðný home. Well, we got as far as Maggi´s where a mini party ensued - this was sooooo out of character for all of us - we blame Rachel for this ofcourse. Anyway got home again (I was ofcourse on the water by this stage). The next morning Rachel was taking the bus to Reykjavik, so we were up at 8am had coffee at mums and then I picked up Maggi, drove him to work (his car being down here), then took Rachel to the bus, then picked up Guðný and drove her to work (her car was downtown too). After all this I had a nap - as you do.... However, before napping I went for a walk with the dog and saw this front coming in.

With the cloud came snow - lots of it.

This was today, no driving the subaru till I dig it out of the snow...

Main street - this morning - looks good hey!

Spent the afternoon at Herdís´s shop finishing the lighthouse - not bad hey.

My house really does look good in snow...

Maggi just called to say that he is snowed in and so won´t be making it to dinner - yep Winter has definitely arrived. Now to do the tag/punch thing that Maja did.

A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words. ~Beryl Markham

The horse feast was last night... for those sensitive folk that may be reading this blog and find the idea of eating horsemeat offensive, please stop now.

It was great! Started at 7:30pm with some God awful bubbly wine - which one managed to swill down. The venue was Hotel Varmahlíð run by my cousin Gunni's wife Svanhildur. The guest chef was Friðrik V from Akureyri (but as was soon anounced he is from Skagafjörður on his father's side and Þingeyjarsýsla on his mothers). Excellent chef and great entertainer - BBC Food needs to meet this man.

We were seated at 8pm and were given our first "non-course" - one small piece of horse sushi and a taste of smoked horse wrapped around Friðriks' own cummin cheese - so nice. The horse was heat smoked with blue berry ling, an amazing flavour combo.

First course was then brought out - horse carpaccio - with a mouse/froth of súrmjólk and local salad with parmesan:

Delicious
Next was the horse soup: stock made from horse bones and the tortellini were stuffed with offcuts of horse. Again, yummy - but perhaps a little salty for me.

Following this was another non course - a sorbet made from rhubarb and strawberries - a great palate cleanser.
Then came the main. Surf and Turf - Roasted fillet of horse ridden by a lobster wrapped in rice paper along with three varieties of potatoes one of which was violet - amazing colour


I know I have missed another course in all this, but hey - I had to drink a whole bottle of Merlot on my own... (I know not difficult - but the challenge was to make it last the whole 5 hours that we sat there eating! and being entertained.)
The dessert was non horse - a lovely berry icecream and rhubarb and pine nut muffin and fresh chopped mango, pineapple and melon.

Twas truly a good night of good food and a lot of education on the eating of horses in Iceland (it was actually banned after Iceland took on Christianity - eating horse being a fairly pagan thing to do. Thank goodness it is now back in vogue as Icelandic horse is one of the best meats you can eat. Tender, tasty, juicy and low in fat... need I say more

Oh I do, the photos are courtesy of Maggi's blackberry...

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern

My gorgeous niece maja http://fortheloveofrocks.blogspot.com/ just did a brilliant little bit about what she is thankful for and I thought to myself we should all, once in a while, take stock and yes - be grateful.

So I am going to list the things that I am most thankful for:

1. My mum

2. My dog

(aren´t they gorgeous)

3. Being able to live on this lovely rock in the North Atlantic (and for having had the opportunity to live on an even larger Rock in the Southern Sea), I hope that the IMF and the Russians can be kept at bay and that somehow we muddle our way through the current crisis. Time for Iceland to become self-sufficient.

4. My family - all of them - this is only one half of one half (fathers side but not everyone present).

5. The sense of history and community that I have living in this town. This is a picture of my dad and his mates (dad is the middle - great hat hey!) The photo is from the local archives.

6. The fact that I was able to close the circle and live in the house that I lived in before moving to Australia

7. My friends - both far and wide - I started to count them out - the people that I have met and befriended and am still in touch with from Primary to today - but that made no sense, I know them and they know me and I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people around me whether literally here in Iceland or spiritually wherever they are in the world. I know that when we catch up it is always like we only saw each other yesterday.

8. That I have no debt to speak of.

No money - but no debt either.

9. For all the jobs I have had; past, present and future - I have been blessed with good employers, excellent colleagues and the best bosses and I am positive that in the future I will continue to have good jobs, great colleagues and great bosses.

I think like Maja I will leave it at that. - that was fun, bit cheesy but fun. I highly recommend it.

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis

So today I turned 46.

Born 13 October 1962 in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland. My first home after the hospital was the house that I am living in today. The circle is complete.

I had a great day today - it started with me farewelling my wonderful cousin Jóhanna - who is on her way to Australia to stay a month with my sister - they will have a great time I know. Then after a bit more of a lie in (I took the day off - figuring that I did not want to have any crap on my birthday - totally selfish - but sometimes you just have to have a pyjama day) I took Freyja for a walk, not a long walk - not a short walk - but a walk. Came home - reheated the left over pizza from last night #99 + olives, during which time Guðný and Brýndís came over to wish me a happy birthday and gave me some great new gloves - which you can see on the gruesome photo above. Guðný bought them in Greenland so need I tell you that they are sealskin?

I then went and took the bottles and cans to re-cycling and received 1200 isk. Not bad, can buy a semi decent bottle of red with that. As Freyja was acting rather frisky we drove down to the beach at the base of the fjord for a bit of a run in the very very very cold breeze. Got noticed by my uncle and aunt who stopped for a chat, then shops for food for dinner and a call in at Herdís´s shop - where my aunt Auður happened to be shopping. Once she realised that today was my birthday - she wished me happy birthday for tomorrow - she rushed to the florist and bought me some roses

Aren't they pretty?

After this I went back to Herdís's to start my winter project - the painting of a ceramic lighthouse. I am going to try and make it look like one of the lighthouses from the coast near Hamburg.... wish me luck.

It was so much fun, Herdís now has a work table in the centre of the shop for folks like me to work on their "little projects" while I was there heaps of people came into the store. It was then that I realised that I have become a part of the community here - I knew at least 2 people out of 3 that came in and those I did not know knew who I was. Bit surreal - but I am now used to it and really kind of like it. It was getting close to six when I phone Maggi to find out if he would be at a meeting tonight or coming to dinner at my place - yes, he was going to a meeting but would I like to go to dinner at Ólafshús in honour of the occasion - yippee... free dinner!!! Rushed home - put on my new shirt that his mum gave me yesterday and had a great meal of newly slaughtered skagfirskt lamb... yummmm washed down with a bottle of Wolf Blass Shiraz - what could be better.

So as you can see - I have had a great day - thank you all!!
Just to end this all with a bit of reality and also for posterity (mine so I can remember what a dreadful scar face I am today - a photo of me)

Really must do something about that face!