January Trip North to Akureyri
Photos taken on 12 January 2018 – 15 January 2018, posted on 08 August 2018. Sitting at Kruðerí, gathering courage to tidy up the garage some more.]
One September day, in an apparent fit of insanity, I booked a cabin in the north of Iceland, that belongs to the employee association at my work, to stay in over a January weekend. The hope was to go skiing, and visiting our good friends Kata and Jói, whom we hadn’t seen in very long time.
As it happens, the weather over the weekend was very poor, and the ski slopes remained closed. We therefore ended up going swimming a couple of times, and generally hanging out with our friends, which was fun. Then our Sunday flight home got cancelled, so we ended up staying an extra day, but nerves got a little thin as the kids were unhappy about the no-ski situation, Bjarki’s shoes got stolen, and it was unclear when our Monday flight home would actually get off the ground.
I think next time I’ll just wait and see what the weather situation is like… (31 images total)
Friday 12 January 2018
The plane that flew us north. It’s a 30 minute flight.
People Gatherings as 2018 Began
[Photos taken on 01 January 2018 – 08 January 2018, posted on 07 August 2018. Sitting at Súfistinn, after tidying up the garage today.]
The first eight days of January 2018 included no fewer than four food-included get-together-s with friends and family galore! (22 images total)
Monday 01 January 2018
Photo of the smog still sitting on top of Reykjavik (that grayness by the bottom of the mountain) after the massive fireworks the evening before. Yes, I ventured to the only open coffee house I knew of to work on photos. I thought it was a good way to start the new year!
New Year’s Eve: When 2017 Became 2018
[Photos taken on 31 December 2017 – 01 January 2018, posted on 31 July 2018. Back at Norðurbakkinn, and it’s rainy outside.]
This past New Year’s Eve was special, in that it was announced beforehand that this would be the last grand family party hosted by Finnur’s uncle and his wife. (The party hosting has alternated between the two brothers through the years). As a result I think pretty much everybody showed up, and had a great time as always. (49 images total and 1 video)
Welcome to 2018!!! (Many thanks to Anna for being patient and writing into thin air more than once as we tuned the camera settings!)
In-between Yule & New-Year’s
[Photos taken on 27-30 December 2017, posted on 31 July 2018. This post was actually written at home, as I’m feeling I need to wrap up 2017 before returning to work!]
The whole family was on holiday between Yule and New Year’s Eve. We hung out with family and friends, went to the movies, to a show, and tried to generally relax a bit. (12 images total)
Wednesday 27 December 2017
Among relaxing activities (for me) was hanging out at the Norðurbakkinn cafe. It’s weirdly difficult to get a symmetric photo of those buildings!
Anna 14 Years Old/Yule Day #1 & #2
[Photos taken on 25-26 December 2017, posted on 30 July 2018 from Nauthóll. The view is gorgeous, with the clouds rolling by, sun shining on the sea, and chatter all around. Finnur keeps building the wall in our backyard…]
This years Yule-tide celebrations didn’t stray much from the regular formula. On Christmas Day #1 we headed to Finnur’s parents’ place for a feast and social whist, bringing desserts to sing Happy Birthday to Anna over, while on Christmas Day #2 we got invited to my uncle’s for a small get-together with even more good food! (37 images total)
Much food was eaten, many words were spoken, games were played, and general well-being remained high.
Monday 25 December 2017
Anna, formally 14 years old, by the cheesecake she made herself, from scratch!
Yule 2017
[Photos taken on 24 December 2017, posted on 29 July 2018. Finnur’s 44 years old today, it’s 22C/72F outside, and cloudy right now (!!!), and I’m at Norðurbakkinn cafe.]
The Big Yule Day finally arrived! Finnur as usual took care of all things kitchen related, while I took care of the gift-side of things. Anna helped with tidying up, and uh, it was a pretty fine day overall. (21 images total)
Kiddos in front of the tree right before dinner started (and they’d gotten permission to open one present each, on condition they posed for a photo!).
December 2017 – The Run-Up to Christmas
[Photos taken on 07 December – 23 December 2017, posted on 28 July 2018. This post is being written at Kaffi Laugalækur while looking at Mount Esja, on an overcast day. Yesterday was lovely though. Finnur’s rebuilding a wall in our backyard.]
December is always a stressful month, with all the yule-tide preparations etc, and the jetlag didn’t help matters.
Highlights were Bjarki’s guitar recital, yule-celebrations at work and school, birthday celebrations large and small, gift-buying, hosting a sewing club, the annual yule-tide photo-shoot, and ginger-bread and twisted doughnut making the night before Yule! Phew! (77 images total and 1 video).
Thursday 07 December 2017
Bjarki playing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at the yule-recital.
Winter Worktrip #1 to Freezing Canada
[Photos taken on 26 November – 05 December 2017, posted on 17 July 2018. This post is being written at the OZO coffee stop in Longmont, Colorado, USA!]
In late November I went on the first of what would be three work-trips in a short span of time to a certain facility in Canada , where we were running experiments. Thankfully, for the first trip, there was still a direct flight to Edmonton, but I would not be so lucky with the next two trips. Oh well. It meant I got to visit Vancouver and Toronto, albeit briefly. (41 images total)
Sunday 26 November 2017
Yours truly sitting by the departure “gate”. The airport is now under so much construction that we ended up walking up through some maintenance stairwell to get to the actual gate!
November 2017 – Snow, Sledding, and Friends
[Photos taken on 03 – 25 November 2017, posted on 15 July 2018. This post is being written at the Javastop in Longmont, Colorado, USA!]
November, November…! A wall got painted in a complicated way, we visited friends, there was snow, sledding, and coffee house trips. Bjarki competed in group-gymnastics, and we happily attended a Thanksgiving feast with other ex-Californians! (70 images total)
Friday 03 November 2017
Once Emma got a pink wall in her room, Bjarki requested a blue one in his room. I went to get some samples (many weeks prior to this), and painted three large swaths of them on his wall. He couldn’t decide between the the colors, instead deciding that he wanted all of them, in large stripes!! This Friday I finally got going, using a slim wooden stick, 1/6 of the wall length, and a pencil, to make guidelines.
Winter Break Trip to the UK – Part 2 of 2
[Photos taken on 29 – 30 October 2017, posted on 30 June 2018. The weather is demoralizing.]
For our two remaining days in the UK, Finnur took the kids to a trampoline park (my Achilles tendon wasn’t up to the task) while I went shopping. Then we had a good time at the local playground. This page contains quite a few animated gifs which might need a while to load. (36 images total)
Sunday 29 October 2017
Cute photo of the siblings on the playground close to where (grand)dad lives.