Lost ... and Found

So, despite my steadfast refusal to admit that I ever lose anything, and my firm conviction that it's only Luce who never puts anything away and who is thus the only candidate in our household for never being able to find anything, I've been having a rather rough time of it of late. Over the past week alone, I have lost my favourite purple fleece top, my favourite blue leggings that perfectly keep the bits of me between the bottoms of my thermal underwear and the tops of my shoes warm, my sparkly and practical flat dancing shoes and my keys which includes the special electronic key to get into my building at uni.

After a massive search which entailed me cleaning (not just 'putting things away') all of the kitchen, all of the laundry and part of the living room, Luce cracked it and refused to let me stay at home in his office any longer. He insisted upon yet another search of my bag, which I had pre-packed the night before to go to uni, and, lo and behold, my keys turned up in the very bottom. So, they weren't *really* lost, after all... Just nobody knew where they were.

And then, when I had decided that my purple fleece, my leg warmers and my dancing shoes must all be lost together, in the land where all lost tops, leg warmers and dancing shoes sneak off together to when your back is turned, I went to basketball training, and one of the other girls said, "Oh, you left your purple top at training last week - here it is." And then I went home, and in the process of putting things away for when Elisabeth arrives, my leg warmers magically appeared from the depths of a small pile of clothes - concealed by a jumper and pair of tracksuit pants. And THEN, my dancing shoes turned out to still be at the last place I had dancing! So, everything is now accounted for!! Luce wants to attach all of my personal items to me with a long piece of string, but I think that's highly unnecessary. After all, it's not ME who loses stuff...

But the last word in this story must be saved to say how much we like Reykjavík. How many capital cities around the world can you leave things behind at public venues, and have them waiting for you when you return several days later? (Compare Tönchen's D's hat which blew into the harbour, then was fished out by a stranger, and we found it sitting on the bench waiting for us 2 days later!) I love Iceland :)

What happened in August?

Wow, that was a busy August! Spent 10 days in the Faroe Islands, where I discovered that there is dialectal variation in their LDR use, from being way more liberal than Icelandic, in the Norwegian/Vestjylland Danish direction, to being more conservative than both Norwegian and Icelandic, although there is always a person restriction, in both complement and non-complement clauses, which I haven't found in any other Scandinavian language. Cool! We also made the news :) (Höski/Höskuldur Þráinsson is my supervisor, and he's the person you see most often in this clip. If you look closely, you'll see quite a few people you might recognise from photos and other places!)


Piotr and I went running all over Tórshavn, and Höski joined us one morning - photos are forthcoming, hopefully by next week on picasa. Luce came down for a couple of days, and I have to say that I really want to have a holiday on the Faroes - take a stack of books, and hit some isolated island (I'd like to go to Nolsoy - not too far from Havn) for a quiet week or two. Just thinking about it makes me yearn to go back! Also did a sea-swim with Ási, Theódóra and her husband Emil. Nearly killed me & T, while Ási and Emil just laughed. *sigh* at least we did it! (Photographic evidence forthcoming :) .) Oh, and the food was awesome, when they were able to find a vegetarian option...

Then Luce & I did the 10km run in the Reykjavik marathon, Luce around 45mins, me just under 54mins. I'm going to see if I can beat 50mins in the next one.

Then I went to Denmark for a conference - the NORMS Grand Meeting. Piotr and I went running each morning with Rakul, our Faroese friend who's a total legend. Höski and another Icelander joined us one morning, and the 3 of us went for a sea-swim on the last run. My talk went well, but I've now seen some of the people who are presenting at the conference I've big-mouthed my way on to in Lund in October, and I'm feeling rather intimidated!

On a lighter note, I got to catch up with a penfriend I've had since I was 15 or 16, who lives in country Jylland (Denmark) and who I last met 13 years ago. Her parents drove an hour and a half to meet me too (good effort by her 79 year old dad, who also lived in Reykjavik 50 years ago!), and I had a very lovely evening/night there. It was strange seeing someone I remember as a teenager looking like a woman, and with a full family, house, etc. She's got 2 kids the same ages as Tali and Ella, and the younger one had the same facial expressions and tummy-sticking-out as Ella, too! But it was also inspiring to meet up again with someone who is living how they want to live, helping run her community activities, and who I have a history with, even if how we met was completely accidental! (She was friends with a pen-friend of one of my friends in high-school!)

Then I went to København and met up with Anne and Steen and their kids, our friends from Iceland who recently moved back home. We went to the Tivoli, and saw a modern ballet of The Little Match Girl, which is one of my all-time favourite stories, and it was very very well done. I managed not to cry at the end, only just. We also went on as many rides as we could, and I went on the giant dropping ride again, scaring the pants off myself. It was great. I suspect I would really enjoy sky-diving :D I shook and giggled for about 5 minutes after the ride finished!

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that we had about a hundred visitors (Tönchen from Melbourne, Thomas and Katrin the Swiss Cheeses, Rosemary Luce's mum, Betty family friend from UK, JC and Jee from Melbourne Uni), with more on their way in a couple of weeks!

And finally, Iceland has night-time again. Not entirely sure I approve, but at least I've got one more summer solstice to look forward to up here...

That's all for now!