Doggy-Time, Football-Meet & Vacation-Awaiting
[Photos taken 02 – 16 July 2020, posted online 31 December 2020 09 January 2021. Here’s hoping for a less bonkers 2021…! Hahahaha! 2021 clearly isn’t going down in the which-year-was-most-crazy competition without a fight! (See US news) But local covid-19 restrictions are being loosened next week, yay!]
We timed our summer vacation to coincide with Anna’s vacation, as she only had a summer job for 6 weeks. In practice, this meant the first half of July was spent waiting for a vacation.
The biggest event of the fortnight was Emma’s big football tournament, a yearly 4-day-long event hosted by her club for about 2400 girls from all over the country. Restrictions had loosened enough to host it, but it essentially turned into three near-co-located but separate, simultaneous tournaments.
We repeatedly visited the puppy in the west end of town, and the mostly lovely weather made spending time outdoors a joy. (65-ish images total)
Thursday 02 July 2020
Bjarki Turns Thir-TEEN Years Old
[Photos taken 28 – 30 June 2020, posted online 28 December 2020. I’m on vacation until the new year, with no plans. First Covid-19 vaccine boxes landed in Iceland this morning. ]
Bjarki is now officially a teenager. We celebrated by hosting two parties, one for each family, a day apart. Thankfully the weather cooperated. (30-ish images total)
Sunday 28 June 2020
A Taste of Normal Life
[Photos taken 16 – 27 June 2020, posted online 27 December 2020. Hope you all had a lovely yuletide!! ]
With Covid all but gone (for the time being) people gatherings resumed (often on a smaller scale), gyms and restaurants reopened, and life in general went mostly back to normal. The weather even played nice!
We attended two graduation parties, Emma went from all-day gymnastics camp to horse-camp, while Bjarki went to 2.5 hour long gymnastics practices four times per week, as he’s now aged out of the camp-scene. Anna did odd jobs at the local library, tended to her veggies, and the puppy Spori.
We helped my brother Pétur and family move into their new apartment (very exciting!) which meant a very satisfying Ikea-assembly dosage for yours truly (me!). (55-ish images total)
Tuesday 16 June 2020
Jogging, Planting, & Dog-Sitting
[Photos taken 01 – 14 June 2020, posted online 23 December 2020. Yule is just around the corner, Covid refuses to leave, rainy storm predicted tomorrow.]
Finnur began going out for keep-in-shape runs when his old-boys football practices got shut down. I mostly did home-exercises and walks, but one day I decided to see if I actually could do a bit of jogging… and it turns out I did!
My history with jogging has been littered with injury. It was only in my “old age” that I started actually enjoying going outside for a jog with a good podcast, but since then there’s been plantar fasciitis, ankle breakage, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, and iffy hips. Physical therapy has helped with some of that, but lifting weights has strengthened the whole system, and so… jogging is again a possibility.
We also finally finished making veggie growing boxes for Anna, but the plants went in a bit late, so the fall harvest was not super. Anna also spent a a lot of time with Spori the puppy, as her summer job only began on 9 June. (60-ish images total)
Monday 01 June 2020
Summer Flowers, Veggie-Boxes, & Office-Return
[Photos taken 23 – 31 May 2020, posted online 15 November 2020. Started playing a new video game last night, Creaks, for the first time in ages.]
The last week of May was a flurry of more gardening activity. We returned to the office, went to the library, checked out the new puppy, and even went to a graduation party with lots of people (gasp!). Bringing covid numbers down is totally worth it! (50-ish images total)
Saturday 23 May 2020
Let’s Go Outside
[Photos taken 16 – 22 May 2020, posted online 14 November 2020. Covid-19 is on a steady decline in Iceland, the ground is white with frost, but little actual snow yet this fall.]
We kept being careful, and not meeting that many people, or at least we tried to make sure we let some time pass between meet-ups.
I kept working from home, Anna’s school came to a close, and the music school ended with a bit of a whimper as all school concerts were canceled. But the weather was good, and I explored new walking grounds. (50-ish images total)
Saturday 16 May 2020
Meeting Other People Post Wave #1
[Photos from 08 – 15 May 2020, posted online 08 November 2020. Biden has been announced as the next US president. Covid-19 seems on a decline in Iceland.]
For the first time since March, we made plans to meet other adults! Our friends Ragnar & Agnes came up to house #2, which was sort of a neutral ground, virus wise, as we hadn’t gone there since February. We topped the weekend off by attending a birthday PARTY.
Other than that, life just sort of muddled onwards with the usual spring-tasks, and weather that oscillated between muggy and bright. (45-ish images)
Friday 08 May 2020
Homebound Walks, Gardening & Schoolwork
[Photos from 15 -30 April 2020, posted online 18 October 2020. Bjarki and I spent all of last week at house #2, in quarantine, as a teacher at his school got Covid. On Friday he tested negative, along with all his teachers, so he’ll be returning to school on Monday. We’re knee-deep in Covid-wave #3, two weeks of rather strict restrictions are behind us (20 people max in a room, 2 m apart, salons, gyms, bars, etc closed) and have 2-4 weeks to go still.]
The second half of April was a mixed bag. Emma kept going to school and aftercare, which made our lives easier. The rest of us worked and learnt from home, and aside from that all I did was go on walks and garden apparently. As the days got longer, the kids began going out to play with other kids and Anna got her practice driver’s license, and we tried to remember to let her drive. (80 images total)
Wednesday 15 April 2020
Easter Day 2020
[Photos taken 12 – 13 April 2020, posted online 04 October 2020. Covid-19 refuses to go away, so restrictions are being tightened tomorrow: max 20 people in a space, 1 m minimum distance, gyms, pubs etc shut down.]
Finnur’s parents have always hosted an Easter Day feast, but this year they spent the day in self-isolation. We therefore spent the day at home.
To lighten the mood, Finnur made an egg treasure-hunt for the kids, and then he hosted a social-whist tournament of sorts online for his side of the family. The day ended with us overdosed on chocolates, and stuffed after a fancy meal (40-ish images total)
Easter Sunday 12 April 2020
Snow-People Day
[Photos taken 05 – 06 April 2020, posted online 26 September 2020. Covid wave #3 is in progress, but contact tracing and quarantine being used more than strict restrictions which are still at 200 people per space, strangers 1 m apart at minimum.]
We woke up one April morning to the results of a massive overnight snowfall. It turned out it was perfect snow-people making material. (40-ish images)
Sunday 05 April 2020
