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.