[Photos taken 01 – 06 December 2024, posted online 24 April 2025. It’s officially “The First Day of Summer” today, and it’s a public holiday! Somewhat unusually, the weather is actually quite nice!]
We were unusually “on top of things”, as Christmas decorations actually went up on 1 December, as I was taught is “proper”. I finally figured out that in order to actually implement a date-night, it helps to already have a restaurant booking, and to schedule said booking on a Sunday night, rather than a Friday, when everybody is exhausted.
Christmas presents started trickling in from Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping. It felt like I lost two weeks of my life this time around to gathering presents and wrapping them.
Our cars continued having all sorts of weird issues, and I now know some of the guys at the shop by name. Bjarki played at the music school, perhaps for the last time? Time will tell.
Lastly, I hosted an Instagram account for a day, trying to shed light on my life as a “woman in tech”. I also got invited to a job interview, which went well.
Sunday 01 December 2024
It was the first of four advent Sundays, and we got the special candle-holder set up and decorated.
As always, the day started in my favorite corner of my favorite cafe. Visiting them near-daily meant I essentially paid them “rent” and got a comfy seat for 2-3 hours per day, good music, and yummy food in return.
Upon arrival home I found Anna concocting…
… mac and cheese, for lunch!?!
Bjarki happily getting his share. It was ridiculously filling!
I strung some colorful outside lights onto the backyard fence.
The stairs getting lighted.
After chronically ignoring the monthly “date night” on the calendar, I decided Friday’s were just not cutting it, and now we’d be trying for Sundays.
During the Black-Friday madness, this restaurant downtown had a good deal on gift-cards.
Icelandic restaurant have really broadened their cocktail-making skills.
Yours truly, in the corner.
We’d ordered one of the set menus, and all the food was very good!
The dessert was made for social media!!
It tasted good too! A mixture of sweet and sour.
Monday 02 December 2024
The view out the gym window. It was weirdly lit with the snow on the ground, cranes looming, and the neon-lights inside.
Fishing for Christmas presents in the nerdy t-shirt section next door. Wasn’t lucky.
Ah yes, lets clear the drains of the sludgy snow in bare feet and crocks…
Tuesday 03 December 2024
This was the day I realized mom’s hot water kettle was all rusted inside. It was only 5 years old!
The Black-Friday buying-bonanza started arriving in the mail, or being picked up in person. I’ve learnt from bitter experience to wrap the presents as early as possible, to avoid the total wrapping overwhelm right before Christmas Eve!
Wednesday 04 December 2024
Playing mom’s chauffeur.
The almost 10-year-old eGolf had suffered some sort of electrical meltdown, so I brought it to the shop to get a read-out on what was going on.
Sure enough, a dead parking sensor. It would turn out the part-listing for the car was incorrect, and it wasn’t registered as even having parking sensors! We only discovered the error when we’d bought what we thought was a spare part in the UK, but was the wrong thing. Some decorative lights had also died.
Stopped at a light, and the entire infotainment system in the ID.3 rebooted itself. Thankfully, the car stayed operational. This has been a winter of car-troubles!!
Still warm from all the gymming, so that rainy sludge had no effect!!
Half an hour later, at the music school, as Bjarki was about to play some songs.
They did good!
Take-out dinner time!
Thursday 05 December 2024
Getting chilly out there!
In a fit of saying “yes”, I’d agreed to a LinkedIn-sent message sent a few weeks prior to host the Instagram account of Ada konur for a day. The account is dedicated to showing what technical women do during one day. Usually, it’s women that are a lot younger than me, but oh well, a yes is a yes.
Trying to wrap my head around what I’d agreed to do.
My to-do list of the day was a mixture of body, brain, and shuttling.
Trying to work on my neglected cardio system. Strength is just more fun.
Being weird at the gym.
Late lunch.
Sore throats and dry skin abounded at home.
Everything took longer than I expected, so I never made it to the University building. Home was pretty.
Tea!
Programming.
The birds were busy eating seeds.
Arriving at Digraneskirkja (local church) for a choir concert.
The choir started out singing behind me!
It’s a pretty church!
They did good!
Cookies for all afterwards!!
Relieved to be done!
Cuties!
Time to feed the birds. I’d figured out that microwaving the fatty-balls for a short while meant I could break them apart easily with my hand, so I no longer needed to cut them up.
Ironically, as I was wallowing in my unemployment status while Instagramming, I got a call from a job-agency I’d sent me resume to a few months prior, and got invited to an interview. Weirdly, I’d already gotten sent the job listing from another direction, and didn’t think it was for me, but when you get two pokes, you jump.
Gymming is an excellent de-stressor!
The stairs looming and seemingly unsurmountable. Thanks, leg-day.
