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Puzzled..?

Puzzled..?
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Intresting when the reflection turns out to be more vibrant than the actual reality ;-)

Peekabooo

Peekabooo
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Am home from Rome with a gigabyte of photos and legs worn up to my knees, so the next few days should see an avalanche of photos seeing as I don´t intend to walk ever again ;-P

St.Peters reflected
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

The Pantheon
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Nuns walking in front of the vittorio Emanuele monumet, more often refferred to as the wedding cake due to its over decorativeness
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Tarrahhhhh .....The answer to the riddle ;-)

DSCN8056
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Well the riddle didn´t go as well as it could have, guess I´ll just have to add this weeks prize unto the next week one ;-) It was a playground bouncy thingie... so I guess technically Neddis answer of thingamagic or a wahtchyamacallit could be construed as correct, but I think I´ll leave it open.. And yes Steve ;-) you´re free to give it two guesses or more if you so wish :-D

Anyways, am off to Rome in the morning for a well deserved escape from the dreary humdrum of everyday life dragging along with me poor Halldór, leaving the kids to tackle with Steini, or vice versa depending on the situation ;-)

Am soo looking forward to getting some practice for my italian, haven´t talked the language properly for years... And the food ... :-P The restaurants, and seeing as it will be Halldórs first time there I´ll have an excuse to visit all the sights, show him Moses, Pieta and all the intricasies of St. Peters church...

Promice riveting accounts, ok scratch that, promise tons of photos :-D as soon as we return but until then, ci vediamo...kiss kiss

E quando ritorno parlero soltanto Italiano, va bene?

Question of the day ;-) What is it?

Question of the day ;-) What is it?
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

O.k. a small test, can anyone guess what this is? The winner will recieve a prize.... a very special prize a... wouldn´t be any fun if you knew it beforehand ;-)

Elena bicycling in the Park :-D

Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Elena finally managed to learn how to ride the bicycle today :-D After three trips down the slant just letting herself slide, she alloverasudden seemed to catch her balance and started to cycle quite happily :-) It´s taken some time but we´re there :-D

Autumn Colours

Took some photos today at the local park, some of which are actually somewhat presentable ;-) Made a mosaiq for you to get the feel of Edinburgh autumn at a glance...

Autumn Colours
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

1. Hanging about, 2. A dandelion in Sloan street Park, 3. The sun through a roof of leaves, 4. Up close and personal, 5. A sole red leaf, 6. Twins?, 7. All forlorn and alone, 8. Autumn play in the park, 9. Leafy Doctor
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Reflections on Sloan Street

Reflections on Sloan Street
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Tickle me pink ;-) (whatever that means ...)

I´ve been tickled by Soffia, sounds exciting doesn´t it? ;-) Well it is apparently an evolution of the game of tag earlier participated in, only this time round the game is to mention five things that I can´t for the life of me do..... So here goes

• I can´t for the life of me watch dramatic movies without reacting emotionally, so generally refrain from any movies sporting an unhappy ending.
• I can´t for the life of me refrain from bursting out with one of my thunderous laughters when I watch or hear something funny, I´ve grown accustomed to it but it can embarrass people around me :-D
• I can´t for the life of me resist tickling poor Halldór, I know it´s evil and aggressive and ... but I can´t resist ;-)
• I can´t for the life of me resist custard in any form whatsoever (this one Halldór pointed out ;-)
• I can´t for the life of me watch a movie without at some point looking up trivia about it online, who that voice belongs to, what film I remember that actor from excetera...

So, I in turn I´ve decided to tickle Svava, Huld and Siggadís

Weird and ...well weirder

Well it´s happened, Mattel has gone into fashion design, for grown women!! Can you imagine wearing a Malibu Barbie dress ? ;-)

And the Duggar family just had their sixteenth child.... makes one wonder, in part I´m in awe of their energy and perserverance but wow... Reading through their website, out of morbid curiosity, phrases like "homeschooling", "God" and "want more" stick out. Their plans for a dormitory style house and the multitude of books published also draw the eye.... Trying to imagine being a child in that family, never having gone to school, having to make dinner for the whole lot at 13 and the oldest son living accross the street with his new wife.....Can you imagine being her..?

And last but far from the least, have you ever wondered about that pesky evolution theory, does it seem racist to you, if so then this book is for you, Truth for Youth!!
Somebody is making a monkey out of you!! Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

I think I´ve seen the truth, what about you Svava ;-) ??
If you liked this one, then you´re probably going to love their absolute truths on drunkeness, peer pressure, rock music and safe sex. You´ve gotta read this ;-D

A mosaic of the most favorited of my photos ...

A mosaic of the most favorited of my photos ...
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Went and made a mosaic of those of my photos which are most often marked as favorites by visitors :-D

It was created with fd's Flickr Toys
1. May 2004 Ragnar and Yugioh, 2. Jun 2004 - The answer is blowing in the wind, 3. Eilean Donan, by far my favorite castle in the whole world!!!, 4. His head in a Bucket..., 5. Edinburgh Castle as a mere backdrop ;-), 6. Eilean Donan, 7. Summer 2004, 8. Urquhart castle on the shores of Loch Ness, 9. Lovely being back in Iceland, 10. Jun 2004 - Iceland National Day, 11. Sloan street reflected, 12. Sunny weather, 13. Apr 2004 drekasjoppan, 14. Colourfest, 15. The view over to the Castle, 16. Beauty below north bridge

Elena proudly displaying her growing family pic!

Elena proudly displaying her family pic!
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Today my kids recieved two tiny twin sisters, no I did not alloverasudden sprout them from a nonexistant belly but they´re their fathers ;-). Taken by caesarian they were 45 centimetres yet only mere 9 and 8 merkur (humm.. don´t remember the conversion rate, but Ragnar and Elena were 16 and 17,5 respectively). Elena drew this picture displaying Ragnar, as the tallest, and her holding the two newborn ones and their one year old half brother on the ground :-D

This of course sparked renewed interest and speculations as to when exactly we Halldór intended to have children ;-) as we said to the kids, "no comment"!

Looking up ;-)

Looking up ;-)
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

One more from Japan :-D Looking up at the local shrine...

Serenity !!

Well I finally got to see Serenity last night, at long long last! I didn´t go to the cinema wearing the signal brown coat of the avid followers of Firefly, prompting a quizzing, somewhat teasing glance from Halldór. We decided to make a date out of it, leaving the kids with Steini we started off at a fancy steakhouse where I had my mussels in white wine and cream sauce, yummy ;-) before we moved on to the cinema bar for (incredibly crappy) wine. It was intresting to observe the type of people attending, there were a few brown coats, a number of tech joke t-shirts and the large majority of the people wore black ;-) Felt right at home :-D

The movie was quite an experience, first the whole introduction to the series done in ten minutes flat and then the shockers began... Have I told you I´m no good with shockers? Svav will testify to the fact, along with telling highly descriptive stories of me at Arachnaphobia some years back, where I ended up watching behind the seats in front of me before literally jumping my height into thin air... Anyways, back to the film, it was good, well rounded, scary as hell in parts and just excellent :-D No regrets it was beautifully done a pleasure for those familiar with the series and I wouldn´t be surpriced if it lead those uninitiated ones towards the dvds.

One thing I missed was the theme song. Originally sung by Whedon himself it was one of those terrible ones that really grow on you, especially as you get to know the characters and become more involved in the story ... like the Enterprise .. hated the theme with an unmatched fervour but now find myself humming it occasionally ;-P (arrrgh *note to self neve admit to you signs of madness)

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me...
Main Title Theme Written by: Joss Whedon
Performed by: Sonny Rhodes

If you want to listen to it in person you can find it here ;-) If I´ve managed to make you curious for more info I recommend the TwoEvilMonks site, they also have the funniest episode caps for the Alias series!!

Lightplay at Central Station Glasgow

Lightplay at Central Station Glasgow
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Loved how the light shone through the station windows!

Thus the journey begins. It slowly unfolds as the pseudo Latin music is poured over the pseudo Latin waiters as they scurry smilingly between business suit clad travellers who in turn seem oblivious to the effort exerted into creating his pseudo reality for their pleasure.
Sitting by herself she draws a solitary figure, literally.
As she draws the world weary travellers and salsa smiling waiters she seems oblivious… hum used that word already rather her demeanour shows no sign much better of the outward cacophony she presents to the trained eye. Neatly clad in black with a complementing red short sleeved shirt, she’s obviously made a valiant effort at presenting a neat, almost sharp figure of the intelligent young woman who is going places. Yet amidst the neatness there are obvious signs of self proclaimed rebelliousness. Her lustruos dark hair sports bright red locks and between the hem of her Top Shop black velvet trouser and shined Dr Martins sandals brightly coloured stripes seem to scream “See! We are here! There is Colour!”

Well it was either posting this old contemplation, arty farty as it is or give you an indepth precise description of "round one" of the Sloan Street battle against the head lice.... Blehhh, yet I count myself lucky, it´s our first time ever, generally kids in their classes have already been visited at least once before .. so did you know that...(trust me to use it as a learnig experience)

In North America and Europe, children are more frequently infested than are adults, and Caucasians more frequently than other ethnic groups. Lice and their eggs are unable to burrow into the scalp. Lice are sometimes referred to as cooties, eggs as nits and infested people as lousy. The infestation by head or body lice is termed pediculiasis, and the associated "disease" pediculosis. Delousing (more properly termed lousing) consists of any method for eliminating an infestation. Head lice are equal opportunity parasites; they do not respect socio-economic class distinctions. Their presence does not connote a lack of hygiene or sanitation practiced by their host.

Oh and there´s a pretty picture as well ;-)

Beyond what?

Beyond what?
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Graffiti found whilst wandering around Glasgow

Feeling sorry for myself ;-)

I´ve got a cold, a very sore throat to be precise, accompanied by humonguos tonsils ... all my endless creative thoughts are killed at birth ! Suffocating in weird nasal intonations I suffer, oh how I suffer .... a really long , pathetic mournful "please feel sorry for me" look ;-) and on top of all the electricity meter has just began it´s long passage of beebing at regular intervals indicating that running to the store and topping up might possibly be advicable before all goes dark... it´s never just one thing is it..
(Hei I´m the big one at home always kissing all booboos so I´m allowed to whine on here ;-) .............. Ahh but on the upside ... today is Ragnar first day in Cricket club, Elena just lost her first tooth and.... and...well will try to be upbeat in my next blog ... ;-P

Tagging, misunderstanding, blogging and news... the usual gumbo

I´ve been tagged, again, this time by Akatsukira. It seems this time to be a bit more demanding seeing as I have to shower you with a pearl of wisdom, or as it generally goes by in my family “Whirls of Pissdom” ;-) The real difficulty lies in finding something that I not only preach but actually follow ... humm ahh now here´s one, how about actually reading the rules of the tag ;-P After reading Bills go at this I slowly (but surely) come to the realisation that we´re actually supposed to show our desks, or where we write our famously published whirls from... aha ! Not actually share any thoughts... easier by far :-D saves me trying to sound intelligent like!

I´m going to be lazy and share previously posted pics which show my normal work environment....First my desk, where I do most of my proper work..

And secondly the livingroom sofa where photos are edited, blogs created and browsing ensues ;-) Quality family time in front of the tv, multitasking anyone ;-P

In other news Ragnar started Chess Club today, of which I´m very proud, especially seeing as it´s meant to be for primary 6 and 7 not fives and he was personally invited :-D And Elena has her first loose tooth, much sooner than her brother...

Oh and one of the bloggers from the blogmeet wrote about the meetup in his newspaper column ;-) See fame is merely awaiting around the corner ;-P

He doesn´t mention me personally ;-P but he did say....

Rarely have I met a group of more outgoing, articulate and funny people and eight hours went by in a flash - fuelled, admittedly, with a fair amount of cold beer and red wine. Topics of discussion were many and varied and even the Doctor Who debate centred mainly on the attributes of Billie Piper rather than the technical specifications of the Tardis. Oh and before you assume it was a boys-only club, half of the gathering was made up of women.

Hummm he failed to mention that me and Peter were all for Christophers Ecclestons sexyness ;-) being the main attraction of the show, but then again we might be a tad bi-ist ;-)
So that´s all folks....

His head in a Bucket...

His sign was great it said

"Upside down and looking daft!! That don´t matter as long as I make you laugh. I may be homeless but I do this because I don´t ask for money so it´s up to you if you want to give, Thanks Andy" ;-)

It made me laugh so I gave ;-P Bringing incidentally to light my own prejudices ... Edinburgh is teeming with people begging, my favorite was the girl at the corner of Princess Street and Leith Walk, the one who was pregnant for over a year... First of all there is no way I can actually afford to give something to everyone which bugs me, I´d like to. As a teenager in Iceland (where one doesn´t get asked very often) I would, when I had the money in my pocket take them to the nearest bakery or shop and buy them a sandwhich, I never gave money!! (not to mention my period of having runaway teenagers staying at my place)*not a good idea!

I can´t imagine being in a position whereby the only way out is having to beg, although some here seem to have it fairly good as I´ve on a number of occasions seen the Princess street ones meeting up for drinks, fairly well dressed and compairing notes. And then there´s the lovely dog, the one dog they seem to pass around because it´s always with a different person each time one walks the P.S. Reminds one of seeing the Italian ones stepping into a fancy sports car after a hard days work :-(

O.k. to get to the point, I have to explain my not giving these unfortunate people anything to my kids, and the conclusion has been that if these (young, well built seemingly very capable) people are actually in any way trying to earn the money by doing anything we´ll give (when we can). And.. then there are the old guys, somehow I think of them as dears (I know I´m weird) but they never ask, just roam around, sitting in the near same spot day after day. These men I´ll admit do not have a choice, they´re stuck in the position they´re in and we ask if we may give them occasionally.

O.k. moralistic rant of the day just about over, it´s just I believe people should try to work or take care of themselves as far as they can, I´m an all out supporter for social services and a welfare society but working at the social insurance institution in Iceland it struck me how many people didn´t have much ailing them but had rather just given up, often at a very early age. It struck me also when dealing with the teenagers this mixture of hopelessness, and sad or difficult backgrounds, but most of all what struck me was how everything was always due to their background, their parents, their upbringing according to them, and never up to themselves to do something, anything! Sad.

Me and my famed "been there done that" t-shirt ;-P

Me and my famed "been there done that" t-shirt ;-P
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Decided to prove that I actually went and got the t-shirt ;-) Incidentally all September family pics are now in the September album, if anyone´s intrested .... So I give you September in Pictures

Posing ;-)

The second Scottish Blogmeet

Hummm, am feeling strangely uncommunicative and severly lacking in witty department, wouldn´t have anything at all to do with the amount of liquid bread imbibed yesterday would it ;-) ?

Abandoned the family to their own means of recreation and headed off to Glasgow for to meet up with a strange bunch, all the stranger for the fact that I seemed to fit right in... Well to make a long story short I attended my second ever blogmeet ;-) You may possibly remember the last one, where my famed lack of time sense had me insisting I came home at 8 whereas apparently it was somewhere closer to half eleven ;-P Incidently sparking a polite comment from poor Halldór that perhaps I would be adviced to keep a slightly better track of time this time round seeing as I had a train to catch ;-)

Anyways, managed to find the place sans difficulties, was the third to arrive (hey there was promice of beer!) There were only a few of us that stayed the whole time (from 2 till... well I left at ten (methinks ;-)) but all in all ten scottish bloggers showed up, well the definition is kinda blurry incorporating scottish bloggers abroad as well as any bloggers corrently in Scotland with me being informed that once I leave for Japan I´ll be disqualified... O.k. I´m just ranting unintrestingly here, in short great people, great fun adding faces to blog voices, five fiddles and a mandorlin ;-P

• Gordon


• Richard


• Neil


• Peter


• Chameleon


• Will


• Corrinne


• Steve


• Svetlana

All these and more are to be found here in the Scottish Blogmeet Pool ;-)

Awww aren´t they the sweetest ;-) ?

Awww aren´t they the sweetest ;-) ?
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.