Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Pruning Dead Branches / Driver Progress / New TV

2024-07-15Us Standard

[Photos taken 15 – 20 July 2024, posted online 10 October 2024. This morning we woke up to snow on the ground for the first time this season.]

Nice weather followed the abysmal weather, as it usually does. I decided it was high time to go prune all the dead branches from the hedge by our house, of which there were many. This task ended up taking multiple days, especially as the weather refused to settle, and kept swinging between extremes.

Bjarki’s e-sport camp summer job came to a close, as he only has a set number of weeks he could work via the town’s “work school” program. He therefore had all the time in the world to keep working on getting his driver’s license, which he did, finishing driving school #3, and his written exam.

I kept gymming, and slowly started attending actual gym-classes after my bad back-sprain at the end of May. Aside from all the occupational therapy inherent in cutting dead branches, I also did a stint of ironing for mom. I found it to be mind-numbingly boring, but the results were good, so I figured that was more important. Last but not least, I purchased a new TV for the living room, as our old one had gotten the thumbs down from Anna’s friends, and Finnur held an impromptu tire-changing lesson.

Monday 15 July 2024

Yet another project that had been on my to-do list for ages: trimming all the very dead branches from this old hedge of ours.

Ten Lovely Ladies @ Hveradalir & Gullfoss

2024-07-14Friends, Hiking, Iceland Standard

[Photos taken 14 July 2024, posted online 09 October 2024. It’s pretty out there.]

Our stay at Gíslaskáli (Gísli’s cabin) came to an end as the storm had finally passed. We decided to drive up to Hveradalir (“Fumarole-valleys” or “Geothermal-valleys”), where we’d attempted to hike to the day before.

On the way there we passed by the pretty Gýgjarfoss waterfalls (two rivers merging into one), passed the Highland Base area, and lots of pretty vistas, before finally oooh-ing and awww-ing over the Hveradalir area. It really is quite beautiful.

We then drove back to civilization, again getting thoroughly shaken on the long unpaved road back to paved asphalt. We stopped at the visitor’s center by Gullfoss (“Golden waterfall”) where a husband awaited us, to whisk his wife and another traveler off to a new adventure. We then drove back to the capital area, all quite happy with how things turned out.

Sunday 14 July 2024

Posing in Hveradalir (“Geothermal-valleys”).

Ten Lovely Ladies @ Gíslaskáli & Kerlingarfjöll

2024-07-12Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 12-13 July 2024, posted online 08 October 2024. Is everyone just fine with official US government websites being ancient beasts?]

A year ago, 10 lovely ladies went to Thórsmörk for a weekend, and had a fantastic time. The trip was such a success that we decided to venture out together again a year later, this time to Kerlingarfjöll (in ‘The Icelandic Highlands‘). To keep costs down, we booked 10 slots at a cabin a little ways out from the main Kerlingarfjöll base.

When the departure day arrived, the weather forecast for the area was pretty bleak with high winds and rain. We decided to go anyway, and instead of hiking on the first day, just spent some quality time playing card games and chatting. It was nice after the very bumpy ride on the road leading to the area.

On the Saturday we drove into the “Highland Base” area of Kerlingarfjöll, and set out on a hike. Mid-way we ran into people coming the other way, who told us that the pass we were heading for had zero visibility, was snowy and muddy, and not a good use of our time and energy.

We thus turned around, just as a massive rain-bank hit us, and ended up just lounging in the new “natural baths” at the new-ish fancy hotel, before heading back to our cabin. As the weather remained rather miserable, no other guests joined us in the cabin, which is set up for horse riders.

Friday 12 July 2024

After a seeming eternity on a bumpy road, we made it to our cabin in the Highlands.

Lovely Weekend / Gardening / New Sofa

2024-07-06Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 06 – 11 July 2024, posted online 06 October 2024. Still in gorgeous fall weather, but under siege by the accompanying viruses.]

We spent a lovely weekend in the summer house with friends, in amazing weather (it’s very much a lottery). Unfortunately, I was fighting some bug, so I slept for a lot of it…!

Back in town, I finally felt up to some gardening. I did my physio exercises, and hunted down a new sofa, before prepping for a weekend away with 9 other ladies.

Saturday 06 July 2024

Going on a post-dinner walk down to the lake.

Nick Cave & Colin Greenwood / Sewing Club Happy Hour

2024-07-02Concert, Friends, Us Standard

[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…

Projects Galore / Bjarki’s 17th Birthday

2024-06-23Friends, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 23 – 30 June 2024, posted online 25 September 2024. The mornings are getting quite chilly!]

Following a quick summer house chill, it was time to get to work on mom’s new apartment, while she was away in Sweden.

In between bursts of activity on that front, I kept building the veggie-box enclosures, although at that point it was clear they wouldn’t really be useful until the following summer. Oh well.

Aside from working on projects, I had a game-night, met a friend for lunch, finally met up with my physio for some solid guidance on fixing my back (use those glutes!), Emma started a new camp, and Bjarki turned a whopping 17 years old!!

Sunday 23 June 2024

Apartment Clearance / Jacob Collier / Hvammsvík / Woodworking

2024-06-15Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 15 – 22 June 2024, posted online 24 September 2024. Fall colors are everywhere.]

With mom in good hands in Sweden, it was time to finish the big mom-move, as in fully clear and clean the old apartment. It was a good thing I was out of a job, as I needed a few days to recover after each session.

There were a few big events, such as a Jacob Collier concert, visiting the Hvammsvík hot springs, an MBA graduation, and Stanford alumni get-together.

As we were feeling pretty happy with the prototype veggie-box enclosure Anna and I had designed and built, we got Finnur to source more wood, and then I used dry days to build more.

In between it all, I tried to visit the gym on weekdays, and slowly nudge myself back to health.

Saturday 15 June 2024

Walking home from a university graduation party a little past midnight. The weather was amaaazing!

Moving Mom / Physio Gymming

2024-06-01Friends, Hrefna's family Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 14 June 2024, posted online 20 September 2024. One job interview completed this week, just got notified I’d made it to round two, but lots of unemployed fish in the sea.]

June kicked off with a presidential election in Iceland, and for the second time ever a woman, Halla Tómasdóttir, was elected. The position is mostly ceremonial, with lots of meets and greets, but holds (very-rarely-used) veto power over new laws.

Then it was prepping stuff, followed by moving it, to mom’s new abode, interspersed with a few “adulting” tasks around the house like cleaning the garbage bins, and taking care of a leaky car tire.

My sprained back kept being fragile, such as when I re-injured myself bending down slightly to wash my hands. I was therefore banned from carrying stuff, and instead reverted to my old physio exercises to claw my way back to good back health.

We leaned hard on the kindness of friends to feed us, which kept us in good spirits.

Saturday 01 June 2024

Arriving at the local voting location. There was a steady stream of people, but hardly any lines.

Garden Build / Goodbye Controlant / Hello Back Sprain

2024-05-20Friends, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 20 – 31 May 2024, posted online 11 September 2024. Bjarki sprained his shoulder at parkour practice yesterday, we spent a lovely few hours at the ER to get a diagnosis.]

In a fit of activity, I dismantled the old veggie-box lids Finnur assembled a few years ago, that had sadly collapsed. Anna wanted a more accessible design, so we we went about designing, and building version two of the veggie-box lids.

In that spirit, I spent the last week at Controlant burning through a lot of energy, to finish what I’d decided I should finish. This was mostly fueled by eating ridiculous amounts of 85% dark chocolate.

After my last day, energy was still running high, one could even say there was a bit of a disconnect between body and mind, which promptly translated into lifting too much at the gym, spraining my back. In retrospect it was good that I essentially got sent into mandatory rest, I might have crashed and burned even worse if I hadn’t. Oh, and there was yet another eruption, and we secured a new home for mom!

Second Whit Sunday (Public Holiday) – Monday 20 May 2024

With the newly built lidded-veggie-box-top frame.

Spring Tasks / Concerts / Work-Wind-Down

2024-05-01Guitar, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 19 May 2024, posted online 10 September 2024. I have sent in my first job application in since I quit my job in the spring, as I finally stumbled upon a job posting that spoke to me.]

After the weirdly high number of trips abroad in March and April, there was finally a bit of peace and quiet to start on “spring tasks”. Branches got trimmed, planks were screwed, music was listened to.

I also struggled with how long I would stay on at my job, as my brain toggled between “really need a break” and “really want to finish these tasks”. As the month passed, my stress levels increased (quitting is hard!), and I tried to compensate by going to the gym, which helped a bit.

Finnur had a lot of errands to do at the summer house (new fire-place!), before departing for California on a work-trip, so I ended up cooking a lot more dinners than usual. We also started apartment hunting for mom, as her old apartment was no longer a good fit.