[Photos taken 19 – 24 March 2024, posted online 15 August 2024. The start of this entry was written in toasty Munich, Germany, but finished in fresh-but-wet-aired Iceland.]
Life returned to normal for a short moment after returning from Brussels. The primary event that week was my grandmother turning 90 years old. It’s hard to fathom all the changes she’s seen in her long life, and even weirder to think that she’s essentially lived for double the time I’ve been alive!?!
Then it was mental and physical preparations for our upcoming Easter trip to Sweden, to visit my brother and family that moved there in 2023. Along the way, we helped another brother move into his new apartment, and I resigned from my job.
Tuesday 19 March 2024
After my trip to Brussels, it was back to regular life, and who would greet me at the gym but a photo of my trainer brother “hanging out” in an aesthetically pleasing way!
It looks like I had a bit of stress to vent at 7:15 am, doing 5 x 120 kg deadlifts…!? (I’ve erased the other names)
Wednesday 20 March 2024
Celebrating with trainer brother as he got the keys to his new apartment! We brought overs a few of our old, much repaired, kitchen chairs just so that there was somewhere to sit down!
Unusual flowers for grandma, who turned 90 years old that day, and wanted something to paint after.
Story time!
Grandma in front of one of her batik pieces, the Sea-dance, that she made when she had a workspace back in the day. She also created the lamp-shade.
Lots of pretty flowers.
Kiddos with their great-grandma. 90 years is quite the milestone!
Thursday 21 March 2024
Our mattress wasn’t really working for me anymore, so we got a new one, and gave the old one a new home at my trainer brother’s. Finnur is my go-to-trailer-master.
At the Garðabær library. Emma found she’d finished all the My Little Pony books at the Garðabær library, but the computer system indicated the Hafnarfjörður library might have more, so there we went.
The Hafnarfjörður library sits right next to a cafe, and post-tennis-practice puppy-eyed Emma wrangled a treat out of her mother.
Reading English.
Friday 22 March 2024
Easter week was approaching, and we all got chocolate eggs at work.
The saying I got: “It’s better to row, than be carried by the current.” It was weirdly apt as I’d handed in my resignation from my job earlier that week! Iceland has rules where your employer can ask you to work 3 months after you resign (and conversely has to pay you for 3 months if they fire you), but we came to an agreement that I’d stay at work until the tail end of May.
Yet another lifting-class.
I bench-pressed 3 x 60 kg.
Somewhere in the past few months I’ve come to realize I don’t actually bench-press correctly, and I’m still trying to figure the correct way out. It came about when we did a lot of light repetitions one day, and the only truly tired muscles were in my arms, not the torso. Lifting turns out to be a lot more technical than I realized when I started on this journey, but learning new things, and figuring things out is a big part of the joy.
Saturday 23 March 2024
Still feeding the birds, as spring was taking its sweet time arriving.
We had a brunch date with good friends downtown.
It was a gorgeous day!
The view from our table.
Yummy!
The chef is our friend’s nephew.
Transporting my trainer brother’s old bed from his old room to the recycling center. This was the same bed that we’d bought from an Icelandic lady leaving Berkeley, USA, in 2001!
Anna tending to her young plants.
Sunday 24 March 2024
Packing our bags for Sweden. Apparently the original Cheerios brand is unavailable in Sweden, so we brought it over as a treat for my brother’s family.
Arriving at the airport at 14:20. So much nicer than the crack of dawn!
The now-customary trip to Jómfrúin for some open sandwiches.
The bookstore has a very old book on display.
We can still read and understand parts of this.
The five travelers at the gate.
Flying Icelandair to Arlanda airport by Stockholm.
It was dark outside when we landed in Sweden.
Waiting for a bus to take us to the car-rental.
Our car, an all-electric Skoda. I’d reserved it such a long time ago that we got a really good price.
It was well past 21 (9 pm) in the evening, but our delayed body clock insisted it was dinner time. The only open thing was a fast-food place. The ordering kiosks were quite sluggish!
