May 2007

Back to civilization now. Three days in the [semi-] outback was not nearly enough, which is precisely what EPI thought which is why he’s still there. All by his lonesome. With his easel, collection of paints, electric guitar, amplifier and various other toys and paraphernalia. Will he miss us? He says he will, but I seriously doubt it.

Originally we’d all planned to stay a whole week and booked the cottage for that duration. Foolishly I assumed that when AAH’s national exams were finished, that would be it and she’d be released into the summer like a wee heifer from a barn. Alas, I did not know about end-of-term exams, which are different from national exams and which are this week. D’oh!

Never mind. Thing is, this is a perfect opportunity for EPI, who has been talking about doing precisely this for a couple of years, or ever since YT spent a few days up there alone and wound up writing a book. Personally, I’m thrilled for him because he’s so supertalented and hardly ever gets a chance to work on what he loves, what with the daily grind and suchlike. Besides, I’ve got a few things up my sleeve for later. Heheh I’ll saynomore.

OH YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER WAS LIKE?
Well everybody’s been talking about how cold it’s been and it’s true - it’s been excruciatinly cold. So cold in fact that nesting has been disrupted and there’s hardly any green on the trees up there - in fact the vegetation looks very much like it does right at the tail end of winter. Plus there was snow in the surrounding mountains. BUT when the sun shines here in Niceland and you can keep the wind off, it’s actually quite warm and even possible to get a tan. So this weekend we suntanned the Nicelandic way: don bikini, lie flat in sun on deck, run inside shivering when sun vanishes behind cloud, run back out as soon as sun returns. Repeat as needed. And yes, we went and sat in our fantabulous old rustic sauna [the developers have as yet not got their hands on it, but it is imminent, only a matter of time] and even went and jumped in the lake. Yowsa! Currently 8°C [46F], sunrise was at 3:35 am and sunset at 11:17 pm. Incidentally, we have officially entered the season of the midnight sun, because we have no daybreak or nightfall. The sun just dips below the horizon and rises again; it never, ever gets dark.

I’m taking off for a few days for some well-earned r&r. If you need me, I’ll be here, or here, or here.

Ta-rah!

So after not being able to log on to the Weather Report for two consecutive days, I now have a new hero: Joseph from the last comment thread, who actually went to the trouble of taking screenshots from his PC and sending me in order to demonstrate how I could fix the problem. This worked like a charm and the Weather Report is now up and running on my laptop. Huzzah!!

I’ve had an intensely busy day, but I did take the time to fire off an email to my domain registrar to ask if they could puh-leeze explain what was going on, as it appeared that everybody could see my site except me and my dear father, who called this morning to inform me of this unhappy coincidence. The email to the domain registrar went something like this: “Everybody can see my site except me and my father, do you think this is genetic?” Their answer, bizarrely, was not about genetics at all but rather about how DNS servers the world over needed to pick up on the change and this sometimes took 72 hours [a period of time that has been getting progressively longer, the longer I wait - their initial reply was ‘most DNS servers pick up on the change within the hour’. Pfft, yeah! Most except MINE!].

So anyway, in keeping with my motto Why mess things up a little when you can mess things up a lot I’m going to pull the name server stunt again this weekend - i.e. attempt to move my website to the other service provider. I figure it’s as good a time as any as most people in the West European Hemisphere will be off for a long holiday weekend which should mean that dissatisfied readers will be 50% fewer than normal. See? I’m a mathematical wizard, not to mention gracious and considerate.

Anyway, so much time and energy has gone into this dastardly business that all the great blog posts I had lined up have gone unwritten. Including the one in which I tell you all about Big Blogger, a fantabulous effort first launched by my good blogpal Timbo [and cohort] two years ago, and now being repeated. As you may surmise, it’s a blog version of Big Brother, which it just so happens is about the only reality TV show that has not spawned a Nicelandic version, so I’ve not actually seen a whole episode. But it promises to be good, so check it out!

IT APPEARS THAT SUMMER HAS COME AND GONE AROUND HERE
It has been freezing cold for about the last week, and in the past few of days we’ve seen a fair amount of snow [!] and regular spates of hail - in fact there was one just a minute ago. Bizarrely, these frequently happen while the sun is still out. The general populace is severely disgruntled about this, particularly as May is normally known for being a ‘good month’ weather-wise. Here’s hoping this is a sign of a great summer. Temps right now 7°C according to Yahoo Weather [I don’t believe it, though] and sunrise was at 3:49 am, sunset due for 11:02 pm.

Boy, was I ever going to be clever tonight and fiddle around a bit with nameservers and such over at my service provider’s place.

Yeah. I know. Note to self: do not fiddle around with nameservers and such before you know what the hell you’re doing!

See, I’m ditching my service provider and have two options now: a) moving to another service provider [which I already use to publish a separate website] or b) using my domain and publishing through Google’s ‘custom domain’ service.*

Anyway, I’m going to spare you the hair-pulling, nail-biting details of this evenings botch-ups and misfortunes; suffice it to say that, at this present moment, some of you are able to see The Iceland Weather Report upon the World Wide Web [Site Meter tells me that much], while others are not. YT, unfortunately, belongs to the latter group, meaning that when I log on to www.icelandweatherreport.com all I get is the page of my domain registrar and a bunch of Google ads for cheap hotels in Reykjavík. [Just like on the Weather Report, in fact.]

I have to say that it’s a most bizarre feeling, not being to access my own site while others can. And, like, being able to write these words, and not being able to see them. Kind of like being in a dark room and fumbling to find the light switch. Is this how blind people feel? Fumbling around to find something that everybody else can see?

WEATHER
Dark. Sunrise: dunno. Sunset: dunno.

* Any recommendations?

I have imbibed so much culture this week that I’ve even started to butter my crackers with a decidedly artistic flair. Do you think they’ll invite me to exhibit my Crispbread-and-Bird motifs at the Reykjavík Arts Festival next year??

I do.

Anyway, just got back from the theatah - went to see a play called Partners in Crime by Eric Emmanuel Schmidt, which was a big disappointment. Particularly as one of the best plays I’ve seen in the last few years - the Enigma Variations - was also by Schmidt. Which is perhaps why I expected more. And was let down.

Anyway, this was a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf-esque piece about this couple and the dissection of their relationship, which went on for 90 minutes with no intermission and was incredibly tedious because it was so absolutely obvious that the problem was the wife’s alcholism and the husband’s enabling. She just got more and more smashed and he got more enmeshed and entwined, and in all this drama Schmidt tried to make some incredibly highbrow intellectual statements about love and hate and fidelity and jealousy and such, attempting to turn the alcoholic mind into something deep and profound. YAWN!! I mean, my eyes glaze over three minutes into a discussion with someone who’s drunk and within ten minutes I’ve normally had enough and left the scene; meanwhile this was like being forced to sit and listen to a rambling alcoholic for 90 minutes, in the dark, without talking back [not that there’s ever anything to say, they never listen anyway] and without being able to stand up and leave [without inconveniencing a lot of people].

To summarize: I wouldn’t recommend it. I would recommend, however, Cheek by Jowl’s production of Cymbeline, which was awesome [although I understand that some of this country’s Shakespeare directors were underwhelmed, lahdedah] - filled with substance, gore, pathos, and incomparable humour [I thought I’d fall over laughing when Cloten grabbed the microphone and started singing]. But then I’m such a fan of The Bard. Truly I am. It takes serious amateurs to botch one of his plays, in my humble view.

Am I forgetting something? Why yes - we saw an amazing classical recital in Salurinn last Monday by the astronomically talented Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson, who despite being only 23 is probably the best classical pianist Iceland has ever produced. He’s currently finishing his Master’s at Juilliard and from there he’s going to take the classical music world by storm, mark my words. He did an absolutely stunning recital of Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata in F moll op. 57 that was so intense that it had everyone virtually on the edge of their seats. How anyone can play the piano that well [not to mention remember so many notes off by heart!] is a mystery to me. Plus, I happen to know that he’s a Really Nice Guy.

YES YES BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER!?
There’s been a fairly miserable wind afflicting us these past few days. Yesterday it was tolerable because it was sunny; today it’s been windy and raining with that damp kind of cold that gets inside your bones … not pleasant in the least. Spring is taking forever to turn into summer and in fact has hardly shown its true spring-face yet. A few minutes ago we had wind and sleet [!] - right now 2°C [36F - whimper] and sunrise was at 3:58 am, sunset at 10:52 pm.

Okay, so we have a new government coalition happening here in Niceland and yes, one is Very Pleased Indeed. They dissolved the 12-year coalition between the Parties Progressive and Independence yesterday, and we’re now looking at a coalition between the Social Democratic Alliance and the Independence Party. This, to many people, is the ideal coalition - the two largest parties that hitherto have been in harsh opposition but which may actually do some excellent work when they pool their resources. The IP is known for its financial management and the SDA for its socialist leanings and - happily - reluctance to sell out our beautiful nature to evil corporate aluminium giants, so this may actually be a most perfect marriage. Here’s hoping. Huzzah!

Enough about politics and on to more pressing matters.

EPI’s daughter, a.k.a. Barbie, is going to NYC next week carrying a lengthy shopping list for our YT. Destination? American Apparel, of course. I’ve been hard at work composing my list, so far I’ve picked two of these, one of these, one of these and one of these. Oh, and I think I’ll have to have one of these, as well. I know - I’m showing admirable restraint, but only because I don’t want the poor girl to use up all her baggage allowance. Plus AAH is going to NYC to visit her friend later this summer and will also be recruited as a mule. Who needs FedEx when you have children?

OUR BEAUTIFUL MAYTIME WEATHER
Gorgeous today, only rather dampened by killer windchill. Dragged AAH out to the golf course with me for a walk [no small feat - some serious teenage inertia happening] and unsurprisingly it was freezing as is probably the windiest part of the Greater Reykjavík Area. Sometimes I don’t know why we insist on living in this wind ass* of a neighbourhood - although it does have it redeeming features, one of which is the gorgeous sunsets in the west. Temps went up to 11°C and are now down to 4°C [39F]. Sunrise at 4:05 am and sunset at 10:46 pm.

*Nicelandic saying - rokrassgat.

Went to see Spideyman 3 this evening with AAH. On the way back home I noticed there was a sunset happening out at Grótta so I went and grabbed my camera, plus EPI, and we headed out there for a boo.

It was fairly spectacular and everything, but EPI went on the whole time about why it is that sunsets always bring out the cameras in people and laughed at the poor fools teetering on the edge of the rocks, practically falling over trying to get a picture. Which wasn’t that hard, really. I got several, in fact, and I didn’t even have to get up on a rock.

Anyway, the movie was a yawn - I started looking at my watch about 30 minutes into it, or when the first extended episode of cartoon violence started dragging on and on and on. And the next. And the next. It was such a bore and I couldn’t help thinking about how they insist on making Spiderman a.k.a. Peter Parker absolutely insipid and sexless. It’s like oooohhhh, better not show an ounce of passion between old Pete and his girlfriend that - note bene - he’s supposed to be desperately, intensely in love with - but oh! God forbid that he should even kiss her on the mouth, or show that he is in any way physically attracted to her. And just to drive the point home we’ll have him living in a little closet of an apartment with a single bed barely big enough for one and make sure that they never stay over at each other’s place. Instead, let’s show Spidey involved in massive brutality for about two hours or so, interspersed with brief scenes featuring the nauseating goo that is supposed to pass for emotion. No wonder she dumped him. That’s all I’ll say.

Got something a little more highbrow lined up for tomorrow evening, though - a production of Cymbeline by some British theatre company that’s touring the world and is s’posed to be really good. I’ve never seen Cymbeline and haven’t a clue what it’s about, so if someone could give me the plot in 100 words or less that would be great. So I can be prepared, like. Because of course with Shakespeare it’s very necessary to know the plot beforehand.

ALRIGHT, ENOUGH OF THIS INANE DRIVEL ALREADY
I’m actually totally wiped and fear I’m rambling on about nothing so I should just pack it in and call it a day. [It’s a day!] Weather started off overcast with showers but look how it turned out! Look! Above! So right now it’s 8°C [43F] and the sun came up around 4 and set around 10.30, somewhere around there.

You know, by and large I adore Icelandic men. I find them open-minded, liberal, kind and hard-working, with no qualms about cooking, cleaning, or going out for walks by themselves pushing a pram. Plus many of them have an excellent sense of humour.

However - and again, we’re talking sweeping generalization here - they do have one extremely annoying habit. Are you ready for it? They pick their noses in public. Seriously. Icelandic men pick their noses. A lot. Especially when they are alone in their cars and think nobody is looking. Also while out walking and even sometimes while sitting in the hot pot at the swimming pool [ew!].

I mentioned this to EPI a while back and got a fairly indifferent reply … until about ten days later, when he suddenly broached the topic again to concede that I was absolutely right. He’d started looking around and sure enough - he saw men picking their noses everywhere!

Which is why I was fairly amused to see this piece of street art etched onto a sidewalk in front of an elementary school the other day. I mean - a nation’s art reflects its mores, does it not? Wittingly or unwittingly? - I rest my case.

WE HAD THE MOST STUPENDOUS WEATHER EARLY THIS MORNING
Blazing sunshine and relative calm. Honestly - there is no place on earth more beautiful than Niceland when the sun shines - especially in summer. It’s clouded over now and we have mini-showers but it’s still very calm and - for us - warm. Temps 9°C [48F] and sunrise was at 4:14 am, sunset due for 10.36.

Well, the giant marionette came and went. It was the opening act of the Reykjavík Arts Festival and is actually the product of the French street theatre company Royal de Luxe. The story behind it was that this ill-tempered giant was on the loose in the city, destroying cars and such, and his daughter was called out to try and calm him down. So she walks through the streets looking for him and along the way delights the general populace who watch her waking up, going to sleep, taking a shower, kneeling down to let children swing on her arms and even taking a leak. [!] It was quite a spectacle and very cool, taking an amazing amount of effort – probably a dozen or more people were required to work the strings and such to get her to move, and she was eerily life-like, even batting her eyelashes and breathing when sleeping.

AND THEN THERE WAS EUROVISION
Which most people watched but I daresay only half-heartedly since Iceland wasn’t in the race. Actually the Eurovision Song Contest has kind of turned into ‘An Excellent Excuse for a Party’ for most Nicelanders, and as we know, there are few things the Nicelanders love more than an excellent excuse for a party. This is precisely how it ran chez YT; EPI’s father and sisters and brother all came over with spouses and kids, we had a superexcellent barbecue, watched the odd Eurovision entry, and generally had a wery wery excellent time. Oh, and Serbia won.

BUT THE MAIN THING WAS THE ELECTIONS
… And since Iceland was not in the Eurovision race the director of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service did not find himself braving the wrath of the Nicelandic nation when he cut the Eurovision broadcast just before the end to announce the preliminary election figures. It was a harrowing, nail-biting night for some people [YT not included as was sleeping on my green ear*] with the government alternatively losing and gaining back its majority. In the end, the majority was retained by one piddly seat in parliament, which wery likely means that the coalition will be dissolved and we will see some changes around here – huzzah! The bad news is, however, that the ruling Independence Party holds the reins and calls the shots and this is slightly worrying. But it is absolutely evident that the nation is demanding a turn to the left and they’d be fools to ignore that. Worse, they’d be idiots. So – a proper Announcement About the Future of the Country should be made sometime in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Incidentally, Jadetree – who as REC so aptly stated in the comments last post is ‘gone but not forgotten’ thanks to the Google cache – did not get elected. Aw.

OUR SUPERBEAUTIFUL WEATHER
It is incredibly gorgeous out there right now. Actually, it has been incredibly gorgeous all weekend but with killer wind – cold killer wind – which dampened the enjoyment and which today seems to have vanished. Which is just the day when I have to nail my butt to the chair and get some work done. Which is also why I should stop procrastinating and get on with it. Temps right now 7°C [41F] and the sun came up at 4:18 am, will set at 10:33 pm.

*Nicelandic idiom