That's a screenshot of my homepage at the Reykjavík University. Boldly assuming that the page might still be updated at some point I saw it fit to take a screenshot for the posteriority.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Facing the Truth
Yes, well, some of you may have heard me speak of the new Saara. She lives such a different life that sometimes I feel like another person altogeather. But even I didn't know that the change had been so huge.
That's a screenshot of my homepage at the Reykjavík University. Boldly assuming that the page might still be updated at some point I saw it fit to take a screenshot for the posteriority.
That's a screenshot of my homepage at the Reykjavík University. Boldly assuming that the page might still be updated at some point I saw it fit to take a screenshot for the posteriority.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Observations from the Sofa
Here's the first exception to the rule that when I'm not posting it's because I'm having too much of fun. Namely I've been ill all last week. And actually it's the first two exceptions since this week I've consequently been unimaginably busy.
But really, there's nothing to be sorry about since you've lost no great tales. The colours of the blankets and the flavours of the teas and the thickness of the socks aren't really universally interesting enough and even my blog has to have some standards as to how tiresome the ramblings can be. So contrary to the title this is not a post about observations from the sofa but rather a post about observations on how boring such observations would be. Which to be sure is much more interesting.
But here's a bonus photo taken today and representing the proud joyous feeling I get almost every time I walk outside. This is my hometown.
But really, there's nothing to be sorry about since you've lost no great tales. The colours of the blankets and the flavours of the teas and the thickness of the socks aren't really universally interesting enough and even my blog has to have some standards as to how tiresome the ramblings can be. So contrary to the title this is not a post about observations from the sofa but rather a post about observations on how boring such observations would be. Which to be sure is much more interesting.
But here's a bonus photo taken today and representing the proud joyous feeling I get almost every time I walk outside. This is my hometown.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Valentine Girls
Josy: "That one picture you'll delete, right. You know what I mean?"
Saara: "Erm. No. I'll post it online. This is Josy. She's my boss..."
Josy: "You're terrible!"
Saara: "...Not any more!"
Josy: "Ha! You know, we're both thirty today."
Saara: "No, I'm not! I'm 29!"
Josy: "No, you're thirty. I bought a "60"-candle. I'm thirty and you're thirty."
Saara: "That's unfair! And why did I get the smaller cake?"
Josy: "Of course I get the bigger cake."
Saara: "That's not fair!"
Josy: "Ok, ok. Let's swich."
Saara: "The bigger cake looks much better."
Josy: "No! I'm sure the smaller is better."
Saara: "No, I'm sure the smaller is actually quite bad."
Josy: "Eeeew. You're right. We'll swich back. I get the bigger cake."
Saara: "Why's there no dancing?"
Josy: "Why should there be dancing?"
Saara: "Well, duh? It's a party!"
Josy: "You want to dance? Great! I'll put some music and you'll dance for us!"
Saara: "No! I won't dance for you!"
Josy: "Why not? I'll get a costume for you."
Saara: "Josy, your costumes won't fit me!"
Josy: "Oh, I'm sure I have a costume that'll fit you! I buy so many and never have time to fix them all."
Saara: "I highly doubt that you'll have one that'd fit me."
Josy: "Ok, let's go and see, if I have a costume that fits you you'll promise to dance for us?"
Saara: "No!!"
Josy: "You're weird..."
Saara: "Yes, I am. But you're equally weird!"
Josy: "Of course I am. We have the same birthday!"
Saara: "Yay for valentine girls!"
Josy: "Valentine girls!"
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
And With Funny Videos?
Here's an often recurring scene. This happened on Thursday. The same Thursday I've been writing about the last three posts.
And here's a similar tale from Saturday. I spent basically the whole weekend inside on our sofa underneath two blankets and only taking two steps to the window when something very noisy was going on outside. Which was often enough to provide entertainment for the whole weekend.
This is from our kitchen window. The story actually began when the first car was being pushed to the street and then the pusher realized that the second car was having trouble as well and went to help them to get out but just then the first car got stuck again and all the people from the second car ran to help to push the first car and that's when the video starts.
Incidentally, I'm quite proud to have gotten the videos online since making the Google Video Uploader work on Linux seems to be quite an overwhelming task and in the end I had to give up and work on my Windows which in fact tells quite a lot about my dedication to my blog.
And here's a similar tale from Saturday. I spent basically the whole weekend inside on our sofa underneath two blankets and only taking two steps to the window when something very noisy was going on outside. Which was often enough to provide entertainment for the whole weekend.
This is from our kitchen window. The story actually began when the first car was being pushed to the street and then the pusher realized that the second car was having trouble as well and went to help them to get out but just then the first car got stuck again and all the people from the second car ran to help to push the first car and that's when the video starts.
Incidentally, I'm quite proud to have gotten the videos online since making the Google Video Uploader work on Linux seems to be quite an overwhelming task and in the end I had to give up and work on my Windows which in fact tells quite a lot about my dedication to my blog.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thursday With Pictures
This is Grettisgata. We live in the next corner.
Looks like a nice clear snowy day? Yes, quite right, and that is precicely what is so poweful and dangerous in the Icelandic weather.
Because this is what the sky looked like only moments after that. Esja was covered with a constantly moving white hat of clouds and the sky above was turning darker and darker.
And literally not more than three minutes later as I'd had time to walk down to the shore Esja had totally disappeared and the visibility was getting poorer and poorer. And the storm was gathering.
But I was wise enough to head right back home and not attempt to take pictures of the following blizzard. This is later in the evening when the snowfall had ceased and only the wind was making noise in our walls. You've seen the corner before, it's the view from our South windows (now you can even see Hallgrímskirkja (the church) in the background with it's christmas tree lights). If you look carefully you can see the wind as it's blowing snow just above the red car parked in the corner. And even though the wind bangs our windows and makes spirals of snow fly between the houses there is still continuous traffic in our cosy little home corner.
Looks like a nice clear snowy day? Yes, quite right, and that is precicely what is so poweful and dangerous in the Icelandic weather.
Because this is what the sky looked like only moments after that. Esja was covered with a constantly moving white hat of clouds and the sky above was turning darker and darker.
And literally not more than three minutes later as I'd had time to walk down to the shore Esja had totally disappeared and the visibility was getting poorer and poorer. And the storm was gathering.
But I was wise enough to head right back home and not attempt to take pictures of the following blizzard. This is later in the evening when the snowfall had ceased and only the wind was making noise in our walls. You've seen the corner before, it's the view from our South windows (now you can even see Hallgrímskirkja (the church) in the background with it's christmas tree lights). If you look carefully you can see the wind as it's blowing snow just above the red car parked in the corner. And even though the wind bangs our windows and makes spirals of snow fly between the houses there is still continuous traffic in our cosy little home corner.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Some More Snow
I'm giving up now. I've been trying to upload pictures to this post yesterday evening and during the whole day today but it doesn't seem to be happening. I think it's the storm creating havoc with the wireless. At least the lights are all blinking.
Yesterday there was no sane possibility to drive to Akranes and we decided to cancel the class. I had previously taken a taxi to Josy's place in order to help her get the car out but she'd managed to enlist the help of one of her polish neighbours and had already run some errands before I finally got there. In retrospect walking would have been much faster than first waiting for ages for the taxi and then driving around in the snow chaos. Josy still had one errand left and I hopped into the car. We were already running a bit late and considering the visibility of almost twenty meters in the vertical snowfall we decided that it'd be best to cancel.
So I walked home happily hopping in the snowdrift. Icelanders are really crazy drivers. It's not at all unusual to see cars driving with almost all of the windows still covered with snow and absolutely nobody clears the roofs before taking off. Hence depending on the snowfall all the cars drive around with 10-30 cm of snow on their roofs. It looks quite funny. Like they are little mushrooms.
There's a scene in 101 Reykjavík, where the guys take off with the car in a blizzard and just before stepping into the car the driver wipes with one hand a small round hole to the windshield. It was one of my favourite scenes but somehow it doesn't seem nearly as funny anymore.
Actually, this Wednesday I almost got hit by a car when I was waiting for the green light. I was standing on the side of the road in a huge intersection and this car comes sliding from the other side of the intersection all the way to the oncoming lines and onto the pavement. I had to hop aside in order to avoid being hitten. Crazy!
*** (snow!!! heehee)
So yesterday I heard that they were forecasting for today the worst weather in the last hundred years in Iceland. And what do I do today? I go out running to the beach! Yay! My god! I got completely soaked and was so happy I kept screaming almost all the time.
Well, the beach was really too windy. I was quite afraid that the blasts of wind would throw me to the sea or perhaps more realistically make me fall against the rocks. So after running all the way east along the beach I turned inland and navigated back in the shelter of the tall buildings by the shore. Which was in a way better because there was no slippery ice on the roads and no wind blowing sharp on my face. On the other hand there were ankle deep pools of icy water and piles and piles and piles of dirty snow everywhere. And at one point the wind blew so hard behind me that for a second I started running as fast as I could in order to be able to fly but then slowing down took all my strength. But quite luckily I didn't get blown away.
Yesterday there was no sane possibility to drive to Akranes and we decided to cancel the class. I had previously taken a taxi to Josy's place in order to help her get the car out but she'd managed to enlist the help of one of her polish neighbours and had already run some errands before I finally got there. In retrospect walking would have been much faster than first waiting for ages for the taxi and then driving around in the snow chaos. Josy still had one errand left and I hopped into the car. We were already running a bit late and considering the visibility of almost twenty meters in the vertical snowfall we decided that it'd be best to cancel.
So I walked home happily hopping in the snowdrift. Icelanders are really crazy drivers. It's not at all unusual to see cars driving with almost all of the windows still covered with snow and absolutely nobody clears the roofs before taking off. Hence depending on the snowfall all the cars drive around with 10-30 cm of snow on their roofs. It looks quite funny. Like they are little mushrooms.
There's a scene in 101 Reykjavík, where the guys take off with the car in a blizzard and just before stepping into the car the driver wipes with one hand a small round hole to the windshield. It was one of my favourite scenes but somehow it doesn't seem nearly as funny anymore.
Actually, this Wednesday I almost got hit by a car when I was waiting for the green light. I was standing on the side of the road in a huge intersection and this car comes sliding from the other side of the intersection all the way to the oncoming lines and onto the pavement. I had to hop aside in order to avoid being hitten. Crazy!
*** (snow!!! heehee)
So yesterday I heard that they were forecasting for today the worst weather in the last hundred years in Iceland. And what do I do today? I go out running to the beach! Yay! My god! I got completely soaked and was so happy I kept screaming almost all the time.
Well, the beach was really too windy. I was quite afraid that the blasts of wind would throw me to the sea or perhaps more realistically make me fall against the rocks. So after running all the way east along the beach I turned inland and navigated back in the shelter of the tall buildings by the shore. Which was in a way better because there was no slippery ice on the roads and no wind blowing sharp on my face. On the other hand there were ankle deep pools of icy water and piles and piles and piles of dirty snow everywhere. And at one point the wind blew so hard behind me that for a second I started running as fast as I could in order to be able to fly but then slowing down took all my strength. But quite luckily I didn't get blown away.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Missing You
I'm trying to find a piece of music just under five minutes. So I order all my tracks according to the length of the piece. Which gives me a rather weird playlist. Which I pretend to listen while I work on the probability course I'm supposed to be teaching in April. But the recurring surprises of old songs reminding me of familiar times and places distract me repeatedly from my work. And so I gaze up from my papers and think of old adventures and of old stories and of old dreams and of old friends. Including you.
Just letting you know that I miss you today.
Just letting you know that I miss you today.
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