New Years baby?

As I write this wee blogspot my sister-in-law is at the hospital possibly giving birth to my wee nephew. Expected but not. She had been scheduled for a c-section on January 2nd of the new year, but it was obvious well before Christmas that the baby would be well done by that time. My sister-in-law's bump was so huge she could not bend down to pick anything up or even some movements were very difficult for her and she very often had problem catching her breath so we were certain it wouldn't be a long wait. But Christmas came and the baby didn't show no matter how much we wanted a wee parcel kicking and screaming to be placed under the tree. But we were certain he would show up to see the fireworks especially if he is anything like my brother!!! And it looks like it's going to happen now, and hopefully we will be getting good news soon.

Good luck and best wishes to Júlíus and Svala, and looking forward to meeting you little nephew!

Happy New Year!

The Yuletide lads - part 15

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


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


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

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson
Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 14

Candle beggar

( Kertasníkir )

The thirteenth was Candle Beggar

- ´twas cold, I believe,

if he was not the last

of the lot on Christmas Eve.

He trailed after the little ones

who, like happy sprites,

ran about the farm with

their fine tallow lights.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 13

Meat Hook

( Kjötkrækir )

Meat Hook, the twelfth one,

his talent would display

as soon as he arrived

on Saint Thorlak´s Day.

He snagged himself a morsel

of meat of any sort,

although his hook at times was

a tiny bit short.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 12

Door Sniffer

( Gáttaþefur )

Eleventh was Door Sniffer,

a doltish lad and gross.

He never got a cold, yet had

a huge, sensitive nose.

He caught the scent of lace bread

while leagues away still

and ran toward it weightless

as wind over dale and hill.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 11

Window Peeper

( Gluggagæjir )

The tenth was Window Peeper,

a weird little twit,

who stepped up to the window

and stole a peek through it.

And whatever was inside

to which his eye was drawn,

he most likely attempted

to take later on.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 10

Sausage Swiper
( Bjúgna krækir )

The ninth was Sausage Swiper,

a shifty pilferer.

He climbed up to the rafters

and raided food from there.

Sitting on a crossbeamin

soot and in smoke,

he fed himself on sausage

fit for gentlefolk.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 9

Skyr Gobbler

( Skyr gámur)

Skyr Gobbler, the eighth,

was an awful stupid bloke.

He lambasted the skyr tub

till the lid on it broke.

Then he stood there gobbling

- his greed was well known -

until, about to burst,

he would bleat, howl and groan.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 8

Door Slammer
( Hurðaskellir )

The seventh was Door Slammer,
a sorry, vulgar chap:
When people in the twilight
would take a little nap,

he was happy as a lark
with the havoc he could wreak,
slamming doors and hearing
the hinges on them sqeak.

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translated by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

The Yuletide lads - part 7

Bowl Licker

( Askasleikir )

Bowl Licker, the sixth one,

was shockingly ill bred.

From underneath the bedsteads

he stuck his ugly head.

And when the bowls were left

to be licked by dog or cat,

he snatched them for himself

- he was sure good at that!

By Jóhannes úr Kötlum / Translation by Hallberg Hallmundsson

Pictures/Copyright©Olafur Petursson

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 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.

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.

Graduation Blog

Wow it's been long since I have sat down to write anything on this blog, but the wait is at an end.
It was my graduation yesterday, December 3rd, 2008 on a Wednesday of all days of the week to have it on, and it was at 11 o'clock AM as well. Which meant that I had to wake up EXTREMELY early or 7 o'clock. I'm a lady ... I don't do mornings. But the weirdest thing was that I managed to wake up all by myself at 6:30. I was not happy! so I stubbornly stayed in bed until 7. Then I finally dragged myself out of my nice cosy bed onto the not so warm floor and got dressed and ready in my graduation outfit as soon as I could and phoned for a taxi well before eight o'clock. I had to be at registration at 8:40 and I had stressed with the girls of not being late. I was hopeful that I would be there about twenty minutes early. But now, no such luck, in fact a big let down. I waited for the taxi for 50 MINUTES before in state of panick I started hurridly walking into Uni. Usually that would not have been such a problem, I had my good shoes on and was meaning to change once I got to Uni but this morning was SPECIAL. My bit of Glasgow was completely covered in ice (fljúgandi hálka) and I could see the cars skating about outside and the people falling about trying 'ingeniously' to walk to Uni in these conditions wearing sneakers and jeans. But I basically skated up to Uni in record time, flying on the ice past people with limbs flailing about them all around me. There was nothing else to do. I finally made it about 10 - 15 minutes later than I would have wished but I made it and my toesies were quite frozen at this point. I still had stuff to do. I needed to register and get tickets for my guests for the ceremony, I also needed to pick up my robe and hood. When that was finished I had to find my way on my frozen toesies to Catriona's office to warm up a bit before going to meet my guests and getting them to where they were supposed to go.
I found Catriona and Sandra already in the office and both of them were rather worried that I was so late and were quite shocked that the taxi had never come to pick me up at all. I was sooo lucky to have worn my leg brace this morning because I had been thinking of not putting it on right away. We changed into our robes and got ready to go over to the main building and met up with Catriona's folks shortly, the Sandra's peeps joined us as well and finally my parents showed up as well. I showed them where the elevator was and how to get to the Bute Hall where the ceremony took place. I then had to run to Randolph Hall at the back of Bute Hall (and of course I had to go back down to go across the university and go back up, no cutting straight across there) Then waited for the girls to join me because I had completely lost sight of them in the crowd. We had to wait a bit before the started calling us into our seats in the correct order, we were quite early on so it was nice. The funniest bit though was when they called me to my seat. Elin Ingeborg ELFSdottir is as close as I can get to pronounciation.
However the Hall itself was bloody freezing and didn't help my wee toeses at all to get warm, in fact it just got worse. I really wished I was wearing my Icelandic National Costume because at least it has a woolen skirt and a shawl, brrrr, it was soooooo cold even the Icelandic Viking was complaining. (Although I have been complaining about the cold in Scotland for six years, they just don't seem to understand that we are used to cold OUTSIDE not INSIDE!!!) The ceremony took an hour and a half to finish and since we were quite early receiving our degrees we had to entertain ourselves by giggling over the various strange names that were called out.
When the ceremony was finally over we had to do the 'graduation walk' around the east quadrangle before stopping outside in the frost. We were greeted by Robbie O'Maolalaigh the head of the Celtic department who came to congratualte us, and later we ran into Dauvit Broun our course convenour. I sent my mom and dad into the photography room to wait for me because I needed to go pick up my things from Catriona's office but when we got there there was no one there to let us in. So I went back to mom and dad and we decided on a graduation photo pack and while I was waiting in the queue Catriona came running with all my belongings and bags because the secretary had come back and Catriona and her parents needed to leave as early as possible. So mom and dad guarded my things while I stood proud and a bit silly looking while they snapped some photos of me. Then finally I was able to change shoes ... ah HEAVEN.
We took a taxi home to my place so I could show them around my new room with my many many windows! And when we had sufficiently recovered and warmed up a bit we went back to mom and dad's hotel room. I ran out to Burger King for some lunch and this was just before three o'clock in the afternoon now. We watched some news on the television and I phoned TGI Friday's to book us a table for tonight, got a table for four people at 7:30 no problem. While I was on the phone mom decided not to take any chances, like this morning. The weather forcast was predicting more snow and ice and because it had taken so long or not at all for a taxi to come to me early in the morning it would be best if I stayed in town with them so that I didn't have to worry about going home in bad conditions or getting into Uni tomorrow morning, because I had a meeting with my tutor. So we booked a room for me at the hotel, and I got a lovely room on the next floor with a double bed and it was just perfect. So I had to go back home and pack my wee suitcase before going back to the hotel. I managed to chat a bit with Catriona online before going back and told her I had booked the table so she would be able to find us and I told her that I had borrowed her name and booked the table under the name Eileen Gray and that she had apparently adopted me for the time being. She told me she would adopt me anytime anyway ... that made me happy! I phoned for a taxi and it took half an hour to show!!! So good call from mom about having me stay the night at theirs because it is much easier for me to get from there to Uni than from my actual residence. It still took me twenty mintues to get from mine to theirs because the traffic was horrific but I did finally arrive and I managed to rest a bit before we went out again and now for the actual Graduation dinner.
Shortly after we arrived at Fridays and got a table Catriona appeared. We ordered some lovely food and while we were waiting I gave Catriona her graduation present and I got one too!!! She is so lovely. I loved my present, it was so thoughful and wonderful and I got the best book EVER. 'The Perfect hostess' and it is so much fun. I am going to place quotes on here most likely, they are the best ever.
When we had finished dinner and desert and were just chatting away I looked out the window and none other than Anne and George were outside there, and I just started pointing and hmmmhmmm-ing like crazy because I couldn't come a word out of my mouth. She noticed my absurd behaviour and came in to say hello they had to run because their train was leaving in ten minutes from Central Station. They were just back from Edinburgh where Anne was graduating as well. I managed to give her her Graduation present and Christmas present before she left. I will have mine too look forward to when I get back. We had planned to see Sandra later in the evening and after we had finised our sizeable meal we went over to Waxy O'Connor's and waited for her to show up. Mom and dad went back to the hotel though, so Catriona and I got us some beverages and enjoyed a chat while waiting for Sandra to show up. They only showed up then when we were about to leave, but thankfully I managed to give her the Graduation present before they left and so did we.
Catriona then phoned me when she had reached home which made me feel so much better because you never know when you are riding on the bus in Glasgow what you are going to get, but thankfully it was a smooth ride. I was already tucked in my bed at the hotel in the wonderful double bed. Mom and dad were as tired as I was and understood very well that I just wanted to crawl into bed, they wanted to do the same. So I had said goodbye earlier and gone to my room. It was very nice and cosy and I started reading my book 'The perfect hostess' so that I was able to tell Catriona again that I absolutely love it. I managed to watch a few minutes of Top Gear and then I was completely dead to the world. It was very fine day indeed but totally exhausting as well.

A Vulcan Man

'Tuvok, I understand
you are a Vulcan man,
You have just gone without
for seven years about.

Paris, please find a way
to load a hypospray,
I will give you the sign
just aim for his behind.

Hormones are raging
synopses blazing,
it's all so ... very illogical
illogical
....illogical!'

Looking for a new car???!!!

I got just the one! I wonder if they are going to try to put this one on market back home in Iceland?

Ford Kuga

Pronounced 'Kooga' or more importantly in Icelandic orthography 'Kúka'!!!!
I wonder if it comes in brown?
Die laughing!!!!

Photos

I just put in some new photos. Both from when Hrabba came over to help me move and then from an Orchid fair that I went to today.

Aside from that not much is going on here. I have been taking it rather easy these last few days, mostly because I still haven't seen Thomas so I don't know what I am doing or where I will be taking things from here. I am slowly getting more and more comfortable in my room, although I ended up turning my sleeping arrangements competely around so that my feet are now where my head should be. It works and I feel that I rest a lot more comfortably like that too.

Catriona went home over the weekend so I am all alone here and was too much of an idiot to contact Sharon and see if she had some time to spare. But since her daughter has been feeling a bit poorly and she herself has been battling a cold I rather doubt it. Although I hope to see her sooner rather than later. I will be seeing Catriona tomorrow though, at least I hope so, becuase we are planning on doing some Old Irish study before class on Tuesday. I am also going to finally be seeing Thomas tomorrow so that should be fun. At least then I will feel like I can start doing something sensible.

Stay tuned for more adventures of Elin

Subway the way of the student

Ooo it was obvious that the Subway on Byres Road is run by asians. When I entered the establishment to purchase some student substenance I was greated with blasting Bollywood music. And how lame is this, I knew the song!!! It was the title song from the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something is about to happen) and of course I started humming and nodding along to the tune. And no Þurý, you don't have to worry I made a spectacle of myself, there were no shoulder movements accompanying the humming... at least I don't think so! But it was fun, and the subway sandwich was very tasty.

Before I made my way to the Subway though I went into Uni to attend a seminar lecture in the English medieval language department. Alistair McLennan who was my tutor last year was giving a lecture on the ghost of Skarphéðinn Njálsson in Njáls saga, called 'Ghoul, Interrupted: Society and the Undead in Njáls saga'. It was hilarious and fun, but also informative and interesting. For the last three years he has been working on his definitve work on ghosts and monsters in Icelandic medieval literature. Very exciting stuff I really want to read it when he finishes.
There was also a talk about verbal phrases, but that wasn't as interesting. In fact it was quite boring. It was basically about a woman who needs a life. She had spent I don't know how many hours comparing and searching through the letters B and G of verbal phrases and how three compilers of dictionaries regarded the phrases. This was confined to the later modern English period of 1750 - ?, the work she used was Samuel Johnsons first English dictionary, Websters American English dictionary and the first edition of Oxford English Dictionary (OED). And yes, this sounds as exciting as comparing three phonebooks between years and see who changed their number!!!
But I might be going to the next one, it's on the Canterbury Tales, and although I am not a fan, it's medieval and that's enough for me, depending on if I can wheedle Catriona with me.

I am unique!!!!

Thihihi, my University just gave me an e-mail alias because of my post-grad phd status. Instead of being @student.gla.ac.uk I am @research.gla.ac.uk, but the joke is that my account name is e.eyjolfsdottir.1@..., and they say expressely that the number in my name is to differentiate me and make my name more unique in the e-mail world of Glasgow University. I must say I find that hillarious, I don't think they have come accross my name before since I am numero uno.

In other news today, I managed to become a saint in the eyes of a friend of mine, and no not the one who is actually actively writing my saint's life as we speak, but another one. My dear dear friend who flew all the way to Glasgow to help me move. When she was here she fell in love with a lovely green dress, but was trying to be practical and bought a serviceable black dress instead and left the green one behind. Well, she regretted her decision, but cursed and fated she decided to buy it online instead, and luckily the dress had just gone on sale!!! For some reason the transaction never cleared so as soon as I came back to Glasgow I was sent on a mission to purchase the dress in store. Although I didn't really know of this course of action (and neither did she) until Monday. I had made plans with Catriona for Tuesday so I couldn't go yesterday, but managed to go into city centre today and guess what? I am brilliant. I managed to get my hands on the last dress in the right size in the store!!! Whoohooo and at a bargain price as well. My friend is very happy now, although I have her dress heheheh, but I think she know it is safe in my hands.

I am currently getting more comfortable here in my wee room. I have done a few minor changes from when I first shoved my things in here. I fully expect there to be some more changes going on in the near future. My little home is still forming, but it is getting warmer by the day. The boiler has been broken, and is currently on constantly now to get us some heat because he will go on and off randomly, but this means we have some heat which we didn't have when I first got back. Which meant a very cold first night, I am talking pajama bottoms and socks and a blanket!!! This room is a bit bigger than the ones I have been staying in and therefore my little radiator isn't powerful enough to manage to heat it completely if it is very cold outside. That is also the reason I went to IKEA yesterday with Catriona, but that was to buy a thicker duvet for my bed, and I imagine I will sleep well tonight in my warm bed in my very warm room right now. The reason for the room being so much colder, is because there is an extension on it that only applies to my room, and so there is no extension on the room below me in the block, so there is basically nothing below the floor, hence cold floor and cold in general. Then of course the multitudes of windows do not help either, but I still love me room and while I am armed with blankets and socks I am not complaining!

Phd .... what am I getting myself into?

Where did the time go? It seems such a short time ago since I started my first year at Glasgow Uni and now ... dududrudu Phd! And I have no idea what I am getting myself into. Thank God I still have Catriona to lean on for sanity, although I might drive her towards the loony end of sanity. I have yet to meet my professor so I still don't know what they expect of me this year. But I already have homework to do. But that is self-imposed homework. I decided to take more Old Irish courses ... yes, I am a sucker for punishment some would say.
However, it is debateable whether this is the best or worst time possible to be starting a phd. With the krona as weak as it is, it is disturbing to be in Great Britain.

I am so poor I can't even fart as to prevent my underwear to wear out too quick!!!!

But I am still determined to enjoy the time and just learn to live frugally ... very, very frugally. I should be able to do it, I watched Sandra do it last year. I miss her! There was definitely something missing when coming back. I think Catriona and I are thinking of trying to enlist some of our friends to join us in Phd-land support group!

The new Orkneyinga Saga - an excerpt from the Annals of Elin

June 12th 2008, Thursday

Our trip began very early in the morning of June 12th., although not as early as planned and I was left feeling like an orphan at the side of the road waiting for my ride. Finally Catriona and Sandra showed up and I finished moving the last of my things to my new flat before leaving Glasgow.
We went straight to Glencoe and the visitor center there to have a cup of tea (coke in my case) and a bit of cake. We were able to stop for a few minutes before we had to head off in search of the place that was going to take us horseback riding. Yes, I know what you are thinking, ME ON A HORSE, hillarious. Well it worked, I got up, the horse was huge, I had to take two steps up the mounting block to get there, but on I went and I went first too. After fifteen minutes I was thinking, 'why did I agree to this', then I started to enjoy it a bit and especially the very soothing massage my behind was getting, so I just relaxed as much as I possibly could and prayed that the horse knew what it was doing. (Calling a horse IT is just wrong, I will introduce noun genders into English even if it kills me). Then we got a nice treat, on the way we saw a castle and not just any castle either, apparently it is a castle that was made famous in the Monty Python film 'The Holy Grail'. We even stopped by it and the horse keeper snapped some photos of us with the castle in the background, fabulous. Now there is photographic evidence of me on a horse, now no one can doubt me!
After this little adventure we returned to Glencoe for lunch, although we bought our lunch in a nice little village called Ballachulish (hehehe). While we were munchin in Glencoe a fither jet zoomed passed us so fast that I barely registered it but still got a good view of it before it disappeared in between the peaks in Glencoe. Thrilling and very very noisy! When we had wetted our appetites we drove to Loch Ness and found the Youth Hostel we were going to be staying at. We were a bit early and it hadn't opened yet, so we went on a wee treck down by Loch Ness before getting the keys to the room. Boy, I nearly turned around and said I would be sleeping in the car, but decided to be brave and stayed. The place was minging, I really don't recommend it, not nice at all. The only nice thing about it was the common room. Thankfully we were here for only one night and I was sure I could manage that and I did.

June 13th 2008, Friday

We left the hostel as soon as we could, and drove up to Urquhart Castle by Loch Ness. Spent about two hours there running around ruins, and I promise they were ruins when we got there. Before we headed off we had some tea and cakes and then headed over to Inverness. Spent a few hours there browsing in the shops before we headed off again. We were headed to John O'Groats were we were staying the night at another Youth Hostel, and hoping for a better one than the one we spent the previous night in. But on the way there we were going to try to find my land! Yes, finally this Lady Glencairn was going to visit her land in Scotland and take a photo of it. I had a map and I even had GPS co-ordinates for it so what could go wrong. Well, everything! The map wasn't very detailed so it didn't help very much, our GPS man Tim the leprachaun (whose name is Sean but is called Tim) showed us that it lay quite far out in the sea. It only worked if while we were driving reconfigured our co-ordinates every few minutes that we were nearly able to find it, we came close ... to the co-ordinates anyway but not the place. So we had to go back and finally we decided that we were close enough that we could with good conciousness take photos of me on my land. So I selected a nice piece of land with ruins on them and planted myself down with the Icelandic flag and my friends snapped some photos of me there, in a howling wind! Then we headed off to John O'Groats doubting Tim when he showed us the nearest petrol station in DUBLIN, IRELAND!
Finally made it to our destination and this youth hostel was so much nicer! We had a very good time here and even though it was a large room, intended for at least six persons we were alone through the night and were able to double up on duvets for the night! Played a game of Scrabble before going to sleep. Next day we were headed off to Orkney!

June 14th 2008, Saturday

Woke up extremely early because we had to take the ferry to Orkney at nine o'clock. We got on the ferry and everything seemed to be all right until about ten minutes of the hour and fifteen minutes journey I went green and then horizontal and was quite seasick the entire way to Orkney. Rubbish Viking! I managed to fall asleep, which I am very thankful for and very thankful when we came back on terra firma. We drove straight to our chalet that we had rented for the week and it was such a nice and cosy place we instantly fell in love with it. Poor Sandra had a difficult time though dealing with the Orcadian speak, although I found it to be very nice and sing-song like, very interesting. We got chalet nr. 5, a cosy place with a foyer. On the left hand site was the bathroom, on right hand side a room with two beds and straight across was the living room area. There to the left was a tiny kitchen and dining room, and to the right was a sofa that was also a bed and a dresser with a television on it. The great thing I found about this was that we had to put a coin in a meter to get things going like heat and electricity, I am such a city girl I had never seen anything like it.
When we had sort of settled in we set of again and this time we went into Kirkwall, found a parking space and hopped out. Found a tiny little pub for some grub and then headed off to the Tourist Information centre to find out where we could do our grocery shopping. We found Lidl and managed to do some basic shopping although I was quite shocked to discover that they didn't have Coke Cola at all, they only had Pepsi! Suddenly I just wanted to go back home, but then I figured that there must be a place where I could get Coke so as it was an emergency I took two 2l Pepsi bottles just as a precaution!
By this point we were very tired and just went back to our chalet and settled in more comfortably. Around five we broke out the Trivial Pursuit and entertained ourselves with trying out our wits and wisdom before breaking for Dr. Who! Catriona won the first game! We then settled down in front of my computer and watched a film before going to bed, I talked to my mom for a bit before going to bed as well. We had meant to go to bed a lot earlier but in the end it was somewhat passed midnight when we finally made it in.

June 15th 2008, Sunday

We decided to take it easy today as it was Sunday and not a lot is open on Sundays here aside from Historic Scotland sites. We decided to go to Skara Brae. Of course since we were only travelling around a small island we decided not to use Tim and just follow signposts. Seemed like a good idea until we discovered that Orkney doesn't seem to like signposts all that much. And we kind of went into the wrong direction.
Quote: 'We are going the right way ... roughly!' Catriona
Yes, that was true, because we were on a very small island it is quite easy to get back on track, but that doesn't mean it isn't extremely funny. In the end we made it and parked the car outside the visitor centre. Then we proceded to step 5000 years back in time, to a neolithic village incredibly well preserved. It was very windy but we still managed to take a very good look around the place. Until 1850 the settlement had been hidden under the earth, they were unearthed in a heavy storm and the owner of the land helped with the excavation of the village. It was amazing to see it and to hear the story as well, at the end of the tour around Skara Brae we were allowed to go to Skaill House, that used to belong to the one who found Skara Brae village. It had been turned into a museum both in relation to Skara Brae but also to the family that lived there. (It was very much like going through the houses at Árbæjarsafni to see how time stood still in the house, it was quite amazing). We then had to brave the wild wind again and made it to the visitor center just before it closed down for the day and managed to grab tea and cake before setting off for home.
After tea we went for a short walk around the place we are staying at, took some postcards to the postbox and went out onto a pier we can see from our windows. It was a very nice evening and the wind was not as bad as it had been during the day. We returned back to our chalet and watched a couple of Mock the Week shows before turning in for the night.

June 16th 2008, Monday

We woke up at eight but none of us was very ready to move yet. Shortly after nine we contacted the Orkney College to enquire if they had any scheduled archeological guides around sites presently being excavated, but unfortunately we weren‘t lucky enough. They were going to start at Gurness the next Monday, we were quite sad that we missed it, but unfortunately nothing we could do about it. Thankfully this didn‘t mess up any our plans for the day or for the rest of the week, it just meant we had an extra day to do everything we wanted to do.
Today we started at Maeshowe, an ancient burrial place dating from around the same time as Skara Brae or 5000 years old. Unfortunately they didn‘t allow us to take pictures in thankfully there are guide books available and of course I got one. The entrance into Maeshowe is not very high, only just over a meter high and about 70cm wide, not very easy access for tall Vikings, but I made it and the entrance into Maeshowe was definitely not the most challenging on this trip. Inside Maeshowe were runic inscriptions left by Vikings that visited there about 1000 years ago, and some of the things they wrote was a bit naughty! When we came out from Maeshowe we had to sprint to the car and drive as fast as we possibly could up to the Rings of Brodgar where we were going on a wee walk with a site ranger who was going to tell us about the site.
The Rings of Brodgar are similar to Stonehenge, although a bit more ‚henge‘-like than Stonehenge apparently, originally there were 60 stones in a circle spanning 104m in diameter but now there are only about 28-29 stones left standing. It was so much fun walking around the stones, which incidently are about 5-600 years older than Stonehenge and is also larger! Of course the Vikings had stopped by here as well and left a note, saying ‚Björn was here!‘, and of course I have a photo of myself by this stone, to prove that ‚Elin was here!‘ ... I didn‘t leave a note. We also stopped by the Stones of Stenness, a much smaller ring of originally twelve standing stones but now only about a half of them standing.
Afterwards we went into Kirkwall and stopped at the Co-op and grabbed a few necessary items, including a Coke Cola for me!!! Watched television for a while before turing in for the night.

June 17th 2008, Tuesday and the National Holiday of Iceland

It was a cold and dreary day so we decided to keep near to Kirkwall today. We got into Kirkwall around 10 and started with a tour of St. Magnus Cathedral, a very nice looking church. From there we went on to The Bishop‘s and the Earl‘s Palace that are just around the corner from the cathedral. The Bishop‘s Palace dates from 12th century and the Earl‘s Palace dates from 1600, although magnificent they are only ruins today sadly. I went up to the top of the Bishop‘s Palace and the view over Kirkwall was amazing. Kirkwall is also a surprising town of around 8000, it was still quite easy to navigate it. We managed to find a coffeeshop that wasn‘t packed with the entire population of Kirkwall and had a nice lunch before heading off to do more exploring.
We headed off to Orphir to take a look at the Orkneyinga Saga Centre and boy did I learn a valuable lesson there. The word ‚Centre‘ doesn‘t necessarily mean a centre, that it can also just mean A ROOM! I was quite disappointed and annoyed. The trip wasn‘t a total disaster though because just outside the ‚Centre‘ there was the Earl‘s Bu, the ruins of a 12th century farm of one of the Earl‘s of Orkney. Beside that was a cemetary where the ruins of a church from around the same time as the Earl‘s Bu and inspired by a church the Vikings saw in their crusades to Jerusalem.
For the third and last leg of our journey of discovery this day we decided to head over to the Ortak Jewellery shop and Visitor Centre. Ortak is an Orkney based family of designers where it is possible to go and have your own design made into fabulous jewellery. This was also an opportunity to go visit a Iron Age grain earthhouse, and the key to get into the earthhouse is kept at Ortak. Let‘s just say I made it to the bottom but not to the actual grain storage space! Not really thinking of tall Vikings when they constructed that thing. Sandra made it through though by crawling on all fours, she deserves credit, she is quite determined to see these things once she‘s actually there. When Sandra finally made it up again we were all quite tired and decided to go home. I got a phone call from my mom and got to talk to my niece and brother as well. My niece had to hear about me going horseback riding and of course she also needed to know what kind of horse it was, what colour and the name as well. She was all dressed up because of the National Holiday and had gone to the city center to get a balloon and candy. Before we went to sleep we played another game of Trivial Pursuit which I actually managed to win this time round, a good end to a good day.

June 18th 2008, Wednesday

We headed towards Tingwall (Þingvalla) today, I don‘t really know what I was expecting but definitely not what we found ... which was nothing. It seemed a very un-tingwall-y-like place. But it wasn‘t all for nothing, we booked a ferry for Friday to take us to Rousay from Tingwall. Having done that we headed off to the main atractions of the day. First we stopped at Gurness, where there is a Broch and an Iron Age village, incredibly large and it is still possible to see how the village and the landscape looked, it really is quite extrodinary to see this and very hard to explain. We spent quite a time there taking a good and close look at the settlement, just outside the settlement there was a 12th century norse burrial site, where they excavated a skeleton of a woman and some artifacts. Around noon we headed off again and this time towards Birsay. Birsay is a tidal island just of the mainland of Orkney and is only passable on foot two hours before and after low tide. The tide was around four in the afternoon but we still had to get there and we were also thinking of having lunch somewhere ont he way. We came to the Brough of Birsay around one-ish and had lunch in the car, we were so sensible that we packed some sandwiches. Because we still had time we popped into the town of Birsay and took a look at the Earl‘s Palace there, which as most of the things we have seen so far has been, was in ruins, but still very beautiful. We then moved the car closer to the pathway across to the island of Birsay and walked across, the walk took about five – ten minutes accross beach sand, stones and a bit of a walkway and then we were there. We made it up to the Visitor Center and entered the site ... at which point we discovered that there is no Brough at Birsay! Nope, there was one at one time but there isn‘t any longer. Instead there is the remains of a 12th century norse village. An incredibly large village and very well developed. The houses had indoor heating and they had a sauna as well as an impressive drainage system. Even from the earlier settlement site dating from around 10th-11th century there was visible remains of drainage system. It didn‘t take too long to walk about the ruins and examine the settlement so we decided to take a tour around the island and tried to spot some puffins although we were not successful in that. Sandra more than once went a bit too close to the edge of the cliffs to try to find the puffins, so much so that Catriona and I were positively ill watching her. But she made it back always in one piece so it was fine. When we came home Sandra was exhausted and she aslo had a headache so we allowed her to fall asleep in the bedroom while we were busy in the kitchen, well ... Catriona was busy in the kitchen making potatoe wedges and stuff while I was sorting through the photos of the day. The personal best I think so far, 409 photos in a single day! When Sandra woke up we sat down for a bit of television before turning in and wrote a postcard to Carol at the Celtic Department, but after this we were all exhausted and were quick to fall asleep.

June 19th 2008, Thursday

We didn‘t rise up as early as we have done the past few days but that was all right as we thought that this day wasn‘t going to be very strenous, right! We were heading towards the Tomb of the Eagles where we were going to let Sandra go crawl into a small tomb while Catriona and I waited for her at the coffee shop ... if there was one! When we came there, we saw that the possibility of a coffee shop were non-existent. This was actually a private property, the government had not taken an interest in the site so after having been ignored for 30 years the ownership of the site reverted back to the family who owned the land. The story is incredible. We came into an area that had been modified to accept visitors where we got a small tour of the saga of the tomb and how it was discovered. Not only that we actually got to see how the people lived and how they worked the stone, it was incredibly. They showed us three skulls of people who had been found in the tomb, the scull of an old woman, a man and a young woman who had a genetic disorder which left her face distorted and most likely suffered from blindness and other forms of illness because of it. Today there are 6 individuals on the Orkney island with the same disorder and deformed skulls. Incredible! We even got to handle some of the items that had been made and used 5000 years ago! That was most definitely the highlight of the tour, to see how perfectly everything was made, you could not even imagine how it is done today with modern tools how impeccably perfect the items were. We also got a tour in the next room that dealt with the ruins of a bronze-age settlement found near the farmhouse itself. It is only a small farm but the outline is still visible. To get to the tomb of the Eagles we had to walk around a mile, and because it had been raining they lent us wellies and the girls also got water proof trousers, but since I didn‘t intend to go into the tomb I decided to just get some wellies. When we came to the tomb we were amazed at how low the entrance was, it really was low, probably only around 50 cm in hight. There was a rahter largish skateboard there and a rope had been stung from the ceiling of the entrance into the tomb where people could if they lay on the skateboard propell themselves into the tomb. Sandra decided that it was easiest to crawl in. But as I do not have the physical ability to do that because of my knee I used the skateboard and actually went inside ... and made it. I didn‘t even get stuck. Catriona then crawled in after me. Inside the tomb we one chamber where they had left some skulls behind to show us how it would have looked like at the time of the excavation and what it actually was used for. When the tomb had been excavated it contained thousands of bones and also a multitude of bones belonging to the wite-tailed eagle which gives it‘s name to the tomb. The bones indicated that the tomb had been in used for at least around 800 years, but why there were eagle bones there as well, no one knows. We made it out of the tomb again and went over to the excarnation site nearby. It is believed that the neolithic people practised a so called excarnation in regards to their dead. Where they left the bodies out to rid the body of flesh and when it had decayed they placed the bones in the tomb. Not a very nice thing to think about but to each their own. We decided to go home for a short lunch before heading into Kirkwall to do some shopping. When we came to Kirkwall we hit the stores but unfortunately I couldn‘t find anything nice to buy not for anyone I knew or even myself. I went home empty handed and very disappointed. We spent the evening watching Mock the week and I spoke to mom for a few minutes before we turned in for the night.

June 20th 2008, Friday ,Catriona‘s Birthday‘

We woke up really early today because we were going on a ferry to Rousay and had to be there before eleven. We wished Catriona a happy birthday but I was saving the birthday present for tonight so she just had to wait for it, hehehe. Sandra on the other hand gave her half of her present but the other half was going to have to wait until we came back to Glasgow as they didn‘t have what Sandra had intended to buy for Catriona unfortunately. It was really not a very nice day to travel to Rousay but since we had already booked and there were sites there that we wanted to take a look at so we went nonetheless.
It was a tiny ferry, so tiny, we had to back up onto the deck and stay there for the remainder of the journey as it was so tight all around us that we couldn‘t even open the car doors. It only took about 20 minutes to cross over to Rousay and we were quite thankful when we were back on terra firma. Be began visiting the chambered cairns of Taversöe Tuick and the Blackhammer cairn before giving up before the elements and seeking shelter at the Taversöe Hotel for lunch. The rain-ponchoes from Historic Scotland really came in handy here but it didn‘t completely shelter us from the rain or the wind so we were very happy to be inside for a while and dry out before heading back out into the unknown. Next on the map was Midhowe chambered cairn and broch. When we arrived I saw that it was going to be a downward walk to the shore and my shoes were definitely not up to it so I was left behind in the car while the girls absconded down to the broch and cairn. I really wished I could have gone there but there was no way with my shoes and the condition my knee was in at that moment. So I sat behind bored trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of them every so often scampering about the sites. Thankfully the chamberd cairn was inside a building that had been erected over it to protect it from the elements so they got a bit of a respite from the weather. They then came back to the car nearly drowned on the way but very happy to have been down there to see it. I kind of envy them, but when they came back they told me that it was a bit of a climb and I knew that that I had done the right thing and stayed behind. Again we sought shelter at the hotel for a while before one last trip out and this took us right around the whole of the island, and we figured out that you can basically travel around the island in about half an hours time, it really isn‘t big. On the way we passed a lake where there were some crannocks, which are basically iron-age settlements made on a man made islands in the lochs, but we couldn‘t go any nearer to see them more up close so we only snapped a few photos of them before heading back to the ferry. The ferry wasn‘t there yet, so we popped into a small cafe where we got a delicious scone with butter and jam before heading home on the ferry again. Stopped in Kirkwall on the way home to grab some stuff and then headed home to cook some potatoe wedges and watched some tv as well. Then we went to sleep, our final night at the chalet before heading home tomorrow.

June 21st 2008, Saturday

Woke up at 7:30 to finish packing and tidy up the chalet before we left around ten. But we weren‘t ready to go home yet, the ferry didn‘t leave until six so we headed towards Minehowe but were a bit too early as it didn‘t open up until elleven so we popped into Kirkwall for a few seconds where I actually managed to make my first kill so to speak ... I bouth a bracelet from Ortak! We then headed back towards Minehowe, it‘s a much smaller site than the others we took a peek at, it is basically only one chamber about 30 feet down. We were handed some wind-up flashlights and hard-hats because the only way to get down there is to go backwards as it is a very narrow passage. There is a real mistery as to what Minehowe is, it dates somwhere between 1000 – 3000 years ago but well worth it to see even though you don‘t really see much at all when you get to the bottom as it is only about 2-3 meters in diameter when you get down there. Which is why only two people can go down at once. Sandra of course was the guinea pig and went first, then I descended and boy it was a tight squeeze sometimes. When I made it up, Catriona decided to have a go as well and she was very happy in the end of having gone down as well.
Now we had done all the major sites we had planned to take a look at only a few smaller ones left that we were saving for this day really. It was the Unstan cairn near Maeshowe and the Barnhouse near the Stones of Stenness which coincided nicely with the start of the St. Magnus festival in Orkney. So we went first to Unstan, which as so many of the historical sites in Orkney was on a private land but they had made it so that visitors were able to get to it without playing havock with the livestock or the land. The builders had obviously met up with some gruesome vikings so they made sure that it wasn‘t not accessible to tall people. I basically got stuck in it so I didn‘t go in. Whenever I tried to maneuover my body in, my shoulderblades got caught up in the ceiling and I couldn‘t move my legs back or forth so there was no way. The girls made it in though, I guess a few cm do matter when building a cairn, they took some photos and I got to appreciate it from them instead.
We then went over to the Barnhouse and took some photos, the Barnhouse is basically a iron age village recently excavated and very nicely situated between the Rings of Brodgar and Maeshowe.
Since we thought that the musical performance was supposed to take place at the Ring of Brodgar we hurried in our car there to see if we could get a good spot to park and then waited for the people to arrive. They never came, we walked up to the ring and saw then that the gathering seemed to be at the Stones of Stenness ... basically where we had been parked a few minutes before so we hurried back and thankfully found a place to park. I must say I was expecting something a bit more than what we actually got. A woman playing the violin and a man beating a drum were playing reels and other country-folk music before the kids joined the woman. Not really my cup of tea regarding music, especially since they had been hyping it up a bit, saying that the stones provided great acoustics which in fact they didn‘t do at all.
Well, in the end we had to leave, I was able to pop into the shop near Maeshowe to pick up some monkshaped book ends and then it was on to the ferry.
It was a much smoother ride home this time around and I didn‘t get sick at all although Sandra was feeling a bit green. I climbed up to the 2nd deck and took photos like crazy all around me. It was so much fun and so nice to feel the wind in your face while cutting across the waves. I was having a marvelous time and didn‘t really want to go in but in the end it was either that or freeze. Then it was only about ten minutes until we docked so it was ok.
We headed straight for John O‘Groats before going to the youth hostel because we wanted to take a photo of us by the Last House in Scotland before retiring for the night. We got to stay in the hostel room alone for the night which was nice as it means more duvets to go around. These rooms are usually made up for six so, it was two duvets a person, which meant a warm night!

June 22nd 2008, Sunday

Today we basically didn‘t do much else but drive straight home. It was a rotten day, rain pelting on our window as we drove down to Glasgow. After about two hours of driving we stopped at a hotel to get something to eat and drink and straighten out a bit before heading off. Thankfully we had David Tennant reading Dr. Who for us so we weren‘t bored on the way. Stopped in Wick to pick up some petrol and then headed to Portmahomack, an archaeology site of a recently excavated picitsh monastery. We got to see what they found and how the excavation progressed but we were unable to see the site itself and most of the things that were on display were replicas of what had been found, but it was still nice to see it even though we were a bit disappointed. We stopped at a hotel for lunch, where I had a very nice beef stake with potatoes and vegtables and sauce, all very nice. Next we stopped for a few minutes in Inverness to pick up another audio book with David Tennant before heading off. Around six we were getting a bit hungry and wanted to stop somewhere for food but since it was Sunday not many places stayed open so we were unable to find any place until we were basically at the outskirts of Glasgow and then we just decided to hightail it home and get food later. So we finally arrived in Glasgow around eight in the evening, very sad that the holiday was over but also very happy of having gone and we really enjoyed ourselves the whole time. It was really one of the hightlights of the year for me and I couldn‘t have done it with a better company as the quote book is a good testament to!

Photos from Orkney Trip

I have finally put in all the photos from Orkney, it's in three installments. They are categoriesed after the camera that took them! The travel tale will follow soon, hopefully! Still, enjoy the photos and I have tried to do my best to put some explanations along with the photos to make things a bit easier. The ones from my camera are probably the most detailed as they were uploaded first, but do take a look at all three sets as they give a different view on the same thing and some are just hilarious!

Smurf smurf smurfy smurf

What Smurf am I? You are Painter Smurf. You are creative, expressive and always expanding your ways. You definitely have an artistic soul. You admit that you can be moody at times, but that just shows what a passionate person you are! You are quite imaginative and wish you had more time for creative pursuits. You are an original.

Sorry for my absence

So sorry I haven't let you know how I have been doing for the past .... few ... weeks / months.  A great many things have been going on and I have a lot to write about.  So where to start?

On March 12th I went with my good friends Anne and Catriona to a Ladies Talk, where little old ladies meet together for a talk on all sorts of interesting subjects.  This time it was on a bawdy house in Glasgow.  One of the oldest surviving music hall in Britain.  It was a fascinating talk and the one giving the talk was such a performer that she made the whole house and its story come alive.  Such fun, so in the end we ended up sort of signing up to more of these Ladies talks. Ooooooohhhhooo!

On March 14th, Catriona, Sandra and I went to Edinburgh and that was a trip worth taking I tell you.  We had so much fun, but dear me we walked so much we could have ended up in Glasgow again when we stopped.  We went to the National Museum of Scotland which is also the Royal Museum of Scotland (handy that) and spent the day there going over all sorts of stones with inscriptions on them and other ornaments, so much fun.  There were all sorts of interesting ornaments and things at the museum we found so interesting.  We are such nerds and so loving it. Me and Catriona went all the way up to the 7th floor of the Museum where we could go outside and take a good look over Edinburgh from a viewpoint seldom seen.  We were also very lucky that it was a wonderful day so it wasn't as breezy as it sometimes can be in Edinburgh. When we had combed through the Museum we headed up to the Castle, yes we walked.  It's not far but there were two lame ducks in this journey so it could have been worse, but at that time it hadn't gone that bad yet.  That was yet to come.  When we came to the Castle we joined up with Historic Scotland who are the caretakers of many of the national treasures that are open to the public in Scotland.  So now after paying a minimum of fee we can go to all of them for free, which will save us a lot of money in the long run.  So since we were on a mission on finding the last missing stone with inscription we kind of ran through the Castle grounds looking for it while taking in the sights as well.  We didn't find the stone at the Castle but thought it might be in the garden below.  So down we walked and now we were starting to be very very tired.  We ended up at the lowest point possible in Edinburgh in relation to the highest point being the Castle and we walked through the entire garden almost killing ourselves in the process. We barely made it up to Princess street again and at that point we just wanted someplace to sit down on, didn't matter if had been a mattress of pikes everything would have been preferable to more walking.  We ended up in Hard Rock Café where we had a nice enough supper, could have been nicer.  Bad thing is that they don't really cater to Vegetarians so the poor girls only had bowls of chips, while I had a proper meal.  Then we took the train back home and were back in Glasgow around nine in the evening.  Eleven hours in Edinburgh and probably nine of them spent walking about. Eeeeks.

Then came Sunday 16th of March and I went home.  Oh my I had been looking forward to going home for sooo long it was wonderful to be finally on my way.  And much sooner than expected as well.  Because I originally wasn't going home until the 20th, but unexpectedly I was able to go home sooner, so I phoned my mom as soon as I knew and asked her to change my flight, as I was still at Uni and I didn't want to wait until the next day to work things through.

The next three days I was babysitting my niece.  We didn't tell her I was coming home early so she had a bit of a shock when she saw my asleep in my bed when she came on Monday morning.  I don't think she still know how her grandmother managed to wave her magic wand for me to appear at home, but she was very pleased.  I managed to get some work done on Tuesday and on Thursday as well and hopefully most of my essay is finished.

Hopefully soon I will get a chance to see some of my friends, I have been completely cut off from anyone since coming home, because I have been so busy studying and taking care of my niece.  Also my brother invited us for dinner on Good Friday. 

I hope it won't be long before the next blog entry appears but you never know with such a busy lady as I am!

Lets face it!

Facebook is scary! You try to stay true to yourself throughout all the quizzes and they turn you into a freak. According to Facebook and their friends equipped with applications I will get married in 4 years and just shy of a month now. So look out for wedding invitations in the year 2012. I will also be having 2 boys and 1 girl, so who knows if you will get invitations to their baptism at the same time, because no one warned me when they were likely to show up. Just a moment ago I was trying to take the quiz ‘How much of a Drama Queen Are you’ and it turned out I am a tragedy as it didn’t work. But Facebook isn’t all bad. Thanks to Flixter I am now capable of picking the right friends to ask to go to the cinema with me. Because they match you with your friends who have similar taste in movies, you don’t have to think with whom you want to sit next to for the two hours because they have done the work for you. Handy! I can finally be poked without feeling it, a friend of mine used to like poking me but I didn’t. It made me turn black and blue; I am a sissy and bruise easily. Thank God or multiple Gods on Facebook I can start Mob wars on people without the side effect of turning up dead or worse very badly injured. I can join a lot of causes without having to do a single thing, which makes it easy to take a stand on issues that are close to your heart! I can add all sorts of applications that make it easy for me to know where I have been in the world, in case I get lost it makes it easy to find me as I haven’t been to that many places yet.

Because of Facebook I now know who I really am: 17 years old British landed gentry whose life is 77% perfect whose birthday is apparently May 24th, with brown eyes, only 62% normal and who will fall for a gentleman. I can learn to understand who I am on the inside: I am the ultimate nerd, ambitious and yummy, with 49 on Dr. Phil’s personality test (although I have no idea what that means ... the average intelligence I am equipped with is kicking in), I am a bit of a devil and not much of a drunk. But as a Greek Goddess I kick ass! For future hopefuls I have a purple passion, which goes hand in hand with the purple latex gloves I already possess. But just as a precaution I apparently also have a purple heart, so if anything happens in the heat of the moment you know what to inform the doctor of. I also understand from all of this that I have a split personality: I am Jack Sparrow and Piglet and Bart Simpson and Fred/George Weasly (makes sense as I am a Gemini) and Mulan and Zeus and Hera (explains all the family squabbles). Apparently my life is like Pirates of the Caribbean with the Disney theme song being ‘Someday my prince will come’. Although I am incredibly happy that it didn’t turn out to be ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’, can't say I forsee me having a future that has me crawling up small, dark and dank chimneys ... claustrophobic you know. On top of that pigeons are know to hang around rooftops.

What’s missing from the description of me is not imperative to this blog because I know that I am probably capable of finding out how tall I am (in case I didn’t know), when I will die and how that will come about. It will probably also tell me what I will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner but something you just want to discover on your own.

I also get to know a thing or two about my friends, mostly that they are heavy drinkers! They keep sending me shots, booze, beer, basically any alcohol that they can get their hands on. My friends also like to send me pictures of cute cuddly things, especially pets, which is nice, as I don’t have to come too near them. The downside of this is that my friends send me pictures of food as well. I would much more like to get the food than the photo though!

But we really shouldn’t vilify Facebook, thanks to them, my life is completely mapped out and planned, I know what to aim for and what to avoid so I can just sit back and enjoy the ride (while dodging Vampire and Slayer and Were-wolfs on the way).

Don't expect Shakespear!

There once was a viking

who had a good liking,

to plunder and pillage

any Irish village,

his name was Sven

and like all his men,

he was burly and blond

but was unceremoniously pushed into a pond..

When Sven nearly drowned

he got angry and frowned,

but the lady stood there gloating

where he was a-floating,

he had a fish in his hair

which he flung with a flair,

straight at her face

so she quickened her pace.

After her he went

and he didn't relent,

until he caught er to his chest

that's what a viking does best!

he flung her over his shoulder

with the intent to hold her

he carried her away

all the way to Norway.

She ended up in his ship

where she gave him a split lip,

he tried to kiss her

but she made sure he missed her,

when his lips aproached her chin

she kicked him in the shin,

so now Sven was limping

and his ardor was rapidly sinking.

She thought her father would miss her

not to mention her sister,

but indeed he didn't mind

that he could ner not find,

he had tried to marry her off

but she said no to all the toffs,

her mind was quick, but her fist was quicker

and that in the end made men not particularly like her.

Now Sven is stuck with the shrew

and this part of the tale is true,

in the end she succumbed

and in a few words it can be summed

of an amarous viking

it is easy to develop a liking,

now finally she rests her fists

as she is busy being amorously kissed!

We'll see

I went shopping yesterday, yes, big surprise there and not worth the telling of it except for this.

At one of the till where I was paying for my purchase the sales woman struck up a conversation with me and asked me what I did, as in did I work or attend university. I answered that I was a student at the University of Glasgow. She then inquired what it was that I was studying and I replied that I was studying medieval scottish history. At this point this huge smile spread over her face and her eyes lit up and then this: 'So when you get married you can have a medieval theme going on!'
SPEECHLESS!!! That's what I was and could only stare at her. Yes, that's my ambition in life. But on the other hand if I ever do get married it is going to be a HISTORIC EVENT. So never say never I say. But all I could see in my head were these really strange people dressing up like the characters of Monty Python's Holy Grail. Please God, NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peep Peep at Anne's

Last Friday was the best day yet of this year and I truly hope I will be experiencing many more like this one. It began rocky enough, Catriona, Sandra and I had to give a presentation for our teachers and anyone who wanted to come. Luckily for us, it was only nice people whow showed up, Anne and Claire. Anne was also gracious enough to invite us bunch to her home for dinner. She is such a brave woman. Well, we made it through our presentations and headed over to the post grad club for lunch where we had high time laughing and talking like we hadn't seen each other for thirty years. We even managed to run into Matthew from forth year (now he's doing forth year) and kidnapped him. After lunch Matthew and Anne abandoned us but we were of course going to Anne later in the day and Matthew was going to meet us at the train station to go to her home.

That left me, Claire, Catriona and Sandra on our own so we headed over to Byres Road and to Somerfield where we stack up on sweets and all sorts of ymmie stuff and wine and headed to my place where we camped out for the next few hours where more laughter and talking followed.

We then made our way to Central station at around six and waited for Matthew and Jo to show up. When they arrived we hopped aboard a train to Muirend where we expected a warm welcome from Anne, but when we arrived there was no one there we recognised which made us doubt our sanity and ability to read instructions. But not a minute had passed when we saw Anne come running down the ramp to meet us and she then escorted us to her home.

The evening was filled with good company, good food and good wine and so much laughter I could barely follow the conversations that were surrounding me. But it was obvious that everyone was havins such good time. We took two rounds of Scottish Quest after dinner and the discussion and almost arguments some of the questions evoked only livened it up. It was amazing and exactly the kind of game for us to play.

Note: Next time we play the game do it while still sober!!!!

Ps. a more detailed blog of the evening is on the way, am just trying to see if it works uploading a video.

Classy lady

I'm back in Glasgow now. Flew back today. It's nice not having to wake up so extremely early as I used to have to when coming back to Glasgow. It was positively making me ill. As a good bye present we were going to stop at a hamburgerjoint close to the airport and sort of before you turn into Keflavík, but no luck. Something or someone had happened, so that the place was closed down and the police were there taking statements and so on. So no hamburger there for me. So mom, the extreme optimist she is, drove into Keflavík, and we tried to find a place that sold hamburgers but couldn't find any place that was open, unless there was absolutely no way of parking near it or putting your health at risk. So I was just going to compromise and have chips at the airport. When we arrived at the airport we ran into my uncle and his wife who had been seeing off their son and his family. The airport was very busy but I was cunning and went and upgraded my ticket to a Saga Buisness Class so I didn't have to wait for a very long time in a cue to check in like everyone else. So I said goodbye to mom and dad and went in search of my chips and cocktail sause. They were out, I couldn't believe me. Right now the crappiest place in Iceland is by my vote Keflavík and the Keflavík airport for not being able to have a hamburger or even chips available for travellers leaving Iceland for a period of time. Very bad indeed Keflavík! I took a peek at the Saga buisness lounge but it was sooo overcrowded that I couldn't even find a seat so I didn't spend a lot of time there. Actually because there was enough time to pass I went back to the duty free section of the terminal where I met my cousin, whose mom and dad I had just met outside. I was seeing his wife and 5 year old son for the first time. They were such a delight and very nice to talk to. They were heading back to Liberia where my cousin is in the United Nations peace-corp. We had such good time talking that I almost ended up going with them to London, but in the end we said goodbye and they went to gate 26 while I went to gate 28.
I got this terribly comfy seat in Saga Class, leather chair that's at least half a size bigger than the economy seats, with enough leg room to have a male lap dancer entertaining me, but unfortunately they were unavailable. Why do I mention a lap dancer in this report (because that is so totally out of character for me), is that in the seats two rows behind me, was none other than the infamous Geiri in Goldfinger (which is a lap dancer joint in Iceland and he is the owner). Boy, he looks like a Russian mob boss, bit on the huge side. I was not impressed, I must say. But I didn't actually know it until we landed because he came in(to the airplane) after me. When they served dinner I got to choose from a fish course or beef-fillet which I accepted. It was delicious! There was smoked salmon for appetiser, the beef-fillet with vegetables for main course, a skyr-cake for desert, and chocolate for good measure. I also had red wine with dinner and enjoyed it very much. I like flying Buisness Class, because I am clearly a classy lady.
I came home shortly before nine o'clock and among the first things I did, aside from putting my computer up was contact my friends and plan a coffee-get-together tomorrow. All of us are suffering freaky withdrawl syndrome from our coffee and cakes. I will be taking it easy for the rest of the evening but tomorrow the real horror starts where I have to start preparing for the presentations and exam. Wish me luck.

Concious ... barely!

I can't believe that the holidays are over soon. It's never a good thing to take such a long break away from studying and this has been a long break for me. I was planning to be so diligent, studying for an exam and doing work on my presentations, but have I done a single thing. NO! I'm not very anxious about it but when you tell yourself you are going to do something it's annoying when you haven't done it. The fact is that I have not had a single opportunity of doing what I wanted, I haven't been able to see everyone I wanted, or do everything I wanted to do while here for these three brief weeks. But to be honest, right now, I can't wait to get home (to Glasgow) and start some sort of routine again with my studies. When you have your family around you are much more restricted from doing stuff that you would normally do. On days that I was banking on having piece and quite and to actually be able to do something, family members had an uncanny sense of showing up and disrupting everything I had planned for the day. So I say that although it is very nice to spend the holidays at home, family can sometimes be too much.
Still, my Christmas here at home have been incredibly nice. Christmas Eve was perfect. It was White Christmas, shortly before seven o'clock it started snowing and from then on it snowed for the next few days. While it snowed outside the presents rained inside. The presents nearly drowned the christmas tree (which is not a small tree) and as soon as we had delivered each present to its receiver the blizzard of wrapping paper hit the living room. It was amazing and so much fun watching my niece open one present after another, she enjoyed it so much. Thankfully they had arrived in a pickup truck type car so not difficult to ferry all the loot back home.
On Saturday my friends Hrabba and Gummi invited me over for dinner along with our friend Guðný Stella and her guy. It was so much fun, good food, good wine and great company. After dinner we took two rounds of Carcassonne, I can't remember who actually won the first round but I definitely remember who won the second. ME! I totally remember that because that doesn't happen too often. So me very happy bunny be. But even better, I was back at their place last night and we were trying out a new version of Carcassonne and I actually won that one too (I actually think that was pure dumb luck because Gummi wasn't trying very much) but what a way to start the year. Mwhuhahahahha!
Am tired now and want to do something else than blog, my fingers are hurting from being under used so I have to take this in strides.