Nothing Really

Yesterday the clouds were soft blankets of blue and purple and grey when I sat in the bus on my way home. In the horizon, just above the mountains, there was a wide stripe of orange sunset and the mountains were white and distant and dark behind a haze of blue air. Just above there were holes in the clouds and clear light-blue sky was peaking through.

Why do I tell you this? It's nothing extraordinary I assure you, actually if anything the sky was a bit less interesting than usual. But I have time to write tonight.

I fell ill Monday night. That's always how it goes. Right when you're finishing your crazy crazy workload you get ill. So I cancelled my dance teaching and ended up spending an hour overtime helping my math students. Well, that's how it goes. To justify skipping one work but still going to another: I really felt like I could handle standing up and talking at the same time but not jumping up and down and yelling at the same time. That's the difference between teaching math and belly dance actually, pretty much the same otherwise.

So yes, I'm almost finished with my Probability and Statistics. Three more days next week. And then we'll see what other busy schemes will prevent me from blogging.

Redefining Busy

Did I complain about being too busy? I wasn't. Now I am.

But there's only two weeks or so left of this type of busy. I'm teaching an intensive course at the Reykjavík University. Math.

And I still have my dance teaching in Akranes. Did you know that? Maybe you didn't. I was going to write about it, you know. But it just never happened. I'm a half time dance teacher and a half time math teacher now. And no time student apparently. Well, except a dance student. Oh, and I'm learning Icelandic too.

Gonna be busy again now.

Pulla-swans

In Finnish the ducks (mallards I think, actually) that live in the urban areas are called "pulla"-ducks. Pulla being the extremely Finnish bakery that can in fact be found anywhere in the world. Why the Finns call it extremely Finnish, I'm not quite sure, it might have something to do with the amount of pulla that we eat or maybe we simply mean the distinct dry breadlike quality of the pullas that you can buy in plastic bags in any grocery store and that are without exception served at any meeting, celebration or house call everywhere in the country.

My point being that here in Iceland they have "pulla"-swans. And here's a video to cheer you all up. It was taken during Mari and Kari's visit.



It is Tommi, of course, feeding the swans.

Trucks Are Striking and the Traffic is Stuck

This is how it sounded like Thurday afternoon at our place. Watch with your speakers on since the sound is the main point, not the images. I would have added only the sound if I knew how to add sound files here... It is again, as so many times before, from our kichen window from which everything at all interesting seems to be recorded around here.



The protest was conducted by a whole lot of trucks driving snail speed in the middle of the lanes in the main traffic veins in Reykjavík. I did not actually see any of the trucks but on Tuesday I was almost late for my class in Akranes although I left quite early, we were driving 10 km/h out of Reykjavík.

The truck drivers are protesting agains the high gas prizes and the regulations on the lengths of permitted driving time without resting. They claim that the new EU regulations are not suitable for the Icelandic conditions. I quite agree. Try to drive in a blizzard of 22 m/s in complete dakness on an icy road twisting and turning between the mountains and the sea. I assure you this is nothing extreme yet. The locals still swish past 90 km/h.

TATFBW vs. TATFTBW?

As I am currently writing notes on basic statistics it seems only fair that I should also analyze my recent blog post frequency. As it happens it has dropped from my earlier "in average two posts per week" habit into a "barely one post per week" struggle. Now this has nothing to do with how many things there are to write about, or indeed how many things there are that one thinks one should or would want to write about.

I think what it has to do with is really the amount of time spent sitting down in one place at the same time. If one sits at work around eight hours a day, say, (as any decent office prisoner should) and then afterwards, say, at least four hours at home in the evening and especially if these times are spent by the computer, well, then the total amount of time favourable for blog writing (TATFBW) will be quite high.

However, if one spends only say two to three hours at most at the same place and moreover is not even spending it sitting down or as a matter of fact not even close to any computer, well, then the total amount of time favourable for blog writing is considerably lower. As it is, it might even be that there is no time favourable for blog writing at all during days like these.

This creates a bit of problem especially since based on my experience the kind of days with low TATFBW also tend to be days with an extremely high total amount of time favourable to thinking of blog writing (TATFTBW). Namely these kind of days contain a lot of getting from one place to another, which usually involves quite a lot of thinking of things to be done.

Having an odd eight hour day at the office I decided to increase the amount of blog entries for the ending month, but as I am realizing now, have forgotten to reduce the difference between thought of subjects and written subjects as this most certainly didn't turn out to be anything I had previously thought to write about.

Cold

Perhaps a month ago, or maybe even earlier, probably much earlier, probably when I was starting my Icelandic forces of nature series, well then, whenever it was, I wanted to write a post about coldness. I was quite tired of being cold all the time. It's not very warm in our apartment and the windows aren't very thick or the doors very tight. And it can be quite cold here sometimes, outside. Even if the temperature seems quite high it can be absolutely freezing. It's all because of the wind. There will be a post about wind later. I promise. The most important force of them all.

But about coldness. Our hot water was also broke for some time. Well, not in fact quite broke, we did get some hot water, but not very much by any means. As an example during the worst week filling the bath took 50 minutes and after the problem was fixed the bath was full in only 5. And if it is very cold, taking a hot bath is the only thing that can make you warm again, even if you have to wait for an hour to get in. And besides, soaking in hot water is rather Icelandic. As hot water is pretty much free here.

But I've also armed myself with blankets and icelandic herbal teas both of which I have written before. Here's a picture.

















And let me brag: There was some study recently that declared Iceland as the most expencive coutry in the world. And still I managed to buy the blankets for 400 ISK each and the tea mugs for 100 ISK each. Pretty good, eh? As 100 ISK is about one euro.

And yes, I know I've been silent lately. My mum's visiting. And there's way too much work. This post was half written earlier and I just felt sorry for my readers tonight, that's why I got it up.

But don't worry about me freezing my ass off here, the summer's coming, I'm sure of it. Just the other day I had to turn on the cold air in the car... For whole five minutes.

Visitors

It feels like every other week somebody is visiting. Not that it's unpleasant in any way. But we have aqcuired a homey routine that does not include thinking about excursions, museum opening hours and sightseeing. And trying to remember and understand the visitors' hopes and expectations makes me quite confuced sometimes.

The weekend over a week ago we had Mari and Kari camping in our living room. Mari is our god child and Kari her father. What do you call the parents of your god child anyway? We had a super fun weekend.

Oh, and to clarify, yes, I'm indeed a pagan and we are not her god parents in any religious sense. And yes I know that I'm using the word pagan wrong. Rather I mean that I'm not a Christian as opposed to most Finns. But in Finnish it's possible to use the word meaning irreligious. (Go ahead and check Wikipedia if you don't believe me: "Arkikielen käytössä sanalla tarkoitetaan nykyään uskonnotonta ihmistä.") And what ever do you mean that Wikipedia does not represent the ultimate truth?






















Aaanyway, pictures again at Picasa. And they come with captions so no more babble here. In the picture above: Mari at the Blue Lagoon.