I'm alive, honest!

Been a right busy week and a half. The first few days were spent attending the conference which was a thrilling experience, both due to the papers being delivered as well as the excitement over meeting all these famous people (within the realm of folkloristics) on a fairly equal basis...


Then Halldor and the kids arrived on the 16th, just in time for Iceland's National day. Us being the lazy unsociable gits that we are, went downtown really early, got the compulsory hot dog, balloons and pacifier lollipops, then after having the obligatory photo taken in front of the statue of Jon Sigurdsson headed over to the park where I and Halldor proceeded to sunbathe whilst the kids stood in queue waiting to get into the jumping castles (you know the airfilled thingies).. And then when all the processions started arriving downtown we made our way up to dads for a lazy afternoon there ;-)


After a number of family gatherings and numerous dinners the kids were then picked up by their dad and step mum (the 20 year old) on the Sunday. Leaving me desolately empty inside, strange that, I aught to rejoice having time off on my own and all that... Anyways, am now bent over books researching for my Masters dissertation in the National Library whilst the sun bangs down on the rest of the nation ;-) But hey I'm off to Japan in two weeks time !!!! Got my application off to the Japanese embassy in time, weird though, needed a heart x-ray, lung x-ray, multiple bloodtests and urine test just to apply for a research grant. Apart from shocking the poor physician to whom I took the document to be filled out, it also irritated him, questions like :
Colourblindness, normal or not normal? So do I have a normal colourblindness I wonder ;-)
If I were to get this grant, amazing and unlikely as that would be it would mean 18 or 24 months in Japan commencing either in April or October next year.. If I don't get it well, cest la vite ;-)