June 2007

In which AAH is made an[other] offer she can’t refuse

June 30, 2007

Walking home this evening, AAH is surprised when a passing taxi suddenly comes to a grinding halt and a door opens. A woman’s head and shoulders appear. WOMAN IN TAXI: Hello! Hello! Aren’t you [AAH]?AAH: Er, yes.WIT: Aren’t you on the roster at Eskimo Casting?AAH: I think so …WIT: I was just looking at your [...]

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And that’s why I love it when they speak to me in English

June 29, 2007

So AAH, whose hobbies include hanging out in cafés, decides she’d like to try working in one. That way she can combine the two, with the added bonus of getting paid. Being an ambitious sort, she picks the most popular café in Reykjavík and submits an application. She’s promptly called in for an interview. INTERVIEWER: [...]

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Just when I was ready to segue into a life of leisure

June 28, 2007

This is the time of year when everything grinds to a halt in Niceland – from the end of June to the beginning of August. Standard holidays here are 24 days per year – nearly five weeks – and the vast majority of people make the greatest use of that in the summer. This means [...]

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The Codfather meets Baugur Group and all hell breaks loose, we think

June 26, 2007

So The Blovel is coming along swimmingly. [You know - the novel YT and a few other bloggers are writing on a blog.] Valerie had the brilliant idea of having the main gangster, who is being frantically sought [exactly by whom remains to be seen], operating out of Iceland, and the blovel was promptly titled: [...]

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Green Lagoon, Niceland

June 25, 2007

On Saturday EPI and I took my cousin and uncle to the airport, and since we were all the way out there decided to make a stop at the Blue Lagoon. For those who don’t know, the Blue Lagoon was accidentally created when the runoff from the local geothermal power plant started to gather in [...]

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Midsummer night magic

June 24, 2007

So, EPI and I went out to Grótta last night at to see if we’d find any magic stones. It was midsummer night and according to Icelandic folklore, magic stones abound on that night – if you find one, you can make a wish, and your wish will come true. Alas, we found none. Neither [...]

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Closure

June 21, 2007

Today, my mother’s ashes were laid in the ground in a cemetery in Kópavogur, having been brought over by relatives from Canada. Obituaries in the paper, letters read at the service, condolences offered by strangers. And I am struck by how many versions there are of the same person, and how different they are from [...]

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YT eats her words

June 19, 2007

OK, it pains me to do this. Pains me. But it cannot be helped: I have been forced to amend my glowing review of ICELANDIC FISH AND CHIPS, as the place has fallen rather severely from grace here at the Weather Report. It all started last Saturday night when EPI and I went there for [...]

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National Day Chronicles

June 17, 2007

National Day today. Whoo-hoo!! That’s right: this is the day when Iceland celebrates becoming its own Republic, declaring its independence from Denmark 63 years ago today. Do the math and you’ll discover this happened in 1944, just at the end of World War II, while Denmark was still busy being occupied by the Nazis. They [...]

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Newsflash: Iceland heals the lame!

June 16, 2007

Most heartwarming news item of last week: officials at Keflavík airport stopped a woman travelling from Paris to the US via our fair isle. The woman, who was confined to a wheelchair, was from Sri Lanka but carrying a Canadian passport, which aroused suspicion. While border control officials were off checking their records, the woman [...]

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