This is one brilliant ad

Good girls go to heaven, Bad girls go to Govan, and Breahead and IKEA

I just have to blog about my day, even though it is almost 2am in the morning.  Árdís had obviously seen my blog since last night because she texted me this morning, asking if she couldn't come with me to Breahead.  Of course she could, it is always fun to have someone to shop with.  So we decided to take a taxi to Breahead, but when we saw how many were waiting for a taxi, we decided to go on to Byres Road and hail a taxi from there instead.  When we came out of the Botanic Gardens we saw this huge line of people waiting for taxis, so there went our brilliant plan for the day.  I finally realized what was going on, a game between Celtic and Glasgow Rangers, not a good day to rely on taxis.  We ended up outside the subway station and Árdís was clever enough to go and ask them how they thought we might have the best chance of getting to Breahead.  She told us to go to Govan and take a bus from there, there were frequent bus trips to Breahead.  Both Árdís and I weren't quite sure if we wanted to go to Govan, not really the best place to be in, but since it was daylight we said what the hell and got on the subway.  Thankfully the bus station was just right outside the subway entrace so now we only had to find the right bus to take us the rest of the way to Breahead.  It worked, we went even past IKEA superstore, which I must say, is quite bigger than the IKEA store back home.  Finally, we were at Breahead, and we could begin shopping.  We had lunch and then we did some massive shopping, .... well, Árdís did so a bit more than I did, although not by much, for now anyway.  Well, we had finished going through all the interesting stores in Breahead and were heading home, when Árdís wanted to stop by in IKEA as well and buy some much needed items for ther room.  So we took a little walk over to IKEA, and entered a huge, massive building on two floors.  We had to take a number of turns around the store for her to find what she needed and some of the stuff wasn't even in stock, that's frustrating, especially when you are unlikely to come here again (at least not right away).  But in the end everything worked out for her, and I even bought myself a new lamp for my desk, much smaller and lighter than the monstrocity that I had before it, ... and it is pink.  And finally we found our way out.  Took a taxi home and got home just after 7pm.  Which means we were walking and shopping for almost eight hours.  Not bad, you might say I have lost a few (quite a few) pounds today ;) It truly was a brilliant day, and I was so proud of us with our bags scattered over the floor of tha taxi on our way home.  This is what I call shopping.

Collision course

"Ég fékk flugu í höfuðið í dag"  I got a fly in my head today.  Doesn't mean that I got a bright idea, but that I actually got a big waspy buzzing fly in my head.  Collision course with a big black noisy thing.  Luckily it didn't stick to my head and flew away afterwards ... I think.  But damn I nearly got a concussion from it.  Flies, are remarkably noticeable when they fly into you.  And the feeling is quite revolting and disgusting, almost felt like I had to go home and take a bath.  Creeepy.  Luckily I didn't meet up with my neighbour "the squirrel" in the garden on my way into city center.  Lord knows what he might have done since a fly was bugging me.  Probably he would have eaten my shoe.  Scots ... strange beings.

I must say I haven't been doing much since I came to Glasgow.  Been a real cow really, because I haven't even gotten in contact with any of my friends yet.  I am just sooo lazy, I can not be bothered.  Right now I just feel like I need my space before the hassle of school and essays starts.  It's sort of like one of the headlines in one of the newspapers today "I have the spirit of a lie-in", brilliant quote.  But I have been spending like crazy, although I do feel the prizes here have been going up.  Scotlands economy is obviously doing so well since I came here, they think people can actually afford to spend now, so they have increased prizes to line their pockets.  Are they in for a surprise next year, I think.  Actually it is quite disturbing what I saw on the news last night, apparently if you are a Scot and want to buy your own home, it's not going to be that easy.  A home (not necessarily a house, could be a flat) today in Scotland costs more than 4 - 6 times more than the average wage in Scotland.  (4 - 6 sinnum meira en meaðllaun Skota yfir árið er).  Shocking!

Tomorrow I am thinking of breaking out of habit and actually do something I haven't done since my first year of studying here.  And that is to go to Breahead.  It is a huge shopping center just out of city center, near the airport, which means the taxi fare is going to be steap, but I really want to go there.  I sort of decided that I would go there this year, sometime this summer and I feel like I should go before school starts for real, so that I don't feel like I am slagging off.

Well, now I am off to watch the telly. 

It pays to be early

Well, I am back in Glasgow now.  Left home very early this morning and got to the airport among the first travellers.  It truly does pay to be early.  Mom and I spent last night trying to fit everything I was going to take with me into one suitcase, but in the end we decided to distrubte things rather evenly in two suitcases.  And it turned out that I was fifteen kilos over in luggage, and at any other time it would have cost me a fortune but thankfully the office was closed so she let me through without paying for the excess weight.  She was also very understanding when I said to her that I was going abroad as a student.

I arrived at my room around 11:30 and sort of managed to plug the computer in and let mom know that everything went as it should have.  I also saw Árdísi for a few minutes before I crashed.  Now, usually I don't have a problem with the time zone difference, but somehow today I was totally out of it.  I put the alarm for two o'clock so I wouldn't sleep through the day and wake up tomorrow.  But of course I hadn't thought of the time difference, which meant that I would be waking up at three o'clock instead of two.  Fortunately Árdís woke me up half past two with a message.  So I managed to drag myself out of bed and into town with her to shop for the most necessary things until tomorrow.  I really hope that I will be more lucid tomorrow.  There is still so much that I have to do.

I have glimpsed one of the new guys that will be staying with us.  He doesn't seem to be very ... social.  But that might change, once we get to know each other ... maybe.  Also, I think the French guy is still here, not to pleased, because he seems to be hogging the fridge and many of the cabinets in the kitchen, the problem when you are left alone here for the summer you tend to spread out.  And Dinesh is gone, he has moved out and a girl has replaced him in his room.  I don't know yet, who or where from or anything or if she is a Senior Resident like Dee was.  So, all in all, this seems to be the start of a quite interesting summer.

This is going to be it for now, the food just arrived.  I am going to see how much I can manage, my stomach hasn't quite landed yet, and I am sort of queasy right now, but I think it might be because of lack of food.  Write you later...

I love comments

I just love reading the comments about Rockstar:Supernova.  It has the most hilarious spelling of words ever.  I know people are in a hurry to get their points of view across the message board and some are not as good in english as others, but it is still funny.  I have three comments here that I read sometime last night and tonight about the show and especially about Magni's performance.

This one obviously from Iceland ,,I watched the Vake"  which is just brilliant, and thankfully not written with a w because that would mean Magni was dead and we were watching his coffin on live television (wake = líkvaka).  But this is actually a reference to the tv channel Skjár 1 who had a "Support Magni" theme episode before the episode was aired.

I have no idea where this one came from, but funny none the less; "the hole of Iceland", and some fellow commentator asked if that was anything like the black holes found in the galaxy.  Could be a spelling mistake (the whole of Iceland) or something more.  A classic!

And now, last but not least. ,,He was just as grate as ever"  well... I truly hope his voice doesn't grate, I think he sings great!  He is after all Magni-ficent!

Saying goodbye to old friends

I don't know what to do anymore, last night I finished watching all seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  I was watching the final minutes of the last episode and the tears just came and came, I cried a whole river.  It's just one of those shows you wish you could still be able to watch, like, what came next, how does this turn out and so on and so forth.  It just doesn't stop after seven years.  But I must confess, due to my watching Star Trek, I sort of missed watching Rockstar:Supernova ... but I still managed to vote.  I voted for an hour and managed to vote 150 times.  I know, I truly am that weird, that I would actually count how many times I voted.  But it will be curious to know if the power of Iceland has reached America again.  Iceland might not be big but it is powerful, go by a geyser and we will blow you away! 

But the funny thing is, I have heard it from more than one, that they won't vote for Magni in the final episode (if we even can) because, they don't want Magni to win and leave Iceland.  Rock on!

My croissants ... beautiful aren't they

 

Half-baked

Oh'boy, what a day this has been. It started early, to say the least, well at least it started early on my scale. Some idiot had ordered a telephone wakeup call that was put through to our telephone instead of his, so I truly hope the (adjective too foul to write down) slept in. Then I got barely an hour or so more of sleep before I had to get up and get ready for the first appointment of the day. A documentary about genealogy and I was in it. There are some German guys here making a documentary about Icelandic genealogy and family gatherings. I was only there for about two hours where I was in the background while they were filming and photographing the genealogist I work with, Oddur. Just before I arrived at Odd, I got a phone call from the location of my next appointment ... THE DENTIST! Dreaded word in my vocabulary. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing my dentist, he is a wonderful man, I just hate going to see him in the official capacity, although that is the only time I see him. He's been my dentist since forever, has seen my best and my worst, well ... mostly my worst. I am quite skittish around dentists, or the drill, actually. Yes, well, back to the phone call. I had to reschedule today so I was quite pressed for time, so I had to run from Odd, back home, have some lunch, brush my teeth and then get to the dentist. I spent nearly an hour at his office, thankfully most of the time in the waiting lounge and only about ten minutes with him. He had to remove some tartar that had gathered around my teeth, it was so much I felt like he had removed my teeth and not just the tartar. Took some pictures of my teeth and said that I was getting away for now, I just have to be a good girl and keep my teeth happy and healthy until the next time he sees me.
After the dentist I hurried back home, and then later took mom to the doctor, because she was feeling very poorly as a tendon had knotted or clamped together in her lower back and it led straight down her leg so it was very difficult for her to sit or walk or do anything really. The doctor fixed her, or at least he stuck her with a needle a few times with a muscle relaxant and a small amount of local anaesthesia so she is feeling better.
When we arrived home I got the very bright idea to save todays dinner and bake. I baked croissants with beikon-cheese, ham, and chive filling. Just brilliant.

Ps. Now the plan is to stay awake ... AGAIN and watch Magni on Rockstar: Supernova. I am also going to do my part and vote for the guy. Then we will see what happens tomorrow night. This is getting quite exciting.