twilight and twilight fans

Okay, so the more I read about the Twilight series, the more I realise I'm so not alone in being obsessed by it - the books, the movies, the audiobooks, edward, rob, jacob, bella, alice... I even read comments about the actors. But seriously, it seems like people with all levels of education are totally into Twilight - I laughed out loud at one fan's defense of the actors, about how they're real people with real lives, and about how we should stop expecting them to actually be like their characters, and all the celeb palaver, etc.

"People need to stop putting actors on pedal stools".

HA HA HA HA! ROTFL! Is that like some kind of shroom that makes you rush instead of hallucinate? Or like a racing rocking chair? AbsolUTEly LMAO!!!

RtR done

Well, the conference I was organising on 'Relating to Reflexives' in Reykjavík went swimmingly. 2 days of people yabbering about reflexives from all sorts of angles, including long-distance reflexives, logophoricity, methodologies, possession without overt reflexives, how to differentiate between core syntactic binding and non-syntactic coference, pronouns with local antecedents and more :D

We then headed around the Golden Circle (photos), with me acting as tour guide. Lots of hand-flapping during my retelling of the sagas, which I had neglected to brush up on. Dinner of steinbítur (world's ugliest fish = world's yummiest fish) down at the Hafið Bláa 'The blue sea' country restaurant on the south coast, near Selfoss I think. HIGHLY recommended! Food and views were exquisite!! (A seal and loads of birds watched us eat, through the floor-to-ceiling windows.)

I was very happy that my outside-in approach to binding for both Icelandic and Faroese was well received, since this is what I'm going to try to talk about at the LFG conference in July. Lots to do now!!

Good Friday, I'm miles away and missing you already...

I tell you guys what, I just had a MASSIVE Good Friday - I don't think I stopped smiling all day! It all started early, had to finish making the 2 batches of hot cross buns - one wheat and sugar free. Guests (Björn the Kraut from Icelandic class, Karl the Yank from salsa/beach going, and Linda, Auður and Björk who need no introduction) started arriving at 10am (yes, my god, I did a 'brunch'!). The hot cross buns went down a treat, special dietary needs and everything :D Woo-hoo, I entertained ALL on my own! And breakfast too, no less!

Björn, Auður, Björk and I then went to the beach (Linda went for a run), and it was blue skaaaies and sunshaaaine the whole time. 10 degrees! And 5 degree water! Even with the first day of summer still 2 weeks away!!

Then Linda, Auður, Björk and I went and had a lovely lunch (roast lamb, which the Ási's had had for dinner the night before, with me and Linda's uncle as guests, so I guess my Easter holiday started early). Me, Auður and Björk had to drive to FOUR shops before we found one open to buy bread, tomato and sláttur. It was very small-town, but also a nice little adventure :) (cos it had a happy ending you know).

Then the four of us ladies went and played some basketball (although we only found an open petrol station to pump up the ball at the SEVENTH place we checked!), which was really, really nice. Me and Björk vs Auður and Linda. I was pretty impressed with all of them, and the mini-rings was a good idea for Björk. It's really cool the way kids learn - I could actually put Björk's hands in the right positions for her to shoot, and she had a very nice shot when I did this.

Then the four of us watched Twilight together. Linda and I sighed together at Edward (he is SO lovely. and weird still. but still...), while Björk looked at us all funny throughout most of it, and Auður kept asking 'what's going on?' in every suspenseful bit, and checking how much time was left. (Björk is 10 and Auður is 14!)

Then Linda and I rushed out to Selja Church to see Bach's St Matthew's Passion or something, some Good Friday tradition. Of course we got lost on the way, even stopping in at the wrong church (there's no such thing as a Melways in Reykjavík, so everyone just points themselves in the general direction of the suburb and hopes - it does lead to a lot of driving in circles, but at least we had an excuse for being late to Karl's choir, that meant we didn't have to mention Twilight...). Karl the Yank was actually outside the church having a coffee when we arrived, we waited for a break between pieces, then went and listened to some really lovely music. One of the singers was Ási's cousin, naturally. At interval I met up with a lady from one of my Icelandic classes, a very happy, easy-to-laugh Dane, and we've arranged to go hiking.

So, that was my massive Good Friday. Just received an email from Tolli asking if I want to come over tonight, should be fun :) I'm going for a run in a bit, and I'm reading my Icelandic book at the moment. Tomorrow is chocolate day, I've bought an easter egg for myself from Luce, at 11am another one of Karl's choirs is singing in Hallgríms Church, and we saw last night that there still appears to be snow at Bláfjall :D

I don't think I stopped smiling all day yesterday, I had SUCH a lovely time. And it wasn't a so-insane-I'm-going-to-explode/i'm-feeling-bipolar kind of happy, I just had a really nice, balanced, SATISFIED kind of day. Luce is in Adelaide, with people I really like, and I know he'll be having a really lovely time too (assuming they didn't bring any viruses with them!), and that is also making me very satisfied and content. Only 8 weeks til I see Luce, it hardly seems like anything, a mere blip.

Woo-hoo, we should have sunny holidays with our friends more often!

(PS, we had a bit of a 'religion' discussion, which I think prompted every paragraph starting with 'And theeeeen...' Sorry!)

So much, yet so little has happened

Okay, so I've been back in Iceland since the end of January. I went straight up to Akureyri to play 2 games of basketball, both nail-biters (against the bottom team!), but we won both. Then I've been to 2 conferences, with the next one being the one I'm organising here in Reykjavík, and which is shaping up to be much bigger than I thought!

The basketball season ends this Thursday, which hopefully means my dancing season can start again. I've been to the beach nearly every week at least once, and I've even bought some neoprene boots and gloves to help deal with the 2 degree sea water (it helps enormously!).

Life without Luce here is a lot quieter at home than it was. I'm working up to having a party on my birthday on Friday, but it's a lot of effort on one's own, so we'll just have to see.

Just over 2 weeks ago I became addicted to Twilight, and read the books over this weekend. The strange thing is, while I am totally in love with Edward, rather than be WITH him, I'd like to just BE him. I think. Cos I think I'd rather be WITH Jacob. Hmm, maybe I am spending too much time on my own!

Finally, my abstract to the LFG conference just got accepted! Gah! That's supposed to be quite hard to get in! FOUR reviewers!! So that's in July - I'll be coming back to Australia straight after that, although I'm actually here in Iceland until June 2010. I'll just be commuting ;)

Áfram Jóhanna!

As the only Aussie in Iceland, this makes me *the* on-the-ground, live-as-it-happens Australian expert on Icelandic politics. Hahaha. Yes, if you have any questions about the new Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, you can ask me. Mind you, you could just listen to this 7 minute or so interview on the Radio Adelaide breakfast program and hear absolutely everything I was able to remember about her...
Radio Adelaide podcasts, "Iceland's New Prime Minister"

more iceland

So, I've just had a lovely 5 weeks or so back in Melbourne, and am heading back to Iceland today for another 6 months. Aaaand, I've just gotten another 12 month extension! My performance over my first year was called 'exemplary' :D Woo-hoo! But I've already gotten permission to do the second extension partly in Australia, so I'll be back in July before heading over again. So all those who haven't yet made it to Iceland, get your calendars out and see if you can't squeeze in a visit.

At home, heading home again

I've just bought my return flights back to Iceland. I'm leaving Melbourne on Wed 28th of Jan (after the Australia Day long weekend at the Prom), on the 5pm Singapore flight. Haven't decided yet whether I'll go straight to Reykjavik from Copenhagen, or fly the next day straight to Akureyri for my basketball games. But I've booked my home flight from CPH for Tuesday 21st of July. It was going to cost $8,000 more to leave on the Saturday or Sunday, so I decided I could cope with a couple of extra days summer in 2009.

While the 'summer' here in Melbourne has been rather pissweak, I have been pretty thrilled that all my friends have called me and organised to meet up with me - I feel like I've been flat out since mid-November and couldn't have organised a pissup in a brewery if left to my own devices (eg NYE on the couch, bed at 12:30). It's been great to feel I have friends who make the effort to call me - thanks everyone! XOXO :)

Canada, and HOME!!

So, it turns out that -35°C is too cold to go skiing or snowboarding with a large degree of comfort, and that -14°C feels positively warm in comparison. Hooray for the person who invented the little active carbon sachets that keep toes and fingers warm all day long! And hooray for snow-making, since even Whistler doesn’t always have oodles of snow.

So, Luce and I are now level 3 skier/rider respectively (where 6 is beginner and 1 is highest). I never really believed that I would ever have control over turns on a snowboard, so I am pretty impressed with myself. I can even negotiate moguls (slowly, and not very elegantly YET), so long as they’re not too massive, and there aren’t too many people. I am definitely go to continue ‘riding’, especially since it means Luce and I are now perfectly matched to hit the slopes together :)

So, 4 days at Whistler. The Peak-to-Peak gondola opened the day we arrived, and we went both ways on it, including a go on one of the gondolas with a glass bottom :) 440m above Fitzsimmon’s Creek between the Blackcomb and Whistler peaks, the whole trip of 4.4kms takes 11mins. Because I was wearing a helmet (as did about half of everyone I saw, even adults!), I planned that if something ‘happened’, I would hug Luce’s head to my chest and protect him. It turned out I didn’t need to do this, thankfully. Although it was a little weird, when, 2 hours later, we found out that the Blackcomb gondola tower #4 had snapped, and the only injury was a guy who whacked his head on the roof as his gondola fell. He should have worn a helmet, like me. Or had someone ready to hug him tightly, in case of emergency!

Finally, we’re home. I love Melbourne. The light is bright white, the sun is hot, my car is AWESOME (I have a volume control on my steering wheel!), my bike is EVEN AWESOMER (soft seat, smooooth gears, easy braking, COMFORTABLE angles, stiff frame, pannier, and there are new and newly paved bike paths going from my house to the shops in 2 directions), there are TREES absolutely EVERYWHERE, and they are all so beautiful with their slender trunks and blue leaves, and there is a strong feeling of connection with people, even those who are pushing trolleys around a carpark, because they make eye contact, they smile, they SPEAK (okay, we both mumble something no-one can hear, but you can tell we’re being friendly!), my clothes were washed and dried in a matter of hours, there is extra vintage extra tasty cheddar cheese OMG!, and I’ve eaten a month’s worth of nectarines, peaches (omg, so yummy!) and apricots in the 3 sleeps we’ve been home. Oh, and did I mention how COMFORTABLE my bed is? With 1,000 thread-count sheets, a firm futon mattress, just the right number of pillows that are just the right sizes, and Luce within hand-splatting distance for snuggles and reassurance in the middle of the night. And I have already borrowed two new audiobooks from the library. For free. And it's always daylight here, apparently ;) I love Melbourne.

on the road again...

So, we thought going home via Canada would be good - to go skiing, and to go 'with the sun' and all that. BUT. FIRST up our flight Keflavík-Halifax (Canada east coast) got diverted via Boston, because it's winter. Fine, we found this out 2 months ago. But THEN Air Canada changed the time of our Boston-Halifax connecting flight, so we had to spend the night in Boston. Again, fine, this happened weeks ago, and Luce persuaded them to put us up at the Hyatt for the night.

But THEN, our Boston-Halifax flight this morning got cancelled, so we got diverted via Toronto, and our planned 2 days in Halifax has dwindled to a single night. And seeing as how it gets dark at 16:30 here (in Halifax), there's no 'sight' to be 'seeing' even out of the aeroplane window.

We did try to skip Halifax and fly directly Toronto-Vancouver, where we're going skiing for a few days. It was very difficut trying to explain this to the Air Canada staff: "Why are you going to Halifax from Toronto if you want to end up in Vancouver?" -Precisely! Can you change our ticket. "Um, no. No. No, no. No." FINE.


Show bigger map

It turns out we have made about 5 friends here already, including a lovely couple who were about to tell their parents they were about to be grandparents. Wait for it... As they were hugging, the guy was going to say "Careful, you might squish your grandchild!" And... he did! Hahaha, nerd! I like Canadians :)

Perlan, oh Perlan

Well, Luce and I finally made it up to Perlan for a lovely buffet meal. Our friends Ási and Björk came all the way from Cambridge to join us, and we all munched happily on smoked salmon, turkey, prawns, rye bread, smoked salmon, rye bread, ice-cream, creme brulee, rye bread, smoked salmon and much much more :)

Perlan rotates slowly, and we did the usual lose our coats because they were resting on rails that our table left behind, and I have to say that, when we went to get our entrees and then headed back to our table, the expression on Ási's face at not finding our table where we left it was priceless! Hahaha :D

Yoko Ono's Tower of Peace moved slowly around us, as did the National Hospital, the under-construction Uni of Reykjavík, Öskjuhlíð forest, the airport and the Háskóli Íslands, all under an apparently starry sky (even if the stars were tiny lights on the inside of the domed windowed ceiling of Perlan!).

At Björk's insistence, we went for an after-dinner walk around the balcony of Perlan, which turned into a bit of a jog and then a run as the wind stripped all warmth from our bodies, even on just a single loop. Ah, Christmas in Reykjavík.

PS, Our party on Saturday went brilliantly. Luce made loads of lovely food and there were plenty of people. I was a little concerned we wouldn't be able to chill our drinks, there being no snow at the moment, but it turned out that the -5 degrees was enough after all to turn our fizzy drinks into slushies :)

This time next week, we'll be in Boston!