Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Marstíðindi

Jæja, best að blogga aðeins. Þá hef ég kannski aðeins minna samviskubit yfir því að hringja aldrei í fólk og finnast ég því eiga enga vini. Þetta síðasta er náttúrulega tóm della, held að málið snúist um að mér finnist ég ekki vera góður vinur núna.

En semsagt.

Við fórum og heimsóttum frettur um daginn, og endurtókum leikinn á föstudaginn var svona til að sjá hvort Craig væri með ofnæmi fyrir þeim. Það var náttúrulega málið og til að gjörsamlega rústa plönunum mínum þá var ég bitin (létt nart svona, ekkert illa meint) og fékk svona líka fínindis viðbrögð við því. Þannig að bless bless frettur. Halló miniature schnauzer - semsagt plan B. Stefnum á hundaheimsókn 8 apríl og svo svona hundafund í maí. Sjáum til hvernig fer en Craig er allur miklu jákvæðari fyrir hundi en frettum, og þó fannst honum fretturnar skemmtilegar á föstudaginn.

Talandi um klikkandi plön, þá fengum við fólk til að gera tilboð í lóðina, nema þau gerðu ekkert tilboð í lóðina, þannig að við erum enn og aftur á byrjunarreit þar.

En sum plön ganga upp, við fengum mann í heimsókn til að sinna húsverkum ýmiss konar. Hann setti fyrir okkur upp lista í loftin til að fríkka aðeins upp á húsið, einangraði háaloftið almennilega, setti plötur þar á gólfið og setti svo upp almennilegan hlera og stiga til að fara þar upp. Þannig að húsið er svona nokkurn veginn á leið til betri heilsu og vellíðan en er svoldið rykugt á eftir. Fyrir utan það að öll málningarvinnan sem blasir núna við okkur er svoldið, þú veist svona, mikil. En það hefst allt í rólegheitum.

Við fórum til London um helgina. Löbbuðum okkur alveg upp að hnjám bæði laugardag og sunnudag, með smá stoppi á barnum á laugardagskvöldið til að halda upp á þrítugsafmæli Ade. Það var bara fjör, en við erum ennþá smá stirð. Sáum Tate Modern, St.Paul's Cathedral, The Golden Hinde, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, The Clink Prison og fullt af litlum beygluðum götum, auk verslana. Forbidden Planet bókabúðin er hættulegur staður. Maður ætti eiginlega að fara þar inn undir umsjón annarra, ólæsra, og án nokkurra greiðslumiðla.

Svo í kvöld fórum við í boði eiginmannsins aftur inn til London en í þetta skiptið til að sjá Sigur Rós. Mergjaðir eins og vanalega og Amiina var betri en síðast, nálguðust bara að vera helv. góðar. Var smá fútt í þeim núna, meira en síðast.

Blóðþrýstingurinn sjálfsagt ennþá upp úr öllu. Er vanalega 126/84 eða svo, nema núna í síðustu tvö skipti hefur hann verið 130/110 um það bil. Augljósasta skýringin er stress í vinnunni, en það er voða lítið sem ég get svo sem gert í málinu í augnablikinu, bíð bara eftir að hlutirnir verði afgreiddir. Er svona að reyna að fara í klukkutíma labbitúr á dag til að ná áttum og hreinsa kollinn. Svo eru víst gæludýr róandi, rannsóknir sýna það.

Er að fara á námskeið í London á vegum vinnunnar á þriðjudaginn. Hvernig á að framkvæma þjónustukannanir og athuga viðhorf viðskiptavina.

Hlakka mikið til að fá útborgað á föstudaginn. Mars hefur verið voða langur. Man reyndar allt í einu núna að ég á eftir að leysa út ávísun frá vinnunni. En það er ekki nema þúsundkall. Þiðsundkallar eru alltaf skemmtilegri.

Kominn tími á bólið - klukkan er ekki nema 01.30 að staðartíma. Bretar eru semsagt komnir á sumartíma og eru klukkustund á undan Íslendingum.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Wednesday night movies

Us fogies have a tendency to make use of this great offer at the mobile phone company I use - two for one to any film. So tonight we saw Walk the Line. Pretty good, but we do have a soft spot for Johnny Cash, for two reasons. One is Hurt by NIN as performed by Mr.Cash which gave it a completely different tone and fragility, with a video that would make anyone with a heart cry. The other reason is the old Depeche Mode belter, Personal Jesus, which was cool. The film was good too, well recommendable.

Six month anniversary is over. We never even noticed. Didn't do nuthin, only fair as six months isn't exactly a milestone. But still, one should own what one owns (works better in Icelandic as it quotes fairly cheesy breakfast cereal ad 'maður á að eiga það sem maður á').

Still mainly no hot water. Aiming to improve upon this, have finagled the spare part for free from the manufacturer as the damned thing is only a year old, still in warranty and clearly faulty. Just need to pin the plumber down for an exact timing.

The new bed arrived, from here on in referred to as the mountain. Pretty decent mountain, tall and wide yet very soft. Got a new duvet and all too, the other one looked a little lost in the middle of it. Taggart looks great there, too. (those of you who know Taggart, know, those of you who don't know don't need to know. However, I am not referring to Scottish TV cops)

We're still looking into ferrets. We found this great woman in Reading who invited us over. Fabulous little creatures, playful and silly, much like perpetual kittens. Craig was remarkably receptive to the idea, but we do need to wait until they moult and then go visit again to see if Craig's allergic to them. My allergies are doing fine. No apples, pears, hazel nuts, peanuts, dust mites or silver birch near me, pretty pretty please. Of course, this also by extension means no apple pies, pear tarts, fruit & nut chocolate, yellow m&ms, snickers, canned pears and so on. This is on top of the old list which I believe contained fats, alcohol, caffeine and cocoa, as well as a selection of chemicals that don't like my little bod. Craig, the sweetie, suggested we sell the house. We live right next to a nature reserve with a whole shedload of trees, including silver birch, which isn't always the best of ideas. I politely declined, don't want to start giving into this damned thing as then I may as well order the plastic bubble and start decorating it. Where's the fun in that.

For the first time since we moved here I begged dad for a relief parcel, icelandic yes please. Asked for some supplies. Although to be fair, I still have some licorice since they were here last time and really don't fancy any more. Good licorice, absolutely, but 4kgs was a bit much.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

January Blues

For those of you that know me, it will come as no surprise that Craig is a very patient man. He has to put up with all kinds of mad ideas and idiosyncrasies that would baffle any lesser beings. For instance, at the moment I'm desperate for a couple of ferrets. I've got him to agree to go and see people with ferrets so we can learn more about the critters and of course I firmly believe that as soon as he sees them playing he'll fall head over heels in love with them. He on the other hand firmly believes that I won't be nearly as taken with them in person as I think I will and that I'll simply chnge my mind. We're yet to see which one of us is correct. I had found a woman in the area who was willing to have us visit and show us her ferrets. This was supposed to happen on Friday, but I haven't heard from her in almost two weeks and something tells me she's having IT problems. I'm very disappointed, I'd been looking forward to this for the whole of January and then it falls through at the last minute. But Craig's promise stands so I'll just keep trying to find someone near to here who wants to brag about their critters. I'm getting a little extreme here, but on the other hand in his despair he's practically promised me a puppy instead. So however it turns out, the results are pretty darned good...

I've been very blue this week. I could see the ferret visit thing coming on Friday and we still have practically no hot water and our new bed which was due this week still hasn't showed. So I've been terribly sad and lonely somehow. Miserable wretch, really. Miss friends and family as usual in January, can handle the away-ness better in other months. Maybe because in January I've just got back and don't foresee any jaunts for now.

Anywho, amazing how the lack of hot water gets my goat. It's clearly a civil rights violation, not being able to have a hot shower when you wake up / want to. Wonder if we can contact the UN and get check out the position, get Angelina Jolie involved.

I may have overdone the retail therapy slightly. Invested in some sandals for the summer and stuff. Bought this really cool black and 'summery' skirt which has so much fabric half of it would easily suffice. But my bat impression is really coming on, leaps and boudns wearing that thing - it totally sorts out the wings.

Craig does what he can to cheers me up when needed. Cooks every night I can't be bothered, laughs at my bat impressionism and other peccadilloes, redraws our bedroom in the proper proportions in AutoCad just so we can rearrange the master bedroom. He understand the value of reorganising furniture and how it restores the soul. He even puts up with going to IKEA (which is a little more hassle and grief here in the UK than in Iceland) and bought me a pad of mm paper and some pencils when we moved in just so that I could organise everything just the way I wanted it. In fact, after we rearranged the kitchen he even looked for the tinned goods in the schematic I did and stuck to the fridge! Although, to be fair by now (a year later!) he really should know where the tins are. But really, is it any wonder I married him? That sweetie x

Valentine's Day is coming up. Dunno what to do over here. Do something though, that's key.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

My Birthday thingamajig

Your Birthdate: June 16


You're incredibly introverted and introspective. You live inside your head.
You spend a lot of alone time meditating and thinking.
People see you as withdrawn, and at times they are right.
You are caring and deep, but it may be difficult for you to show this side of yourself.

Your strength: Your original approach to thinking

Your weakness: You tend to shy away from others

Your power color: Pale blue

Your power symbol: Wavy line

Your power month: July


Monday, January 09, 2006

300 000 today - 300 000 í dag!

Being broke at the start of the year, as you are, I aimed to be productive and sent off the paperwork to Iceland for a name change. Wasn't really expecting much, but got a lightning fast response saying that as my lawful abode and residence is stated as the UK, then my jurisdictional status is within the UK. So my name's still same old same old.

While I was at it I also consulted with the Student Funding System in Iceland to see if they'd lend me some money, and guess what, they really don't have a problem with it. We'll see how that goes..

I've also discovered a new pet hate question. It used to be 'aren't you gonna have some young'uns soon?' which I've started answering rather snappishly 'how do you know we haven't been trying and simply can't?' as I find the question incredibly rude, personal and nosy. Mum, don't worry though, I don't know one way or the other as to how our reproductional status is. Anyhow.

The new pet hate question is this. Upon learning that I reside permanently abroad, all Icelandic people ask me if it is because I'm studying! Cause clearly you can't be happy living elsewhere if you're not forced to by outside circumstance. Unsaid, but implied is that if I am studying then I'd bloody well better get back to Ancient Iceland as soon as I finish, thank you so much. Unbelievable snobbery for degrees in the country, could drive me barmy.

In other news, we're practically out of water. Our hot water boiler is acting up after a weekend of hardly any pressure on the cold water coming into the house.

And today is a proud day for Icelanders. As of 07:20 this morning, we number 300 000 for the first time in history.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year!

Happy new year all !
Last night was a resounding success, if I do say so myself.

As Craig and I have been incredibly bored on the NYEs we've been here in the UK, we decided to do something about it rather than complain. So our bi-annual NYE bash was born, with the now traditional mexican fajita vegetarian dish thingy. We had a good turnout and people generally seemed to have a mellow and nice time. Pics to follow...