miðvikudagur, maí 26, 2004
So would you believe it.... this morning, on the 20th of May, it was actually snowing here in Reykjavík. Okok, it didn’t stick, but it sure looked strange! And to continue the strangeness of the day, it was a holiday here....Uppstigningardagur, the day ole Jesús climbed to heaven. From April through June, Iceland has 8 extra holidays, aside from the actual Sundays. Most of these are those days connected to pre-Lent , Easter, and aftermath(and this is a country that is not very “religious”). And then of course there’s the First of May, the international workers’ holiday (NOT celebrated in the USA). And so the school year winds down for my youngest.....tomorrow is a school play, and then in the afternoon Darri goes to Tónmenntaskóli for 2 stigspróf: one in the bariton and the other in básúna (trombone), and after this weekend he starts tests for about a week or so, and then school is done on the 9th!! He’ll tell you all more when he blogs on Sunday....
So, Mundi and I are trying to make decisions about what to do with the house—fix it up or move? (still undecided). In the meantime, I’m sorting and trying to get rid of stuff....but it’s really the books that take up space(no kidding!!) And so I’ve begun to sort, dust and pack boxes of books (because whatever we do, fix up or move, they have to be put out of the way.) and so far I’ve packed 24 boxes. But no one can see the difference....(so many paperbacks were double-stacked). Oh well. But I am, at least, packing by catagory, so that if they’re ever unpacked, then the sci-fi, mysteries, short stories, etc. will all be together. (I think we have to move!) I do though like looking at all of what we have.....to remind me of what I have yet to read!!(argh!)
Now it’s almost a week later, Wednesday evening the 26th late, and there is no longer any night-time to speak of. Yaaahhhh! May and June are always the best months here, with usually quite dramatic sunsets. And these last few days have been so warm (for us) that coats aren’t really necessary, and car interiors are even too hot to touch at times. Why just yesterday the temperature reached 20 on the East coast (very unusual!) and people were cavorting in pools as if they were on the beach in Spain! After all, 20 here is very hot, in the sun......I think it’s the thinner atmosphere(?):þ During the daytime the sun is so bright that I prefer to stay indoors until it “slants down” some. And the wasps and spiders are out, and periodically “lose” their way and wander into our house. And then I (no one else!) go get the flyswatter and do my stuff! Great invention, the fly swatter...does everyone know why it has holes in it?
Family news.....Darri has finished 2 tests and has 4 more to go. He’s already done in Tónmenntaskóli, got an 8 on his básúna próf, and the baritón results are supposed to come in the mail (as that test was part of the new system that’s being implemented and he took a grunnpróf in that, which is pretty good as the baritón is his “extra” instrument).
My days have been mostly trying to get the house a bit more neater looking, and I’ve actually stashed 25 book boxes here and there(!!!)(hey! book boxes could make a good bed base!! didn’t a character in one of Paul Auster’s books do that with a bunch of boxes that he’d inherited? Of course, then he read the books and threw each one away as he finished it until there was no longer any bed.....nor seat....And then he left). In between, I read (just finished The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, her second most recent novel.....a very good book!!about the life of a woman who becomes a priest in the early 20th century, but no one knows she’s a woman, living among the Ojibwe), and do computer-work (the bókhald), and Mundi and I go and look at houses. Don’t worry(Ú & F), wherever we move, there will always be space for kids and family....in fact that’s one reason we’re looking—to be able to find a better layout that will give us not only space we want for our activites, but also for visitors!! And then again if we don’t find it, we stay here. Whatever happens, we’ll still be “Los Otros”. And so, buenos noches, góða nótt.....another holiday coming up on Monday(Annar í hvítasunnu), and then in 2 weeks from tomorrow, Mr.D will turn 15. (good grief)
So, Mundi and I are trying to make decisions about what to do with the house—fix it up or move? (still undecided). In the meantime, I’m sorting and trying to get rid of stuff....but it’s really the books that take up space(no kidding!!) And so I’ve begun to sort, dust and pack boxes of books (because whatever we do, fix up or move, they have to be put out of the way.) and so far I’ve packed 24 boxes. But no one can see the difference....(so many paperbacks were double-stacked). Oh well. But I am, at least, packing by catagory, so that if they’re ever unpacked, then the sci-fi, mysteries, short stories, etc. will all be together. (I think we have to move!) I do though like looking at all of what we have.....to remind me of what I have yet to read!!(argh!)
Now it’s almost a week later, Wednesday evening the 26th late, and there is no longer any night-time to speak of. Yaaahhhh! May and June are always the best months here, with usually quite dramatic sunsets. And these last few days have been so warm (for us) that coats aren’t really necessary, and car interiors are even too hot to touch at times. Why just yesterday the temperature reached 20 on the East coast (very unusual!) and people were cavorting in pools as if they were on the beach in Spain! After all, 20 here is very hot, in the sun......I think it’s the thinner atmosphere(?):þ During the daytime the sun is so bright that I prefer to stay indoors until it “slants down” some. And the wasps and spiders are out, and periodically “lose” their way and wander into our house. And then I (no one else!) go get the flyswatter and do my stuff! Great invention, the fly swatter...does everyone know why it has holes in it?
Family news.....Darri has finished 2 tests and has 4 more to go. He’s already done in Tónmenntaskóli, got an 8 on his básúna próf, and the baritón results are supposed to come in the mail (as that test was part of the new system that’s being implemented and he took a grunnpróf in that, which is pretty good as the baritón is his “extra” instrument).
My days have been mostly trying to get the house a bit more neater looking, and I’ve actually stashed 25 book boxes here and there(!!!)(hey! book boxes could make a good bed base!! didn’t a character in one of Paul Auster’s books do that with a bunch of boxes that he’d inherited? Of course, then he read the books and threw each one away as he finished it until there was no longer any bed.....nor seat....And then he left). In between, I read (just finished The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, her second most recent novel.....a very good book!!about the life of a woman who becomes a priest in the early 20th century, but no one knows she’s a woman, living among the Ojibwe), and do computer-work (the bókhald), and Mundi and I go and look at houses. Don’t worry(Ú & F), wherever we move, there will always be space for kids and family....in fact that’s one reason we’re looking—to be able to find a better layout that will give us not only space we want for our activites, but also for visitors!! And then again if we don’t find it, we stay here. Whatever happens, we’ll still be “Los Otros”. And so, buenos noches, góða nótt.....another holiday coming up on Monday(Annar í hvítasunnu), and then in 2 weeks from tomorrow, Mr.D will turn 15. (good grief)
fimmtudagur, maí 13, 2004
Since it´s such a long time since anybody has blogged (actually only a week) I´ll just write a few lines before I turn off the computer to concentrate on some studying. Here in Spain the weather god can not decide himself, and it seems that it´s always like this at this time. They have a saying here: Hasta el cuarenta de mayo, no te quites el sayo, which translates something like don´t take off your tunic until the fortieth of May. So until the 10th June supposedly the sun doesn´t come out to stay, and that´s what we´re experiencing these days. One day it rains, another it´s sunny, the next it´s as cold as in winter here... Very disconcerting not knowing what to put on each morning. I have two weeks left of classes and then all of June we have tests, the last one 24th, I can´t wait until then, to get my freedom back! It´s not all that bad, but our classes this semesters have been pretty horrible, too many groupassignments, too many things that have nothing to do with music, but you might have to teach someday. Anyway, it´ll be great to get that off my back, and focus on other things, the piano, reading, the wedding plans...
Kisa and the kittens are doing fine, the two blacks one are already really big and fat, but the third, which I´m sure is a female, is still a bit scrawny, the poor thing always gets pushed away at feeding time. Now we have to take the bullies out of the box once in a while so she can eat. They are so funny! With their eyes half open, staring out into space, trying to figure out what it is that they´re seeing, bobbling about like little drunks, getting swept off their feet when their mother washes them, only to lie on their backs flaying their paws and needle-sharp claws in the air. I´ll try to tape another video soon that mamma can circulate :)
Well, enough for now, best to get working, úlla.
Kisa and the kittens are doing fine, the two blacks one are already really big and fat, but the third, which I´m sure is a female, is still a bit scrawny, the poor thing always gets pushed away at feeding time. Now we have to take the bullies out of the box once in a while so she can eat. They are so funny! With their eyes half open, staring out into space, trying to figure out what it is that they´re seeing, bobbling about like little drunks, getting swept off their feet when their mother washes them, only to lie on their backs flaying their paws and needle-sharp claws in the air. I´ll try to tape another video soon that mamma can circulate :)
Well, enough for now, best to get working, úlla.
miðvikudagur, maí 05, 2004
As I mentioned before, “summer” was here for about two days:þ, and now we’re having what is called “gluggaveður” here in Iceland, i.e. beautiful when viewed through a window, but not so great to be outside in it. It’s that cold, windy (we’re talking gusts up to hurricane level), and exhausting to be in. One feels totally “buffeted” afterwards. But it does create quite a dramatic scenerio, with the bottle-green ocean and it’s whitecaps, and the continually changing clouds and sky color. The mountains are all dusted with snow and often spot-lighted by sun through the clouds, so that all the details are clearly etched. Really beautiful. What makes it all bearable is that the days are lengthening and makes one feel that there is almost enough time in one day to do all those things planned!! :þ (before we know it, August will be here!!! arrrgh!) Meanwhile, from the kitty front comes the following report á la Úlla y Manu via email:
"Hi mamma,
The kittens and Kisa are doing fine, Kisa is calmer with the occasional crazy fit where she runs around the house meowing and meowing, then goes and sits staring at the kittens meowing constantly. Somekind of ritual? Or just amazed at what came out of her own body that won´t leave her alone! Anyway, the firstborn is changing a lot colorwise, he now has three colors, black, orange and white, which almost definitely means that it´s a female because the males never have three colors. The two others are still totally black. They say that you can´t tell if their male or female but I've looked at them and the two black ones seem to have little balls in between their feet that the other one doesn´t have, so let´s wait and see if the vet says that I'm right. Maybe one of them is Snúlli´s spirit? :) Anyway, we´re not going to take them yet to the vet´s, we´ll wait until next week to keep them all calm. Their umbilical cords have totally fallen off and they seem to be thriving. Actually the threecolored one often gets pushed to one side, the other two fighting over which tit they´re going to suck, all wanting to suck the same one, it doesn´t matter that she has eight of them!! So we´ve been helping the other one to get at it, pushing away the other (mostly one of them) that comes butting his head into the other´s side to bulldozew her away.
Yesterday we took the fourth one to the Retiro park and buried him. That was very sad, but at least we can go visit him, and maybe he´ll help the trees grow a little bit, poor kittie. It´s probably something psychological from my youth when I had all those little hamsters that kept dying, it was always difficult for me to accept it, and now whenever I saw the little helpless body I couldn´t do anything but cry and cry, even now thinking of it tears come to my eyes. I read in one of the biographies of Da Vinci a line that he wrote: the more sensibility, the more suffering. That´s seems right.
But we´re fine, and very happy for Kisa with the three little crazies that lived. Now it´s just wait and see what happens when they open their eyes. One of the black ones is already trying to escape from the box!!"
(me again here):
Yes, little “wiggle worms” always keep one on the move! I think it helps keep one human(e) to have animals around (whether they be 4-legged, or 2-legged, teehee)...never a dull moment!....mewment?
"Hi mamma,
The kittens and Kisa are doing fine, Kisa is calmer with the occasional crazy fit where she runs around the house meowing and meowing, then goes and sits staring at the kittens meowing constantly. Somekind of ritual? Or just amazed at what came out of her own body that won´t leave her alone! Anyway, the firstborn is changing a lot colorwise, he now has three colors, black, orange and white, which almost definitely means that it´s a female because the males never have three colors. The two others are still totally black. They say that you can´t tell if their male or female but I've looked at them and the two black ones seem to have little balls in between their feet that the other one doesn´t have, so let´s wait and see if the vet says that I'm right. Maybe one of them is Snúlli´s spirit? :) Anyway, we´re not going to take them yet to the vet´s, we´ll wait until next week to keep them all calm. Their umbilical cords have totally fallen off and they seem to be thriving. Actually the threecolored one often gets pushed to one side, the other two fighting over which tit they´re going to suck, all wanting to suck the same one, it doesn´t matter that she has eight of them!! So we´ve been helping the other one to get at it, pushing away the other (mostly one of them) that comes butting his head into the other´s side to bulldozew her away.
Yesterday we took the fourth one to the Retiro park and buried him. That was very sad, but at least we can go visit him, and maybe he´ll help the trees grow a little bit, poor kittie. It´s probably something psychological from my youth when I had all those little hamsters that kept dying, it was always difficult for me to accept it, and now whenever I saw the little helpless body I couldn´t do anything but cry and cry, even now thinking of it tears come to my eyes. I read in one of the biographies of Da Vinci a line that he wrote: the more sensibility, the more suffering. That´s seems right.
But we´re fine, and very happy for Kisa with the three little crazies that lived. Now it´s just wait and see what happens when they open their eyes. One of the black ones is already trying to escape from the box!!"
(me again here):
Yes, little “wiggle worms” always keep one on the move! I think it helps keep one human(e) to have animals around (whether they be 4-legged, or 2-legged, teehee)...never a dull moment!....mewment?
sunnudagur, maí 02, 2004
Today was an “event day”. We had 2 of Mundi’s brothers and co. over for lummur and other goodies in honor of his birthday tomorrow. Then we went to Darri’s final concert of the Stórsveit (was Léttsveit when Freysi was in it), held at FÍH, where they played 10 pieces and most quite good! And after that we came home, ate another gourmet meal a la Munda (who is creating these colorful, zesty-looking meals of mostly veggies that far surpass anything available in restaurants!), and then called Úlla who was also on msn with Freyr, and so I was on my computer msning with Freysi, while talking to Úlla on the phone and Darri was in his room across the hall also on msn, calling out comments/questions/demands!! to both of us on and off! This was all very funny. Úlla decided not to do a direct webcamming of the kittens as Kisa was still in semi-panic mode when it came to anyone touching them, much less picking them up! So, she said they’d try and take a video later, which they did and worked quite well! I’ve already forwarded it to you, Hildur, so if anyone else wants it, just let me know. And so, when I finished talking with Úlla (and also went over in between to see her on Darri’s computer picking up the cam sending), I then decided to call Freysi and we had a good chat about Japanese animated movies (I rented the one he recently watched: Grave of the Fireflies), his problems of trying to get a massive program to work on their architecture, and his recent bicycle/metro trip to and from Freyja’s where my ingrained city paranoia kicked in and said, probably just as well I don’t know where you are actually riding, etc. etc. During that phone conversation, Darri decided to “catch up” some on reading Freysi’s blog, and so he’d direct questions from his room while I was on the phone.;Þ And that, my friends, is called Family Togetherness in the Techno Era, or Quality E-Time. :þþþ
And yes Spring has come to Iceland, at least for a couple of days around Sumardaginn fyrsti, 22.apríl, when the temperature went up to 15 celcius(!!) so that everyone was outside, in teeshirts, working like busy bees in their yards(it’s a holiday, you know, that first day of summer.....for Iceland-newbies, we actually don’t have an official “Spring”, for the day before the 22.of April is the last day of Winter!!so there.)....everyone except for us, natch. A holiday for us means lounge in bed at least an hour longer, and relax, watch tv, read, and go for a walk(maybe). Actually, Darri did have a make-up class in básúna, but that’s not a chore for him. And now, today, and supposedly for this next week, we are having sunny, but windy and cold,cold weather! Esja even has snow on it again! But that’s ok, because we are into the beginning of the endless day, where dusk does not come until after 11pm, and soon will be gone altogether! My favorite time of year! All constant gradations of daylight....no black skies. I love it! and the pink clouds in the approaching dusk.....sunsets in May are beautiful here.
“Ekkert er fegurr’ en vorkvöld í Reykjavík.....” góða nótt.
And yes Spring has come to Iceland, at least for a couple of days around Sumardaginn fyrsti, 22.apríl, when the temperature went up to 15 celcius(!!) so that everyone was outside, in teeshirts, working like busy bees in their yards(it’s a holiday, you know, that first day of summer.....for Iceland-newbies, we actually don’t have an official “Spring”, for the day before the 22.of April is the last day of Winter!!so there.)....everyone except for us, natch. A holiday for us means lounge in bed at least an hour longer, and relax, watch tv, read, and go for a walk(maybe). Actually, Darri did have a make-up class in básúna, but that’s not a chore for him. And now, today, and supposedly for this next week, we are having sunny, but windy and cold,cold weather! Esja even has snow on it again! But that’s ok, because we are into the beginning of the endless day, where dusk does not come until after 11pm, and soon will be gone altogether! My favorite time of year! All constant gradations of daylight....no black skies. I love it! and the pink clouds in the approaching dusk.....sunsets in May are beautiful here.
“Ekkert er fegurr’ en vorkvöld í Reykjavík.....” góða nótt.
