[Photos taken 03 – 10 December 2022, posted online 27 July 2023. Been a cloudy few days, very low energy, possibly due to volcano smog permeating my brain. Finally have blue skies again today.]
And then it was December, again!
There was one more organized hike left in the year, this time around Kleifarvatn (lake). It was a super still day, and it was really nice to see the sun come up.
The social calendar filled up with all sorts of yule-related outings, like concerts & buffets, as I also attended a two-day “7 habits” seminar/workshop at work, and two kids played at musical school concerts.
Saturday 03 December 2022
Yours truly enjoying the sunrise-in-progress at 10 am.
The hike was about 16 km long, and took most of the day.
We arrived at the lake around 8:30 am, and if you squinted, you could see a bit of sunlight off in the distance, somewhat masked by break lights.
Stopping, probably to fix a headlight battery situation.
Interesting geological feature.
Here comes the sun… any minute now…!
Sky getting brighter still, and time for a snack.
Enjoying the snacks and the view!
So pretty!
We kept going.
We went up a bit higher, and you could see the sun-line crawl down over the hillside opposite.
Where we were going.
At one point we lost line-of-sight to the lake.
Ah, there’s the lake!
Interesting rock formations.
Pretty frost.
Close to the southern-most edge of the lake, it was time to snack again.
Almost at the paved road, that would take us back to the starting point.
I switched into friendlier shoes, but was a little scared by the frosty surface. Managed to not slip and fall though.
Pretty beach-area.
Quick rest stoppage and a discussion about favorite yule-traditions from our youth.
We kept going… the paved part was about 5 km long.
There are lots of pretty rock formations along the way. In the most recent earthquake swarm, some boulders along the road fell onto it.
We met people peeking into a cave, and took a look ourselves.
Something humanoid-ish?
Unexpected!
Lord bless the home.
The way out.
Approaching the cars.
We arrived at the cars just as the sun was setting again, at 3:30 pm!
Sunday 04 December 2022
I bought a new bird feeding house, hoping to avoid throwing seeds all over the garden this time around. The birds seemed to approve.
Returning my library fails, borrowed them but never got around to reading them.
Downtown, to pick up Bjarki who was ice-skating with some buddies.
A few hours later, I was back downtown, this time with Finnur, to eat dinner.
Of course one gets the duck at Duck and Rose!
When we finished, Anna was busy putting Emma to bed, so we took the bus most of the way home, and then Anna came to pick us up, as the bus home was a long while away.
That poor square gets so little love, somehow it’s always barren.
Tuesday 06 December 2022
Gymming at 7:40 am. There’s this thing at work where you can win a massage gift certificate if you elevate your pulse for more than 20 minutes three or more times a week. It’s called “keep moving”. This is me collecting photographic evidence.
Pushing this around got the pulse going.
My new workplace asks that every employee goes through a two day “7 habits for highly effective people” training, facilitated by current employees. It comes with fancy materials.
The seminar was held in a golf club. Felt fitting.
On a lunch-time-walk to get a little quiet time after all the noise that morning. It was a good kind of noise though.
Back in 7-habits seminar-land. Some of these resonate more with me than others. I think “I am free to choose and am ultimately responsible for my happiness” is key, but often not easy in practice.
Lunch being served. There were a lot of us!
The world outside was still frozen at lunchtime. This is at 12:30 pm.
Geese that forgot to fly to warmer lands in the autumn.
More advice, I do like the win-win mentality of this guy.
Sun busy setting at the end of the seminar day, at 4:30 pm.
This time it was Emma’s turn to play at a recital. She’s so far opted for short non-threatening songs.
We were all there!
Thursday 08 December 2022
Another fully-awake group-morning session with dear brother.
That evening I was invited to go to a concert in a church downtown, as the original ticketholder had fallen ill.
We arrived a little later than we had intended, and ended up with seats way at the back.
This was Mugison and KK, with a third musician. They seemed to be having a great time, and so did we!
Friday 09 December 2022
The social activities kept coming, as my company went out for a yule-buffet. This is arriving at Grand Hotel, via the back parking lot.
Since the number of employees is way bigger than any cafeteria space the company has, we went to a hotel that specializes in these things.
Festive decorations.
A portion of the buffet.
Mmmm, lunch!
Old style yule-singers.
There were a lot of people there.
Even more people, and the line for food.
Waiting in line at the touchless car-cleaning station. Each car takes 5 minutes to go through, and I figured I had the time to wait.
Saturday 10 December 2022
What happens when you wash the car, and forget to properly clear the windscreen of water before parking in the frost.
Making use of my free 90 minutes of EV parking downtown, before it would run out on 31 Dec. There were now so many EVs around that the city figured this should no longer be counted as an incentive to get one.
Another yule-tradition is forming in Finnur’s family: To go get Danish-style open sandwiches in the run-up to Christmas.
This time we were at Kastrup. There are two restaurants in Reykjavik that specialize in this kind of food!
Me testing the big camera, the following day would be yule-photo-time!
