May 2009

A small slice of life in the YT household in the aftermath of an earthquake

May 29, 2009

We had an earthquake this evening that measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, ONE YEAR TO THE DAY from the last big earthquake!! How’s THAT for a bizarre coincidence? I didn’t feel it, though. EPI and I were in the kitchen making dinner – very late because EPI had been putting up new blinds in [...]

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Restaurant review! American Style fish and chips

May 29, 2009

How long has it been since I’ve done a restaurant review? Ages! And it’s not that I’ve suddenly stopped eating in restaurants because of the kreppa. Truth be told, residents of the rock don’t go out for dinner that often, for one simple reason: it’s bloody expensive. For visitors, obviously, the price has dropped by [...]

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In Iceland things are never called by their proper names

May 28, 2009

In our latest in a series of interviews we talk to Birgitta Jónsdóttir, poet, activist, and newly-elected MP and party group chairman for the Civic Movement – the political force that grew out of the protests here in Iceland last fall and winter. It was founded a mere nine weeks before the elections and ran [...]

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Just when you think they’ve scurried under a rock, they turn up on a yacht in Cannes

May 26, 2009

One of my favourite columnists, Guðmundur Andri Thorsson, who has been writing in Fréttablaðið these last few months, summed up in yesterday’s column what many of us have been wondering: how the ex-moguls must now be feeling, those who with their reckless impudence and complete lack of scruples – not to mention outright criminal misconduct [...]

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Eva Joly gets to work

May 23, 2009

Finally FINALLY it appears that the Office of the Special Investigator [aka the sheriff of Akranes] commissioned to investigate events surrounding the bank collapse has got its ass in gear and started doing something. Today [and last Tuesday apparently, although we didn't know about it] Icelandic police conducted a series of ten or twelve raids [...]

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An actual post about the weather

May 20, 2009

It has been beautiful here for the last four days, and as you can see on this segment from the RÚV evening news, we’re absolutely reveling in it. I’ve been to the pool every day for the last three days for a spot of sunbathing and have shifted my working hours to the evening, since [...]

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Second place for Niceland in Eurovisonland!

May 17, 2009

I’m going to hold myself back from applying the cheesy title “It is two!” or some variation thereof to the post, although I truly have to restrain myself  – because as many of you will already know, Niceland took second place in the Eurovision Song Contest last night with the song “Is it True“. And [...]

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Fresh winds as parliament reconvenes

May 15, 2009

A new session of parliament began today. Traditionally all the MPs attend a church service prior to the official setting of parliament, in Dómkirkjan, next to the parliament buildings. After the service they all walk in a procession behind the Prez and the 1st Wooman, into  parliament. Today, however, four new MPs announced that they [...]

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A love-in on Laugavegur, plus live from the eagle’s nest

May 13, 2009

From today until next Sunday, Iceland’s main drag Laugavegur, which sadly is showing too many signs of dilapidation and neglect in the kreppa [all those empty storefronts] will be the venue for an unusual exhibition: old love letters displayed in the store windows [the stores that remain, that is]. The letters are from a collection [...]

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We’re in the Eurovision finals, but please don’t vote for us*

May 13, 2009

Y’okay, so Niceland made it through to the finals in the Eurovision Song Contest this evening – the sappy, campy contest that everybody here pretends to be totally indifferent about but EVERYBODY watches. It’s the epitome of Iceland’s small-nation complex. Each year we wait with bated breath to see if our song makes it through [...]

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