Memories of Iceland last summer

Am missing them no end at the moment, two weeks sans kids sounds fabulous but after a week the novelty starts to wear off and it gets harder... They´re in Iceland enjoying the holidays with their dad...

So that´s it...

Gleðileg Jól - Merry Christmas

Gleðileg Jól - Merry Christmas
Well kids are off to Iceland and we´re all set for a quiet nice Christmas ;-) Wish you all (that is if anybdy actually reads this ;-) the very best fro the holidays and a new year filled with adventure! :-D *hug*


Christmas Time :-D
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Prepairing for Christmas and Photographic (if somewhat momentary) fame ;-)

Since getting my new camera I´ve become even more mad for photography than before, as if you thought that possible ;-) And some recognition has been recieved, earlyer this week one of my photos was in the top ten of the most intresting photos of the day on Flickr, which incidentally caused an amazing surge of commentator to vivit my site. An amazing 665 have visited the photo, 55 have named it as one of their favorites and 39 have commented upon it :-D I´m flabbergasted, it is strange how photos one thinks isn´t one of your best get´s such attention.

Anyways, applied for a job as a sales clerk in a photography store yesterday, mayhaps not exactly in line with my now aquired education but seeing as we´re off in October and I have no idea whether or not I´ll be commencing studies again in February something had to be done..... Even though we´ve kept Christmas expenses to the bare minimum it´s still amazing how much it is once amassed...

Speaking of which, Christmas preparations are all but done here, a good thing too seeing as we´re celebrating it tomorrow ;-) Not due to cultural differences, but due to the fact that in mere6 days the kids are off to Iceland to visit with their dad and co. At least this way I get a proper Christmas with them before they go (the holidays would so be shot for me if I didn´t) and they gain rather than loose on the whole being divorcee kids by getting double holidays ;-D
Well, thought I´d share a couple of photos of how we prepare for Christmas :-D as per usual Halldór took care of the baking, yummy ;-) Whilst I and the kids focused upon decorating, making new decorations and helping Halldór eat the cookies... Amazing what a little teamwork will do, a little blond distraction there, a question from a wee young man there and mum runs off with three cookies to the the livingroom ;-P

Elena með Jólasöguna :-D

Elena með Jólasöguna :-D
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

The text says: Josef and Mary went to Bethlehem. Mary had a baby in her tummy. All the hotels were full. They had to sleep in a barn with the animals. Jesus was born there. Jesus was the son of God. That´s why we celebrate Christmas.

Quite succinct and to the point ;-)

High upon a church spire he sits and ponders the city below - An Edinburgh view

High upon a church spire he sits and ponders the city below - An Edinburgh view
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

New photos taken by Valgerður

Intrigueing seeing photos taken of one self, candid ones at that ;-) I´m so used to being the one behind the camera, or in those rare cases when it´s pointed towards me I pose, so seeing these is fun ;-D Click on the photo above for the whole set.

Iceland just won Miss World... again

Hey we just won miss world (or is it universe?) again, not bad for a nation numbering less than 300.000 in the whole ;-) So apparently we´ve won this version of the competition twice before once in 85 and then in 88, and then miss universe back in the sixties (I think)

Edinburgh castle lit

Edinburgh castle lit
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Christmas Mass

Attended the local Icelandic Society´s Christmas mass today. Decided to finally make use of my old Icelandic costume and not a day too early it would seem, seeing as it barely fit around her waist, the weird thing is I wore it last when I was ten, admittedly a skinny small ten year old but still ;-)
The costume, apart from exemplifying national heritage, is also a very personal one seeing as it was sewn by my mother for me and the gold filligry was all made by my grandfather, a master goldsmith.
The mass was pleasant, we don´t attend mass on a regular basis, opting for a personal approach to religion and belief, but the kids enjoyed it thoroughly :-D And I must admit that I enjoy the ceremony on occasion. It was followed by pancakes and hot chocolate enjoyed by all ;-) during which, in the true fashion of Icelanders and Icelandic society I was introduced (by a former class mate of Halldórs) to a woman studying cultural studies here who, we realised after a wee shile, just happened to be the younger sister of a friend of mine whom I got to know whilst teaching together in Blönduós ;-D This is very typical when Icelanders meet, one always finds a connection :-D

Edinborg að nóttu til

Edinborg að nóttu til
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Now for the not so weekly family update ;-)

The major news would of course be Halldórs graduation a week ago, when with infinite ceremony he graduated with honours from the University of Edinburgh. It was a very interesting experience on the whole. We arrived (as is our custom) far too early but managed to meet up with friends who were giving us their extra guest ticket allowing for all three of us to attend. The thing is each graduand only gets two guest tickets, the rest are distributed by lottery and well with our luck at gambling, needless to say we had assumed either me or Níels would be at home watching the kids. Luckily I managed to get babysitting for both kids on the day and off we went, me snapping eagerly at everything and nothing, trying to come to grips with my graduation present which had in a manner both most evil as well as great, been handed to me right before heading off, leaving me flying high grasping the reality of being able to take photos at the ceremony (something that had brought me down not being able to do) whilst at the same time figuring out all the knobs and buttons in the taxi on the way :-D To clarify my ramblings, Halldór, Dad, Valgerður and Níels all threw together to get me my Olympus E500, an extra zoom lens, a gigabyte memory card and a bag :-D even though my graduation isn´t until January ;-) *observe one wee person jumping for joy*

To get back to the actual ceremony, it was held in a hall specifically built for the Universities of Edinburgh’s graduations. It is a round awe inspiring building and all the walls are laden with frescos. Once inside dark wood benches ecircled the main floor where the graduands sat all wearing their witchy robes. Elderly gentlemen clad in green long coats guided people around as everyone’s parents snapped away. Once the ceremony started everything moved very fast, way faster than my high school graduation. As each person was called up they were duly hit on the head (literally) and according to the graduands the only difference between those graduating with distinction and those not, was that the d ones were hit harder. The implement used to hit the students is apparently this 400 year old scholars hat, a piece of which, we found out during the initial speech, was set to travel around the earth in a space shuttle next year ;-)

The whole hoopla, what with the hooded robes, the ceremony and regality brought to my mind images of a certain School of wizardry, not an unlikely connection seeing as Rowling lives here but it also made me think of the age old connection between education and knowledge, and wizardry and magic. Iceland’s most famous magician studied at the black school, i.e. Sorbonne in France and was renowned for outwitting the devil. It will be curious to compare this graduation to my graduation in a modern University in an industrial city.

Valgerður and Níels left us for Iceland yesterday, leaving a mountain of presents to intrigue the children, also making one miss having family around. Then again both of us having been brought up globetrotting it is perhaps to be expected that as grown ups we would do the same. After going down to Sheffield for a meeting with the head of NATCECT I´ve decided to at least apply to the School of Asian studies for a PhD with joint supervision surrounding the research to be done in Japan, so fingers crossed. So all in all a good week filled with momentous events, family and the chance to meet up with friends who had left Edinburgh and who only returned for their graduation :-D

Our new resident housemouse or Rudolph the Red Nosed Jumping Jack Flash

Our new resident housemouse
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Scratch scratch scratch ....... scratch ..... As I sat at my desk, innocently trying to concentrate on filling out applications and not get sidetracked by anything, the scratching sound caught me off guard.
I´d heard it on several occasions before in the past few days but never as clearly as now.. So poor Halldór was called in from drawing cars in his cubicle, the door was shut and the hunt began.... I have to admit a minor trepidation seeing as a few of the boxes underneath my table were post order boxes from abroad, so images of slitherings and creepies flew through my mind as I started digging a tunnel through the mountain of pressies carefully hidden underneath my desk...
Alas, instead of a big ,,.?.. well something, it turned out to be the cutest little mouse, seems like a baby judging by the fur and the size of it but it can jump literally 7 times it´s own height! It had been carefully nested inside the cardboard box containing Elenas present and from the looks of it had been there for a quite a while, can´t for the life of me figure out why it didn´t go further afield, unless it had really been tiny when it came..
So, the ban on home pets has been temporarily lifted and Elena in the true spirit of Christmas announced that this was an extra present from God :-D

Little known facts about Iceland

A favourite snack in Iceland is the Penguin. These defenceless birds are caught by installing streetlights, which they mistake for the moon. The birds become so confused they eventually fall into boiling cauldrons kept below the streetlights.

During winter a special month-long puffin festival is held, where local people eat nothing but puffin and drink a homemade spirit called Black Death.

The most dangerous animal found in Iceland is the lesser known killer puffin (lot: puffinus killerus). Has no known natural enemies and feeds of whales, sheep and cured shark meat. Has been known to attack American male tourists (lot: touristus ignoromus) looking for Icelandic females

Facts derived from the "uncyclopedia" also covers lesser known facts about the Icelandic kings and our inland neighbours Glsawegians ;-)

This just in ;-)

The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in Washington Scene in Washington, D.C. this Christmas season.

This is apparently not due to any religious reasons. They simply have not been able to find three wise men and a virgin in the nation's Capitol.

However, there's been no problem in filling the stable with asses.

Thanks to Arnot :-D

Decisions decisions

Not too far off ...

You scored as Classical Liberal. You are a classical liberal. You are sceptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behaviour, but inward religious feeling is most important. Classical Liberal 86% Emergent/Postmodern 82% Modern Liberal 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 46% Neo orthodox 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Roman Catholic 29% Reformed Evangelical 18% Fundamentalist 0% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Borrowed this test of Anastasia

An early reflection shot of Ragnar

An early reflection shot of Ragnar (my son)
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

Time sure does fly ;-) Doesn´t it?