Vacation End, Regular Life Resumes
[Photos taken 15 – 31 August 2020, posted online 07 February 2021. Starting to notice daylight is stretching longer. Still no precipitation.]
We met up with friends at house #2 for the last weekend of the summer vacation, and then “returned” to work. Well Finnur did, but my desk got shut down due as it was closer than 2 m to the next person, so back to the front room I went, and tried to turn my brain back on…
Besides trying to boot up the brain, we finally caved in and got some wood staining done. Sport practices also began in earnest, while Covid simmered. (90-ish images total)
Saturday 15 August 2020
The Tail of Covid Wave #1
[Photos from 01 – 07 May 2020, posted online 07 November 2020. It looks like wave #3 is going down finally, but it could still go either way. The US elections still haven’t been called.]
Icelandic authorities decided to wait until after the long 1 May weekend to start easing off restrictions. That meant more gardening! But on 4 May we all let out a relived sigh and started moving about a bit more, and actually making plans to meet other people.
The school restrictions were also lifted for 10th grade and younger, so Bjarki finally went back to school (Emma never stopped going), but Anna had to tough out the last dregs of her quarter at home. (30-ish images total)
Friday 01 May 2020
Easter Staycation
[Photos from 07 – 11 April 2020, posted online 03 October 2020. Fall colors everywhere where the wind hasn’t blown them away, frost on windshields. Covid-19 is stubbornly sticking around, the current restrictions are keeping it at a linear growth. Expecting restrictions to be tightened soon.]
The chief police of the Covid response asked all Icelanders to stay put during the 2020 Easter vacation, as the hospitals were stretched to capacity with Covid patients, and they didn’t want extra traffic-accident patients showing up. It was turned into a public campaign of “Ég hlýði Víði” or I obey Víðir.
Being the obedient type of people we are, we thus stayed put, and tried instead to do the odd spring-type job at home. (60-ish images)
Tuesday 07 April 2020
Covid Peak #1 – We Stay Home
[Photos from 01 – 04 April 2020, posted online 20 September 2020. We’ve just entered Covid wave #3, ugh.]
As April began, the number of daily new cases of Covid finally plateaued, and slowly began decreasing. Meanwhile, we stayed home pretty much all the time (aside from my walks, and Finnur’s runs) and didn’t dare meet up with a single soul, although Emma continued attending school.
Even the music school became remote-only, and the annual spring tests were held through zoom and skype! (35-ish images total)
Wednesday 01 April 2020
Covid-19 Restricts Daily Life
[Photos taken 14 – 21 March 2020, posted online 22 August 2020. After a rainy August, we have a few sunny days before autumn hits.]
To begin with, Covid-19 got carried into Iceland mostly from people returning from winter-break ski-vacations. (The viruses got sequenced, and this article has a really good overview of how we got viruses from the entire world.)
From covid.is, the timeline in March was as follows
28 February First case of COVID-19 confirmed in Iceland. DCPEM declare the alert phase.
6 March First two transmissions within Iceland confirmed, traced to infected individuals who had recently traveled to Northern Italy. Alert level raised to emergency phase.
13 March Screening for the virus that causes COVID-19 starts among the general public. First cases of transmissions that could not be traced. A ban on gatherings of more than 100 people is implemented. Upper secondary schools (high schools) and Universities closed and operations of Kindergartens and Primary schools are limited.
14 March Icelandic authorities advise Icelanders from travelling and encourage Icelanders travelling abroad to consider hasting their return to Iceland.
15 March Results from screening indicates low rate of infections among the general public.
19 March All countries defined as having high-risk for infection. All Icelandic citizens and residents in Iceland arriving from abroad must undergo self-quarantine for 14 days.
22 March Minister of Health announces further restrictions, limiting on gatherings to 20 people or less. Sports clubs, hair salons and similar establishments are closed.
Bjarki and Anna did remote learning only from mid-March, while Emma continued attending school and aftercare throughout the school year (phew!). Finnur and myself also moved to working from home. It was quite the transition. (45-ish images total)
Saturday 14 March 2020
Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020
[Photos taken 31 December 2019 to 01 January 2020, posted online 05 July 2020. What a difference six months make.]
New Year’s Eve was a traditional one, with us hanging out with Finnur’s family at his parents’ place.
Happy New Year, everybody!? (60-ish images total)
Tuesday 31 December 2019
Painting Spree Before Christmas
[Photos taken 18 – 23 December 2019, posted online 06 June 2020. School has ended, now begin the endless camps!]
The bathroom finally became operational (yaaaaay!!!) but upstairs was a disaster area. With Emma’s room being almost totally empty of stuff after the big plumbing fiasco, I got the crazy idea to move her bed to a different wall, and rearrange the whole room. Just to up the stakes, Emma also requested one color for each wall, pretty please.
The only thing that saved this from being a total disaster was being able to take one day off and get a solid block of three full days to figure this out. (40-ish images total)
Wednesday 18 December 2019
Liverpool Beatles Tour & Trip Home
[Photos taken 02 – 03 November 2019, posted online 17 May 2020. Lovely day weather-wise, there will be gardening!]
Finnur’s been to Liverpool quite a few times to watch Everton play at Goodison Park. He was therefore in charge of planning, and booked a two-hour long drive-around Beatles-tour for the two of us.
The guide picked us up at the hotel, and then drove us around to the childhood homes of each Beatles member, showing us old photos and telling stories from their youth. We also stopped at Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, and the church where an Eleanor Rigby is buried.
We ate dinner with other game-bound Icelanders, but the morning after, I traveled back to Iceland, where I arrived late to a birthday party, and then examined the bathroom-renovation progress. (60-ish images total)
Saturday 02 November 2019
Vacation Ends & Ed Sheeran
[Photos taken 07 – 10 August 2019, posted online 28 March 2020. The world is still going down the toilet.]
After close to four weeks of vacation it was time to re-start life as usual. Emma began attending a gymnastics/play-camp, and us old folks went back to work.
Having lots of extra energy from all that vacation, we still managed to perform a few maintenance tasks around the house. It helped that the weather stayed lovely, but we could feel it getting colder.
At long last it was also time for the much-anticipated concert with Ed Sheeran! (35-ish images total)
Wednesday 07 August 2019
Days #0-1 in CO: Travel, Playground, Creek, & Shoes
[Photos taken on 11-12 July 2018, posted on 3 January 2019. Back to work yesterday]
For our summer vacation this year, we traveled to Colorado, to stay with our good friends Sarah and Augusto. They kindly housed us for two weeks, which was great! (25-ish images)
Wednesday 11 July 2018
