October 2005

There is a Toyota Yaris parked outside our building, effectively blocking the entrance to the parking lot [you can squeeze a car in, but very slowly]. This is not an anomaly in Iceland; the Icelanders’ parking is on par with their driving, in that a large part of the population appears to think that the roads [and parking spaces] are there solely to accommodate their vehicles and nobody else’s.

It’s been sitting in that same spot since Friday, much to everyone’s supreme annoyance. On Saturday, EPI went out and placed a threatening little note on the windshield. [“…the next time your stupid little Toyota Yaris is found parked in this inconsiderate spot there will be fire and brimstone raining down upon your head.” Or something similar.] But nobody has come out to read the note [except our other neighbours, who have stopped their cars en route with the sole purpose of reading it.] It’s still there on the windshield, along with Friday’s snow.

So today as we were heading out for a power walk in the cold, I took a peek inside the offending vehicle. In the back seat, a winter jacket belonging to – as deduced by our resident sleuth YT – a girl approximately in her 20s. And on the front passenger seat, an open purse.

An open purse. Open.

Now the thing is [as YT promptly explained to EPI], no girl in her 20s leaves her purse in her car for an entire weekend. Unless something very weird is going on. No girl in her 20s [or any woman of any age] leaves her car with her purse open in the front seat, unless her plan is to return three minutes later at the very most.

So all of a sudden we’re not so much consumed with annoyance about that stupid little Toyota Yaris blocking the entrance to our parking lot, as we are utterly mystified by the sudden twist procured by the open purse in the front seat.

AND YET WE DID MANAGE TO TAKE IN A MOVIE
… At the second film festival in Reykjavík in less than a month. It was a Danish flick called Drabet, about a man completely undone by his own rather horrendous codependency issues and it is the third part of a trilogy. It was very good – won the rather prestigious Nordic Council of Ministers’ film award this year. The Danes, it seems, have this knack of making films portraying intense human dramas in which the protagonists are caught up in some sort of moral or philosophical dilemma. Just YT’s cup of tea.

OH, SPEAKING OF FESTIVALS
Rolling Stone’s reporter appears to have enjoyed his stay in Niceland last week, calling the Iceland Airwaves music festival “the hippest long weekend on the annual music festival calendar”. I’m betting that he wasn’t one of the multitudes who have been complaining about the inordinately long line-ups outside the best venues.

MEANWHILE, WINTER IS HERE TO STAY
It’s been pretty damn cold today, sub-zero temps and windchill. EPI went and put up my new thirty-year-old thermometer out on the balcony and guess what? It doesn’t work. Temperature has been holding steady all day at 6°C, whereas current temps according to mbl.is are –1°. Guess that proves that thermostats don’t have a very long life span. Or something. Sunrise was at 09.04 and sunset at 17.17.

So, come this morning, YT was chomping at the bit to go back to the ÚTSALA in the decrepit old building. [I failed to mention last time that it’s only open on Fridays and Saturdays and yesterday we were very sensibly deterred due to weather.] EPI was less enthusiastic about going, preferring to spend his day off doing things other than poking around in a dark cold warehouse containing piles of dusty old stuff. But went along to humour YT.

As soon as we got there I made a beeline for the ‘Sunday Morning by W.H. Grindley Turnstall England’ china, and was ever-so relieved to see that there were piles of plates, bowls and things left. But alas, on picking up the first plate, what did I see? It had a hole in the middle. As did the next one. And the next. And the bowls. And, well, virtually everything in the whole damn set.

Holes.

Once again we were in the Twilight Zone. As EPI launched into wisecrack mode, YT found a woman wearing a red T-shirt and demanded an explanation. Turns out the plates and bowls and things were virtually all parts of two-tiered cookie serving plates [similar to these]. And the holes were so you could put the contraption thingy through.

Slight letdown.

But not for long. By this time EPI was getting into the whole groove of the place and we ended up spending about an hour in there, YT drifting through with that same blissful grin on her face as before. And we did not come away empty-handed, no sir. Our rummaging yielded the following results:

• Six small bowls to match my ‘Sunday Morning’ tea set
• One teapot
• One contraption with flame device [don’t know what they’re called] for setting teapot on so tea stays warm [we will never use this, I’m sure]
• One gorgeous cheese board of dark wood with built-in groove for special cheese knife [that sadly went AWOL on the way home]
• Two gizmos for measuring the air pressure in your tires
• One outdoor thermostat [no more relying on mbl.is for weather report temps]
• Two small milk jugs [as one just wasn’t enough]
• One nutcracker made of wood

And yes, we showed remarkable restraint.

MEANWHILE, ALL WAS WHITE WITH SNOW TODAY
… Following yesterday’s major winter blast. Today’s weather was gorgeous, if cold – the sun was shining and cast a stunning gold-blue hue on the fresh snow. Suddenly it’s winter and Christmas is just around the corner. Temperatures at the moment are… well, I never! The mbl.is website is not responding [prolly sulking in protest of my new auto-thermostat. And the thermostat is still sitting in its little case in the hallway, un-put-up outside. So I’ll just have to venture a guess…] – and my guess is… -2°C. Sunrise today was at 08.58 and sunset at 17.24.

Today’s weather:

… Just add howling gale-force winds [exceeding 20m/sec] and temps of -2°C. And a rabid YT, suffering from endorphin withdrawal and cabin fever. Do not piss me off.

I had the most bizarre experience the other day. There’s a street I frequently drive along called Mýrargata [where this atrocity is located] – not a pretty street by any standards, there’s a shipyard next to it and sort of old, decrepit and sooty industrial buildings and warehouses, mostly.

Suddenly a couple of weeks ago, one of those old and decrepit buildings was sporting two large yellow banners with the word ÚTSALA emblazoned across. And as anyone who has been to Iceland in late summer or winter will know, ÚTSALA stands for SALE.

In between the two banners was a small hole-in-the-wall door that was extremely dirty and sort of blended in with the soot exterior of the building. And somewhere above the door there were a bunch of dirty and dilapidated letters spelling the word ‘netsala’ which looked like it had been there for a donkey’s age and which certainly would no longer apply, since this did not look like the place that would contain a ‘netsala’, i.e. ‘nets for sale’. But might have once.

So I passed that house like I’d done a thousand times before and would not have noticed it [like a thousand times before] except for the fact that it had those two large yellow banners across it. So I drive past and a couple hours later drive past again on my way home. And – whoa! The street was literally packed with cars. Lining the curb on either side, up on the sidewalk on the other, and hoards of people streaming in through the little hole-in-the-wall door and out again.

‘Hm, strange,’ thought I as I drove past, mostly since as there was clearly a major ÚTSALA on in my part of town and I did not know about it.

But – more trips past the ‘netsala’ building ensued over the coming days and there were no hoards so YT forgot about it. Until – whoa! Last weekend, again, the street full of cars and people streaming in and out of the hole-in-the-wall. And YT utterly perplexed that there was a sale and she still did not know about it.

So I went home. I made a decision. Since I had to go out again, I would stop the car on Mýrargata and get out and enter the hole in the wall and find out what was going on.

And I did. And – whoa! Beyond the door there was a narrow hallway, and then another door leading into a rather large room. That room was exceedingly basic – rough floorboards, bare cement walls, untreated wooden rafters… in fact, the only modern convenience in the place was an old sink on one wall with tiles around it from circa 1970 – absolutely bizarre. And it smelled old.

But the strangest thing was that it was filled to the rafters with stuff. Stuff for sale. And there was something very strange about the stuff. It reminded me of both my grandmothers for some reason – couldn’t figure out why. Until it dawned on me. It was like I’d walked into a time warp. It was all old stuff. I mean new – but old. Mostly household goods, like pots and pans and plates and cutlery and kitchenware… but also toys and toiletries [baby powder, for some reason] and various sundry goods. All for sale. And really really cheap.

And YT stood there, thinking ‘… What… the…’

Nobody else seemed particularly puzzled. What was YT not getting?? Just then, someone wearing a bright red sweatshirt and an apron passed by. Looking like he worked there. I grabbed him. ‘Excuse me, but… what is all this?’

And so I got the full story. It seems that it was part of a wholesalers’ stock that for some reason or other was abandoned in a warehouse down by the harbour, 30 years ago. 30 years ago! And now they were tearing down the warehouse and suddenly all this stock appeared. And whoever owned the stock had donated it to this Christian radio station called Lindin, which was selling it off to raise funds. [Which explained why YT hadn’t heard about it.]

People. It’s hard to convey the feeling of enchantment that overtook our YT at that point. The same sort of feeling of enchantment that appeared to have afflicted everyone else in the room. It was a sense of nostalgia, of filling your senses with a slice of life as it was 30 years ago. I just wandered around, looking at the stuff with this huge grin on my face, thinking, ‘I remember this!’ or ‘My God, I haven’t seen one of these in…’ and was totally charmed and delighted. I wanted to take everything home, but being a sensible type I settled on this:

I have grown more and more fond of this little set ever since I brought it home – I mean, isn’t it lovely? Look at the elegant lines of that coffee pot! And would you like to know how much I paid for it? A grand total of 650 kronur – USD 10 / GBP 5.80. I mean, this is the sort of stuff you pay and arm and a leg for in antique stores! And you know what else? EPI and I are going back for the whole set this weekend. And I can’t wait.

THE WEATHER IS…
Remember how I mentioned the windkill yesterday? Thinking it probably couldn’t get any worse? Well, it did. The weather has been gross all day so I don’t even want to talk about it, bleh. Sunrise 08.55, sunset 17.27.

As regular readers will know, YT is not a meme fan. However, I found this quite irresistible - and anyway, it’s not a proper meme [much]. Plug your name plus the word ‘needs’ into google, and see what you get:

• Alda needs to be ready to provide a flawless—not necessarily lovable—moment of truth to those people

• Alda needs a distraction and [s]he needs it fast

• Alda needs to be back on primetime television

• Alda needs infrastructure improvements

• Alda needs to bolster sagging popularity

• Alda needs to be the next President of “The West Wing”

• ALDA Needs You!

And finally - because I couldn’t resist:

• ALDA! You’re making me cry

YES, BUT WHAT WE REALLY NEED IS THE WEATHER REPORT
… Ugh, no you don’t. It is frrreezing! Went for a run this morning in -5°C temps and got frostbite on the inside of my lungs. [Yes yes I know I am insane, this was repeatedly documented in this space over the past winter.] And lest you think -5°C is not worth complaining about, you should try it mixed with strongwindsfromthenorth with the wide open North Atlantic next to you. But obviously I’m not complaining, because it’s behavior I choose, right? Right. Meanwhile, with winter darkness encroaching, the sun is very low in the sky and shining at an angle so when you’re walking the streets of the city you’re almost always in shadow now. But we don’t complain about that either, because there are some parts of the country that are in permanent shadow behind mountains until sometime next spring. Currently temps are -2°C and sunrise was at 08.52 and sunset at 17.30.

One of the great things about being part of a small nation is that when something is going on, you really feel part of it. The spirit of the event permeates everything, everyone gets caught up in it, and an enormous amount of energy is created. It’s sort of like the feeling you get at a rock concert – very energizing.

Such was the spirit of yesterday. Everyone seemed to get into it – young and old, male and female. Even though it had a serious undertone, there was, on the whole, a sense of harmony. There were no militant speeches or hateful declarations or resentful victimization. Nobody felt threatened. Instead there was a sense of a collective effort and agreement that things are not as they should be, and change is needed.

As predicted, most women nation-wide stopped working at 2.08pm and headed downtown, or to some central meeting place in their respective towns. The protest march in Reykjavík was supposed to be from Hallgrímskirkja church down to Ingólfstorg square, but by the time the rally was to begin – and the square was packed full – there was still a throng of people stretching to the place where the march had begun. It is estimated that around 50,000 people were in town – mostly women, but also a lot of men.

The media covered the day’s events in great detail and with panache. Back in the workplaces, men manned the jobs ordinarily held by women with tremendous good humour. The Minister of Social Affairs acted as receptionist at the Ministry; at the main branch of the National Bank - the lone branch left open - men manned all the posts; and in one division of Iceland Telecom, all the women wore suits and ties to work as a symbolic gesture. In the malls, many of the shops closed down, including Debenhams and Zara. What I found striking was that even with the serious undertone, everyone seemed to be in a good mood and to be having a great time.

AAH came home shortly after two; the school had closed. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to come downtown, but she had a good excuse. YT decided to forego the march [regretting it later – but that’s another story] and headed down to Ingólfstorg square on foot around 3.45pm. It was an absolutely bizarre experience – the streets were deserted. The main artery here in the west end of town was practically devoid of cars, and there was no one out walking. No one. [Well, except YT.] Like a ghost town – very very bizarre. As I came closer to the square, I met the odd man on foot, pushing a stroller or leading a toddler – picking up the kids. And then, closer to Ingólfstorg, a flood of people of all ages and both genders.

I found it quite impossible to get to a place where I could see properly, and somehow I was at a place where the sound system made a terrific echo. Not ideal. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world; like the women interviewed who took part 30 years ago said, it’s great to be able to say, ‘I was there’.

In any case, a happy day. Very upbeat and satisfying. For everyone concerned.

AND TODAY?
The coldest it’s been this season. Gah! This morning it was –4°C and it’s warmed up to a balmy –1° now. But of course we have – you guessed it – windkill, the bane of Icelandic living. Ventured out earlier because I need both oxygen and daylight at this time of year if I’m to avoid a serious malfunction, and it.was.cold. Came in with a face so frozen you’d have thought I’d just had a Botox injection. We’re in for more wind from the north over the coming days. Sunrise today was at 08.49 and sunset set for 17.34.

Today, 24 October, is Women’s Day Off here in Iceland.

On this date 30 years ago, 25,000 Icelandic women walked off the job to call attention to the importance of their contribution to society. Many also took the day off from the household chores. No cooking, no cleaning, no laundry, no women’s work. Instead they headed downtown in droves for an outdoor rally and general all-round celebration of strength. Women’s Day Off has been celebrated each year since, but rarely with as much energy as it is set to be today.

One woman who was faced with a particular conundrum on this day 20 years ago was then-President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir [the world’s first democratically-elected female President]. Icelandair stewardesses had gone on strike the day before and all Icelandair planes were grounded as a result. The government was in an uproar and on the 23rd they drafted legislation to order them back to work. As with all Icelandic legislation, it had to be signed by the President [the Head of State] for it to become law. President Vigdís was put in the difficult situation of having to choose between signing the bill and incurring the wrath of the general female population, or not signing the bill [which she would have preferred, she has said] and facing a governmental crisis. Apparently the all-male cabinet had whipped itself into a frenzy just at the possibility of Vigdís not signing, and ministers were already threatening to resign. [In a later interview she said she had marvelled at the fact that no-one had actually asked her if she would refuse to sign the bill. Which I think is pretty hilarious, really, seeing as they were prepared to flush their careers down the bog.] Anyway, in the end her very diplomatic solution was to wait several hours to sign, or as long as she possibly could, which allowed her to make her point without absolute mayhem resulting, yet giving women the feeling that they were heard.

SO TODAY WOMEN ARE WALKING OUT AT 2.08 PM
… Because a recent survey shows that women in Iceland – despite their supposed independence and autonomy – still earn a mere 64.14% of men’s salaries. [If overtime is factored in, it works out to 72%.] At 2.08pm women will have worked 64.15% of a normal 9-5 day.

Widespread participation is already a given. The media is full-out urging women to take part and loads of businesses – including the National Bank of Iceland and some of the savings banks – are closing at 2pm. Clearly they are smart enough to realize that equality is not solely women’s business, but is an issue that all of society has to face and resolve. Many of my female clients and contacts have informed me that they’ll be leaving work at that time so they won’t be available. Everyone’s heading downtown to take part in the march and rally.

Naturally YT will be joining in. Never mind that I am self-employed and would not dream of paying myself any less than I would a man. [Unless I thought I could get away with it.*] In fact, I’m really looking forward to heading into town and being in the company of smart, sassy, fun and feisty females all afternoon. Rock on!

BUT IS THE WEATHER ON STRIKE?
Nope. And I’m going to come clean and tell you all that it’s not really Monday yet – it’s still Sunday but it’s really really close to Monday so I’m going to pretend that I’m a little ahead of myself and post this now because I want to have this up for the Full Women’s Day Off [and not post it sometime when I have time, which probably won’t be until after the rally]. So today [Sunday] it was kind of dreary and cold [a couple of degrees, overcast and gray] and it’s due to remain cold for the next couple of weeks. Which means an úlpa and hatscarfmittens are required when heading outside. Current temps are, in fact, 2°C and the sun comes up at 8.45 on this WDO Monday and will set promptly at 17.37.

* Just kidding.

ADDENDUM: Special props to Fréttablaðið for printing their banner in pink today, instead of their customary blue. And special props also to Minister of Social Affairs Árni Magnússon, who has revealed that upon taking office in the ministry, one of his first jobs was to look into the wage gap and to correct it where women were earning less than men solely on the basis of gender. Stressing that equality is a human rights issue, he has also proposed a new Equality Certification which would be granted to companies that demonstrate that there is no wage gap in their ranks. We’ll take more like him, please!

The view at the end of my street yesterday, 6pm:

The evening was gorgeous and the sunset stunning - sadly these pictures never manage to capture the full effect. [And yes, that is the Snæfellsnes glacier in the distance, in case you’re wondering]. Later on EPI and I were walking home in the dark and the Northern Lights were at their most spectacular, darting through the sky all mystical and hypnotic, changing colours even, which is relatively unusual. Not just gold/green but with hues of purple and red - amazing. This is the best time of year to see the Northen Lights - the night has to be dark - obviously - and clear, and still, and cold. In fact, I think so many Icelanders have hot tubs in their homes primarily so they can sit outside in the winter, soaking in their pots and watching the Northern Lights.

Today’s weather was fabulous, too - got up and went for a run around 9am since I had a busy day coming on… lots of people were out walking even at that time of the morning, and every single person I met smiled and said hello - definitely not the norm for Icelanders. Must be something genetic; perhaps we’re truly in our element in the brisk, clear, cold weather like we’ve had in the last two days. We currently have a single degree Celsius and the brilliant sun came up at 08.39 and went down at 17.44.

Dear readers. Today, October 20, marks one full year since the Iceland Weather Report started its run.

[applause, whoo-hoo! release the balloons]

That’s correct. Exactly one year ago on this day, our YT found herself slightly bored. It was October, a slow time of year in the freelance copy editing and translating business, and I had plucked my eyebrows, filed my nails, played about 30 games of Snood and had resorted to staring out of the window. At the weather.

And I started travelling down memory lane. Back to the days when I first moved to Iceland about 10 years before. My first job after moving back was working as a journalist and translator for Iceland’s main English-language publisher, Iceland Review. This was when the term ‘Internet’ was just entering the common lexicon and my employer decided to launch a ‘website’. On that website were little bits of news and current affairs from Iceland that we, the journalists, compiled every morning. And there was a weather report.

Now, that weather report was pretty boring. “Today’s weather: strong winds from the south, temperatures x degrees, sunrise at xx sunset at xx.” Period. Dullsville. So after a while, our YT and one other journalist started adding little bits to make it slightly more interesting. Things like, “Frost last night. Was late for work because the ice was so glued to my windshield that I had to scrape until my fingers were numb.” Or: “Amazing sunrise this morning on my way to work. The mountains up in Bláfjöll silhouetted black against the sky – looks like a good day for skiing…” or something similar. And sometimes we’d make them funny. Or witty. Or charming. Or all three.

Much to our surprise, our little weather reports started gaining a bit of a following. People would write in and praise them, or tell us they looked forward to them every day, or leave comments, or whatever. They’d not say much about the news, but the weather reports were a definite hit. So we started making them longer. And soon the weather reports at Iceland Review had a bit of a cult status worldwide.

Not too much later, YT left Iceland Review at the height of her Weather Reporting fame, moving on to Bigger and Better Things. One of which included having a little column in a cute little e-zine called Eye on Iceland. The column was called Alda’s Eye and was about all things Icelandic, and waddayaknow, it garnered a bit of a following as well. That collaboration eventually ended, as did the e-zine. And YT went on to Other Things, but secretly missed having a little column in which to indulge her writing habit.

Until that morning in late October, exactly one year ago today, when I had filed my nails and plucked my eyebrows and played Snood and sat looking out of the window. And thought, ‘Hm, maybe I should start a blog. And call it ‘The Iceland Weather Report.’

It’s come a bit of a way since then, thanks in no small part to all you wonderful people that read and comment and make this whole labour-of-love thing worthwhile. It wouldn’t be any fun without you. So thanks for showing up and reading. It makes my day, every day.

MEANTIME, TODAY’S NOT-SO BORING WEATHER IS
Cool, as predicted. Temps have crawled up to around the 4°C mark now but there’s a bit of a wind, so we have chill. Windchill. Sunny skies, though, which makes all the difference at this time of year, when SAD* starts to rear its melancholy head. Sunrise was at 08.33 and sunset at 17.51.

* Seasonal Affective Disorder. The greatest acronym ever invented.