Catan

I just recently rediscovered the joy of playing Catan on my computer. I was suffering withdrawl syndrome from not being able to play the board game with my buddies. So now, I can not think of anything but Catan, I was just lisenting to the news and they were talking bla bla bla like usual but one news guy mentioned that "it is a port harbour" and I was just like,ooooo Catan and port harbour go so together. Immediately a picture of the island of Catan sprung up in my very empty brain and I was almost tempted to turn the game on, but caught myself in time. I have to go to Uni and am going to leave my very nice cozy warm room in about twenty minutes. So my Catan game will have to wait. Buhu! Hrabba and Gummi can't you come for a wee visit with Catan (I'd even settle for Carcassonne (which I have here already, although I did not bring the latest addition to it with me)). Dear me I am counting the days till I come home for some Catan action again. This time the victory will be mine!

The night wasn't over

After the wonderful evening last night, I was more than ready to go to sleep. Today I have to be at Uni at twelve, and last night I was quite tired so I crawled into bed. I had finally gotten comfortable and was very nearly fallen asleep when IT happened. The most god-awful noise you can imagine, that you really don't want to hear when you are falling asleep. The FIRE ALARM went of, it was half past one in the morning and I was mad as hell. So we hurried outside where we had to wait for the Fire Brigade to show up and turn the darn thing off, and in all I think we had to wait nearly twenty minutes to be allowed to go back inside. Then it took me nearly half an hour to warm up again and fall asleep. But in the end I slept through the rest of the night without incident and now I am up and about ready for Uni later on. But this is just soooo typical, that something like this happens on a night like last night. But now I can hardly wait to go to Uni and tell my buddies my success last night. Hey hey hey, Iceland finally won something. (grins)

ICELAND 12 POINTS

It was an incredible night. I came home and phoned mom right away. Tonight was Burns supper and Árdís and me decided to go to the International Students party, we were dying for some taste of HAGGIS. The evening started all right, quite interesting, the food la-la, we weren't very keen on the tatties (which turned out to mashed potatoes from a package, not the real thing). I was really thirsty tonight, for some reason and ended up going through two orange Bacardi Breezers, one whiskey (Glenmorangie - very nice) and two glasses of Pepsi. As tradition there were addresses made to both men and women, but in a different and very special way, the address to women was made by a Chinese student in Chinese, and of course no one understood a word, then the address to men was made by a Danish girl (Dansk pige) and in Danish, very good, that we understood.
Now the MAIN thing of the night was of course, reading Robbie Burns poetry, with a twist. One person from each table was to be elected to say a part of a poem and the one that got the most applause won. The poem was "To a mouse", a brilliant poem, which I just happened to know by heart, the first two lines. Of course I told Árdísi so, and she blabbed it to the other guys at the table, when no one of them offered themselves to be the sacrifice. So I ended up having to recite the poem, thankfully we got to have it on a sheet of paper before us.
Along with me were three American chicks, a Nigerian, an Indian, and a Norwegian called Magnus. Heja Norge! I stammered my way through with my very best scottish accent and I was trembling through the last few lines, but I got an amazing response. At the end, the woman in charge asked everyone to applaud the one they felt did best, and of course, no surprise there.... I ended up as the winner. The whiskey helped definitely! Yeah, Iceland finally won! Although it was not the Eurovision song contest, my ego will not land in the near future. For a prize, I got the "Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns" book.
Then the evening sort of came to a close, but not before a big finale for Árdísi. The Burns supper was held at the main hall of the University so we had to walk through University Gardens, through Asthon Lane to get a taxi, but at Queen Margaret Union they were hosting a céilidh (gaelic: a visit, or a get together; usually Scottish dancing going on) and since we were walking by anyway, and heard the music, we decided to have a wee look-see. In the end, Árdís was dragged onto the floor where she was partnered with an Italian stud, and they flew all over the dance floor, swishing and swaying this way and that. It was brilliant to watch, and the "stemming" that was there was incredible. So fun, but she was completely done after that one dance, so we headed home.
But oh, yeah, the night's not over yet. I don't know if was because me friend had been drinking much tonight, but when we sat up in the taxi, she did not notice that the taxi driver wasn't in the car, but outside chatting to his friends, so as soon as she sat inside she said to the spot where the driver usually sits in Britain "Queen Margaret Halls" and then it took a wee while for her to understand why we weren't moving. It was hilarious. But he showed up in the end and we arrived home safely. And I ended up phoning my mom as soon as I came into my room to tell her what had been going on tonight.
I decided to give you a shot at the poem that brougth me to victory! Moi!!!


Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow mortal!

Guid auld Rabbie

I had to put this poem here, because this is something many of my friends back home would never have the opportunity to hear and appreciate if not distributed among them.

"Tae a Fert"

Oh what a sleekit horrible beastie.
Lurks in yer belly efter a feastie.
Just as you sit doon among yer kin,
There starts to stir an enormous wind.

The neeps and tatties and mushy peas,
Stert workin like a gentle breeze.
But soon the puddin' wi the sauncie face,
Will have you blawin all over the place.

Nae matter whit ye try tae dae,
A'bodys gonnae have to pay.
Even if ye try to stifle,
It's like a bullet oot a rifle.

Hawd yer bum tight tae the chair,
Tae try and stp the leakin' air.
Shift yersel frae cheek to cheek,
Pray tae God it doesnae reek.

But aw yer efforts go assunder,
Oot it comes - a clap o' thunder.
Ricochets around the room,
Michty me, a sonic boom!

God almighty it fairly reeks,
Hope I huvnae pooed ma breeks!
Tae the loo I better scurry,
Aw who cares, its no ma worry.

A'body roon about me chokin,
Wan or two are nearly bokin.
I'll feel better for a while,
Cannae help but raise a smile.

"Wis him!" I shout with accusin glower,
Alas too late, he's just keeled ower!
"Ye dirty thing!" they shout and stare,
I don't feel welcome any mair.

Where ere you go let yer wind gang free,
Sounds like just the job fur me.
Whit a fuss at Rabbie's party,
Ower the sake o' wan wee ferty!!

Major headache!

I feel awful right now. My head hurts so much, I can barely keep my left eye open. I took some painkillers but they sure are going to make me wait until they start working. I stayed at home today, studying for a change, and I think that was a bad idea from start to finish. I think with too much reading and not enough air has put me in this state. So, I think after I have written this bit I will go to bed for a while and see if my head gets any better. Or at least well enough that I can open my eye. Next weekend, no such forced enclosement again, out and about and then study like crazy or the other way around. Study hard and reward yourself with air.
Good idea. Anyway, the painkillers still have not started to work on the pain but they are making me drowzy and on top of that I can not really see what I am writing here, basically I'm just guessing where the letters on the keyboard are. So have fun, enjoy the rest of the weekend, there are an awful lot of schooldays to go through before the next one comes up. Will let you know in the near future if I am still concious!

This is soooo me! Don't you agree?

You Are Internal - Realist - Powerful

You feel your life is controlled internally. If you want something, you make it happen. You don't wait around for things to go your way. You value your independence and don't like others to have control. You are a realist when it comes to luck. You don't attribute everything to luck, but you do know some things are random. You don't beat yourself up when bad things happen to you... But you do your best to try to make your own luck. When it comes to who's in charge, it's you. Life is a kingdom, and you're the grand ruler. You don't care much about what others think. But they better care what you think!

The Three Dimension Luck and Power Test

I pretty much agree with this

This is sort of me, although I do belief in God, I just don't have any need to really question his existance, as I don't feel him as an entity. And I don't foist my beliefs upon others, and expect people to not do that to me.

You are Agnostic

You're not sure if God exists, and you don't care. For you, there's no true way to figure out the divine. You rather focus on what you can control - your own life. And you tend to resent when others "sell" religion to you.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

How weird am I?

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

But definitely proud to admit it!

Back in Glasgow = back to the cinema

Yup, that's what happens when we come back to Glasgow. We not only start Uni again, but we also go back to the cinema. Which is nice, I didn't go to the cinema at all when I was at home. Both because I didn't have time and also because it is soo f#$%ing expensive. So I was very happy today, when Árdís and I went to the cinema to see Cheaper by the dozen 2. Sounds corny, sounds pathetic, sounds childish, and it DID actually make me feel like I was in kindergarten. But it was also very funny. There were many children with their parents at the show, not surprising but there was one really funny moment. At one point in the movie, a young girl gets her first kiss on the cheek by a boy and it was a very sweet moment, but was totally ruined by the girl sitting beside us when she mad this very audible gaging noise. It was just hilarious, I nearly choked laughing when I heard it, it was so, absolutely kid-ish, it was great.

Dugleg stelpa

I have been a very good girl... and also a slightly bad one.
First I was good, in that I finished writing up my proposal for my dissertation essay today. 4 pages long, with suggested sources and material taking up three of them. I could have written more and I will probably add to the source list in the coming months, but I feel quite pleased with myself.
The other thing, the thing that I am not so good about, is that I have been sneaking to watch something that I maybe shouldn't, something I will call DH,s2 and is just as exciting as the s before it. I the excitement is killing me, I don't have this kind of patience. This is why I always buy the DVDs and Box sets, I always have to watch everything through as soon as I can to make sense of everything. I have been watching these episodes with my friend and we actually made it through e7 tonight, but then the end was sooooo horrible that after she left I sneak peaked the first few minutes. I know I am a bad person, not being able to wait a few hours. Skamm Elín.
But what the hell, it's what life is about. Tomorrow, is hopefully going to be a nice day, because I don't have to go to Uni, and I think that all days that I don't have to go to Uni, should be nice and sunny, don't you agree? So naturally, Árdís wished me a good shopping trip on the morrow, I don't think I have to worry about disappointing her.

Back in Glasgow ... and I am cold

It is freezing here, it is soooo cold, I have to basically keep my window nailed shut to keep the cold from sneaking into my room. Thank God, for the invention of the electrical radiator I have here.
Today was the second day back at school, and already by 12 o'clock noon you could find me and Claire at the pub, having a wee swally. We were preparing ourselves for Old irish, we didn't really feel up to it yet, I have to do some excercise for Friday and I am so not in the mood. Old Irish today, was just frighting, it contained all sorts of weird and scary words, like; imperative, infixed pronouns and imperfect. But at the end it sort of got better. We got a new book today in Old Irish, it's called Scela Mucce Meic Datho (in Old irish) and is The Story of MacDatho's Pig. Actually a very funny story, although if you have no background in Celtic literature, I don't recomend it as the first read, because I did that and I was just plain scared. At the end of the class today we started to read a few sentences from the book and try to translate them, and it actually went well for me, aside from maybe 3 or 4 words that I didn't know, I understood the sentences, and that is always a good thing when you are learning a language.

I don't want to go!

I have been home for four weeks and a day now. I leave tomorrow. I still haven't managed to do everything I feel I needed to do. Mostly because there was no option to do them before Christmas and New Year. But after that there was only a week before I would leave Iceland. And everything I needed to do then just was too much. Yesterday I counted the days I have spent at home vegging about and there were only three days out of these four weeks that I have been home, but still I did not veg-out during those days. It was Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New Years Eve and all those days I was upside down doing something, helping mom with the cooking or playing with my niece or something, so no vegging. All other days I have been shopping for groceries or Christmas presents with mom (and dad or other family members) or I have been visiting friends, family, co-workers. I am one busy lady. So, even though I will probably have a good time chilling out when I go to Glasgow, I will miss not being so busy and running to and fro things to do and things to see. I still have managed to do a great deal. Yesterday, even though everything else I have been doing I managed to do some baking. Made some Skinkuhorn in my nice new bread-maker and they were delicious. I made my friend Hrafnhildi very proud of me.
But reality will set in on Monday, when I have to turn up at Uni at elleven o'clock for sign-up to my new very exciting classes of Spring 2006. Belief and culture in Medieval Ireland and Gaelic Poetry (what was I thinking with that one) and I will also continue with my course from before Christmas in Introduction to Early Gaelic (Old Irish). The fun is over, get back to work, girl!

New Year ... new movie

I went to see my friend Guðbjörtu tonight, to see her before I go back to Glasgow and we sat down and watched a Bollywood film. Bunty aur Babli! It was great. I really like Bollywood films right now. More so than Hollywood films, 90 min crap that has no story and editing so horrible you have no idea what you were watching and forget what it was the next day. With a 3 HOUR long Bollywood film you, at least, feel like you got something for your money.
Bunty aur Babli, is great comedy with lots of colors and music as well. Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abishek are great in their roles, although the father still manages to outshine his son. Rani Mukherjee is also always great. This wonderful cast manages to make this film very heartwarming and sweet. I even just managed to hold back the tears at the appropriate moment. I reckomend it to everyone that has trained their ass to sit still for more than three hours in the same chair. Although if you are so ingenious to have DVD player, pressing the pause button, helps when taking bathroom breaks.

The Year is almost over

Ok, this became a much longer blogg than I intended and I do definitely not expect you all to read it so just ignore it and take it for the new years ramble it was meant to be.
Wishing you all a very happy new year!

And it has been a wonderful year. Just before Christmas I got to see my cousin Huginn Heiðar for the first time and it was great. I have been following his progess for months. The wee guy had to have a liver-transplant very early on in his young life and he has been patiently trying to get well. It was great to get to touch the soft little guy to see how warm and alive he is, his eyes following us everywhere and the toy we gave him greatly interested him as it made all sorts of funny noises.
My own wee niece has been a great source of fun comments and antics. The only way a four year old could be. Precious moments to be cherished indeed.
I have also spent a number to moments with my dear friends during the year, chatting and playing board-games (that are suspiciously addictive) but now near the end of the year, it was more marked by meeting of friends that have not had the opportunity to see each other for a long time.
My friend Guðbjört, who I have not seen since the beginning of January, came home from India in November. My friend Guðný Stella, went to South-America just after easter, so I haven't seen her all summer, she came home in November as well, so I was very happy to see her again.
But my friends Hrafnhildur and Guðmundur who I left home alone for the months I was away in Glasgow were very glad to see me again, and we have been spending every moment we get to play our addictive board-games.
We like board-games and they seem to like us as well, since they have started producing games that are sooo addictive to us, and on top of that also issuing additions to the games.
We have Catan (the Island) with the Seafarers addition and now Cities and Merchants. We also have Carcassone, which is sort of like an island, but not, and we have the Pubs and Churches addition and now Merchants as well. Both these board-games are addictive because, I think, they are forever changing, the board you play the game on is never the same so you never ever play the same game twice, and that way you never get bored.
This year has also been great in that mom is gradually always getting better and better, although on busy days it can become too much for her.
We all agree that we had a very nice Christmas here at home, and everyone was excited and happy about their presents. I got soo many that I thought someone had made a mistake, because I had not expected this. But the presents seemed to pour in from all over the world. I got loads of games, and even dvd's and cd's that I didn't own, imagine that! I even got a book, and you know how there can't be Christmas if you don't recieve a good book. I got Andlit norðursins (or Faces of the North) by Ragnar Axelsson a very gifted Icelandic photographer, from my brother, I was very pleased with it. I got wonderful martini glasses from my friends Hröbbu and Gumma and a bread-maker from mom and dad along with a coat. I recieved a wonderful blouse from my grandmother and a shawl she had crocheted for me (even though her eyes are failing her) I will cherish it always. I also got a pretty Swarowski crystal cross necklace from my mother. Two brooches from my friends Guðný Stellu and Claire. And the most wonderful sari costumes and shawl and necklace and Indian dolls from my friends Margréti and Guðbjörtu. I could go on and on. Thank you for everything and I love you all guys.

Gleðileg jól

Merry Christmas.
Oh, boy, this has truly been a very busy time, but wonderful. I have managed to do a lot of things that I wasn't even sure I would be able to finish. But then Christmas Eve (day) came and everything slid into place.
Last night mom and I were busy wrapping up all the Christmas presents, and we didn't even finish until 3 am in the morning. I went to sleep shortly before 4 am but woke up to begin the new day of last minute tidying up before Christmas eve begins.
This year, only Grandma will be joining us, so it's only going to be the four of us. Which is nice. The food is cooking in the oven and on the stove and the smell is wonderful.
I still have not managed to get all the Christmas presents out, but that's ok, some of the presents have been waiting for more than a few months to reach their owner, because I still I haven't been able to see my wayward doctor friend, recently arrived in the country again from South America, and she has a birthday/Christmas present waiting for her.
The Christmas tree is up and gleaming with wonderful decorations and presents adorning is base. The advent lights around the appartment light up the dark midday and give a wonderful festive glow to everything around.
Oh, I just love this time of year. When you are able to sit down and get completely absorbed in the excitement, the anticipation, the STRESS and incredible calmness that descends on you at this moment on Christmas Eve you sort of feel like everything you went through to be able to bring the small joy of presents to your friends and family that everything was worth it. Bruised heels from drivers with carts going nuts around the bends in the tiny isles of the supermarket, sore toes from everyone trying to get past you, no matter that you are not a part of the shops decor and you sore head from all the crazy shoutings and arguing over who is going to buy what for whom and who is not.
Well, I just wish you all a very merry Christmas Eve and hope the rest of the holiday season will bring you all that you wish for.

Gleðileg jól og farsælt komandi ár

The Yuletide lads - part 15 - The END

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