Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Dusky Skies / Hat-Knitting / Ice-Skating Show

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[Photos taken 07 – 15 December 2024, posted online 26 April 2025. The rain is making the plants happy after a long draught.]

The march towards Christmas continued, with the promise of longer days soon. Christmas decorations had popped up everywhere, and I started knitting a hat to stave off doom-scrolling.

A lot of time was spent gathering, wrapping, and delivering things. We had dinner with friends, celebrated a birthday, I helped a brother hang things, and drove mom to the airport. There was a musical recital, fun at the gym, a sewing club, a passport application, as well as a second job interview!

One is rarely as busy as when one is unemployed!

Saturday 07 December 2024

The sky still orange-y at 20 minutes before noon, as the birds waited for food.

Decorations / Date-Night / Instagramming

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[Photos taken 01 – 06 December 2024, posted online 24 April 2025. It’s officially “The First Day of Summer” today, and it’s a public holiday! Somewhat unusually, the weather is actually quite nice!]

We were unusually “on top of things”, as Christmas decorations actually went up on 1 December, as I was taught is “proper”. I finally figured out that in order to actually implement a date-night, it helps to already have a restaurant booking, and to schedule said booking on a Sunday night, rather than a Friday, when everybody is exhausted.

Christmas presents started trickling in from Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping. It felt like I lost two weeks of my life this time around to gathering presents and wrapping them.

Our cars continued having all sorts of weird issues, and I now know some of the guys at the shop by name. Bjarki played at the music school, perhaps for the last time? Time will tell.

Lastly, I hosted an Instagram account for a day, trying to shed light on my life as a “woman in tech”. I also got invited to a job interview, which went well.

Sunday 01 December 2024

It was the first of four advent Sundays, and we got the special candle-holder set up and decorated.

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

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[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

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[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

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[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.