Smelly fish day!

Also known as the Mass of St.Thorlak! I must humbly beg my loyal subscribers and avid readers of this blog my neglect of it in the past week. The saying goes that time flies, but in my case it just completely disappeared. I came home past midnight on Sunday 16th and it's been caos since. It wasn't until this friday that I managed to sit down in front of my computer before midnight struck. I have been spending my days shopping, presents and delicious Christmasy food. I have been wrapping presents (for seven hours on Wednesday), I have been putting up and decorating the Christmas tree (I put the lights on all by myself ... and it shows!).
But it's Christmas time and I am loving this, all of the crazy stuff we have to do and have done, and I have been managing even though I am as bruised and battered as I am. I am sporting a huge bruise on my knee where I landed on it on Friday a week ago, but on top of that I sport a huge black and blue bruise on the right side of my bad knee from the fall as well.
And to day is the last day to go shopping and the first day to mark the Christmas period for real. St. Thorlak's Mass, also known as Smelly fish Day because some think it a good idea to eat a very bad rotten smelly fish, while the rest of the lucid and more logically thinking (I) dine on smoked lamb with potatoes and white sauce and leafbread. Much nicer and smells yummie. Then tomorrow is the big night. The main festive day of our Christmas. The family comes together for dinner. Smoked pork with potatoes, pinapple slices, brown sauce, red cabbage, pickled cucumber, and all sorts of wonderful yummie things. After dinner there is the rice pudding with a tiny mandle put in and who ever gets the mandle receives a wee present. When dinner is over and most of us have recovered from the feast we distribute the presents from around the tree and it's a free for all in ripping paper to reveal the surprise inside (if there is anything in the package, heheheh).
I will have to leave you here and tell you how it all goes in the next few days if I find the time or time finds me.

The Yuletide lads - part 6

Pot Scraper

(Pottasleikir)

Pot Scraper, the fifth one,

was a funny sort of chap.

When kids were given scrapings,

he'd come to the door and tap.

And they would rush to see

if there really was a guest.

Then he hurried to the pot

and had a scrapingfest.

English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

The flying Icewoman

Yes, yours truly took a flight a few days too early than she wanted to, and no I am not home yet. It was more light a short few second flight in the air and then a devastating crash. Thankfully no one got mortally wounded, but it hurt like hell!
I was in Boots of all places (where I usually go to get something to make me feel better like PAINKILLERS, but ended up with a pain this time around). I was walking into one aisle of the shop and then whoooosh ... crash ..... ooooooouuuuuuuuuucccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Straight down onto my right knee. RIGHT knee, not the left one, so don't worry it could have been worse. Although I didn't feel that at the time, I was scared shitless if something might have gone wrong but thankfully I was wearing my brace so that minimised any damage that might have happened. But it wasn't fun, my left ankle hurt but probably for doing that weird dance step you tend to take just as you are falling down, but the main impact was when I landed on the floor with my right knee. I now sport a huge bump and red skin and a promise of a wonderfully colorful bruise.
But don't worry I am fine, nothing got broken and I didn't hit my head either, I almost gracefully sat down on the floor after the first impact on the floor. That's me, first it's like 'Send in the Clown' and then 'My fair lady ... on the floor'. Apparently a puddle of some sort had formed in the middle of the isle and I was just the lucky 1000 customer to find it. I didn't get a prize though, didn't really want one to be honest, I kind of just wanted to go home and cry. What a wonderful way of starting Christmas shopping for real. But of course I wasn't going to let this stop me, as soon as I found out I could walk I left after the ladies in the shop had made sure I was fine and didn't need any further assistance. So I actually despite all this managed to bag another present, maybe even two or three. I truly hope that tomorrow won't have a building come down on me or something so that I can do a bit more shopping before coming home on Sunday! Can't wait to say hello to everyone and especially my bed.

The Yuletide lads - part 5

Spoon Licker

(Þvörusleikir)

The fourth was Spoon Licker;

like spindle he was thin.

He felt himself in clover

when the cook wasn't in.

Then stepping up, he grappled

the stirring spoon with glee,

holding it with both hands

for it was slippery.

English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

The Yuletide lads - part 4

Stubby

(Stúfur)

Stubby was the third called,

a stunted little man,

who watched for every chance

to whisk off a pan.

And scurrying away with it,
he scraped off the bits
that stuck to the bottom
and brims - his favorites.


English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

The Yuletide lads - part 3

Gully Gawk

(Giljagaur)

The second was Gully Gawk,
gray his head and mien.
He snuck into the cow barn
from his graggy ravine.

Hiding in the stalls,
he would steal the milk, while
the milkmaid gave the cowherd
a meaningful smile.

English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

The Yuletide lads - part 2

Sheep-Cote Clod

(Stekkjastaur)

The first of them was Sheep-Cote Clod.

He came stiff as wood,

to pray upon the farmer´s sheep

as far as he could.

He wished to suck the ewes,
but it was no accident
he couldn´t; he had stiff knees
- not to convenient.

English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

The Yuletide lads - part 1

Let me tell the story

of the lads of few charms,

who once upon a time

used to visit our farms.

They came from the mountains,

as many of you know,

in a long single file

to the farmsteads below.

Grýla was their mother
- she gave them ogre milk -
and the father Leppalúdi;
a loathsome ilk.

They were called the Yuletide lads
- at Yuletide they were due -
and always came one by one,
not ever two by two.

Thirteen altogether,
these gents in their prime
didn´t want to irk people
all at one time.

Creeping up, all stealth,
they unlocked the door.
The kitchen and the pantry
they came looking for.


They hid where they could,
with a cunning look or sneer,
ready with their pranks
when people weren´t near.

And even when they were seen,
they weren´t loath to roam
and play their tricks - disturbing
the peace of the home.

English translation/Copyright © Hallberg Hallmundsson.

I got a brain-cell today

Yes, I was a bit more scatter brained today than most days, my friends noticed. So one of them very considerately gave me a brain-cell. I still have it but it is in my bag, maybe not the best place to keep it if I don't want to loose it. I might need it.
This has been a very active week to be honest. But a wonderful one and now it is only about 8 days until I go home for Christmas. First thing first.
I got an e-mail last week from my friend Shammi (my friends Dinesh's girlfriend) who is in Sri Lanka. I got so excited about the e-mail I contacted my friend Laura (their friend as well) and we decided to meet up on Wednesday and I would tell her the content of the e-mail. So I picked up a wee Christmasy present and a bottle of red wine and headed over to Lauras. I had barely said hello to her when I told her the news. Dinesh was flying to Sri Lanka on the 4th and they were getting married on the 6th! I am soooooo happy for them, they so deserve this and its something everyone of us have been praying for and waiting for. Although I was a bit sad that I couldn't have been there with them, they had said that when they would get married I was definitely invited. So now I just have to get them to marry each other again when I see them so that I can take pictures and say that I was at their wedding. But it was just such amazing news and wonderful that Laura and I were able to sort of celebrate with them, even though it was on the 5th we got together.
But it was so nice to see Laura again, because of the hectic schedule we both had last semester we didn't get an opportunity to see each other then, so it was almost a year since I last saw her. But it was still like no time had passed except we had a lot of things to talk about, it was great. She had been to India for a replacement thingy as she is studying to become a doctor. This is her fifth and final year and she is very very busy. She cooked a wonderful meal for us, she is such a great cook, you will never be diappointed with her cooking. So we just sat around drinking nice red wine and enjoying ourselves immensely talking about this and that for hours and hours and could have kept on going except that I had to go home as I had Old English class at ten in the morning.
I hope it will not have to be a year until I see her next.
Then today we (Sandra and Catriona and I) had decided to make it a night out before calling it quits at Uni before Christmas. We were to meet up in Buchanan Galleries af 4:30 where Sandra was shopping for a birthday present for her sister. She went to the Bear Factory (a wonderful place) and got her a teddy bear that says Happy Birthday in three languages (Welsh, Icelandic (that's me!!) and English (with a Scottish accent)). It was great, I almost lost myself in there. Then we went to get something to eat and we were going to worry about getting cinema tickets later. We ended up in the all familiar place of All you can eat Chinese Buffet place on Sauchihall Street and ate and ate and ate. The problem was that when it came to the deserts it was a toss up between staying and going to the cinemas. In the end we crawled out of the place (I want to say stuffed but Sandra said that it was rude, so I won't) and headed for the cinema, where we got tickets to see the Golden Compass. Nice enough visually, storywise hmmmm, and if ever there was a film screaming SEQUEL this is it. Even though I knew nothing about the movie itself I knew it was a part of a trilogy of books so I knew there were more movies to come but this was way to sequelly-endy for me.
But I just loved it, and for some reason I was having one of those days where my brain just didn't connect with anything so Sandra very helpfully drew a picture of a brain-cell and gave me. Something tells me it is not working properly, because here I am writing a blog when I should be in bed. I just had to get the news out that I am now an official owner of a brain-cell, a portable brain-cell!
Well, I am now off to bed and hoping for snow so that Catriona will be happy!

Quotes of the night: 'I have to go to the wee room', Catriona: 'It tastes very Christmasy' Elin responds 'I have never tasted Christmas, is it good?', 'Where are the tickets ... this is not funny!', 'Facaib (that sounds rude)!', 'That giggle!'.'The buses...', Elin: 'I went to the ballet and saw hihihihi' (and a bit of a twirl), Sandra responds: 'That's the best representation of a male ballet dancer I have ever seen!'.

Just me

I think I am a very bizarre person. Someone who is very keen to learn and study I can sometimes put a different spin on things (or like we say in Icelandic, I certainly am good at making útúrsnúninga!). For todays terrifying lecture on excavation reports we had to log onto the Royal Comission of whatever for certain reports. Basically because we had no idea what we were doing there and no one told us how to actually use the very complicated website I gave up after a few minutes of trying to find the excavation reports. What did I do instead? I didn't want to say to the guy that I had only spent a few minutes there without finding anything out, so I started househunting instead. Yeah, I know there are not many like me in this world which is a sad thing for those that don't know me and a comfort for those that do. I found out that if you were lucky you could find images of the site and very often there were architectural plans or archaeology / architectural drawings of them as well, so if I can't actually buy it there is a chance I can have it built in Iceland in the coming future and when I have become immensely rich from my very lucrative research into Welsh and Irish medieval literature, 'ralh' (rolling about laughing hysterically).

On another note, I went on a field trip on Sunday. I went to Silverburn which is a new shopping center, I mean, why would I go anywhere except where I knew I would be able to shop. It is a new shopping centre and it is actually situated in Pollock so a bit out of the way. Both cab drivers asked me what I was doing so far away from the West End. Hmmm, could it be because I don't have my own car to ferry me there so that I can skip these questions. I would take the bus if I knew where I would end up or if I didn't have to walk half a mile to be able to catch the bus. So I let the taxi drivers chaufer me around. Bright people!

Oh, and another taxi story before I continue with Silverburn story. I took the cab to Uni today and oh boy, I mean you could probably excuse it back home in Iceland but here, I didn't think this was possible. The guy like so many others asked me what it was that I was studying at Uni and I told him Medieval Scottish History. He found that impressive and recognized that a person would have to specialise in an area of history as no one could know every history in the world, very enlightened of him. Then he told me he had been driving a girl from the history department around and asked me if I knew her, she was Canandian! That was the hint I got. I was like, in Glasgow there are 660 000 inhabitants + a few turists, in Glasgow University there are 17 000 teachers, students and staff + a few guests and turists. In the History Department, there are hundreds of people, more than a hundred in first year, more than a hundred in second year, quite possibly around hundres in third and also in the fourth year. Then we have the postgraduates, doing their masters and doctorates. And I was supposed to know a Canadian girl doing history! Why do I always get these strange questions!

Anyway, back to Silverburn. It is a very new shopping centre, only opened about a month ago, and there is definitely a lot left to do. Only half of the centre is about open and the other half that has shops has only filled every other space. It's only one level, but huge and very long, almost never ending. But you also get these huge department stores like Marks & Spencer and Debenhams which are on two levels and. Then next to this or sort of annexed to it, although you have to go out to get in is Tesco (of course, where isn't a Tesco in Britain). It is really huge. I spent more than an hour in there going from lane to lane to try to figure out what was not there and what I needed for lunch and dinner. (Comparing it to Hagkaup in Smáralind back home I would have to say this store is about twice or more the size of it, so that is saying something). But it only took me about three hours to go through the shopping centre and Tesco and back home. I didn't manage to find any other Christmas presents except maybe one for myself. And since I have yet to receive it (as in at Christmas) I can't tell you anything about it.

Today we were also invited to the annual Angus Matheson Memorial Lecture in the Celtic department. Anne joined us but was sick so had to leave after it, but we still managed to have fun before the lecture. Well sort of, I nearly finished her off with my Christmas present to her. She kind of dared me to it when we were coming back on the train to Glasgow last time we saw her, so I couldn't resist. I acquired a copy of Thomas the Tank Engine book and went online and nicked some departmental staff photos and started printing and cutting and putting it all together. I ended up with Thomas Clancy the Clever little Tank Engine along with his friends. I truly hope that he never finds out but it is hilarious, she loved it. The Lecture itself was fine but we couldn't help giggling a few times. Like when one of the speakers kept mispronouncing Robert O'Maolalaigh's name and when the guy in the row behind us when to sleep and actually snored on a couple of occasions. But there were good news there as well. They are starting a new iris or a journal of Gaelic literature and culture, published with articles in English, Irish and Gaelic and I am definitely going to subscribe, there were quite a few articles in there that I would like to read so as soon as it is published I will contact the department. There articles there by Dereck Thompson, Michel Byrne, Donald Meek and Kathrine Hollo, all very good scholars in their field and so it promises to be quite the worthwhile read.

I'm happy!

I have discovered that I have superhuman powers

For the past few days I have been "entertaining" myself with reading excavation reports in archaeology for Tuesday class and almost putting myself into a coma. Which means that most of the things that I read went in one ear (as they say, although it should more likely be an eye) and went out the other. But while my brain was so completely unoccupied I managed to have the weirdest conversations with myself and I came to the conclusion that I might have the power of making therapists retire early. Because no one could listen to the stuff that goes around my brain and stay sane, which explains a lot but gives not comfort.

When I started this blogentry I actually thought I would have something to ramble on about, and I don't. It's the end of week 9 at Uni and I think that is affecting me in some way. Like this weekend I am totally in denial that I have homework, spending my time in the shops (+ spending more than an hour to try to find a taxi to ferry me home) and watching television. I managed to finish my Latin translation on Thursday ... does it make sense ... no! So I will have to use some time to make it into readable and understandable english and not just word babble. Then I also have that stupid archaeology reading to do and I am just going to ignore it, can't be bothered with it at all, it is so flawed and in so many ways that it is driving me nuts.

I managed to bag another Christmas present today, which makes it a grand total of two. What will happen if I run out of ideas, huh? On the other hand it is not so easy to find presents today because the likelyhood of people actually owning the things that I think up for them is pretty good. Even Makini!!! Not that I would ever every buy one, but I thought it would be a great gab present for a friend, or at least a friend of a friend. Met him on MSN when I came home and told him that you could actually buy a Mankini (like the one Borat so famously wore in his film) and what do you think his reaction was. "I already have one of those!" Do I have weird friends or what? I gatered from him that he had actually bought one for HIMSELF! His poor girlfriend (my dear friend who will remain anonymous for this post), actually witnessed him trying it on. ... I wonder if there were any photos taken? Okay, really going down the wrong road here ... and you wonder why I am a basket case. Things like this don't help! Which makes my headache of finding presents seem like a month of migranes.

Tomorrow, marks three weeks until I go home to Iceland. I really can't wait. As much as I have been loving my time here, I am really wishing for some Icelandic company as well. I was so on my onesome yesterday that I texted a friend of mine here in Glasgow who is babysitting a cat that I was in the city center drinking mulled wine and already having had my first chocolate covered banana of the Christmas season! I miss you Árdís. It is strangely bizarre of not having you here, I can't shop. I need inspiration. Can't some of you guys come for a shopping trip for Christmas because I am failing here. Soon I will be a shopaholic without a job and the economy will suffer! Don't let that happen!

Okay, I have to go to my own little world now to talk to all those funny people in white coats. See you later, guys.

Nerds on the run

I am such a good friend, I am such a good friend that I actually woke up at seven in the morning on Saturday to take a trip with my friend to an Archaeology Conference! I was on time at the Queen Street Train Station and one by one they appeared. Catriona first and Anne (the reason for waking up) showed up just before eight. We grabbed our tickets and then our seats and sat chatting happily away all the way to Edinburgh Waverly Station. Then we had to find our way to the Royal Museum of Scotland, and finally I was where I belong ... in a museum! It was a beautiful building, not very interesting looking from outside, but once in, it is amazing, and sooooo big. The conference was just starting so we just managed to grab seats in the third row to the right in the conference room, but it wouldn't have mattered where we sat because the seats were crap. The architecht was clearly stupid, because he didn't figure it out in his little drawings of the place, that those that would be sitting in these seats would have legs! Let alone that anyone as tall as I am was ever going to enter the room. Front row seats is not my thing. So I basically occupied two seats, as in I sat sideways, fun fun fun for hours on end. Thankfully there were breaks at an hour or hour and a half interval so I was able to strech my legs between talks. The conference began at 9:30 and finished at 17:00, each lecture was about half an hour long.
The lectures themselves were really interesting. The first speaker was obviously from Scandinavia (either Norway (the most likely option), Denmark or Sweden) and he was sexy as well, who would have thought that of an archaeologist? His topic was on the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period of Southeast Scotland and he made it sound interesting! Then there was something on Elginhaugh, which apparently is a fort and that is interesting somehow. I kind of zoned out of the less interesting bits. The only thing I remember was when he was talking about a hoard of coins in the Roman fort. One of the coins was marked Borinianus. His emphasis was on the -anus part, hilarious. (Also, if you are Icelandic think of the first element of the name Bor- it makes it even more hysterically funnier. Then we had a break for snacks.
After break was over there was a talk on some archaeological work being done at Colstoun, which some people found interesting. The fourth lecture was on Edinburgh's Tron Kirk followed by a talk on the archaeology of the siege of Leith and other 16th century conflicts. And then it was time for lunch! That was great, I ordered a potatoe and they messed it up. How can you mess up a potatoe. I ordered baked potatoe with a chicken, tarragon and lemon mayonese filling and I got a pesto one. Really didn't want that so that the dinner lady was kind enough to make the filling especially for me ... and then when I finally got it it wasn't nice at all. I felt soo mean, but on the other hand I wasn't even that hungry, because I had eaten a sandwich in the tea break, because I hadn't eaten anything before we left Glasgow. So feel sorry for me, don't notice what a picky eater I am. It is better to be picky than eat everything in sight! Anne and Catriona were having fun watching me struggle with my potatoe disaster and Anne was starting to worry my Viking blood might rise to the occasion and I would start gnawing at her leg. It didn't happen, she still has all of her limbs intact (even though she made me get up very early)!
So after this very nice lunch, the girls and I, sort of unintentionally got our siesta break. The two lectures following the lunchbreak, really were coma inducing. They could have been interesting from the historical point of view, but when they started talking about this kind of flue and that kind of wall we just lost the will to live. The first one was a talk about a late 18th century distillery (and When is Whiskey boring? When you are not drinking it!) The second one was on the Caltongate Gasworks (I really was tempted to ask how they passed gas in the early 19th century but thought that would get me thrown out, so I refrained from asking. Then in the discussion session someone beat me to it but he worded it differently). And again we have a coffee break, the last of the day.
Instead of going for coffee we went shopping. This was of course at a museum and they are never without a gift shop, where you can buy things that have absolutely nothing to do with history or art, but are just enought to tempt shopaholics (like me) to depart with their money (like me).
The eighth lecture of the day, and the one we were most interested in was on the Lindisfarne Manuscript "Early Christian East Lothian, linking the communities of Columba and Cuthbert", we really perked up at this lecture, and would have gladly wanted it to last more than just half an hour. But that's us, we like that kind of things.
The last two lectures were kind of all right, but I was kind of wishing to be somewhere else at that point .. like in the shops. But we kind of had to stay, because the next lecture was on house conservation and things like that and this is what Anne is studying this year. So for her it was the reason to be there mainly. The last one was on how to do something about a historical site that is currently being neglected. This was also the lecture where the minority complex of archaeologist shone through the brightest. The girls and I have been laughing at the archaeological texts we have been sifting through this semester and they really do suffer from the paranoia of the Historians. It's almost like a phobia for them. I only have to reach across the table to grab the book I am currently reading to find this:

few historians saw the value of comparing their maps and documents agains what
could be seen in the field. Collaborations between historians, geographers
and archaeologists were still rare and restricted to a tiny number of
individuals who were widely scattered in different institutional guises with
little philosophical or methodological focus to their effort.

(Medieval Archaeology; Christopher Gerrard, p. 87)

Even thought the text is written in the past tense the archaeologists are still writing that this is how their work is looked at, secondary in nature to historical work.
I sort of feel sorry for them, but when people get excited about a wall, I kind of find myself at crossroads of whether to pity them or congratulate them. Their sense of style also leaves a lot for the imagination. Just because you are an archaeologist and you dig things up for fun, there is no reason to do that with clothes as well. They do have clothingstores readily awailable near you today, it's called progress. Aside from their pitiful nature I don't look down on them, they have their uses. I for one would never dream of getting down on all fours, just because someone got excited about Roman pottery ... or a wall!
But I have gone off topic. After the conference finished we headed into town and managed to take a quick look at Jenners at my behest and then headed towards Hard Rock Café, because I had sort of twisted and turned the arms of my fellow companions until they agreed to feed me. I had the classical Hickory-BBQ Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich, boy this just seems to go on and on, and Anne had herself a sandwich and Catriona munched on some chips. Of course we ended the evening with a dessert, a sorbet and two fudge sundae's, but they were more like just sundae's with no fudge at all. But still we ware happy and nourished and when we could finally manage to stand up we made our way to the train station and caught the train back home to Glasgow just shortly before eight o'clock. Which meant that I had been in Edinburgh for something of ten hours and still going. We had all been threatening to fall asleep on the train but we still managed to entertain ourselves with our very nerdy wit and wisdom. In Glasgow we said our goodbyes on the subway and Great Western Road and I went home to fall asleep way before my usual time.
This was the best day in a long while. Thank you Anne for making me wake up very very very early on a Saturday.

Gone with the Wind

Hair dryers are the bane of my existence and soon to be developing pneumonia. They really should ban these blasted things from student halls, or at least my block. There are at least two persons here that just can not be trusted with these blasting windbags. I have lived here for four years, and never before have I had to be outside soooo often in just two months because someone can not grasp the concept of HEAT detectors in the room. Just now I was driven from my very comfortable and warm room out into the freezing cold because someone couldn't control her hair dryer and this is the same girl who forced me out last time. Both of these times, a girl was caught unaware in her shower and they had to run outside wet. The one tonight was only covered in a towel with a tiny jacket covering her wet hair. I don't think she will be thinking to warmly towards this girl in the near future. Maybe we should put a timetable for her to where we will know in advance that she is going to be fiddling with a machine she has no control over and just stay outside to save ourselves the trouble of having to hurry outside just to find out it was all for nothing.

Objectivity? ... huh, anyone?

This is an update on my nerd status. I am getting nerdier by the minute. I am reading my schoolbooks and enjoying it. Actually it goes beyond that. I was actually laughing histerically today over my "educational" reading. It is especially the case when reading a book by Alfred P. Smythe called "Warlords and Holy Men; Scotland 800 - 1000 Ad" and I don't think he wrote it to entertain me, which makes it even more funnier. He really likes to call the people barbarians, no matter who he is talking about, basically everthing that happened before the 1950s is probably in his mind rater primitive and some version of barbarism that was going on.
Today, I was especially focusing on a chapter he wrote about the Vikings (WHY-kings), prettily named as "Vikings: Warriors of the Western Sea". If I didn't know better, and I don't, I would almost think two people wrote the chapter, because the introduction and the conclusion of the chapter are so bizarre. The main argument has merit and is a quite interesting read but it is the intro and conclusion that set me off today. See the following statements taken from the chapter.

'The images of Adomnán reflect the gentleness of a cultivated Classical Christian
civilisation, while the cut-throats and beer-vomiting heroes of the skalds
belong to a world of brutal barbarism.'

He goes on;

'The burning of the monastic library on Iona for instance, might have dealt a
greater blow to western civilisation than the destruction of the entire town ot
Nantes ...'

And on he goes;

'The Vikings returned again and again to centers such as Iona, which in western
Christian eyes were sanctuaries where it was sacrilege to spoil, but which to
the Vikings were shop windows crammed with the loot of centuries'.

No wonder we like to come to Glasgow on shoppin trips. Who would have thought that history books would or could contain such entertaining phrases. Granted this book was published 25 years ago and a lot has happened in the past few years. Sadly that is termed progress which means we don't get gems like this printed as often as we would possibly like.
Although one of his ideas has merit and really ought to be researched further through literature. We know that before the Vikings came to Iceland as settlers there were a few monks sitting around twiddling their tumbs on a rock and then they disappeared from there. That's not the interesting part of it. The Irish monks liked to go rowing about finding an island here and there to use for their meditation and such and Smythe presents the idea that the route to Iceland was well known by the Irish monks and that it was by their help the Vikings found Iceland and settled it. The Irish were probably very happy to finally be rid of the Vikings so they advertised an island in the north. (My thoughts at least). But it could have happened like this and should be explored further. Although that is as far as I am going with my taking Smythe too seriously in this, because in his conclusion of the chapter he sort of states that it wouldn't surprise him the least if the Irish had actullay been the first to find America as well and told the Vikings all about that too.!!!
Well, it shouldn't surprise anyone. He spent the last thirty pages going on and on about how the heck barbarians like the Vikings even managed to put a letter to a page anyway so why shouldn't he wonder how they managed to get to Iceland or let alone America without the help of the 'Classical Christian civilisation'.
His chapter concludes with these words.

'The study of Old Icelandic records presents us with a long line of apparent
historical accidents which require an explanation.'

In a bizarre way I like this guy, he really made my day!

Talk about dedication

This has been a busy weekend for me. Big surprise ... I went home for the weekend! I left Glasgow early on the morning of October 26th, Friday and my plane landed just after 12 o'clock noon. We headed straight home, but had a short stop at a shop (try saying this five times in a row really fast) before I lugged my luggage in the front door at home. Which was as well, because as soon as we had closed the doors the weather went beserk. The closest I can come to describing it is ... it was a blizzard. Now, my dear friends Margrét and Guðbjört had had their birthday's earlier in the month, but I hadn't posted their birthday gifts because I just knew it would get lost in the post like everything else around here does, so I wasn't taking any chances and brought them home with me. But I didn't tell my friends that I was coming. So I had to cleverly engineer it so that they would come to collect their presents without giving it away that I would be there. Somehow I did manage it, but obviously they wanted to make sure someone was at home and that they would not be bothering any one, they phoned the house on Friday afternoon so I couldn't contain myself any longer and answered the phoone. It took my friend a while to figure out who it was that answered the phone, she was absolutely flabbergasted that it was me and demanded to know what I was doing on this phone. Wonderful. They dropped by for a few minutes and then headed off with their presents which I understand they are quite happy with. We decided to try to get together tomorrow evening and off they went. Because I knew I was only going to be here for a very few moments, I decided to use them as well as I could. I phoned up a friend of mine and asked if I could come visit (provided that someone would come and get me, I know, I am sooo cheeky) and then spent the remainder of the evening in good company with friends drinking mojito cockteil that my friend expertly whipped up.

On Saturday I lay in bed for as long as I could, I missed it so much. But in the end I had to get up if we were going to do anything fun today. Firstly we went shopping, not so much fun because I didn't find anything to shop so it defeted the purpose of going shopping. Then we went overe to my grandmother and I took the opportunity of getting my hands on a hamburger from a hamburgerjoint just accross from my grandmothers home. Oooh, that was lovely! After visiting with my grandmother for a moment we headed home where I crashed in my bed for a few minutes before we headed to my brothers. He had invited us over for dinner which was again very lovely. And this makes me ashamed of not having remembered to mention the wonderful dinner I got at home from mom on Friday. It was amazing, Icelandic lamb at its best ... on the table in front of me!
After dinner my friends Margrét and Guðbjört came to pick me up and we basically skidded down the hill to Guðbjört's new place, which is being made up or at least made inhabitable. So the next hour or so we spent discussing and commenting on what colour the kitchen cabinets should be in, sadly we didn't even come close to a solution. But on the other hand it will make it much more fun when I come hom for the holidays to see what has become of it. It was obvious that Saturday marked the first day of winter, because ice was forming on the roads and making driving more difficult but we managed.

On Sunday, I didn't do anything really, or nothin interesting at least. I woke up around ten, or half past and just lay there taking it easy. Around noon I got up and dressed and was just starting to pack when my brother and family came to say goodbye. Probably the worst thing of being here in Glasgow is not seeing Katrín, my niece, more often, but it is only about 6 - 7 weeks until I go home for Christmas so that's bearable. I finished packing around two and shortly thereafter we left home to drive to the airport. We arrived there two hours on the clock before my plane was scheduled to leave, so when I had checked into my flight I said my goodbyes to mom and dad and headed off home ... again.

The flight was uneventful and I managed to get my luggage very shortly after arriving in the terminal and so I reached my room shortly after 8 o'clock pm. Almost as soon as my brilliant behind hit the chair I began my Latin homework for Monday. I didn't stop until I had finished my 25 sentences. Which meant that I didn't finish until quarter past twelve in the morning ... and that is when I unpacked my suitcase. So yes, talk about dedication. My friend Catriona was very impressed that I had actually managed to do the homework at all, with me being out of the country and all. She had barely managed but that is so understandable, most of the sentences I translated were just gibberish which I twisted and turned around until they resembled a sentence, and most of the time it wasn't 100% correct but it wasn't 100% wrong either. But we found out today at Latin that most of us had difficulty with this translation because we definitely weren't prepared enough for the excercise. But I am digressing, I finished unpacking in record time and got into bed. But I knew because I was so worked up from doing my Latin I wouldn't be able to fall asleep right away so I watched some television before switching off both the television and my brain.

This was a wonderful weekend which will sustain me until I come home for Christmas. It was great to be able to see my friends even though it was for such a short and unexpected time. But it is also good to be back in Glasgow and seeing my friends today was great fun as well. I brought them Kleinur from home to introduce them to Icelandic bakkelsi and they loved it we finished the bag. I promised I would bring more treats for them in the coming days so they have in turn promised to be nice to me.

Until next, behave!

Imaginary friends ... or I am hearing voices

The disturbing news is that since starting my year at Glasgow again and this time with no Árdísi next door, I have started to have these very riveting conversations with myself. My friend Sandra, said that it was ok, the only thing I had to watch out for was when I would start answering myself as well, then I would have something to worry about. Well, I am way past that threshold, becuase not only do I talk to myself, it is almost more like having imaginary friends traipsing around my brain. Because I assign each and every voice sometimes a new voice, so that one voice sounds like Catriona, who is the more dominant voice right now, another sounds like Sharon, then there is Claire and I also have Sandra when I am feeling decidedly English. This is quite bizarre but quite entertaining and very exciting as well, and thank God no one else can overhear, that would be quite awkward. Don't worry, the voices aren't making me do anything dodgy or strange, and they never start the conversation, it depends on me. So I am hoping that is a good sign in this madness. But I truly think that my brain is distancing itself from me because that is the only other explanation I have or that I am going senile.

I have turned into the nutty professor!

Excuses, excuses

Yes, I am sooooo using the internet as an excuse of not studying. Especially right now. I am reading through Economic Archeology and if anyone else thinks this is an oxymoron phrase, welcome to the club. This is more boring and painful than going to the dentist. I have not even completed my first chapter in the exciting book of Dark Age Economics, that I have come to the conclusion that archeologist are pompus assess, too full of themselves to even want to consider other fields of studies to help their research unless it is as boring and stuffy and them and that is ... whohey, you got it economics. These two groups work well together to try to fit everything in neat little boxes of organisation and administrative bodies. The statements of you need at least this many people in a community of planned streets and A MINT (here in the context of coins or coinage) along with religious center and judicial system to make an acceptable town to be worthy of their scrutiny. I am quite tempted to use a lot of adjectives describing the text and the author and other scholars mentioned in the text in very explicit and unflattering manner but because I like to keep things from being x-rated I will refrain from it. Just know that I am pissed off and in no way wanting to continue reading. But this will hopefully be my only day reading about economic archeology because I am going away for the weekend and am not going to be spending much time on my studies except, I optimistically state, on the flight to and from my place of destination!
There the rant of October finished and now I have to get back to work.

7 years of bad luck

Do you have any idea of how many e-mails and "chain-letters" I have received over the years. Not in the region of hundreds but, quite a bit though. About 1-4 a month I would say. Now that may not seem a lot but that is not the issue here. What they contain does. Every e-mail promises the world and life filled with happiness and luck, but it also has a darker side. If you do not forward it to you family and friends you will be evoking years of pain and suffering by the hands of the unseen and unknown e-mail demon, that is secretly watching every bit of bite you send through the internet. Yeah, right. If this was true, I will have been cursed with bad luck, bad breath and bad karma since I started using the internet, will suffer the rest of my life and considering the amount of e-mails I have ignored and deleted I will probably suffer a lot through my next few years as well. But I wonder, if what I have been experiencing as a cursed or unlucky life I wonder what I should be complaining about.
I feel like I am as lucky as possible, but more than that, I don't consider it especially to be lucky, more like fated and blessed. And what could be considered bad luck or unhappy events, they so do not outweight the positive and wonderful things that I have gotten to experience.
I managed to get accepted into Glasgow University, where I spent 4 amazing years, studying a subject I truly enjoy, meeting and getting to know loads of people that I consider my friends and am blessed to have gotten to know. I graduated, I was lucky enought to be able to be surrounded by family when that happened. I got accepted again into M.Litt where I get to spend another year at Glasgow Uni, getting to know more and more people. I feel blessed with both a great family and wonderful range of friends from all over the world.
Now I ask you, why would I want to forward these things to anyone. Well, I might not forward all of them, only the really nice and sweet in the hopes that it won't scare the sh%t out of my friends, but mostly I don't forward them, because the e-mail does not dictate how my life will be.

Roald Dahls birthday

So I thought it fitting to share this poem with you. You all know the tale of Cinderella ... or so you thought!

I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phoney one, the one you know,
Was cooked up years and years ago,
And made to sound all soft and sappy
just to keep the children happy.
Mind you, they got the first bit right,
The bit where, in the dead of night,
The Ugly Sisters, jewels and all,
Departed for the Palace Ball,
While darling little Cinderella
Was locked up in a slimy cellar,
Where rats who wanted things to eat,
Began to nibble at her feet.

She bellowed 'Help!' and 'Let me out!
The Magic Fairy heard her shout.
Appearing in a blaze of light,
She said: 'My dear, are you all right?'
'All right?' cried Cindy .'Can't you see
'I feel as rotten as can be!'
She beat her fist against the wall,
And shouted, 'Get me to the Ball!
'There is a Disco at the Palace!
'The rest have gone and 1 am jalous!
'I want a dress! I want a coach!
'And earrings and a diamond brooch!
'And silver slippers, two of those!
'And lovely nylon panty hose!
'Done up like that I'll guarantee
'The handsome Prince will fall for me!'
The Fairy said, 'Hang on a tick.'
She gave her wand a mighty flick
And quickly, in no time at all,
Cindy was at the Palace Ball!

It made the Ugly Sisters wince
To see her dancing with the Prince.
She held him very tight and pressed
herself against his manly chest.
The Prince himself was turned to pulp,
All he could do was gasp and gulp.
Then midnight struck. She shouted,'Heck!
Ive got to run to save my neck!'
The Prince cried, 'No! Alas! Alack!'
He grabbed her dress to hold her back.
As Cindy shouted, 'Let me go!'
The dress was ripped from head to toe.

She ran out in her underwear,
And lost one slipper on the stair.
The Prince was on it like a dart,
He pressed it to his pounding heart,
'The girl this slipper fits,' he cried,
'Tomorrow morn shall be my bride!
I'll visit every house in town
'Until I've tracked the maiden down!'
Then rather carelessly, I fear,
He placed it on a crate of beer.

At once, one of the Ugly Sisters,
(The one whose face was blotched with blisters)
Sneaked up and grabbed the dainty shoe,
And quickly flushed it down the loo.
Then in its place she calmly put
The slipper from her own left foot.
Ah ha, you see, the plot grows thicker,
And Cindy's luck starts looking sicker.

Next day, the Prince went charging down
To knock on all the doors in town.
In every house, the tension grew.
Who was the owner of the shoe?
The shoe was long and very wide.
(A normal foot got lost inside.)
Also it smelled a wee bit icky.
(The owner's feet were hot and sticky.)
Thousands of eager people came
To try it on, but all in vain.
Now came the Ugly Sisters' go.
One tried it on. The Prince screamed, 'No!'
But she screamed, 'Yes! It fits! Whoopee!
'So now you've got to marry me!'
The Prince went white from ear to ear.
He muttered, 'Let me out of here.'
'Oh no you don't! You made a vow!
'There's no way you can back out now!'
'Off with her head!'The Prince roared back.
They chopped it off with one big whack.
This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said,
'She's prettier without her head.'
Then up came Sister Number Two,
Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!'
'Try this instead!' the Prince yelled back.
He swung his trusty sword and smack
Her head went crashing to the ground.
It bounced a bit and rolled around.
In the kitchen, peeling spuds,
Cinderella heard the thuds
Of bouncing heads upon the floor,
And poked her own head round the door.
'What's all the racket? 'Cindy cried.
'Mind your own bizz,' the Prince replied.
Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds.
My Prince! she thought. He chops off heads!
How could I marry anyone
Who does that sort of thing for fun?

The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty slut?
'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!'
Just then, all in a blaze of light,
The Magic Fairy hove in sight,
Her Magic Wand went swoosh and swish!
'Cindy! 'she cried, 'come make a wish!
'Wish anything and have no doubt
'That I will make it come about!'
Cindy answered, 'Oh kind Fairy,
'This time I shall be more wary.
'No more Princes, no more money.
'I have had my taste of honey.
I'm wishing for a decent man.
'They're hard to find. D'you think you can?'
Within a minute, Cinderella
Was married to a lovely feller,
A simple jam maker by trade,
Who sold good home-made marmalade.
Their house was filled with smiles and laughter
And they were happy ever after.

-- Roald Dahl --

This is the month of Blog Quizzes apparently

I am the bearded lady, or so it seems!

You scored as Albus Dumbledore, Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Albus Dumbledore 85% Ron Weasley 75% Harry Potter 75% Hermione Granger 70% Ginny Weasley 65% Remus Lupin 65% Draco Malfoy 60% Sirius Black 55% Severus Snape 50% Lord Voldemort 5% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

I think that is a fair view of my belief

You scored as Classical Liberal, You are a classical liberal. You are sceptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behaviour, but inward religious feeling is most important. Classical Liberal 64% Emergent/Postmodern 61% Modern Liberal 54% Neo orthodox 54% Roman Catholic 50% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 46% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Reformed Evangelical 18% Fundamentalist 0% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Nothing new here...

Elin, if you were a movie, you'd be a Groundbreaking Documentary

If you think documentaries are boring, think again. Like your movie match, you're an intelligent individual who makes people think. Documentaries span all sorts of topics, from the trivial to the profound. Perhaps your interests do the same, but one thing's clear — you're a smarty and you like to learn.

We'd guess you're the person at the dinner table or the water cooler who stirs up lively debates about the latest news or tidbits from the Discovery Channel. Part of you probably gets a kick out of creating controversy and getting people fired up about their beliefs. Another part probably likes opening people's eyes and sharing your thoughts. And for that, you get two thumbs up for trying to get to the bottom of things and making waves!

Lady Sphinx

You are a mysterious being, Lady Sphinx, distinguished by your deep wisdom, strength, and royal power. You've also got a special something that draws people to you — even if they can't explain why. Maybe it's because you're always immersed in thought, pondering everything around you — your music, the fashion scene, or the latest movies.

It's not that you need to be on top of everything, it's just that you prefer to walk a stable path through this life, and that's easier for you to do if you know what's goin' on. But beyond your keen awareness of the world, you also have a strong intuition — which is probably why friends and family think of you as such a sage goddess. This natural ability to just sense things makes you a great judge of character when meeting new friends, or attracting a new crush. So don't be afraid to use these otherworldly goddess powers to spark some love in your realm, Ms. Sphinx! Work that intrigue.

Your gifts make you alluring, but not too revealing. You'll always hold the secrets of life and keep 'em guessing. You've got plenty to show the world — so get out there and show them what you're made of!

Tickle.com

I can be sarcastic ... really!

You Have Your Sarcastic Moments

While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge. In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead! And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in. Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious.

How Sarcastic Are You?

My brain is purple

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?

I've got Simpsonitis

Photo 1

Photo 2

It bugs me

I was reading the newspaper this morning and I came across an article about an "artist"! He's an old guy but somewhat known here in Iceland and they showed a selection of his works. Oh, my god. They actually call him a master artist and the only thing I could do was stare. Out of five works they showed, three of them were horrible. Not something I would be proud to show off if I had been the one to put this mess on canvas. This was someting that could have been done by a four year old and the funny thing is that then I would have applauded because that would have shown promise of things to come, but for an old guy to paint this and for others to call him a master artist is an insult to children. At four years they have already shown that they can handle a brush and simple images like persons and their surroundings, but here we have people applauding a guy in his sixties plus for finally achieving the same level of maturity as a four year old child. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Photos

Just to let you know that I have just added some photos to my blog. Both from my graduation and also from the evening the girls and I went out. The links to the photos are here to the right and you don't need to sign in to view them, or at least you shouldn't have to.

Lazy is the word of the month

I always mean to be efficient at writing but then nothing happens. I think it's the heat, I can't do anything, can't even think one thought through. A lot has been happening lately. I was on TV, yes, as I wrote here before, but not only that I was on TV last night as well. And no, not the same program, now I was caught completely unawares. This is what happens when you show up early for a book signing. Norways most published author Margit Sandemo and the author of Ísfólkið came for a visit and signed books for hardcore fans. So of course I showed up, not one to let an opportunity like this slip from me and because I was there early I was caught on camera. It just isn't possible to show up for something like that and not be noticed. The nerd just got nerdier.
I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on opening night. I think it is one of the movies I have to see again and again before I will be completely at ease with it. Obviously since I love the book so much I was disappointed with it in many ways. It was like watching a slide show at fast pace of the book. Not nice at all, some of the scenes I was particularly waiting for were hardly mentioned and some facts were distorted and the thread of the tale bent to suit the short cut through of the story. I am not saying it isn't good. It might be for those that haven't read the book cover to cover for months and it might be fine for those who haven't read the books, I just don't know how they viewed it. Many of the things that were alluded to showed obvious intent on the director and screen-writers that the audience should be aware of or know the story intimately so that they would know what was being hinted at. But all in all it was a quite short and shoddy work of an otherwise great book. In this instance the book is defenitely better than the movie.
On Friday night, I along with five other girls went out for a night. Enjoyed a lovely dinner at Hereford Steakhouse, and the company wasn't bad either. It was actually too bad that it had to end so soon, it was such fun. After we left the restaurant we made a short stop at the home of one of the girls where we continued to chat and laugh (some histerically and some more ladylike ;). I can't wait until the next time we go out. This is just too fun for words.
I am on my way to bed shortly, hopefully there will be peace and quite tonight. Obviously someone in the street has aquired an electric guitar and he has been trying it out in his garage. I mean he is somewhere in the street, and not even that close to us, but I can hear every fail note like it is screaming in my ear in this very room. Last night he was at this to almost pas mid-night, and I was not a happy bunny, and therefore a rather grouchy person when roused this morning to go to work. When I came home today, he started again and later tonight he was still at it. Right now, I don't here anything and I sincerely hope that someone has broken both his arms.
Until next time I can be bothered.

Now it's public knowledge too: I'm a nerd!

Yours truly was on television yesterday, in Út og Suður with Gísli Einarsson and now it is official. Everyone in Iceland know I'm a nerd. It was an interview with Oddur Helgason genealogist, and the man who I am working for this summer gathering genealogical information. I wasn't at home, when it was aired, and didn't get a chance to see it a wee bit later in the evening, but dear me, I was mortified. Actually, it wasn't too bad, because I was watching it with friends of mine, who comforted me. It was just a shock to hear myself on television. I never knew I had such a squeeky voice, it was unnerving. But they said that I didn't sound like that usually, I must have just been unusually nervous. Which I was. The interview was recorded the day after I came back home from Skotland, and my Icelandic was a bit rusty yet. It always takes me a while to get comfortable speaking Icelandic to strangers when I come back. When I came home, I heard that loads of people had phoned to tell mom and dad what a good job I had done, and that it had been nice to see all this. I heard the same when I went to work this morning as well, from people who had been watchin. It is amazing how many people actually watch that show, when I consider it a bit on the old-people-interest-show.
The biggest shock came probably when I went to the bank today, where I was getting a check made ready for me, where a woman came up to me and thanked me for a good show yesterday. She was really very kind and said that it was so nice to see how truly interested I was in genealogy and family history. But, yup, now you can almost call me famous in Iceland .... well, at least infamous. ;) Let's see where this leads to.

Graduation

There is so much to blog about I can't blog fast enough.
Well the main news is that I graduated on June 29th, Friday. It was a marvelous day, and a wonderful ceremony, very formal and festive. It was a day I never wanted to end, but that was after we got back to the hotel. Before I went up to Uni, I was so nervous I had upset stomach and nausea but after a few breathing sessions I finally calmed down and managed to finish getting ready. I met Claire up at the University where we collected our graduation wardrobe and tickets for family. Then we headed for a wee get together at the Celtic Department for drinks and to chat with some friends and teachers. At the ceremony itself, Claire and I got front row seats of the ceremony. I was in nerd heaven. My teacher of four years, Thomas Clancy and head of the Celtic department held a speech celebrating the life of gaelic poet Ruaraidh MacThómais who was receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University. Then the graduation walk began, 340 students receiving their degrees all one by one for more than an hour, wonderful. At the end of the ceremony Dr. Dauvit Broun got a reward for excellence in teaching and he so deserved it, he is such a nice man and a great teacher. He is the head of the M.Litt program I am joining next year, and he was even nice enough to enquire about me and if I would be able to study Old Norse next year. Such a sweet man. I also had a photography session after the ceremony with mom and dad as well, and then a few photos by my brother. Before we left for the hotel, we stopped by the gift shop where we bought a frame for my degree and a bottle of whiskey, that instead of saying The Famous Grouse, it says The Famous Graduate.
Then we headed for the hotel where mom served up a delicious cake before we went upstairs for a wonderful meal. We also got a glass of champagne to toast with and a bottle of fine red merlot from Chile. Five courses and I was beyond bursting. It was truly a great day.

It wasn’t until the day after that everything seemed to go down hill but that wasn’t until much later in the day and we had managed to do most of the things we had intended so there was nothing else for us to worry about. But the trouble at the Glasgow airport did put a dent in our last night in Glasgow. Because there was nowhere possible to get any kind of information from our airliner or media back home of what passangers of Icelandair were supposed to do or contact in case of something like this. Nothing at all. But no matter, we decided to just take things slowly, follow the news and not do anything rash. We finished packing and went to sleep. We all woke up at seven in the morning and the airport was still closed. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that they told us that the airport was finally open, but no matter where we turned we got no news from home if our flight was on or not. We did managed finally to see that the flight from Keflavik had left and so we decided to hurry to the airport in case they would be flying out as well. When we got to the airport, caoz was everywhere and all we were told to do was get in the queue, but they didn’t tell us how long it was or what the purpose was of us queuing at all. We had to walk a kilometre before we found a gap in the queue for us to stand in. Right next to us was a wee shop where I managed to buy some coke for the group because we had no idea of how long we were going to be there. Still we tried to reach Icelandair, Leifsstöð or anyone that might have some answers to us. I managed to find a wheelchair with the help of a very helpful police officer for my mom which made the wait a bit more bearable for her but it was still very difficult for all of us. Finally, by pure chance we got a phoncall from an acquaintance of my brother who told us that the Icelandair flight was scheduled to depart very soon. So I had to try to find someone to tell us what we were to do, finally found a guy who told me that we had to get there asap! We managed at the very, very, very last moment to get to the desk to check in for our flight almost having a heart attack on the way, then we had to go almost half the way back again to get to the International flight terminal. We had to walk across an inside bridge where the windows had been covered up, but it didn’t mask the intense smell of petrol- and rubber burning. We were basically walking right by where the car had crashed into the airport, not a nice thing at all. We made it to the gate where we were placed in a bus that drove us the last few meters to the airplane. At the gate we were even reproached for being so late, I was really taken aback by that. That was some cheek of saying that after everything we went through to get there and we even got there on time, but there was no assistance, no help, no guidance from anyone were we were supposed to go. Later we even got the news that the office back in Iceland couldn’t even reach their staff at Glasgow airport and certainly the staff at the airport had no clue what was going on outside. I was furious. But we made it to the airplane and home and I have never been as glad to come home as I was on Sunday July 1st.

But it is no lie to say that this was a historic trip. The first terrorist attack in Scotland! And the funny thing was, you wouldn’t have known about it if you hadn’t turned on the television, because it just didn’t phase anyone. Everything was business as usual, no hysteria, no panic, no it’s-the-end-of-the-world speech you know by heart from the Americans. Everyone was just as cool as ever.
But the main thing was that no one died and only one person got injured (and we can argue how much or not he deserved it) but we can be grateful that nothing horribly bad happened.
This did nothing to mar the memory of my graduation either, it was a beautiful day, which will live that much longer in my memory because of the events that followed.

Hmmmm, about time I let you know I am still alive

Yup, alive and kicking, mostly kicking on another website, but that one is in Icelandic so it is not for all to understand. There hasn't been much happening in my life since my birthday except I'M GRADUATING from the University of Glasgow on FRIDAY!!! I actually got my exam results a couple of weeks ago, so lazy me not writing about it sooner. I will be flying to Glasgow on Thursday and will be coming back home on Sunday, so, not a long trip, but essential. Today I also got great news for a nerd like me. At the graduation a Gaelic poet, Ruaraidh MacThómais is going to be receiving an honorary doctorate from the University. And right now, I feel like an idiot, going; ''Like, I'm gonna meet him, like, see him there like. Wow, like that would ever happen, I'm just like tickled pink to be there with him, when he gets that thing!"

I am so looking forward to friday, well, even just to thursday. Of getting back to Glasgow, I feel like I am going to THE land of retail therapy. I have been in such trouble with finding anything at all in the shops here, and no, it's not all for me. I have been trying to find birthday presents like the dickens (it's a phrase not an author of several celebrated books) here as well.

! But for your notice. Some of my close aquitances have been inquiring about this website. I am not going to make it sound as if I am so important that they broadcast the graduation just because it's me, but for anyone, who would like to enjoy the opportunity of seeing me being whacked on the head with a hat and lassoed with a scarf, please feel free to check this out:
Graduation 29th June 2007,
it's at 4 o'clock in the afternoon local time, and that would make it at 5 o'clock in Iceland.

An old, lazy git

It was my birthday on May 24th, and thank you to all those who sent me birthdaygreetings. I just turned 28 and I don't know if I can accept that.
It turns out I am a lazy git so it can't be true. I had a long discussion about the subject with a friend of mine and she agrees. Time flies and it flies really fast sometimes as most of you can relate to so I have decided not to follow time anymore and just go after my own intuition.
So I can hardly say I am older than 22 or there abouts which suits me just fine and is more in tune with my mental growth as well.

And since I have already confessed of being lazy, it will come as no surprise that it is my excuse of not writing anyting worthwhile reading recently.
There hasn't been that much to write about, except maybe my birthday. Nothing much happened on my birthday itself. I went to work, and got home. Then I invited my mom and dad out for dinner at Lauga-ás, which serves the most delicious food ever. Then surprisingly I went to the cinema with my friend and got to see Pirates of the Caribbean At Wit's End .. ooops sorry, that's at World's End. Enjoyed it immensely.

But mom and I decided, and because of a lot of phonecalls from family, to have a little get-together on Sunday, because there was not other time available.
Everyone is so busy these days, and we no less. So mom and I spent the Saturday preparing our feast, turned out we were baking for nearly ten hours, but it was so much fun. Then Sunday came and a whole lot of people came to see me. It was wonderful to see them. I even got a few presents and they were all very nice and thoughtful.From mom and dad, I got a nice picture to hang in my bedroom, and I also got from them 3 dishes (a dinner plate, a soup dish and a dessert dish) to collect for a set. The dishes are beautiful, elegant and very tasteful. They are completely white with no decoration but are sooo beautiful. They are called Nimbus and are the second down, on the right;

From my brother and sister-in-law I got a set of salt and pepper grinder and it also included curry. From my grandmother I got a nice wee statue of the Gemini, who never knows in which direction to go.

I got a nice necklace from my uncle and his family, with a small piece of lava rock in it. A box of chocoalte from another uncle and his wife. And my friends Guðbjört and Margrét I got a very nice little bag and beautiful earrings, of white glass pearls. The party it self was wonderful. OOh, I can't forget to mention that we had a chocolate fountain running which was a big hit. Must mention that it might not be the best thing to have in a party where little people are. My five year old niece was basically wearing the chocolate after a short while. It was hilarious but worrying if she got to close to you, you could easily have been drowned in chocolate in one of her hugs.

All in all I was very happy and it was wonderful to see so many come.
Now all I do is worry about my exam results. They are likely to be published on Monday and now I am not so sure I want them anymore. I have been checking on Websurf nearly daily since beginning of May and I just don't tink I want to know how badly I did anymore. They should just have phoned all ready and said "there's not a chance in h"#$$ that you are going to be gratuating from this University!!!" not drag this out for so long. So as of yet, I don't know if I am going to Scotland in 4 weeks time for my graduation or a hell of a retail therapy trip.

Dumber and dumberer ... is Bush an idiot?

Me likey

Star Wars Horoscope for Gemini

Like most Geminis, you are a playful little creature. You tend to be extremely curious, craving knowledge but sometimes having a short attention span. For the most part, you are charming and loveable. But at times, you can seem scattered and high-strung. Star wars character you are most like: Ewoks

What Is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Unbalanced

It will probably not come as a surprise to many of you that I am unbalanced, but now I have the diagnosis from the doctor to confirm it as well. Yesterday, when I woke up and tried to rise up I knew something weird was going on. I managed to get up but I could barely walk, my legs were like jelly and I had no control over them. I managed to get to the doorframe and grab hold on it and from there to the bathroom where I almost keeled over. Cold sweat sprung forth all over my body and I felt terrible. I managed to get back to my bed where I laid down and couldn't move. If I tried to lie on either side it felt like being in a merry-go-round at a 100mph nonstop even with closed eyes. I did not feel well. Everytime I tried to move to take a sip of drink everything started moving so I decided to just lie there on my back and try to get my world under control. I managed to fall asleep until lunchtime. When I woke up I tried to sit up and went into the kitchen to try to get some more liquid into me. About twenty minutes later I went hurtling into the bathroom where I threw up everything I had had since waking up. Not fun. Mom called the doctor and he though I might have a touch of 'vertigo' (yup, like the Eurovision song from Malta), but he wanted to confirm it in case I needed some more doctoring (... like shaking). I went to the docotor and he said that I had most likely caught a virus that attacks my equilibrium and should get better in the next few days and I might expect another attack like the first one in 2- 3 weeks time when my equilibrium is healing again. It is sort of a self-adjusting mechanism that goes to work then. But right now, I am feeling better, I just have to take care when I get up and avoid any sudden movements or looking up or down. When I get ... I call it attacks or a touch of it ... I sort of get a touch of a headache and nausea so I just have to take things easy for a while, but I am not completely vegetated, I am alive and mostly functional.

Is this what is to come

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Iceland, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wear winter-coats and gloves.
The Icelanders are out in the sun, getting a tan.
+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Icelanders plant flowers in their gardens.
+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start.
The Icelanders are cruising in Saab cabriolets.
0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in Hvita river gets a little thicker.
-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Icelanders have their final barbecue before winter.
-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Icelanders start using long sleeves.
-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Icelanders end their Midsummer celebrations. Autumn is here.
-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Icelanders start drying their laundry indoors.
-40°C / -40°F
Paris start cracking in the cold.
The Icelanders stand in line at the hotdog stands.
-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Icelanders navy postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.
-60°C / -76°F
Myvatn freezes.
The Icelanders rent a movie and stay indoors.
-70°C / -94°F
Santa moves south.
The Icelanders get frustrated since they can't store their Brennavinn outdoors.
The Icelanders navy goes out on winter survival training.
-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Icelandic cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.
-273°C / -459.4°F
ALL atom-based movement halts.
The Icelanders start saying "it's cold outside today."
-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over,
Iceland wins the Eurovision Song Contest.

Going / Coming home

Finally, this academic year is finished or at least close to a finish. I still have to recieve my grades and graduate (hopefully). But I am going home tomorrow. I finished my exams on Wednesday and have been working my way up to packing and moving home for the summer. There isn't a whole lot to blog about here, not that much has happened while I was studying for exams and a whole lot less when actually taking them. Except it was quite thrilling when a studen's phone went off an hour into my last exam!!! Almost every single day I was studying for my exams the sun was shining outside my window and for a few days I even skived off studying. That was when my mom and dad dropped in for a few days to celebrate my dads birthday on April 13th. Yup, Friday 13th, and the date of the exam I dreaded the most, but actually turned out to be not so bad. It was truly nice to have them here and be able to assist them and do stuff with them and it was also very nice for them to be able to have a change of scenery for a while.
So I am going home tomorrow and I am unemployed for the moment as well. Possibly I even have to crawl back to my former boss and ask for a summer job if the job I was hoping for turns out to be a dead end for the next forseeable future although I do not doubt that it will become what it was meant to be someday. Until I have talked the to guy in charge I won't know if I will be going to work in the middle of nowhere at the post office. Stay tuned for updates.
I fly home tomorrow and should land sometime around noon. Can't wait to see my bed ... uuuh, family ... again.

Loosening tension

My final exam is tomorrow and trying to relieve some of the tension for it I went on the interent to check for a few QI episodes and I found one so hilarious that I have to share it with you.

part 1


part 2


part 3


part 4


Enjoy!

Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

Yes, I think I am in a pretty good mood today. Although I do have a mountain of work ahead of me. I am back in Glasgow after two weeks back home, and boy it has been interesting. Almost every single day I spent at home it snowed, blizzard conditions and worse sometimes. Now that I am back in Glasgow, I am roasting. The sun has been shining like crazy since I came here and the temperature has been 12°c and above. Beautiful, except that the sun pays me a rather roasting visit later in the day, which means that if I am trying to study I have to block it out with heavy curtains.
But the reason I am in this lovely mood today is the news I recieved yesterday in my inbox. I got an e-mail from the Postgraduate Service at the University where they were informing me that they have accepted my application for M.Litt in Scottish Medieval Studies for next year, which means: One more year of 'wha gie's it!, and 'hughie-ing' and 'haggis, neeps and tatties'
Anyways, I am thrilled, ecstatic, floating on air.

A few highlights from back home;
March 20th - Had a wonderful dinner at my friends, Hrafnhildur's place, where I had the chance of seeing my friend Guðný Stellu, who is the busiest freak I know. I also met Bryndísi and Þurý, the two chicks that came for a shopping trip in Glasgow, with Hrafnhildi, before Christmas and who are still paying their visa bills from then! Brilliant guys.
March 23rd - I went to the movies, even though I had to pay the exorbitant fee of 950kr (7 pounds+)for the ticket. Went to see 300 and oh, my god, I loved it. I got so caught up in it, I wasn't aware of anything around me. I want to see it again soon.
March 30th - Then last friday was the pinnacle of my stay back home, where I went with my friends, Hrafnhildi, Bryndísi and Þurý for a girls night out. We started by going to a Witch shop in the city center where we had two hour lecture on various methods of 'the craft', we had lovely chocolate cake and herbal tea, along with the 'elixir of love' brewed especially for us, Bryndís and I imbibed 2 shots of that brew, just for extra ooompf. Then we were let loose in the store, where I bought a sack of runes and instruction manual, plus a dreamsymbol. Something that is quite appropriate for me. The friends were mostly into buying the herbal tea stuff, which is not me, although I did enjoy the tea they offered us with the cake. Well, after this experience we made our way to Austur-Indía félagið (The East-India company) where we had the most scruptious dinner ever, loved it. I was near to bursting but I still refused to leave a morsel left on my plate. Oooh, it was good. Then, as if this wasn't enough we went to The Celtic Cross, appropriate isn't it, a lovely wee pub on Hverfisgata where we had one cocktail. Again, I nearly had a heart attack because of the price, I was expected to pay for a wee (although wonderful) cocktail; 1300kr (10 pounds!), yikes. I just find it amazing that anyone ever goes out in Iceland to get sloshed. It's almost cheaper to just be a tea-totaller, although that can be expensive as well. But I had a lovely time, and my friends assured me that we will try something else and something just as fun during the summer. Can't wait. Guys, thanks for a lovely time, it was wonderful.