I'm Sigurrós

09:14 am - If you're ever travelling around Iceland

and happen to be visiting Snæfellsnes (where my beloved Snæfellsjökull (glacier)) is situated, I highly recommend staying at Hótel Búðir:



It is a bit expensive, though - not a problem when someone else is paying (as my company did last weekend during the annual company festival). ;-)




Oh, and long time no see. Have a great weekend. :-)

09:35 am - Reconnecting

Uh, hi, long time, no see, and all that. It certainly has been a while, eh? ;-)


Self portrait, of sorts

It's also been a while since I've delved into LJ. Since last autumn, I've been on a book reading spree and now rarely turn on my home computer. I've therefore lost pretty much all touch with most of you. Deplorable, I know, but that's just how it is. The no-computer thing at home has had the bonus of it being much easier to get to bed at night at a reasonable hour, and I'm pretty certain the added (and regular) sleep has greatly contributed to lessening the dreaded winter blues. In fact, I've hardly at all felt them (yet) this winter (maybe the 10+ pounds I've lost also contribute to that :).


I met a man yesterday - I don't think we have a future together, though

One thing I've been delving somewhat into though is Facebook - I never thought I'd venture there, but after having been summoned rather suddenly to a family gathering at the start of the year, I found that all the relatives attending the gathering were on Facebook (including my dad's only living sibling, and my half-sister).


As you can see, we're having a winter wonderland kind of situation at the moment

So I bit the bullet, so to speak, and joined. So far I've mostly just added relatives - I know that most of the co-workers are there also, but I'm not sure about going there because this all seems a bit daunting. So far, I keep getting lost (the "ooh, shiny!" principle of clicking and clicking until I've totally forgotten where I started or what I was going to to), but that's probably just like what happened at the beginning with LJ, and I'll probably get jaded soon. Or not. ;-)


Snow cloud passing through


In any case, I wish you all a great weekend.

09:37 am - It's Friday! Woohoo! ;-)

I got nothing new, no photos and no new developments - at least none positive, except that my ceiling finally stopped leaking some time last Saturday morning. That in itself is a "woohoo!" worthy thing, but on the negative side, my insurance company investigator still hasn't shown up to estimate damages, let alone repair anything.

I'm gonna take the liberty of plugging my favourite musician at the moment, Emilíana Torrini. This is the song that currently produces goosebumps for me (I hope this embedding thingy works):



And if that's too slow for you, there's this:



which always makes me smile. I understand that this one has been featured on Grey's Anatomy.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:31 am - Fun, fun, fun. Not

Yesterday morning, I woke up to an insistent "plop-plop-plop" sound. At 5 a.m. Something, somewhere above my apartment had definitely sprung a leak. Most of the water leaking seemed to flow through the box around my electricity fuse box, so I was understandably quite upset.

The inspector from my insurance company said that there's nothing they could do until the leak had been found and stopped - we couldn't find any obvious evidence of leakage in the apartment above mine (1st floor), nor in the stairwell above my apartment where we surmised the leakage originated.


Akranes, town across the bay

When my 2nd story neigbour finally came home after work, she checked her apartment, as well as the top floor apartment and no obvious signs of leakage were found. Later, after an inspector from her insurance company had checked, it was deduced that the leakage originated from her radiator system copper pipes, which required turning off the water to her radiators. Never a good thing to happen, especially in November - unfortunately she'll have to be without radiator heat until her pipes can be renewed. Sigh.


Reykjavik City Centre on a gorgeous winter afternoon

The leakage seems to have mostly stopped, except for the water that had quite obviously already collected above the ceiling in my hallway and is slowly leaking through ceiling, and I suspect, at least one wall. Now I guess I just have to wait until everything dries up, before tackling any damages. Sigh, again.


This was last week, before it started raining again. Sigh.

Oh well, I hope you all have a good weekend. ;-)

08:51 am - Congratulations America!

This is wonderful, and you've earned this. May the next 4 years (at least) be smooth sailing for you. :-)

09:19 am - Another Friday, and Halloween this time

A weekly blogger, that's me. But with photos, so that's something. ;-)


First morning sun (too bad the glacier wasn't more visible)

We had gorgeous weather yesterday. And since I took off from work after lunch (first blood platelet donation), I could enjoy it - took a long walk and clicked away.


Too near noon, I know (shot on my way to the Blood Bank), but I just couldn't resist :-)

Gorgeous though it was, it was also bloody cold - my bad knee got progressively worse as I got colder and more tired, and by the end of the walk, I was limping quite badly. And it took a very long and very hot shower to feel thawed out again.



But since gorgeous weather is rather rare at this time of year, it was definitely worth it.


I understand today is Halloween, so Happy Halloween to you Americans (and anyone else 'celebrating' Halloween).
And I hope all of you have a good weekend.

08:51 am - King Winter is...

in da house. He showed up earlier this month, early for the party, as it were (don't you just hate when that happens?), but was soon sent packing. But now it looks as if he's here to stay.





Ah, well, what are you gonna do? Yay? ;-)





I hope you all have a good weekend.

05:40 pm - Time for that pot of gold, doncha think?

It's been a weird kind of week - two weeks actually. And still I just can't seem to get too riled up about everything heading for the crapper - at least financially speaking. My mom says it's probably the family trait my aunt calls "mental laziness". ;-)




Apparently, today is my LJ anniversary - 6 years on here. I guess that's something.

Have a good weekend.

09:20 am - Things we take for granted

We kind of take indoor plumbing for granted, don't we?

Well, I don't any more - after having been without any for 3 weeks, I must say I very much appreciate having mine back. 'Nuff said. ;-)

Now to tackle the disaster that is my bedroom - although my sofa bed is kind of okay, I miss my bed.





I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:30 am - And yet another Friday rolls in (with photos :)

Maybe it's my imagination but there's a feeling of autumn in the air these days


During my blood donation yesterday, I was asked if I'd consider becoming a platelet donor - apparently I have those aplenty. I said whatever was best for them was fine with me, and I'll presumably be contacted in about 2 months for the first scheduled platelet donation.

They vant my blood. ;-)



My love for rainbows - even artificial ones - is a well documented fact ;-)


I am a bit apprehensive about the procedure, though - apparently it takes about an hour and a half at a time, while they drain (is that the right word?) the blood, centrifuge the platelets out of it (I think) and return the rest back into the body through the needle that has to be stuck up your arm the whole time. I've never been all that comfortable with needles, so having one up my arm for an extended time creeps me out a little. Has anyone tried this?



This is the current state of affairs with the renovations of Hallgrímskirkja - although the top scaffolding
looks quite cool, I am a bit bummed that the renovations won't be finished until September 2009.


I hope you'll all have a good weekend

09:36 am - I'm a bad blogger

It's been a while, eh? ;-)





I have nothing interesting to say (or show), so I'll just leave you with: I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:15 am - Last day before vacation, woohoo!

(Atlantis, art installation by Tea Mäkipää and Halldór Úlfarsson - for some reason this caught the fancy of the Internet (most likely through reddit.com) and in the week since this was posted on Flickr, it has become my most viewed photo, ever :)


Have a good weekend. :-)

09:23 am - A big earthquake sure gets the heart pumping!

We had one in Iceland shortly before 4 pm yesterday - 6.1 on the Richter scale. Actually, it was a double whammy - two almost simultaneous earthquakes that shook things up considerably, even here in Reykjavik some 35 miles away from the epicenters.

Thankfully, only 28 people were hurt (none seriously), but property damages were considerable near the epicenters, some of which resulted in deaths of livestock. Since then, there has been about one aftershake a minute, but they are decreasing, and things seem to be returning to normal.

Nature can be wonderful at times, but it sure can also be scary at other times.





Anything else that has happened this month (including my (very minor) first car collision) pales in comparison to the above. Still, I'm a bit excited that tomorrow will see the first of (hopefully) many roadtrips this year when I'm ferrying the 'rents to the farm in the north.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:26 am - Has anyone seen my groove?

This month's been a bit weird.

I've had two sewage blockages, and could have more in the near future - there seems to be a malfunction in the common sewage line out of the house I live in (probably related to the increasing dent in the pavement out front), and since I live in the basement, guess whose sewage blocks first? I'm fervently hoping it will be fixed soon.

I've had intestinal problems which required taking time off work - I still haven't found my appetite after the most recent one. Which, in a way, is good, I suppose, but I still kind of miss it, you know. ;-)

I finally received the outcome of the translation exam I took in February - I (quite predictably) failed. I don't think I'm interested in trying again in two years, but who knows?

I've taken very few photos - maybe it was inevitable, but I seem to have lost (at least for the time being) the urgency I used to have driving me to take photos, and I kind of miss that.

Normally, I would like some cheese with that whine, except that my appetite seems to have gone totally AWOL. ;-)





I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:40 am - By request (sort of) ;-)

( large behind the cut )

I worked on the fifth floor of this building for 5 summers, and I have long since stopped seeing this work of art, and thus tend to forget how cool it is.

I hope you'll all have a good weekend.

09:08 am - Sigga the sunset freak strikes again!

What can I say, I just looooooove them. ;-)


Hope you all have a good weekend.

09:26 am - Portrait of a 45 year old smiling spinster for a company website

Whoah, another Friday already. I'd say 'time sure flies when you're having fun', except it does seem to fly just as fast when you're not having fun. Not that I haven't been having fun, just saying. ;-)

I'm feeling so good these days that it's almost scary - it's such a relief to be rid of the winter blues, whether temporarily or permanently. I'm thinking permanently (at least this year :) since we're into summer now - yesterday was First Day of Summer here in the land of ice. Admittedly, it was a windy, cloudy and rainy (or at least shower-ish) day, but who cares? Summer! Woohoo!

I'm thinking that it was my new-found positive outlook on life that made me choose the smiliest photo of them all when choosing a photo to represent me on the company website:



Let's hope I won't come to regret that choice later - at the moment, who cares?!! It's summer and I'm feeling so good. ;-)

I hope you all have a good weekend.

09:14 am - Having no home computer is scary!

(weather's not been cooperating this week so I've only gone out once testing the new camera - much, much more testing is needed :)

Here's hoping the guys at the shop manage to fix my computer today - I do not look forward to a computer-less weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend.


UPDATE: Drat! No computer until Monday, at the earliest. What am I gonna do without a computer for a whole weekend? ;-)

UPDATE 2: Uh, wooohoooo?! They came through at the shop! :-)

11:54 pm - What's beyond flabbergasted?

Because, believe me, I'm there right now!

At the annual company celebration this evening I, along with two coworkers, was presented with a bouquet of flowers (which the cats are right now getting intimately acquainted with :), and a gift certificate, in honor of our long standing service to the company.

Right before the company I used to work for and the one I'm working for now merged, in July 2006, my 15th job anniversary came up. Nothing was made of this at the time, which I totally understood - even if the merger was planned and friendly, the first few months were a bit tumultuous with the two companies trying to merge into one unit. The result has been a company that is just awesome to work for, as I believe I might have indicated before. :-)

Oh, my gift certificate? My bosses certainly know where my interests lie, but never in a million years would I have guessed what the gift certificate was for: a Nikon D300 body! (see here if you don't know what that is - you know, I was daydreaming about this camera just earlier today :)

Is that awesome, or what? My company rawks, I tell you, rawks!

09:29 am - Checking in

Hi. ;-)





(The winter blues have been very persistent this year - am hopeful that the situation is improving, but can't make any promises. Despite the photo - which is almost a month old - there are definite signs that spring is on the horizon, and that's always a good thing)