Yet another challenge Throughout the past few years I've set myself up to a few challenges, sensible or not. These challenges, almost all related to exercise, were of varied degrees, realistic goals or even with a fair timeframe. There was the I'm going to start biking to work, no matter the weather - a challenge that worked out pretty good and lasted much longer than I expected. Three months later there was the I'm going to bike to the summer house work trip and back and shortly after that the I'm going to participate in the 60 km Blue Lagoon mountain bike race. All of these within the first 6 months of starting exercising on a regular basis again. I managed all of them with varying success of course. But I finished. The following two years brought on a 10 km run, another Blue Lagoon challenge, biking between two glaciers and biking the most popular hiking trail in Iceland. All finished. And now, I've challenged a colleague to a fitness feat. This time around, it is the 100 day burpees challenge. In this, we aim to do a 100 burpees within 20 minutes on the 100th day of the challenge. In the days leading up to it we start by doing one burpee, adding one every day after that until we reach those 100. What is a burpee you ask? Well, a burpee is a full body exercise that tests both strength and aerobic ability. To perform, you start in a standing position (as per above photo), squat down and put the hands on the ground in front of you, kick the feet back to the starting position of a push up, lower your chest as you would in a normal push up, up again, kick your feet forward and then finally jump as high up as possible. Then repeat. 99 times. In 20 minutes. This challenge is quite popular these days in the CrossFit scenery but has also been used extensively in marine training from what I can gather. There actually several very good exercises that follow a similar philosophy in CrossFit but most are of a similar degree, i.e. murderously hard! We started on the 21st of February and so today was day 14. Now, 14 burpees might not sound like a lot, but believe me, I'm starting to feel them. Wish me luck... I'll need it.
Heading back from the land of beef After nearly two weeks of blizz in the American South I'm in Frankfurt overnighting before my flight back to to Jeddah. Had a great time in Argentina and managed to do quite a bit. More on that later but for now I'll have to hit the gym like never before and drink water and eat cucumber only to get rid of all this beef that is hiding my immensely muscular structure. I won't be posting a picture of the belly. Just imagine a blimp. I'm the globe below it.
Fighting the brave battle We've been pestered lately on the compound by an insane amount of flies. Specifically the harmless housefly and unfortunately, mosquitos. I am one of the lucky few that the mosquitos not only love, but look at as a feast. They come to me as if I was the last source of blood on earth, and leave me with beautiful bumps that scream for some scratchy scratchy. This has made me so paranoid that I can hardly sleep. And when I sleep, I dream about being bitten by mosquitos. So I went to a pharmacy here in Jeddah hunting for some cream or spray to relieve the itching or repel the thirsty creatures. Once there I was offered two options; a spray that repels for 20 riyals and a cream for healing for 10 riyals. The cheapskate me (and due to my suspicion of such repel sprays) I went for the cream. A couple of nights later I was going crazy from all the itching and decided to try out the cream. Just to be safe, I read the accompanying leaflet to find out about the side effects. It only listed one (actually, it referred to the side effect as "undesirable", which side effect isn't?): itching!! Talk about a no-win situation...
Long Way Round I acquiredLong Way Round the other day and just finished watching all 10 episodes. A great series that is. I've always been fascinated by long and demanding journeys that people take on. In this mates Ewan and Charlie decide to ride into the sunset heading east, going around the whole world in 3 months. Starting out in London and ending in New York some 115 days later they crossed countries like Slovakia, Mongolia and parts of Russia. They rode the Road of Bones, visited kids affected by the Chernobyl disaster and spoke to a crazy woodsman who fought his own forest fire in Alaska. An amazing story told by two guys on BMW bikes on the dirt roads less traveled. Highly recommended. Next up, second series, Long Way Down - John o' Groats to Cape Town.
Blues They call it winter blues, or winter depression. A mood disorder otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder - or, more brilliantly, SAD. I'll leave it up to you, beloved reader, to read more about it on various websites but if anyone is looking for a cure, there are special light therapy lamps that help battle the accompanying mood troubles. ... And so it was, a couple of weeks ago, I went on vacation to Iceland. Yup, first time I ever went to Iceland for a vacation. And how great it was. I met up with a ton of family and friends, ate a shameful amount of food and cursed the crisis. A normal day in the life of an Icelandic person. I find it hard to describe the visit to my country as it blends together a bit. We did try to do some shopping but unfortunately the prices in that bloody country have just risen too high. Even with American dollars under the belt. Flor had left Jeddah a week before me as she was doing the bi-weekly rosters for the cabin crew and chose to use the chance to do them in Brussels where we have a small outstation. A friend of hers is working over there, one who we met in Brussels back in November, and Flor could stay with her there. This also allowed her to jump over to Paris for a weekend to meet another Argentinean friend who is working there. I traveled up to Iceland alone but as luck would have it, my flight from Brussels to London was delayed so I missed the Icelandair flight home. I therefore had to spend one night a the Renaissance close by Heathrow which, incidentally, was smack full that night due to three weddings. Not a quiet night. As I had worked quite a bit in the week leading up to it I was absolutely dead which could mean only one thing. Oversleeping. Add to that some confusion in my head about the time difference so when I finally woke up I was certain I had missed the flight. I rushed to the airport and found out that check in had closed. I pleaded with the lady to let me check in who reluctantly agreed after the sobbing story of mine that I had been away from my beloved country this long. As the economy seats had filled up during check in she was forced to put me in business class. I didn't complain but she felt compelled to let me know I didn't really deserve it since I was this late. As mentioned before, the trip was made up of events of eating. I can't even imagine how much I ate, all I know is that I added some kilos to my belly. I did also manage to hit the gym a couple of times and go for two runs or so - more to enjoy that part of my old life there than to actually exercise. I spent a couple of days in the studio, updating the computers there and catching up with the arty people. Met up with most of my friends and the major part of the immediate family. Took a quick trip to the movies, to see Inglorious Basterds - a movie my father, my brother and me enjoyed quite a lot while Flor was hindered to enjoy it as much due to Icelandic subtitles and foreign spoken languages. She did get a nice nap out of it though! The one thing I couldn't do was take a quick drive in my old car, a dearly missed friend. Towards the end of the trip I was lucky enough to get a couple of shifts covered so I could add two days to the trip. Much needed although it meant I had to travel again through Heathrow (horrible airport now a days), wait there some 8 hours and finally travel on Saudi Airlines in monkey class for the nearly 7 hour flight down to Jeddah. Added to that I was homesick as soon as the aircraft took off from Iceland. Can't wait to go again, whenever that may be. ... As for SAD, I wish there were lamps that brought on a little bit of SAD when desired. Call it a mix of being homesick and a masochist.
Prague Long overdue, I know, but finally I uploaded an album from our trip to Prague. Click here to see. I had written some stuff on the trip somewhere but can't find it now. I'll have to write it up again and post it. Until then, the pictures will have to tell the story.
I've stumbled upon driving heaven So, on my crawling around the internets I've stumbled upon a beautiful piece of road for driving enthusiasts. This windy stretch of tarmac, set in a mountain close to the largest stretch of sand in the world, is simply too tempting. Located the Jebel Hafeet Mountain near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates the road covers roughly 12 kilometers and offers 60 corners over 1200 meter elevation. UAE, that is practically in my backyard!!! Getting to Al Ain is not the hardest thing in the world. In fact, it is about an hour's drive from Dubai, and 20 minutes more if you are in Abu Dhabi. It just so happens that Dubai is roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes from Jeddah by plane. Of course, my research went on as I actually got quite excited about making the effort to try the road out. The shame about Dubai these days is that it has gotten insanely expensive. With a destination like the Jebel Hafeet mountain road you do want some nice accommodation but that won't come cheap. I hear however that there are far fewer tourists than before so maybe the Burj Al Arab has special offers going on. However, a bed won't be the most expensive part of the journey. With a road like that, the car will have to be something good. I found the site of a car rental, Top Drive UAE, which offers some nice cars. Ticking off the measly models first I soon found myself looking at their Executive class which offers something like the BMW Z4. Of course the boyish nature in me wanted more so on I went to the Business class. The Porsches show up there offering close to the desired performance. But bump it up a class, to the Royal-eeee, and you finally have a Ferrari on offer. But just as the BMW Z4 was not the most desirable option, the price of the Ferrari is not really for one's wallet. 2,450 US dollars per day. Exactly ten times more than the Z4. So, assuming sleeping will be done in the Burj for three nights (in a suite of course), the Ferrari F430 is picked for a day and a flight taken from Jeddah, the total cost would only amount to about 6,000 US dollars. Of course, with cheaper accommodation and the Z4 total price shouldn't have to exceed 600 US dollars. That is tempting. Tempting indeed. For more photos and info on the Jebel Hafeet mountain road, visit Edmunds. Another interesting piece of tarmac is the Stelvio Pass (famously declared the greatest driving road in the world by Top Gear), but obviously not as well located for me.
Tips on being in Saudi Arabia During one of my numerous online searches for familiarity in Jeddah I ran across the following "review" of one's stay here. The reviewer puts forth some tips on being in Jeddah:
#2 If you're driving, find a way of looking in all directions. It's every man for himself. #3 Traffic lights are there for GUIDANCE only. If you're waiting at a red light facing two busy lanes going across, don't be surprised if the guy next to you fancies his chances and makes a break for it.
Oh, how true this is. But man, it is fun to drive here. Another interesting fact is that there are millions of rules here - yet no one seems to know what they are, when and how to follow them and what happens if you don't. More on that later. And while I'm at it... I found a dedicated site to rating restaurants here in Jeddah. Say what you want about the place, it certainly isn't lacking when it comes to dining out! And the site looks quite good to boot. I better get cracking on reading reviews and then head out for some taste bud exercising.
Madrid and Prague Ahh, back to sweet old Jeddah. The sandbox that everyone loves to hate it seems. I don't mind it that much, but admittedly, coming from the vacation that I just came from - I'd rather have stayed on vacation. Our travel to Madrid went along nicely although it was a very long day. As usual, we were carrying a normal amount of luggage but additionally we were carrying two HUGE water guns that were meant for Flor's nephews. Although it came as no surprise, the security officers in Brussels were not too keen to let us through. Neon yellow guns with a water reserve tank/backpack seem to pose a huge risk. Oh, and being carried around in Toys'R'Us bags. Scary stuff huh? Admittedly, the bags had Arabic writing on the sides. The trouble was well worth it though once we saw the faces of the kids when opening up the boxes. Only trouble was, the gun was bigger than the younger one! We enjoyed great hospitality, sun and a very cooling pool for those too few days in Madrid. Prague was absolutely positively the best vacation I think either one of use had ever gone on. The city is incredibly beautiful - tourist scenes and others alike. We rented a great apartment with Holečkova Apartments Praha (yes, relating to the photos on the site, what you see is what you get). The location was good even though it is not in the city center. The tram system is excellent enough so that we were able to be in Praha 1 (the city center district) within 10 minutes on the tram. We used our time there to relax a bit, look at the most popular sites (that big tower on top of the hill, that big castle on top of the hill and that old bridge over the river... to name a few). We ate excellent food (albeit, not enough of local cuisine), took a bike ride to Stromovka park (and I managed to get hit by a car... but I think the car was more damaged) and looked at funny versions of ourselves in some mirror labyrinth. Got a quick lesson on what makes Absinth real or fake (tourist version he called it). Saw some incredible examples of how not to dress. Prague is definitely a city to visit again. There is lots to do and an endless amount of variety in surroundings. A very green city which still holds on to the history that built it. The only unfortunate thing is that Europeanization is starting to shine through - mostly in price. I don't know what it is, but going to a foreign country I'd rather be presented with some foreign currency that I have to adapt to instead of using the good 'ol Euro. Ironic considering my homecountry's status. But going to Prague, I did business with korunas for the first time since I left Iceland. A warm and fuzzy feeling. Well, back to real life here in Jeddah. Shifts coming up and an eight week outing. Next up, Iceland in September. I can hardly wait. In the meantime, click here for some photos from Prague. I apologize for the ego photos...
First vacation We are heading off to our first vacation from Jeddah. Although our outing this time was a little shorter than standard it is good to get out. The last few weeks have been a bit crazy with all the packing up, moving, learning the job again, getting settled in here and last but not least adjusting to the heat and the Saudi ways. So we are very much ready for this vacation. We leave Jeddah in the morning on one of our aircrafts which is headed to Brussels. From there we will fly to Amsterdam to connect with a flight to Madrid. We plan to stay in Madrid for 4-5 days (plans aren't quite finalized yet) at with Flor's sister and her family. They have just moved into a new apartment where there is a swimming pool in the garden. Much needed in the summer heat in Madrid. After the stay in Madrid we will then fly back to Brussels and onwards to Prague, Czech Republic. We will stay there for a week exploring the city and relaxing. I've wanted to go there for years now and couldn't be more psyched. So, don't expect me on MSN, mobile or be at all in contact. Time to take it easy and get lost a little bit. See you in two weeks.
10 years... really? Jesus f***ing christ. It has been ten years already since I graduated college. This just can't be true. Can it? Must be some conspiracy going on. Someone please call Jack Bauer. In fact, looking at the picture above it has either been so long, or is such a conspiracy that I am nowhere to be found on the pic! Seems to be the truth since the 10 year reunion is in 5 days. I am glad I am in Spain and have a very valid reason not to show up and face my rapidly growing number of years.
A new career Some months back I found an interesting job posting on InfoJobs. The description of the job was intriguing and I was a good fit for most of the requirements. Nearly six weeks after submitting the application I got a call from the company inviting me to come in for a test of English skills. Little did I know that this was only the first step in a gruesome and long recruitment process that they set up for each and every employee. Over a period of another six weeks I took the aforementioned test, an IQ test, psych evaluation, two interviews and several phone calls. I took a liking to the company during my first visits there. A smallish software company in Barcelona, with a very free-spirited work environment but a serious attitude. The location is good. So it was very much to my delight when one day in January I got a call from the manager of the development team offering me the position of a technical writer there. I've now been getting training there for a few weeks and getting to know the new colleagues and workplace. The subject matter is a little daunting at first... intimidating even but nothing that can't be overcome. I feel quite good there and everyone has made me fit right in from day one. I can't really say much so far about the job itself as I am still finding out what it all entails, but I've gathered that it pretty much deals with understanding IT level programs, authoring user guides and technical papers and doing layouts and publishing as well. All interesting to me.
Guns N’Axl I’ve been listening quite a bit to this monumental album of the new GNR. As much as I’d like it to be the old I can’t help but also be happy about this new set up. The album is simply amazing. Different from what you’d expect from the Appetite era, but amazing nonetheless. I’m really hooked on two songs, Street of Dreams and Catcher in the Rye. The latter just blows my mind. Axl’s voice is out of this world on that one. But that is the thing, the album seems to be such a testament to his voice that other parts are forgotten. Whether this was the intention or not I can’t say but GNR used to be about more than Axl. But I don’t really care. All that matters to me is that the music is good and indeed it is. In fact, at 4 minutes and 10 seconds or so, Catcher in the Rye possibly becomes my favorite part of music history!
Squats At work, there is a small but nice gym for employees to use. try to go there at least three days a week during my lunchbreak for a nice weight lifting session to break up the day. Although the gym has most of the equipment needed to get a complete and proper workout done there has always been one machine missing. And in fact, it was the “machine” for doing my favorite exercise: squats. Many people would agree that my body is nearly designed for this exercise. I can almost touch the floor during the squat and still keep the balance needed since my legs are fairly short. And the weights? Well, I put a few kilos on the bar. But since the frame for the bar was missing I was forced to use an alternative way. My friend David suggested I try something called Tabata squats. In essence the Tabata method is about performing as many repititions of an exercise as possible in 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest period. This is then to be repeated 8 times totaling in 4 minutes for the exercise. Yeah, I know. No, really, I know what you are thinking. I did too. I also hated a good friend of mine for 4 minutes once a week. In fact, never have 20 seconds taken so long to pass while 10 seconds went by in a ... well, they are gone. So, it was with great pleasure when I heard the company would be shelling out for a squats machine for the gym. So, on a Friday afternoon me and a monster (Amador) colleague headed for what I thought would be a short trip to a nearby Decathlon to pick up the needed stuff. Turns out the “nearby” Decathlon was across Barcelona, on the south side. To make things just that little bit harder, the nearest Metro station to Decathlon was what seemed a million blocks away (in reality more like 6). I figured it couldn’t be THAT hard. Amador had thought of bringing a ridiculously gay looking trolley which we were pushing together through the busy streets of downtown Barcelona. Did I mention ridiculous? Once at Decathlon we bought the required stuff after hanging out by the muscle men equipment for a while, just to make sure people didn’t think the two trolley men were a part of the Meditterranean ballet group from the next aisle. It became apparent at the counter that the 70 odd kilos or so would be a challenge when it came to switching Metro stations or lines. “Ahh, let’s take the line that takes us direct to the company.” Oh, there is one? Of course there was, but the problem with that one meant there would be much much much more walking. After way too little deliberation we settled on taking the bus as it turned out one of the lines went nearly direct to our company. So off we went, into a stuffed bus full of impatient Barceloneans on their way home from work. While people looked at the funny guys in the bus, one holding a gay trolley and the other hugging a big box, Amador gave me a good sight seeing tour of places he knew nothing about. The bus took a ride through parts of Barcelona I’d never seen while others I have been to a few times already. The bus stopped about 6 blocks away from the office but to make the challenge greater (and more heroic after the fact) all the streets were up-hill. After running down a few old people with the box and hitting a few kids with the barbell we finally made it to the office. The machine was in the house. Now, two weeks later I have used it but to my surprise I am going to keep doing the Tabata exercises as well. Every good story should have a punch line. If it doesn’t, it isn’t good. This one doesn’t. So I’ll lie... you know what? There is a Decathlon 5 blocks away from the office!
The big three-o This post is pending while we wait for the results of an investigation of a possible birth certificate error. Further info will be posted here as soon as possible.
Semana Santa We have just finished our first Easter here in Spain. It proved to be very different from what I am used to - just as expected. I had a full five days off from work, Thursday to Monday. I didn't have any plans really but we did have a visit from Flor's sister's family. Unfortunately Flor was working for the better part of the weekend so we couldn't do as much as we would have liked to. We had a couple of great dinners, played some game called Compañeros (which could get people into trouble) and visited the Nike Factory store. I didn't have my usual Easter dinners or frozen weather of Iceland. My mom was kind enough however to send me an Icelandic Easter egg. Isn't Easter without those! But now, back to work although the week is shorter than normal with Monday off. Weather here is getting hotter by the day although we do have cold and rainy days in between. Can't say I am complaining at all.
Who would've thought... Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism. Karl Marx, 1867
In a whim of a moment Life can be a fickle thing. I was walking home from the train station on a sunny afternoon. It was a bit cold, but still comfortable for me. Beautiful weather really. Sun was sitting low and people seemed happy. I decided to stop by at the supermarket to buy a freshly baked baguette. While waiting at the counter to pay I noticed a red, spoiler ridden hatchback running furiously up and down the street. I remember thinking to myself "Ahh, these young boys today". Less than 10 seconds later I see that very same red car come flying past the supermarket. It spun in the air, hitting a nearby truck, another car and probably more obstacles out of my view. I ran out of the supermarket along with other clients and the workers there. Terrible to witness something like that. Fortunately the truck was unoccupied and the woman and child in the second car were ok and walked away with not much more than a huge scare. But the red car was motionless. Completely. There was a lot of panic but within a few minutes the ambulance and police arrived. I can’t say what really happened as I understood very little of what bystanders were frantically saying. All I know is that it did not look good. So, dear reader, I ask you to be careful out there in traffic. Life is but a fleeting moment and we should all enjoy every second of it.
BCN Metro, Fabria i Puig station Now that I’ve started this new job as a Technical Writer I’ve resigned my post at the school. I agreed however to do the classes in Cardedeu for the month of February as they could not find a teacher righ away for the classes. This means that on Mondays and Wednesdays I have to leave the new job about an hour early to get up to Cardedeu in time for the first class. As usual this involves some adventures on the public transport. For these trips I have to get on the Barcelona Metro which I rarely do otherwise. The Metro only services the Barcelona city itself while the Renfe and FGC trains service the surrounding towns (one of which is Sabadell where I live). The Metro however is absolutely brilliant. I don’t think anyone checks out a timetable for it. The maximum wait during the day seems to be about two and a half minutes. Two and a half minutes!!! And the cabins are clean and nice. I expected this to be smelly, used by low income groups and unpunctual. But no, the Metro is used by everyone. Business people and construction workers alike. Me like.
All alone Flor left for a 3 week vacation in Argentina today. I went with her to the airport only to drag on the goodbye with this huge queue. Normally I don’t mind queues but in Spain, it seems they take longer to clear up. It is a mind control thing I guess.
Cardedeu classes Pictured is where I show up for about 6 hours a week to teach a couple of English classes. I currently go there on Mondays and Wednesdays to teach two groups of kids; one group of 10-11 year olds and one group of 16-17 year olds. The groups are a great fun to teach. The younger ones are so enthusiastic about any subject it seems. Even after a day of school for them, they still have energy once in my class. The other group is boys only so picking a subject is not so hard. They are lazy however so motivating them can be a bit hard. The town where the school is, Cardedeu, is quite far from where I live. I spend about an hour and a half on the train to get there as I need to take the train into Barcelona and from there head back inland but to a slightly different direction. The road distance from our apartment to the school isn’t that long but since there is no direct train the distance is probably tripled. For some reason the smart people at Renfe decided to have two stations in Manresa with the same name where I must swap trains. Although this is not a long walk, roughly 5 minutes, it means however that I miss one train to Cardedeu and have to wait about 20 minutes for the next one. That, or leave early from home. However, I quite enjoy the train ride. For now. I can get a bit of work done for class and the view up there is actually quite good. I’m sure the places around here offer great terrain for hiking and mountain biking. I’ll have to check it out some time.
First job interview A While ago I got a call from a place called Acadomia. On the phone, with a prime example of Spanglish, a woman invited me to come for an interview with them for the position of an English teacher. I, of course, said yes. So, on 26th of November I set out for my first job interview on foreign soil. Flor was a little nervous sending her chubby Icelandic boyfriend into the jungle that is Barcelona and its public transport system. I felt like a kid going for the first day at school. All dressed up with a lunchbox and instructions on how to get back home if I get lost. Anyway, the trip to the interview was nerve wrecking as it was in a part I’d never been to, on the upper southeast side of Barcelona. 2 buses, 1 train and 2 metros needed to get there. And then a walk. I just barely made it, sweating like a pig. Expecting a 1-on-1 interview once I got there I was in for a bit of a surprise. The reception girl told me to go to the second flloor and enter a room there. At this English school, the receptionist knew no English. So I had to venture a guess as to what the combination of an unknown language to me and odd hand gestures meant. Finally however, I was able to find the room in question. There was just one problem, it was full of people already. So, I figured it would be best to just sit down and see what would happen. The majority of the group was speaking Spanish while the others stayed just as quiet as me. Some of them seemed to notice the confused look on my face but did not offer any help. When I asked, a baffled questionmarked face met my question. I figured it would be best to wait until I was called in for the interview. After about 15 minutes of sitting and staring at the back of my hands a guy appeared in a doorway in the room. He read out a bunch of names with people answering “Sí, aquí” if they were present. Once he got to the last name his face got a little funny. “Forpot? Fkvoorpot Guíamuníssssonn?” he said. Then he looked at me, I smiled and he gave a signal that he would just continue. And continue he did! For the next 40 minutes or so I sat there listening to Spanish (I think, might have been Catalan) trying to make sense of it with the group of five words I knew (hola, adios, cerveza, gracias, baño). Considering the subject, you might guess I wasn’t very successful. After hammering through a bunch of explanations he went on to explain that everyone had to fill out two pieces of paper. One for personal info, the other for qualifications and availability. While people would do this he would have each of us come in for a 1-on-1 interview. I tried my best to fill in the info (all the fields and questions in Spanish/Catalan of course). After he had called everyone in for a quick talk he finally made a second attempt at my name. Unsuccessfully. In his office I found out that his English was just about as good as my Spanish. And since he would not understand much of what I was saying his interest and attention was quite low. I was out in a matter of minutes, feeling useless but also baffled why they would ask a non-Spanish speaker meet with this guy. You see, I made it clear when they called me that I didn’t speak Spanish or Catalan. So, I left the building into the busy streets of a Barcelona evening after this first interview feeling like I had the biggest wall in front of me to climb. Oh, and surprisingly, I haven’t heard from Acadomia.
Small streets and shady people Wow, these last few days have been interesting. And crazy. As I said previously, we needed to find a few things for the new apartment. We were expecting an empty apartment, but I did not expect this empty. There were even several light-bulbs missing. That didn't matter though. The apartment itself more than made up for it. So again, Flor spent hours online tracking down second hand furniture and appliances. Starting out our focus was on the most basics of necessities: fridge, washing machine, bed, utilities for the kitchen and so on. When the first things started trickling in online the rest came pretty quickly. Once we had found the items, at fair prices, we rented a fairly big van to go and pick things up. So we set out a few evenings ago to meet up some guy, in some building, in some neigbhourhood in Barcelona. Apparently he had a fridge for us. We found the place easily. That is, the building. But finding the door was harder. Turns out the door was well hidden but accessible after a hole had been made on the building's wall. A pretty shady hallway behind that door led us to a Whirlpool fridge that seemed more out of place than a finance graduate with a job today. We quickly handed over 70 Euros, carried the fridge to the van and got the hell out of there. I've got to admit, I was happy to see the sellers appear smaller and smaller in the van's mirrors. Next up was another apartment in some place in Barcelona. We got there a bit early which in itself should not pose as a problem. But as there are quite a few cars, finding parking for a big van like that is a challenge. We wound up leaving the car practically in the middle of the street while grabbing some kebabs for dinner. When we finally arrived to this guy's apartments it seemed like nothing was left. The guy, an Israeli who was heading home for a short vacation, was selling off everything in his apartment since he was moving on to a new one. Although we were only there for a bed we eventually left out with a 2+1 sofa, an old office desk for dining, 4 chairs and a TV that only shows 70% of the picture. All for about 200 Euros. A good deal in my book. The deal turned a bit bittersweet when it came to carrying everything from the apartment to the van since the apartment was on the 6th floor or so with an elevator dating back to the time when people still used knives in wars. A good two hours after arriving there we left all sweaty but with a van full of stuff! The following day while Flor was at work I went off to IKEA to buy some of the small stuff needed. Not much to say about that aside from how much I love their starter kits. Saves so much time and makes the shopping easy for a guy like me. As I had the car I took the chance and stopped by the immigration office in Barceloneta to finish sorting out my papers. Just in case. On my way back to Sabadell Flor called telling me she had found a washing machine. Several ramps and signs later I managed to make the necessary U-turn and headed off again into the heart of Barcelona. The GPS decided to pick the "quickest" route by pointing me to possibly the smallest of streets. Of course with that big car I left a few marks here and there. So if you ever happen to walk around in Barcelona and see white streaks of car paint, think of me. Half an hour later the car was loaded up with the washing machine. Somewhere in all of this we managed to offload the first batch of stuff and move it all into the apartment. Luckily the elevator in our apartment is big enough to fit it all so the weight lifting was minimal. So now we have lots of stuff all over the place and the plan is to move in tomorrow and start getting settled.
Sleeping under the stars We have been looking for an apartment lately. The last few months Flor has been sharing a house with a Catalonian guy and his huge dog. As I am allergic we knew we couldn't stay there long. On top of that we obviously wanted our own place. Flor spent a lot of time looking for places on various online sites. We had our sight on places in this same town, Sabadell, as it was convenient for Flor's work. Since I am not working yet it is impossible to predict where the most practical location will be for me. Although we found quite a few apartments that were interesting - on paper that is - we were appalled by the prices. Coming from this economic boom and now entering the downturn people are reluctant to make prices more realistic. On top of that the practice here is that you pay the landlord 2 months upfront along with the first month's rent and the agency the equivalent of a month's rent. As the going rate of apartments we were looking at would be somewhere between 6-800 Euros we were looking at 2-3000 Euros upfront. Quite a bit of money. When we were getting a little bit tired of looking we got lucky. The guy she was renting with actually owns an apartment in Sabadell which the tenants are moving out of. He hadn't found anyone to rent the place so we asked to take it on a month-to-month basis until we'd get more settled. We were always reserved about signing a contract while we didn't both have a job and hardly four feet on the ground. We are also still open to the idea if AAI calls up offering a contract somewhere in an exotic place. :-) So now we have a completely empty place... at least we won't be sleeping outside! We got the keys today. The task of finding the most basic of furniture and utilities is up next.
A Tobbi without a home So, I'm on the road now. I do have a destination, I just don't have an estimated arrival date. I left Iceland last Saturday, 8th of November to go to Copenhagen. I met up with my friend Óli (since college and university) who has been living in Denmark for way too long. He was kind enough to let me stay there for one night before I continued to Brussels. We managed to have some fun over there, although it involved mostly talking. We are just getting too old for partying. Him and Guðrún have a really nice apartment which is now covered with toys, owned by there almost 1 year old son. On Sunday I headed out for the airport to catch my mid-day flight to Brussels. The bloody fascists at the airport charged me for every gram of overweight they could find, even after I removed a few items of clothes out of the bag and put them in the trash. Lots of Euros down the drain there. I then met up with Flor on Sunday evening after waiting in the hotel for a few hours, studying some Spanish and listening to music. I haven't had much of a chance to see Brussels since I've been trying to study as much as possible. I have taken a couple of walks around the center though and taken a quick run, but aside from that not seen much. What I have seen though is nice. The autumn has definitely arrived here so scarfs are needed. But the buildings are beautiful at this time of year. Perfect for this style. Anyway, off to more studying. I'll try to post updates when I know what will be happening, where I will be going and when... well, I know anything!
Updates, updates, updates Yes, I know I've been a bad blogger. Very very bad. And without shame I tell you that I have no excuse. I have been busy, but not too busy to blog. I just haven't had the will to do it. A few times I sat down to write something, but always wound up reading something on the internet instead. But a lot has happened in the last two months. Here we go... Time was passing but no signs of a job anywhere. I did get offered a job with a small company that labels products for other companies in late August. It was a little bit of a process to finish up the interviews, but when the final offer was on the table and a proper job description I decided not to go for it. Towards the end of September I still found myself without a steady job, but still doing odd jobs here and there in photography and Mac support. I finally contacted a friend of mine who along with another owns the restaurant Serrano. Through him I worked there for about a month, until about a week ago. It was on shifts so I had a few free days in between. Some of those I used to work at my old elementary/high school, filling in for teachers out sick. Last week I got a lot more hours at the school and spent the whole week teaching. I expect the coming week to be similar. Although neither job is something I saw myself doing 10 years ago I did have a bit of fun doing both. On 12th of October I went for a quick trip to Barcelona to see Flor. We hadn't seen each other for six weeks. A pretty tough situation. But we managed to have some fun for those five days I was there. Some part was spent just relaxing and enjoying being together, some walking around Barcelona city like tourists daydreaming about owning a fancy apartment there. It really is a beautiful city. I also took the chance and arranged for a part of the process of residency. Although no move has been decided I figured I could use the time now to start the process. No one knows what the future holds! Incidentally my friends Ingvar and Ásta were on the same flights as me so we met up with them for a quick drink in the 30 degree heat on the Rambla. Ahh, Barcelona. Well, more on that later. As probably everyone who is not dead knows, Iceland is going through a tough period right now. The global economic downturn is affecting Iceland in a bigger way than many other countries in addition to some very bad decision making of a select few business men and politicians in the recent years. Normal people are suffering as unemployment rates approach 20% - almost 20 times more than it has been for the last 15 years! Interest rates are sky high and the krona, Iceland's currency, is weaker than an old man's baseball throw. We are basically crumbling like a glacier in the summer heat. The sounds of the ice slowly breaking have been warning us for a while now, but there was no response until the big blocks of ice broke away into the water. Everyone is trying to stay afloat in the resulting turmoil. Some are referring to it as The Perfect Storm. Although the government has taken drastic actions and has also applied for a loan from the IMF there isn't much optimism. By now most governments would've gotten a better handle on the situation. I am afraid however that the bottom has not been reached. I've spent some time scanning old negatives of mine. This is a huge job as I think i have about 30-40.000 photos to scan. The inaccurate estimate depends on how picky I will be. I regret not starting this earlier. About 15 years worth of film. One photo that came out of it is above this post. I remember going out for a walk during a heartbreak some years back. I brought some music and the camera. The result was 72 photos, most resembling the one above. The whole lot of film represents my time in Israel, college, university, working as a photographer and my personal life from here and there. For now I am scanning the films as quick as I can and later I will work on processing and putting them online. Some weeks ago I signed up for a course that certifies me to teach English as a foreign language (foreign to the student). I figured this time without a job would be a great time to do some studies, while I don't have the chance to enroll full time at the university at the moment. The course is comprised of endless questions which in themselves serve as the actual test. the reading is then up to the student. I have been trying to learn more Spanish lately to be able to communicate to Flor's family. My reading comprehension is improving, while I can hardly write to save my own life. And when it comes to talking, I'm completely lacking! But I am making progress on all fronts and should be fluent by the time I am 80. And finally, perhaps the biggest news. In about a week I will travel to Barcelona. This time around I'm not deciding a return date. I figure I could just as well stay over there and do the job searching. In fact, I might broaden the search and look for a job in Spain as well. It all kind of depends on where Flor ends up. Whether she stays in Spain or goes back to Air Atlanta. This will also help me learn Spanish in a better environment. So for now, I will be living in Spain waiting for the future to show me where things head. Exciting times!
Loss of a victory Just such a sad moment. I jumped up from the couch screaming with joy when I SAW Massa pass the finish line as a champion. Seconds later that joy was taken away from me sending my heart through a tornado of emotions. I can't imagine how Massa and the team felt. Without taking any credit from Hamilton's well deserved championship, but Massa showed signs of a true champion in the way he conceded. He can be proud of the progress he has made. I've supported him since he started with Sauber, and he will stay as my favorite for next year's championship.
Laugavegurinn Me and Heiðar, my sister's boyfriend decided some time ago to bike Laugavegurinn - the most popular hiking route in Iceland. 54 kilometers total, rising from a starting altitude of about 500 meters, up to 1,000 meters and then down to roughly 30 meters. With an amazingly varied landscape the route is incredibly beautiful and lots to see. Normally the route is taken in four legs (one each day) while hiking. Some do it in two days and then there is a group of crazy people that do the ultramarathons there - in 5 hours or something like that. Me and Heiðar decided to bike it in one go. There are three cabins on the way and we planned We drove on Friday the 5th of September (if I remember correctly) up to Landmannalaugar where we stopped for the night. Luckily my sister was willing to drive the car over to Þórsmörk on Saturday so we wouldn't have to worry about anything else than the pedals. As we expected this to take most of the day we were up bright and early to eat and get going. The trail starts going uphill from almost the very beginning. As expected, I felt dead one meter after the almost very beginning. The total route took us about thirteen and a half hours if I remember correctly. We managed to get over to Þórsmörk just as it got dark - a good thing as any biking would have been impossible in the dark. This trip had been a goal of mine for a long time, pretty much since I started working out and biking. So I'm pretty ecstatic about finishing it. It wasn't easy and there were times where my head just wanted the body to stop. Fortunately Heiðar is the opposite, with endless drive. And my pride didn't allow me to stop. Now I wonder what is next? For entertainment, a few photos can be seen here on Flickr. For obvious reasons I cut all those that showed how bad I was feeling at any given time.
Barcelona - the 2nd coming I'm sitting in a half empty airplane returning to Iceland after a 10 day trip to Barcelona. About a month ago Flor went to Spain to sort a few things out and to take a little time off. Although I have not been working for this time I didn't have the chance to join her until the second half of August. We didn't really have any plans for these days except for a couple of days in Calella with her sister's family. We pretty much decided to take each day as it came. After a couple of days in Sabadell, the town where Flor has been for the most part during the last month, we rented a car to drive along the northern coast of Catalonia in search for some good beaches. We struck gold twice. Once at Sant Pol De Mar, a small and quiet town about an hour out of Barcelona. The beach there was very nice, with deep waters and few people. Very free as European beaches tend to be, if you know what I mean. There were quite a few rocks in the water - something that turned out to be a devil in disguise when we both managed to hurt ourselves on Sea Urchins. I got quite a few visible prongs into my left foot and several more appeared in the days that followed. Word of warning: avoid those urchins. Contact with them will result in pain! On my last Friday in Barcelona we decided to head further north in search of more private beaches. We drove another half hour further than Sant Pol, about half way to France, to a place called Lloret De Mar. We knew to expect quite a bit of people as the big town of Lloret is a very popular tourist resort. Arriving into the town we were greeted with hundreds, if not thousands, of sunburnt Germans, French and Brits. I have rarely seen so much pink and red in my life. As we were not really up for a massively populated beach where you count other people's hair we got onto the twisty beach roads for another 20 kilometers north. At some point we took a chance and entered a very small town where the narrow and steep road lead us to a beautiful creek with a secluded beach and very few people. We both agreed it was one of the best beaches we have been to. The water was so clear, and no matter how far out you would swim, you would still see the bottom. It was that clean. Rare to see on the Mediterranean coast. We'd highly recommend it if you are in the area. We spent the whole day resulting in me joining the pink and red crowd I mentioned earlier. Maybe they'll let me join the club. As the flight today left late evening we spent the afternoon in the center of Barcelona, browsing the shops, eating and drinking and enjoying the thousands of people walking around the Rambla. Regardless of what others say, that part of Spain is simply amazing. I could so see myself moving there... one day. :)
Matt is a guy who had the simple idea of taping himself on his travels around the world while doing some "dance" moves. He was soon picked up by a gum company that decided to send him on another world tour promoting their product. His videos have always included cool songs that not only go well with the subject but are also very much to my liking. Check out Matt's videos here.
Þórsmörk and Fimmvörðuháls Me and Flor went with my family to Þórsmörk sometime late in June - one of my favorite places I've in Iceland. As I am generally considered what came before He-Man I decided it was a good idea to bike from route 1 in to the camping area. Roughly 25 kilometers on rough roads, crossing a few streams and rivers and carrying the bike over a hiking bridge were the major things offered. As Iceland sometimes feels the challenge isn't enough my beloved country decided to throw in a combination of wind and rain. Just to please me a bit more. For a trip I expected to take about an hour and a half I was more than 2 hours on the way. Harder than I expected but probably twice the fun. There were really no plans for the weekend aside from eating, drinking and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. However, my sister and her boyfriend had the idea of biking Fimmvörðuháls, a very popular hiking route from Skógar to Þórsmörk, on the Saturday. A route that offers 1000 meters of elevation and just under 25 kilometers of distance. It goes between two glaciers crossing very bland landscape but spectacular landscape. Renowned for quick changing weather condition and fairly strong winds at the top one can expect anything. We took off from Skógar at about 11 in the morning after driving from Þórsmörk. The first half of the trip is just uphill like you wouldn't believe. Much time was spent off the bike - hike a bike if you will. But, amazingly, our spirits were still high. More than 2/3rds of the way up are on the road, after which you are on a hiking trail. The going got a lot tougher after the road finished and endless snow fields made it a lot harder. We finally got to the highest point, much to our muscles' delight. We had expected the way down to be much fun and easy but oh boy were we surprised. We had to carry the bikes quite a bit since the hills were very steep. There were times though where we could let gravity do its work and give those brakes some work to do. After about 7 hours of pure exercise we finally reached Þórsmörk with absolutely no energy left in reserve. Although the trip turned out to be much harder than expected we all agreed - a few days later, when the pain wore off - that it was a great experience. :) After Saturday's night festivities a good (and long) sleep followed. It was an amazing weekend although I could've been a lot nicer and spent more time walking around with Flor.
Wooooha! Spent a part of my Sunday morning updating my iPhone to the software version 2.0 using devteam's Pwnage Tool. It takes a bit of patience but with your head in the right place it goes smoothly. New features are a few but the most anticipated by me was the AppStore. Now I can use quite a bit of third party programs with the official blessing of Apple (although Apple is not really pleased with Icelandic people using the phone). One really cool application is Remote which allows me to control either my Apple TV or the computer's iTunes to play music or video. Absolutely brilliant as the included remote is quite limited.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes I still don't know what I was waiting for And my time was running wild A million dead-end streets Every time I thought I'd got it made It seemed the taste was not so sweet So I turned myself to face me But I've never caught a glimpse Of how the others must see the faker I'm much too fast to take that test
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (turn and face the strain) - David Bowie
It had been on my mind for a quite some time but I finally took the plunge in February and resigned from my job at Air Atlanta. Several issues contributed to this, few of which I will talk about here - not really necessary. Mostly I was just getting tired of doing the same thing all the time. I had nearly five years in the bag and 99% of what crossed my path was the same ol'. I needed something new. So May 31st was my last day. It may not have been the best time to take this decision - given the economic situation here in Iceland. But which is better, being unhappy at a job, or happy without one? I've been actively searching for the last month hoping something comes up. The market is quite slow now, mostly because of summer vacations I believe. Hopefully things pick up soon. So wish me luck :)
The wait is almost over! After waiting roughly 16 years for original songs by Guns N'Roses it seams the wait is soon to be over. Over the years Axl Rose has made announcements that the new album, Chinese Democracy, was just around the corner but time passed and nothing came out. After going through several bandmates, a few low quality leaks and 13 million dollars fans were recently presented to a treat. A proper leak. Finally. It seems the demos leaked this June are in a fairly final state - fully produced, at least to my ears. And man do they rock! After much criticism and very little faith Mr. Rose still manages to pull through. Big time. It is a logical continuation of the Use Your Illusion duo but somehow it manages to surprise. For me a couple of songs stand out - resembling Axl's old ballads. The rest are great also however. Go out there, find them and listen. Hopefully the whole album will be out soon.
Pictobrowser I stumbled upon a beautiful flickr photo browser generator called Pictobrowser. It allows you to grab any of your public photos on flickr, and display them within a simple, yet beautiful Flash container. I set up a simple one here on my website. It didn't quite fit the constraints of my blog so I had to make it on an empty site. Check it out, and try it for your own photos if you like it. It is fairly fast and might be better to display your photos to friends rather than through flickr's website.
Running I've strapped the shoes on again. Sweat dripping down my hairless head and ache forming in my legs. Days are spent feeling sorry for myself and moaning in the hope that other people do so as well. The 10 km run I did last year is up soon - second half of August or so - and I have started exercising for that. Going off fairly slowly with a mix of running and walking in one session. Started well but I am starting to feel a pain in the achilles tendon after a few minutes running. I guess I'll take it a little slower for a little bit and see if it gets better. The odd thing is though that I feel it less the faster I run. Seems like I'm running wrong by going slower. And therein lies the problem. I don't have the stamina for faster running yet - but I'll get there. I added a widget to the right of the main posts where you can see the statistics of my last 5 attempts at running. I am using Nike+ as before so this data comes up automatically. They also have a new feature where you can set up a training program and see your status there. Pretty cool and gives you an extra incentive to keep at it since it tells you off if you don't go by the plan.
60 km on a bike, but forgetting something This weekend I finished the Blue Lagoon challenge my second year in a row. I was hoping that this year I'd beat my time of 3:37 from last year but knew it would be hard since my shape is not as good. I had gathered around a few people to go with me this time around but as the weather forecast was crappy all of them canceled and I wound up cycling alone again. Good decision on their part as the conditions were worse than expected. Head wind for the first 20 km, and really muddy parts on the off road section. After the first 20 km I was dead. And beat. I didn't have much will to finish but kept going. After the first 20 km you also exit the pavement and go on some rough road used for rallying. The gravel was very loose and some parts were so wet and muddy you had to be quite careful. Shortly after going off road I came upon a woman who had a puncture but her pump wasn't working. I lent her mine but unfortunately her second tube punctured as well. We found a piece of glass inside her tire which we took out, and I lent her my spare tube. 20 minutes later she was up and running but we were dead last out of the 160 people group. With about 35 km to go the challenge had gotten much harder in my mind. When there were about 20 km left I was going down a long decline getting good speeds of about 35 - 40 km/h. As the road was quite rough all I could do was focus on staying on the bike, and minimizing the shake on the bike. When things slowed down I noticed that my Garmin GPS had fallen off the steering bar down that hill. I turned around to look for it but had no luck. With my spirits quite far down, and the biggest uphill in the history of uphills still to be conquered I got my head together and headed for the finish. The last 20 km were amazingly hard but I managed to pick up some speed on the last few kilometers and passed a few bikers. My final time was 3:59 - longer than last year's, but my main goal was achieved - to finish. The greatest reward of finishing is having the chance of relaxing the tired muscles in the Blue Lagoon afterwards. I had every intention on doing so and enjoying it through and through. I somehow managed to take my dirty bike attire off (with some agonizing pain I must admit). But it was at that very point that I realized I had forgotten my swimsuit at home. So... 60 kilometers biked, every little bit of my will tried and every square cm of thighs absolutely wasted - and my brain couldn't remember the bloody swimsuit! But I did finish... I told myself.
New stallion I have just purchased a new stallion for my biking. My old Gary Fisher was showing signs of failure - ready for retirement after 11 years of good service. I shopped around a bit, and after giving up on going for the brands I really wanted (Trek or Gary Fisher) I opted for a Giant Terrago Disc. It is very similar to the one pictured but with better brakes and gears. The bike is a huge change for me. Even though my old one was a hardtail as well, this one brings changes in the fork, gears, brakes and geometry. The bike is a little bit smaller than the old one, giving me better control off road, but probably making me slower on the pavement. As I use one bike for all purposes there have to be shortcomings somewhere. But the biggest change for me is going from old old old brakes to hydraulic disc brakes. Man, it is almost dangerous how quickly it slows down. And going from a rigid fork to suspension takes some getting used to as well. Hopefully it will serve me as well as the old one.
Barcelona I finally sit down to write something. And this something will be a straight continuation from the last post. Mine and Flor's trip to Barcelona. It goes without saying that the trip was absolutely brilliant. We left early on Thursday morning after very little sleep. Gave us a chance to sleep the whole flight through, feeling pretty good when landing in the heat in Catalonia. We had a rental car waiting for us to use for the whole trip so we started by picking up the keys, buying some cold drinks and hunting down the right car in the huge parking lot. As Flor misses Starbucks more than anything here in Iceland we decided to hunt one down before heading for the hotel. We didn't have a map to go by (apart from some printouts I made before going) and no GPS in the car. The short trip to Starbucks wound up being a good exercise in driving in Barcelona and searching for a parking space. :D Our hotel was situated about 30 kilometers from the airport - in a small town called Sitges. Sitges is known for being attractive to the gay community - especially the males - something we could see very shortly after arriving there. I drove Flor crazy by wondering if every other person on the street swung the bat "the other way" - not entertaining in the long run. Much of the planning went around the Formula 1 race we were going to attend on the Sunday. The circuit is about 100 kilometers from Sitges and as we expected hectic traffic congestion we decided to go on Saturday to see the route and familiarize with the circuit area. We found the way fairly easily but unfortunately missed the first part of the qualifying. No matter really as we managed to decide a good spot to sit at during the race. On the Sunday we managed to wake up early and head out for the race. Regardless of starting the drive at 9 in the morning (the race was at 2) we spent about 2 hours in traffic moving slower than a walking grandma. The weather was brilliant though and I managed to get some tan on my taxi arm (left one hanging out the window). We finally arrived at our spot at noon after some adventure finding a place to sit. As the area was fully crowded by then, we became probably the most hated people there. Almost as hated as the country's favorite, Fernando Alonso, is in my head! After licking the sun for two hours - enjoying some pre racing by smaller cars the race was on. My team was already in good position after the qualifying so I was optimistic. Sitting and watching a race like that - in place - is just simply amazing. Easily up there with the best hours of my life. Ferrari honored my visit with a 1-2 finish and Alonso made my day by not finishing the race. I can't say the same about the Spaniards in the audience. :D We left the circuit in a good mood, red skin and convinced to go again. Aside from the race we managed to do quite a bit. On the way from the circuit one time we went a longer route, driving through the hills inland from Sitges. We stopped at some old Roman castle (if I remember correctly) high up on a hill for a few photos. We walked through La Rambla one afternoon after an interesting drive through West of Barcelona city trying to find some girl's place. We went to a great Tapas bar on La Rambla which I would highly recommend. A short visit one evening to the floating mall. Amazing place. All in all we had a great time, the weather was simply incredible. Definitely a place to visit many more times.
Time to strike off the list... You know that list I have about things to do, places to visit and things to buy? Yeah, well, I've been able to strike off a few lately but will now be striking an additional two off in about a week or so. Today was my birthday and Flor gave me the greatest gift ever. A trip to Barcelona for the two of us! And as an added bonus, the Barcelona Formula 1 race is happening the same weekend. So she got tickets for that as well!!! Two things to strike off the list :) So, I'll be going to see my first F1 race a week after turning 29. I'm sure Ferrari will give their best performance - just for me... :) I took the day off from work today - just to relax. It was very nice and very needed. Not much to say really as a I just stayed in the sofa and watched some TV. All I really wanted.
Life is wide Yup, life is all about widescreen now it seems. And to celebrate that I made three panoramas from Argentina. These are HUGE photos stitched from 4-7 big ones. You can click each one below to open up larger ones. The larger ones are still only about 25% of the original size. Anyone want to print these on their wall?
Are you fucking kidding me? It is middle of April and it is already snowing! Really? Is someone playing a joke on us? Why can't Iceland sometimes be like a normal country - with clear cut seasons? Is that soooo hard to do? Now I like most types of weather. I can do with sweltering heat, freezing cold, and pretty much everything in between. But my body needs time to adjust to the change - at least in daily life.
Into oblivion So, I haven't been a blogger at all. I don't know why. It isn't that I haven't had enough to write about. I just can't get myself to sit down and write. Crappy I know. The thing is, I absolutely hate sitting down, opening up a browser, going to blogger.com and starting to write. However, I do like opening up a word processor and hammering away. So I need a word processor - that publishes to blogger. Any ideas? But since I'm here, best I write a little. Been quite busy with work these last few weeks. At AAI we've been changing things a little, adding new contracts and trying to get ahead. Everything falls apart on a regular basis of course - just as before. The studio has been quite busy and I expect it to get a little busier. A lot of fun though as I've had some new challenges come up. I haven't been very active on the social side of things. A party here and a concert there. Me and Flor are going to see Rufus Wainwright next Sunday, should be a lot of fun. Will report back with a review.
What a photographer Finally, finally, finally ... some photos from our trip to Argentina. Amazing how quick I did this. It has only been, what, 2 months since we got back??? And to top it off I only have 4 of 5 parts done. Well, that will have to do. Enjoy: 1. Mar Del Plata: a week in Argentina's favorite beach town. 2. Fangio museum: a half-day trip to a motor-sports museum. 3. El Calafate: 3 days surrounded by glaciers. 4. Usuaiah: 3 days in the polar opposite of Akureyri. 5. Buenos Aires: a week in possibly the best city I've ever been to.
Hola So, life is beautiful. Tons of snow is drowning out every car here in the city now. They say this is the most we've seen since 2000 here in the Reykjavik area. I'm not so sure about that. I do however recall all the winters when I was younger being much much whiter than in recent years. My memory has pictures of high mountains of snow, just in the backyard. Maybe it was all just relative to my own size at the time? I've been quite busy since I came back to Iceland. The trip to Argentina was great. Absolutely great. I ate like an animal, saw too much sun, went almost as far south as Iceland is north, met some great people, showed Argentineans how NOT to speak Spanish (by opening my mouth) and got some interesting driving experiences. I have yet to sit down and write an account of the trip for myself as I've been working quite a bit. Flor had to move apartments so I was helping with moving the stuff from one place to another and then another. Finally things are settling down a bit and life is taking on a normal face. Now some processing of about 1300 photos from Argentina is to follow :S Anyway, just wanted to put a few notes down... for now.
A new year - 2008 2007 has now passed and 'lil 'ol Sekk enjoyed it. A lot. I did quite a bit and achieved two goals I had set myself before the year. Exactly one year ago my spirits were pretty high and considering that I'm quite happy that they are even higher now. I managed to go abroad twice this year. Once to Frankfurt/Munich and once to New York. Both excellent trips, although a bit short each. I haven't written up a recap of the NY trip or posted photos but will have to do that in the coming weeks. At the beginning of 2007 I was at the height of my battle to get back into shape. I aimed at doing two races, one on a bike and one on my legs. I did both and met my expectations in each. 60 kilometers biked in one race, and ran 10 km in the other. Quite good considering the abysmal shape I was in! I'm planning to do both races again this year so I better keep up the ambition. This time around the new year's post will be short as I'm leaving in the morning to Paris on my way to Argentina. To the other side of the world. I'll be spending a little more than 3 weeks there and getting to know Flor's family and friends. Quite the challenge considering there will be very little English spoken :S Que pavo Tobbi! The year 2007 will be remembered as a happy year. I smiled all through it and enjoyed good times. It was I think the first alcohol free year of my adult years, a challenge in itself great enough. I got involved with a girl and couldn't be happier with a partner. Well, as usual I will leave you with a few words from a fitting song:
There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard No song that I could sing But I can try for your heart, our dreams, and they are made out of real things like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart, Why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it's so hard? It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together - Jack Johnson
2008 is shaping up to be a good year. It will certainly start well. It might become the year of big changes so I can't wait to experience it all. That's it for now. I'll try to post a few words while away but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I expect I'll be too busy having fun in the sun!
New York baby Yup, yours truly just returned from the beautiful city of New York. Had a great time with the people from the studio. Will write up a recap of the trip in the next few days. Have to work a bit now. Oh, and in 5 weeks or so, I'll be going to Argentina with Flor!
Breathing - but just barely Yes, I am still alive. No, I am not buried beneath a building. Life it just busy. Very, very busy. Not much in news though. I've been working a lot and trying to stay on course with the exercising. As we have the hajj season coming up at work we are starting to prepare that and we get a little bit of an extra load on us due to all the queries about it. Lots of fun, but strains the morale at work a little bit. I've been weight lifting quite a bit and running as often as possible. Unfortunately I haven't seen any change in my weight in the last couple of months but I can feel much more strength and a better stamina. My clothes seem to be a little bit "bigger" also but that might just be a placebo effect? I don't think so though as the mirror does suggest a change in form. Maybe some fat going out and muscle being added instead? I kind of expected to be stuck at around this weight for some time as there had to be a point where I had to follow a stricter diet. I've been trying to do so in the last three weeks. Made a pretty good job at it also. It is a little hard to make sure you have enough energy while at the same time making the diet as effortless as possible. But I got to start somewhere and then I can slowly increase the complexity of the menu plan. It is very simple (and cheap :D) right now but I suspect one couldn't hold out long on this one. The biggest change comes by not drinking coke though. I've done a darn good job staying away from sodas for the last three weeks. If I'd have to guess, I think I had less than two liters in this time. As opposed to half a liter a day prior to that! I haven't done much apart from work and exercise. Two trips to parties and town, a little bit of TV watching and some Spanish studying. But thats about it. I'm going to cabin today with the people from work. They left yesterday but since I had to work I decided not to be driving late yesterday evening and just go today. Will probably leave early in the afternoon. Thats pretty much all this weekend is planned for. I have the gym and a run on Sunday and then early to bed. I decided to take off Monday and Tuesday from work which will be nice. I think all I'll do is be lazy and lie in bed, taking it very easy. Well, I'm off to work for a bit and then to the cabin. See you all later!
Teh Nuke arrivez in Izeland Yup, Nuke has arrived in Iceland so we all should be a bit scared. But also, Nuke will save us. He arrived swimming to the south-east coast and is running to Reykjavik. Stay tuned for Nuke's first time reading an Icelandic newspaper and some more activities.
Tidbits The TV show season has started and quite a few shows I'm going to try to follow this year. Most notable ones are Weeds, Californication, My name is Earl, Grey's Anatomy, Dexter and Prison Break. Can't really see how I'll fit this in with the rest of life :) But it is a much needed time passer during Iceland's dark and somber winter days. Weather can be that crappy and light so little that you don't want to do much else than stay in the sofa in good company watching some brain dead American TV show. There has been a lot of coverage regarding pedophiles here in Iceland and the sentences they receive once found guilty of their crimes. Obviously most sensible people think they are not getting the time they deserve and some are even out only a few months after committing the crime. Without having done any research on the matter I suspect the same is the case in most other Western countries. The twist that we experienced here last week was news coverage of one particular lawyer's case. He has defended quite a few pedophiles in the past years - all fine and dandy, each and every criminal is entitled to a defense. The twist however, is that the lawyer himself was being investigated for sexual abuse on underage girls. Not once, not twice but several times. I'd say that is as sick as it gets. The lawyer however got convicted and sentenced to two years in prison (nothing at all really) and is restricted from practicing law in the meantime. I've been trying to search for some new music to listen to but haven't found anything worthwhile. I checked out the new James Blunt album, whose first one I really liked. But this new album is absolute crap. I don't really have more words for it. I also checked out the new solo album by Eddie Vedder and liked that quite a bit actually. Still have to take a few runs through it but this one will live on. Was also lucky enough to listen to the new Foo Fighters album the other day. Listened to it a couple of times but at work so I didn't have a chance to really focus on it. Sounded good enough though. Just finished watching a very weird F1 race. Rain all the way through and probably half of the "race" behind the safety car. My team, Ferrari, looked like amateurs when it came to strategy and tire choice. Not a good race at all. There were times they were able to win these kinds of races - even with an inferior car. The only bright spot was to see Alonso retire. It seems Hamilton has got one hand firmly on the title now.
Gadgets: new phone I don't recall blogging about it but I gave up on my old phone not too long ago. It had stopped working well enough for me to tolerate it as sometimes when I was trying to call a friend it decided to call my grandmother instead. I was becoming afraid of it sending text messages with dubious content to people I did not want to receive such messages. Imagine my mother receiving a text message intended for some girlfriend in town :S So, it was time to part with it. I was lucky enough to get the W880i Sony Ericsson as it is just an amazing gadget for someone like me. It has absolutely everything. I can take photos, I can blog, I can browse the web, I can watch TV on it, I can listen to music, I can save files, I can use my e-mail on it and most amazingly... I can make phone calls. Some of the photos from the phone have already appeared on the blog although I didn't mention it. But anyway, life pretty much got a whole lot better after I got this phone :)
Summer blog So, summer has passed and the Icelandic autumn weather has taken over. I never was against the autumn and the wind and rain it brought along with colder temperatures but somehow, this year I'm not quite ready for it. I just need a little bit more sun and warmth before I'm ready to take out the winter clothes. The summer went by pretty quickly and although I'm pretty happy with the stuff I did, I don't feel I did all that much. As promised here are a few of the most notable things (in no particular order - photos can be clicked for larger versions).
Skagafjordur - cabin trip with the guys We left town on Friday afternoon for a weekend away at David's parents cabin. We have tried to do this once a year for the past 8 years or so but missed it last year. We were pretty lucky with the weather and managed to relax quite a bit. Friday we pretty much spent inside taking it easy after the four hour drive. Woke up fairly early on Saturday and went out for a hike, some pancakes and hot chocolate. With the weather being simply amazing on Saturday we spent the second half of the day outside lying in the grass reading, listening to music, in the hot tub, playing around and just laughing. Cooked a wonderful meal in the evening and then sat around for some games until just after midnight. A great day. Took quite a while to get back home on Sunday due to traffic but I didn't mind much since I slept most of the way. You can see me playing with Ingvar and Ásta's kid, Andri, in the first photo... some egotistic moment in the sun in the second... and Indiana Jones at the hike in the last. :)
Húsafell - AAI company trip AAI's staff club organized a camping trip to Húsafell, a big camping area a little bit inland. As I hadn't gone camping for some time I decided it would be fun to join everyone. I didn't really know who was planning to go but a few of us wound up driving on the Saturday for one night there. Me and Flor had a great time driving up there in fairly good weather although it was quite cold. I went straight to work there and threw up the tent with "help" from Flor. This was followed by a light dinner which we were considerably late for. No matter as we brought some burgers with us. Very nice. Me and Flor went for a walk around the area checking out a big trampoline in the process. There were a few young kids playing there and they lowed having heavy Tobbi jump there since they shot up in the air like rockets every time I landed. They managed to murk the life out of me in about 15 minutes nearly causing a heart attack. As the night went on everyone sat around a big ass camp fire listening to some horrible band which consisted of a father and son along with their keyboard. Hmm... I've seen better. But fun nonetheless. We returned to the camp site and enjoyed some guitar playing, drinking (non alcoholic for me of course) and laughs until late in the night. Sleeping turned out to be very little as the temperature was too low for any blood flow. Everyone was happy to wake up to a great sunny day after a cold and long night. We took a long drive home checking out some glaciers from afar, a great waterfall and the countryside. Took about 3 hours to drive back to town which went by in minutes with the great company that Flor is and the good music we listened to. Photo shows me and Flor at Barnafossar.
Reykjavik - 10 km run As mentioned before I participated in a 10 km run as part of my aim for a better appearance and health. It was a great way to see how far I've gotten and how the hard work has payed off. Incredible spirit everyone had that day and an amazing experience to be part of it. I was so surprised to see how friendly everyone was on the way and how it seemed the whole group was there first and foremost to have fun and challenge themselves. I had a bit of trouble pacing myself in the beginning but it was a good chance to learn how to do such a run and will give me a good reference for next year. The photo is some official photo I stole as I forgot the camera that day so I don't have any photos of myself (for the better I guess).
Esjan - hike with some friends Hiked up Esjan with a few kids from work. Hadn't done it for quite some time so I was stressed my shape wasn't good enough for it. But up to the top I made it and back down within a reasonable time frame. Weather was really good, cloudy but warm. Good company and a good hike. I'm about midway up in the photo above and sweating like a maniac. Sexy time.
Heiðmörk - an evening in some good weather Went to Heiðmörk with Flor, Begga and Dóri from work. Begga brought her 4 year old boy and me and Dóri spent most of the time keeping him occupied. The girls talked about... ehm... well, girls' stuff. :) Weather was absolutely brilliant and we had a great time. I did spend quite a bit of time in Heiðmörk this summer as I really enjoy going there for my runs. The paths are not paved so they strain my knees less than the pavement. The place also allows you to just do your run alone without running into too many people. So it is just the iPod and you along with some serious sweating.
Where is Tobbi? Wow, what a crappy blogger I've been. I should be shot in public. With fake bullets of course. Actually, with strawberries. Bullets hurt and I bruise like a peach. Life has been busy but mostly with mundane every day things. I have been trying to stay at it with the exercises but I have to admit to a lazy life lately. Last two weeks or so I haven't been going to the gym as much as I should be and hardly any running or biking. A couple of weeks ago I participated in the 10 km run of Reykjavik's marathon. It was the last challenge I had set myself since getting my belly back into shape. As I couldn't run for 6 weeks of the 18 week program I had set up I was a little stressed for the distance. It turned out to be easier than I thought and while I was able to run the whole distance I didn't feel any pain as such (apart from the normal side effects of being out of breath and doubting oneself). My aim was to finish in about 60-70 minutes which I just barely made. The final time was roughly 68 minutes. Good work I think and I'm glad I went for it. It will be a yearly challenge from now on along with the bike race. Here is the Nike+ graph of the run:
I have to make a recap of the summer so far and hopefully post some photos along with it. Right now my head is empty so I don't really have more to say... Sorry for the break, but I'm back in action. Stay tuned.
