Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Let’s Go Outside

2020-05-16Friends, Us Standard

[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

Anna mentally limped towards the end of her quarter at school, but she made it in the end, passing all her courses with good grades. Since her school was all-remote between March and May, experiments had to be done at home, including this chemistry experiment on flow. (Her phone ran out of batteries so I ended up with a few photos on my phone.)

Meeting Other People Post Wave #1

2020-05-08Friends, Us Standard

[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

Anna and Bjarki eating dinner on our way out of town. Finnur and Emma had already gone ahead to house #2 earlier in the day, but we’d lingered in town to pick up library books etc.

The Tail of Covid Wave #1

2020-05-01Uncategorized Standard

[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

It’s impossible to blog about the year without knowledge about the Covid-19 status of Iceland. The blue bars are how many people were in isolation that day (i.e. confirmed infected), and the orange is the cumulative number of isolated people. The different waves are identified, and so is the beginning of May. Source: covid.is/data on 07 November 2020.

Homebound Walks, Gardening & Schoolwork

2020-04-15Us Standard

[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

Bjarki by the duck pond in our town. His photo school assignment for the day was to take pictures of three different types of birds. We got two types by putting food in our backyard, but when no more came, I drove Bjarki to the pond to complete the assignment.

Easter Day 2020

2020-04-12Easter, Us Standard

[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

Easter Staycation

2020-04-07Uncategorized Standard

[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

April gave snowing one more shot, and covered the ground with a bit of snow. Emma rushed out to make a new snow-person, but there really wasn’t that much snow to work with.

Snow-People Day

2020-04-05Emma, Us Standard

[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

Covid Peak #1 – We Stay Home

2020-04-01Uncategorized Standard

[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

The music school moved to online-only, and Emma’s spring exam was conducted via a zoom meeting! She did a great job!

Figuring Out a New Normal

2020-03-22Us Standard

[Photos from 22 – 31 March 2020, posted online 23 August 2020. We finally brought out the wood staining stuff, and got to work during this gorgeous weekend, me at house #1 and Finnur at house #2.]

It was weird not meeting any friends or family, it was just us for weeks on end. Emma met kids at school, but no such luck for Bjarki. We therefore let Bjarki hang out with 1-2 friends after his schoolwork was done, but that was about all the socialization that was on offer.

We ended up doing a fair number for workouts to let off steam, especially to begin with, but interest waned as the weather improved. Anna claimed the kitchen for epic baking sessions, I went on lots of walks to get out of the house, and scooters and bikes were brought out as the snow finally began melting properly. (55-ish images total)

Sunday 22 March 2020

The big kitchen project of the day was to make sopaipillas. We’d last gotten them when we stayed with Sarah and Augusto, and since there were no friends or family to visit, Anna and Finnur took this challenge head on.

Covid-19 Restricts Daily Life

2020-03-14Uncategorized Standard

[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)