Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

New Eruption / Elly@Theater / Brass Orchestra Concert

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[Photos taken 21 – 30 November 2024, posted online 30 March 2025. It’s confusing blogging so far backwards, just last night I forgot it was already 2025 after writing 2024 one too many times earlier that day!]

On 20 November 2024, the seventh eruption in the Reykjanes-Sundhnúka-volcanic-eruption-series began at 23:14 UTC (which is local time). The morning after I got a few photos of the plume.

That same day I had tickets to the theater, and then life just stumbled onwards in flashes of the same as usual. Christmas shopping loomed large in my mind as Black Friday/Cyber Monday arrived, but I managed to keep going to the gym. I finished the month of November at a brass orchestra concert, and by voting for a new government.

Thursday 21 November 2024

Airplane fresh from take-off from Reykjavik airport, and the volcanic plumes in the distance.

Knitting Headbands / Wardrobe Updated / Gymming

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[Photos taken 11 – 20 November 2024, posted online 30 March 2025. There was a partial solar eclipse this morning!]

There were forest walks and hanging out at one of the universities, shuttling kids, a new monitor that surprisingly had opinions, repeated starts of a second headband, impromptu dinner with a friend, a long-ago organized lunch with Finnur’s family, gym attendance, finally finished updating the wardrobe situation for our linens, paid attention to Emma’s hair-styling adventures, and attended a sewing club.

Monday 11 November 2024

Nature bathing, and spotted a bent tree.

British Museum / Hannah Gadsby / Bluewater

2024-11-08Hrefna's family, UK Standard

[Photos taken 08 – 10 November 2024, posted online 16 March 2025. Spring is in the air! Predictably the garage calls out for a spring cleaning, but I just don’t wanna!]

Hannah Gadsby was kind enough to bring both Douglas and Body of Work to Iceland, but when it became clear that Woof would not grace our shores, I caved and decided to use it as a good excuse to visit London for a weekend, all by my lonesome self, staying at dad’s and Shirley’s place.

I decided to expand on the day of the show a bit, and started out at the (somewhat controversial) British Museum where I oooh-ed and aaahhh-ed over shaped rocks and metals from very long ago. I then scarfed down an uninspiring hamburger and fries for dinner, before having a grand time at the show. I just barely caught one of the last trains back to home-base, but it was a very good day overall.

The following day we ventured to the Bluewater shopping center, where I vaguely recall finding a few things, but as I was traveling with hand-luggage only, my space was limited. The following morning, dad dropped me off at the airport, and that was the end of my long weekend.

Friday 08 November 2024

Yours truly outside the British Museum. It’s free, but you should sign up for timed tickets in advance.

Winter Arrival Prep / Forest Walks / Solo UK Trip

2024-11-01Friends, Hrefna's family, UK, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 07 November 2024, posted online 09 March 2025. Bright sunny-but-chilly weather outside. The days have gotten longer, it’s now bright outside when we leave the house in the mornings, and well past dinnertime. ]

It started getting chilly in November, which meant feeding the wild birds.

There were two birthday parties in one weekend, that week I gymmed, gamed, and walked in the forest a lot, also knitted a headband, gave a car some love, before getting on an airplane to London on a Thursday, to see a show there the following evening.

Friday 01 November 2024

Enjoying the cheap nature tv in our backyard.

Downtown Brunch / Stina Concert / Halloween

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[Photos taken 26 – 31 October 2024, posted online 19 February 2025. I’m still sick, spent most of yesterday horizontal, and there is very little braining going on.]

We had a gift-card for brunch for two from Christmas, and managed to get some friends to join us downtown. Afterwards we perused the Kolaportid market.

I helped install yet another laundry system, tried to solve a drawer-ful design-riddle, did some nature-bathing by walking among trees, there was a lovely sewing club, and I attended the release party of my old classmate Stína,

Then, all of a sudden, it was Halloween!

Saturday 26 October 2024

Squinting into the sun outside the brunch restaurant.

Functional Fireplace / Hvanneyri Folf / Data Funsies

2024-10-19Friends, Uncategorized, Us Standard

[Photos taken 19 – 25 October 2024, posted online 18 February 2025. I’ve caught some virus, which has me in a limbo of body is sick/not-very-sick but my brain isn’t really braining. Expect weirdness.]

Finnur’s year-long project to replace the open fireplace at the summer house with an enclosed one, finally got almost completely finished, with the help of some good friends. Before returning to town, we visited the frisbee golf course in nearby Hvanneyri with Emma. It was a good one!

Accepting my friend’s offer to come play in her data-playground, I got busy restarting the coding part of my brain. Turns out the AI Github Copilot is amazeballs.

Saturday 19 October 2024

Music-Theory Walks / First Snow / Odd Jobs

2024-10-09Us Standard

[Photos taken 09-17 October 2025, posted online 15 February 2025. Daylight keeps increasing every day, it is still bright outside until almost dinner…!]

The job market was pretty sad, so all I could do was just keep my eyes open. Meanwhile I kept busy doing various things at home, and elsewhere. I also managed to go out on walks to enjoy the autumn colors during Emma’s weekly music theory class, and had good sessions at the gym.

We woke up one morning to a bit of snow on the ground, which was ominous, but not unexpected.

Wednesday 09 October 2024

Late-fall foliage on a walk while Emma attended a music theory class.

EE Undergrad 25th Anniversary / Appointments / Knitting

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[Photos taken 01 – 07 October 2024, posted online 01 February 2025. Life’s been busy, but maybe it’s settling down now for a bit…? I started a new job on 07 January!]

The job market in Iceland was rather sad and slow, so I kept being unemployed. Life kept on happening though, and I never managed to get bored. There were always more things to do!

Cases in point: doctor’s appointments, a lunch-seminar, knitting, gymming, celebrating 25 years since finishing EE undergrad, a visit to the summer house, gaming, and going through old crap.

Tuesday 01 October 2024

Downtown-ish with Emma to visit her orthodontist.

Fall Colors / River Walks / More Knitting

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[Photos taken 22 – 30 September 2024, posted online 16 December 2024. Woke up to about 5 cm / 2 inches of snow on the ground. It lightens up the city so I hope it sticks around!]

The pretty shrubs in the back-yard were too tempting not to take photos of. More nature was found by a lovely path along the river close to the music school.

Odd jobs were a-plenty, such as car cleaning, more garage-purging, veggie-box-area-clean-up, epic-failure of a shelf-hanging, studded-bike-tire time, drainage-unclogging, cozy-sweater-hunt, sub-closet-cleaning, and most evenings were spent happily knitting to stay away from doom-scrolling.

Oh, and we finally got our act together and went out on a date-night!

Sunday 22 September 2024

Every time I take my macro lens out for a spin and take hand-held photos, I always regret not bringing the tripod along for that extra bit of sharpness. So these are just fun photos, and I know they’re not “up to standard”.

Lady-Living / Hiking The-Other-Skálafell / Concrete Surveillance

2024-09-13Friends, Hiking, Us Standard

[Photos taken 13 – 20 September 2024, posted online 13 December 2024. Warm weather has washed all ice and snow away, so today it’s just cold and dark. Only 8 days until the days start getting longer...]

One of the sewing club members kindly invited us all for a sleep-over at her estate, a hop and a skip outside the capital area. The afternoon-weather was gorgeous (it turned miserable the following day) and we had a lovely time, managing to celebrate a birthday.

Two days later day I joined another group of ladies to hike up a mini-mount (Skálafell á Hellisheiði). That week Emma got a plan to align her teeth, I met old coworkers for dinner, checked out the massive construction going on by the music school, and the small scale fiber-optic-laying-stuff by our house.