Finnur in Japan, We Chill

2019-09-08Traveling, Us Standard

[Photos taken 08-16 September 2019, posted online 09 April 2020. Covid-19 might be peaking, time will tell if it’s a local maxima or not. Spring and winter have begun their battle over the weather.]

The first week of September was so blah that no photos will be shown. But on the second week Finnur took off on a worktrip to Japan, to meet up with distant colleagues. The rest of us plodded along as usual, managing to stay mostly sane.

The highlight was probably a quick trip to house #2, to take down the trampoline for the winter. Oh, and Bjarki finally got an electric guitar, after much begging. (90-ish images total)

Sunday 08 September 2019

Siblings agreed to be in one frame together.
I think this was the achievement of the day, aka tidying up the floor in Emma’s room. To preserve everyone’s sanity, there is no before picture.
Morning snack: liver-haggis for Emma, and berries for Bjarki, as requested.
Bjarki doing homework, while I experimented with reducing the information overload.
Emma outside, after Anna gave her a ‘makeover’.
Pretty colors!
She was very excited!
Bjarki also outside.
Three kiddos.
Fall-time.
Afterwards we drove downtown and visited the library.
Emma in a library window.
Emma’s drying artwork after she rediscovered her paint supplies. I decided to later look for small shelves to tame the chaos.
Meanwhile in Finnur’s world, he was about to board a plane.
Many hours later…
Spacious hotel room.
Beds…
Restroom.
View from the window, complete with roof-top garden.
Hmmmm…

Monday 09 September 2019

Android-dolls in the Japanese Google office.
Japan has weird stuff.

Tuesday 10 September 2019

Anna quietly showing off the nail-job she did the night before.
Cool!
Meanwhile in Japan, it was dinner time.
Next up, meat to cook.
Cooking the meat.
Next up…
Looking good.
The cooler of stuff.

Wednesday 11 September 2019

In Iceland, I caught a moment by myself as I waited for the two younger kids to finish their music lessons. This would be a regular occurrence as the music school moved from being almost next door to us (and the kids could walk there), to being a 10 minute drive away.
Meanwhile in Japan, Finnur was up high.
A Japanese keyboard, drum-style.
Special keys for emojis!
Out and about.
Dinner!
Finnur in good spirits!
Pokemon Go ads?!

Thursday 12 September 2019

The big news of the day was after weeks of whining about an electric guitar, I finally caved in and we went and bought one. It helped that is guitar instructor said he was fine with both regular guitars and electric ones.
Meanwhile, discussion were ongoing with an interior architect to redesign our bathroom. I took this image while we were trying to figure out where to put decorative tiles.
The decorative tiles in question. We had managed to go tile-hunting before Finnur left for Japan.
Meanwhile in Japan, Finnur went out to dinner yet again.
The decorations were crazy.
Trader Vic’s of San Francisco?
Ok…
Maybe something to try at home? 🙂
Not scary at all.
Looking up.
Back at the hotel.

Friday 13 September 2019

Gymnastics practice fun times towards the end.
More guitar fun, as Emma ‘waits’ for her turn.
Bjarki practicing.
Meanwhile in Japan, Finnur found an animatronic clock, The Ghibli Clock. Apparently there were a lot of people recording it strike.
Japanese sleep cubicles.
More dinner time!
Here fishy, fishy…
To eat or just to stare at?
Tokyo is a busy city.

Saturday 14 September 2019

It was a muggy day in Iceland.
Proof I went to the gym.
We drove to house #2, mostly to take down the trampoline in time for winter, and the big storms. Happily, the big car can make it there and back again without needing to be charged. The weather during the drive was foul, with strong headwinds, so this was a near-worst case scenario.
The window netting was looking like it was ready to come down, one way or another. I took it down and put into storage until next summer!
The reason for the journey, the trampoline.
Halli giving me a helping hand or two. I remember my hands being seriously cold.
Success! At least this won’t be flying anywhere.
Indoors, people were working hard.
Even Anna was working on school stuff.
Meanwhile in Japan, Finnur went to a big art exhibition.
Interactive! You could move things around on the board and the ‘game’ would react to it.
Also interactive.
Cool.
A slide!
The splatter zone.
Crazy landscape.
Flowers, sort of.
Wow.
In Lampland.
A quick snack.
Time to go shopping.
Tokyo is so weirdly vertical.
Pretty.
So pretty that three people were painting it!
Har har.
#Facepalm
Eeek!
Seriously?!
Proper last dinner with his coworkers.

Sunday 15 September 2019

Quiet time.
Bjarki reading.
The weather put on a show, with large wet hail raining down.
This was the trip where the dish-washing machine died. 🙁 Adda and Halli thankfully had space in their car to haul it back to town.
Obligatory stop at the cafe in Borgarnes.
Anna doing her math homework.
Bjarki reading one of those amazing facts books they have lying around.
On the drive back. Yes, we’ve caved in an now even Emma gets a screen during drives.
I had to borrow Emma’s sunglasses, the sun was a wee bit bright!
Ooops, I guess we already had ketchup.
There was dinner.
Meanwhile, Finnur was making his way back to Copenhagen on his way back. Seems like the GPS system got a bit confused there with North and South for a bit?!!?!
…. or the plane was abducted by aliens for a bit??!

Monday 16 September 2019

I dutifully took the dishwasher to the repair shop, but a few days later they called back with the news that the “brain” was dead, and that since the machine was probably more than 10 years old, it was barely worth trying to repair it. We decided to let it go, and I went to pick the front up, which I’d forgotten to detach.
I have no photo of a jetlagged Finnur, but this image tells me he was back home. It’s Emma’s clothes at the gymnastics place, to let Finnur know, as he would be picking her up. I was on Bjarki pick-up duty, from the OTHER gymnatics place, a 10 minute drive away.
That evening I eloped from my regular duties to go on an evening walk with a couple of friends. We underestimated how dark it would get and how quickly, so it wasn’t a very long walk.