[Photos taken 02 – 05 July 2024, posted online 04 October 2024. Nights are getting frosty, I’m still very unemployed, but nowhere near out of projects at home.]
Back in April, tickets to a July-show in Harpa with Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood (Radiohead‘s bassist) went on sale. I’ve long been curious about Nick Cave, and having seen the other Greenwood brother in Brussels in March, I couldn’t pass this up. (Also, big cheers for performers deciding to vacation in Iceland, and giving us mere mortals a chance to see them in action!)
When it came time to get tickets however, I got a lousy place in the online-line, and when it was my turn, there were no two-seats available!! However there was a single seat available in a fairly good spot, so I jumped on that.
A little later in the day, the organizers announced a second concert had been added. That one went on sale the morning after. After 15 minutes, that one was also sold out, and a third concert had been instantly added, with the note that there would absolutely not be any more shows! Fittingly, the third show also sold out in a few minutes! I guess Nick Cave’s fanbase in Iceland is big and ravenous!!
The remainder of the week was spent driving Emma to and from a distant camp, saying goodbye to our old sofa-bed, going out to happy hour and dinner with the sewing club (still not sewing anything), finally finishing the veggie-box lidded-enclosures, gymming, and then heading to the summer house, arriving just in time to see a spectacular sunset.
Tuesday 02 July 2024
Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood, on stage in Harpa. As I suspected, Nick Cave is lot more interesting (to me) live than on recordings. Colin Greenwood filled the songs out lovingly. My only niggle was the strong LED light on the floor behind Colin that kept blinding me…
Earlier that day, I was on pick-up duty as mom returned from Sweden. The arrivals parking lot at Keflavik airport is such a mess during all the ongoing construction that I try to stay far, far away.
Having gotten mom home, I hopped into the gym for a short session, and then quickly gobbled down sushi next door for dinner.
I made it to the door with 12 minutes to spare! Phew!
Shortly before 8 in the evening. It was a meh weather day.
Icelanders are just the worst when it comes to sitting down on time. This is 10 minutes before showtime, and the vast majority was still milling about outside the Eldborg hall.
The concert started on time, yay for middle-aged performers! The set design was minimal, but the songs sounded grand. Nick Cave’s voice is very expressive and his way of observing the world is quite fascinating.
There was a bit of chatting sometimes in between songs. It helped especially as I didn’t know them much at all. This was Nick Cave introducing Colin Greenwood as being the bassist of a “small English indie band” (the crowd laughed appreciatively, as Radiohead is anything but “small”).
Eldborg is so pretty. The person on the right in front of me is the former mayor of Reykjavik. I don’t know him, but I keep “bumping into” him at random locations, mostly airports though.
Good luck figuring out where the horizon is while in this building!!
Wednesday 03 July 2024
Dropping Emma and a friend off at yet another afternoon camp. This one had a large outdoor area, and they did various activities.
It was time to say goodbye to Anna/Emma’s old bed. One of Finnur’s sisters wanted it, and I was glad that it had found a good new home, but first we had to empty the drawers under it. There was So. Much. Stuff!
Sofa-bed being loaded onto a cart!
Anna with bagels from her baking-friend. They were delicious!
Thursday 04 July 2024
The kids were in charge of their own dinner, and I took a photo to show them how I would like the kitchen to look after they were done.
Summer-selfie-attempt!
Driving downtown, we passed the old bank-building that had gotten so badly infested with mold that it was condemned, but for some reason, it took about a decade to tear it down?! It finally started for real this past summer.
Downtown was lovely and colorful! I saw some tourist group on a type of e-moped I’ve never seen before.
We had a dinner reservation at the hotel restaurant.
The view out the window was lovely! The food was also good.
Heading home at 10:30 in the evening. One of the offspring came to pick three of us up, as we live quite close together.
Friday 05 July 2024
Last pick-up from this camp. I was relieved, because it was a 20 minute drive from home.
At home, the last of the veggie-tops got a lid and acrylic cover.
Protective tops complete! The trashy plastic and rocks were removed a bit later…
This was a very unlucky day at the gym. One of my good gym buddies tore her Achilles tendon mid-warm-up-game, it turns out that sprinting is dangerous sometimes. Thankfully she wasn’t in pain, but she had no control over her foot, so we commandeered a rolling chair to get her out into a car and to the ER (where she had to wait until past midnight, as they were swamped with good-weather sports injuries). It’ll take her many months to get back to good, but it really helps that she’s already in very good shape, strength-wise.
I rallied and drove to the summer house that evening, where we’d booked a gathering with some good friends. What a sunset!
I had to go out and photograph it.
So did Finnur!
Sunsets in Iceland take a looong time! We left the pizza oven outside to appreciate the beauty.
