December 2007

The Gift that never gets old

December 31, 2007

In Germany, they have a half-hour TV show that they’ve aired on New Year’s Eve day every year for the past 40 years or so, that is an inextricable part of the tradition over there [and also happens to be one of the few things on TV not dubbed into German]. Mindful of its popularity, [...]

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After which she put on her faerie costume and went to make steaming drink for the tourists

December 29, 2007

So the mayhem is underway. The heart-stopping explosions out of nowhere started yesterday … incredibly startling at first, but quick to become commonplace. I’m talking firecrackers and fireworks being exploded beneath people’s windows and in other inappropriate places. If any of you foreigners visiting our fair isle and reading this are wondering why there are [...]

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Can we strap him to a rocket and fire it up at midnight?

December 27, 2007

Old Quentin Tarantino’s back. Spending New Year’s here again. No doubt he’ll have another go at getting a supermodel home before she passes out or vomits all over him. Although after his stellar turn on Conan O’Brien the last time, I’m hoping Icelandic women have enough self-respect to give the guy a wide berth – [...]

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Christmas reflections

December 26, 2007

I feel vaguely guilty. I’d planned to send out a very ceremonious MERRY CHRIMBOS! type of post to all my lovely readers, but instead I’ve hardly gone near the computer for the past four or five days and it’s felt really good. So – a belated happy Christmas, and I hope your Yule was everything [...]

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At the pearly gates

December 23, 2007

Poor AAH: just when the pressure is on, all her Christmas prezzies still to be bought, and she’s scheduled to work back-to-back shifts, she comes down with a case of food poisoning. She believes a certain Ceasar salad is to blame, eaten at a certain cafe where she works. The day yesterday was alternately spent [...]

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Getting the Yule on

December 20, 2007

Today I spent a full ten minutes in my local fish shop and when I got home I was forced to put every item of clothing I was wearing in the washing machine. Reason? Putrid skate day is coming up, and they had a handsome selection of raw pieces already in stock. Dear readers, this [...]

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Score two points for the admission of guilt

December 20, 2007

Just a quick postie to say that US Homeland Security has issued a statement expressing their regret at the treatment Erla Ósk Arnarsdóttir had to endure last week. They also claim they’re going to review their working procedures for people who arrive in the US and who face deportation, with the purpose of making improvements. [...]

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Behind the veil and under the skin

December 17, 2007

I’ve just watched an unbelievably absorbing and powerful documentary entitled Afghanistan Unveiled, which reveals how life has changed for women in the five years since their so-called ‘liberation’ from Taliban rule. Surely there are few places on earth where the circumstances of women are as dire as in Afghanistan today. There are so many war [...]

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Ain’t no Yule without The Virgin

December 16, 2007

Christmas in Iceland is all about tradition, and for EPI and YT there quite simply is no freaking Christmas unless we get our Yule Platter at The Virgin. In fact, this conviction has passed repeatedly through my panicked mind over the past two weeks, having been told that The Virgin was all booked up every [...]

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