Iceland - Life on the Rock...

Stupid Criminals

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:12:00 +0000

One of the good things about living in Iceland is the low levels of crime, at least in terms of what you see in everyday life. Whilst levels are on the increase, they are nowhere near those of other countries and in many cases Icelanders don't really seem to have got the hang of being dishonest. Perhaps it's because the chances are one of your cousins or school friends will probably be around to witness the crime so it's hard to get away with.

In the last few months, there have actually been 3 or 4 cases of "armed robbery". Whilst of course serious, the complete incompetency of those carrying out the crime does have its funny side.

Last week, 2 people robbed the Glitnir bank on Lækjargata with an axe and escaped with about 1 million krona. However, where as you would think most people might have had an escape plan, these two decided it would be a good idea to walk across the road, get a taxi and head of to get a fake tan in Garðabær. Needless to say they were caught the same day and the loot recovered from the hostel where one of them was staying. Apparently Byko, where they had bought the axe, had also phoned the police because they thought they were suspicious and handed over their CCTV footage.

A shop on the Hellisheiði road between Reykjavík and Hveragerði was also robbed recently. The owner of the shop in this case managed to defend himself with a shovel and the would be robbers decided it would be a good idea to head onto a non-asphalt road in a small car with summer tires on. Needless to say they didn't get very far and were shortly after picked up by the police stuck in the snow.

A few years ago, another person who had just robbed a shop was caught waiting at the bus stop just outside the shop because his "getaway" bus was late.

Finally, the corner shop at the end of our street was robbed just before Christmas by 4 teenagers. They had got as far as arranging a get away car and route. Unfortunately they picked one of their parent's cars so they weren't too difficult to trace. The also parents took them to the shop the next day to apologise to the owners.

I guess it's good to know that it's only the stupid people that are doing these things...

Holy Grail in Iceland ? What the Da Vinci Code forgot to mention.

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:20:00 +0000

Just after New Year, it was revealed that the Holy Grail is actually hidden, of all places, in Iceland. The "scientists" Þórarinn Þórarinsson, who is an architect and therefore obviously a historical artifact expert, and Italian cryptographer, Giancarlo Gianazza, have come up with the theory that it's hidden in Skipholtskrókar near the Kjölur mountain pass in the centre of Iceland.

Assuming that the elves haven't got to it first, he's trying to persuade the local authority to let him dig there. Apparently the clue is in Da Vinci's last supper which clearly shows a map of the region in it. Da Vinci would of course have used Google Earth to get a detailed aerial shot to use as a template.

Of course there are no other areas in the world that have a geographical feature shaped like a 'V' or for that matter paintings that can also be linked with Skipholtskrókar. You couldn't after all take the first picture you find on the web, spend 5mins drawing a line over a map in Paint, and combine the two could you?

Is it also a coincidence that the 3 circles in Mickey Mouse's face form a 'V'? And what about Mickey Mouse having the initials MM, the same as Mary Magdeline. It must mean that Walt Disney was actually a member of the Knights' Templar. Or maybe I made it up.

Gianazza also claims that Dante's poems have secret codes in them that give the latitude of the Arctic Circle and Iceland. This is particularly impressive given he wrote the poem around 200 years before we had a way of measuring it.

Of course if they end up pulling the Grail out of the ground next month I stand corrected.

Gleðileg ár og takk fyrir það gamla

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:56:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

A snowy Christmas and wet and windy New Year are officially over as of last night and so it's back to work for a rest. No more parties, hangikjöt, reindeer, ptarmigan or fireworks for another year...

It's been a while since I've written anything here but now the Icelandic Facebook bubble seems to have burst and the days are starting to get a bit longer, I'm going to concentrate on blogging a bit more in the new year.

Red Shirt for Burma

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:33:00 +0000

Only 136 Days to go...

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:02:00 +0000

Last Monday was a public holiday - this time for Merchants' Weekend. This is the weekend where (mainly average) Icelandic bands play at the many music festivals around the country to which teenagers flock to get drunk. The rest of the population go to great lengths to avoid going anywhere near but many still travel out to the countryside.

As a result, downtown seems a lot quieter than normal and the tourists seem to outnumber the locals even more than usual.

The weekend also marks the last holiday until Christmas and is somehow a reminder that the journey along the long road to the winter months is beginning. It's also started to get dark over the last couple of weeks (admittedly not until 22.30) but it's very noticeable after all the brightness and sun we've had this summer.

Snæfellsnes

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:04:00 +0000

Here are a few pictures from a recent trip around the Snæfellnes peninsula to the north of Reykjavík. We were lucky enough to be there on yet another sunny day so had great views of the coast and glacier.

Snæfellsjökull from the coast near Arnarstapi

Looking along the coast near Dritvík

Dritvík

Snæfellsjökull

Snæfellsjökull

Malarrif Lighthouse

Hospital Visit

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:59:00 +0000

I'm finally getting around to posting again. I've had a couple of busy weeks at work after a holiday in Denmark so I haven't had much time to post recently.

I paid my first visit to an Icelandic Hospital Accident and Emergency department last night after getting a cricket ball bottom edged into my face just below my mouth when wicket keeping.

It seemed to be a busy night for them because I ended up having to wait there for just over 3 hours before finally seeing the doctor at around 1am. Having said that, the treatment I received was good and 25 minutes, 3500 Krona and 5 stitches later I was on my way back home.

I also woke up this morning with quite a swollen lip but all in all it could have been a lot worse (a little higher and it would have been my teeth).

Fitness Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:21:00 +0000

At the moment, the number of people out and about on the streets and various walking paths around the city who are doing exercise, is slowly increasing. There is always a slow build up over the next few weeks which peaks around the middle of August. The reason for this is both the better weather and the Reykjavík Marathon.

For the hardcore few there's also the Laugavegur Ultra Marathon from Landmannalaugar to þórsmörk - 55km over rough and mountainous terrane with 3 river crossings. For the more normal type, on 18th August, the city is turned red by Glitnir's sponsership and various races take place: the Marathon, Half Marathon, 10km and 3km. The children can also join Sportacus for the Latabæjarhlaup (Lazy Town Run).

Having run the Half Marathon in the past, I'm going for the 10km this year and am now a week into training. I'm hoping to do it under 45 mins but I'll have to see how it all goes over the next few weeks.

DHL sent packing

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:45:00 +0000

The Icelandic Cricket Team played their first game of the season on a cloudy and slightly rainy Friday evening last week.

A DHL rugby team from Sweden requested a game as part of their stag weekend activities and given the lack of opposition here, we jumped at the chance. Finding a place to play is always a problem but this time the venue was Miklatún park. It was too damp to use our artifical pitch so we had to make do with a cut strip of grass as the wicket which made it tricky to predict the variable bounce .

Playing a 20 over match using indoor cricket rules to give everyone a go, the ICT won comfortably scoring 122 to DHL's 55. We're now trying to arrange a game against an Indian team who work at Eimskip.

Hæ, hó, jibbí, jei og jibbí, jei...lýðveldið Ísland á afmæli í dag

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:49:00 +0000

Well actually í gær but I didn't get around to writing this in time.

Yesterday was Iceland's 63rd birthday and as usual the National Day was marked with various parades and festivities in the town centre. Sadly this year it fell on a Sunday so we didn't get the day off.

In all honesty it's pretty much the same every year with almost identical stalls selling candy floss, helium balloons and hot dogs setting up in exactly the same spot as the previous year. There are also a couple of music stages on Lækjargata. It seems to be mainly there for children - at least during the day and there always seems to be a good atmosphere, with plenty of flag waving going on. There was also a German navy ship in town which you could look around and some vintage cars in the harbour area. I didn't stay on into the evening - being too tired after an "officially weird" Friday night and a wedding on Saturday - so the entertainment may have got better for adults as the night went on.

The evening saw Iceland take on Serbia in a play off game for a place in the European Handball Championships. Handball is very popular here, like the rest of Europe apart from UK, and it's actually something Iceland are reasonably good at (they made it to the last 8 of the World Cup this year).

Already a goal down after the first leg in Serbia, Iceland needed to win by 2 goals to qualify which they did (just). They were 7 goals up at one point but just about made it through in the end winning 42-40. I was wondering if the Serbians realised the significance of the day when the fixtures were agreed on. Unlike most Icelandic sports crowds, the atmosphere for this game was terrific. Helped by the playing of national day songs and printing the flag on the back of every programme, home advantage really helped and you could see it affecting the players of both teams. Perhaps the organisers will learn something from this and use the same techniques in other games Iceland play.

Nesting Season

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:39:00 +0000

Icelandic wildlife can seem pretty sparse at times, especially in the winter. The arctic fox is the only wild land mammal to really live here - apart from the odd rat or mouse. The occasional polar bear arrives every decade or so - on some ice from Greenland - but has to be shot for being too dangerous. Not surprisingly they're pretty hungry and annoyed by the time they get here.

Fortunately, the arrival of summer also sees a large increase in the bird life. There are certain bird calls that are unmistakably associated with the summer here and you can't help but notice this if you ever camp out in the countryside - it tends to go on all night as the birds get a little confused by the 24 hour light.

At the moment it's nesting season. My route into work takes me along the walking path in between the airport and the awful new Hringbraut road and then across "the swamp" to deCODE. A whole colourful menagerie of birds can be seen, even in this small stretch - Greylag geese, now with young, who hiss at me each day, Whooper Swans, Arctic Terns, Oystercatchers, Golden Plovers and Redshank. It makes a welcome change to Starlings and Pigeons of winter.

I always feel a little sorry for the Redshanks. Each day as I approach, they fly off their nest of eggs and make their alarm calls sitting on the airport fence to lure me away from the nest. As I get near, they fly a little further down the fence and call again - this continues all the way along the length of the path. It's amazing how much effort they go to - I've even seen the "I've got a fake broken wing and so am an easier meal than my eggs" routine. (It seems those 2nd year Animal Biology and Behaviour courses at University weren't completely wasted on me!).

I was a little annoyed my one particular tourist yesterday who, wearing coloured waterproof and with map in hand, decided it would be a good idea to stand right next to the nest and take photos of the birds. How he failed to see that they were distressed I don't know. It amazes me how people who presumably come here to enjoy the nature are sometimes so ignorant about what they are doing. He was there the whole time it took me to get get past the airport to work - at least 10 mins - and was still there when I lost sight of him.

Fortunately, Mr and Mrs Redshank were still doing their thing this morning, so it seems he must have moved on soon after, and their eggs didn't get cold and die while they were off the nest.

A breath of (not always so) fresh air

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:38:00 +0000

At the start of this month, Iceland introduced a long overdue ban on smoking in public places.

Because I was away last weekend, Saturday was the first weekend night I had been out since the ban. Despite worries from certain bars, town seemed as busy as always and Cafe Óliver packed to the brim as usual with the line to match. Most places seem to have found a designated place outside where people can light up and most people, including smokers, seem quite happy with the arrangement. Whether this will still be true on a dark, snowy winter night remains to be seen.

However, a few things I, and others, have noticed are:

1. The smoke was covering up certain other smells - not all of them pleasant.
2. A whole new role for the bouncers has been created - namely having to sweep up cigarette ends from the street.
3. Hangovers are not as bad - the jury is still out on this one but it's a good theory.
4. It's really good to be able to wear your jacket the day after a night out without the need to air it for a week.

Child Labour

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:02:00 +0000

During the summer months, during the long school holidays, many groups of children around 13 years old can be seen working around various parts of town.

In general they are carrying out jobs that are only needed in the summer such as looking after the flower beds in the city's parks. Every Bonus and 10/11 supermarket also seems to have a gaggle of these kids covering for the increased trade during tourist season and allowing regular employees to get some sun in the annual Icelandic Exodus to the Canaries and Spain.

This presumably provides the city with a relatively cheap labour force and at the same time gives children the chance to get some job experience and pocket money. It's interesting to hear what a large variety of jobs most Icelanders have had when they were young.

On my walk into work, I normally pass one such group of teenagers whose job is to paint the lamp posts along Njarðargata near deCODE and then slowly make their way along Hringbraut. They are as usual supervised by a grumpy looking 17 year old who has presumably made it to his position of power by being able to hack several other years of painting lamp posts supervised by other grumpy 17 year olds. It appears his job mainly entails sitting around doing very little and making sure everything is done properly.

The only flaw with this plan seems that, being children, they are unable to reach very high up and no one has thought to give them a ladder. As a result, the streets of Reykjavík currently have a series of lamp posts half shiny and half the same as before. I await the conclusion of this because it occurs to me that if they go back and paint the top halves then all the paint will run down onto the bottom so it would have perhaps been better to do it the other way around...

Meanwhile, rumour has it that Nike are considering opening a shoe factory here...

Shrews Gased!

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:12:00 +0000

Here are a few photos of my trip to Wembley last weekend. It didn't turn out to be Shrewsbury's day unfortunately with them losing 3-1 to the Bristol Gasheads. The game was very even and remained at 2-1 until the final seconds when Shrewsbury were going for broke and were caught on the break. Nevertheless it was a good day out with over 61500 people there. The stadium itself is very impressive and well worth a visit.

Wembley Way

Wembley Way- other direction

Bobby Moore Statue

Pre-match build up

Teams line up

Kick off - It's good to see the "Club Wembley" Middle Tier being used so well...or not

Shrewsbury score first!

Lions at Wembley

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Thu, 24 May 2007 10:57:00 +0000

I'm flying back to UK tomorrow and going to New Wembley stadium on Saturday to watch the League 2 play off between my home town, Shrewsbury, and Bristol Rovers. I was just looking at the rules of Wembley and came across this little gem:

"The following articles must not be brought within the stadium - knives, fireworks, smoke canisters, air-horns, flares, weapons, dangerous or hazardous items, laser devices, bottles, glass vessels, lions and wild animals, cans, poles and any article that might be used as a weapon and/or compromise public safety."

It looks like I'll have to leave my lion at home then! Am I allowed animals that are not wild (apart from lions)? I'm also wondering, as the rule is so specific, whether or not someone in the past has actually tried this...

Government at Last

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:59:00 +0000

The Icelandic General Election took place on May 12th. It has taken until this evening, however, for them to actually get around to forming a government.

The reason for this is because the proportional voting system virtually guarantees that no single party will have a majority in the parliament. As a result, coalitions have to be formed and it seems to take a fair amount of time to decide who is allying with who, and then iron out all the policy details and decide what number of ministers each party will have.

As expected Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (Independance Party), and Samfylkingin (Social Democratic Alliance Party), the 2 biggest parties, have formed the new govenment with each party getting 6 out of 12 ministers - a 50/50 partnership.

This is a change from the last government that was a coalition between Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn and Framsóknarflokkurinn (Progressive party) even though between them they had enough (by 1 seat) to stay in power again if they wanted. Support for the Progressives, which is traditionally a farmers' party, is rapidly falling, so in general it seems most people are happy with this arrangement - at least it seems slightly fairer as the most people in the country voted for these 2 parties. Whether it will be a good partnership or not remains to be seen...

Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:16:00 +0000

It may be May, but I awoke this morning to a light covering of snow across the ground. It's now bright sunshine interupted by the occassional short snow shower - typical spring weather in Iceland!

Apparently the surrounding areas have had a bit more than Reykjavík, and I've heard reports of at least 3 cars coming off the road on the way to Keflavík and one overturned up on the heaths near Hveragerði - just when you thought it was safe to take off those winter tyres.

Norwegians and Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:59:00 +0000

Yesterday was yet other Icelandic "Red Day", so called because they appear in red on calendars, meaning that we had another day off, this time to mark Ascension Day. Almost every week in April and May has at least one day like this whether it be for Easter, The first day of summer, May Day, or Whit sun and each is accompanied by a "Little Friday".

This year Ascension Day also fell on the same day as Norwegian National Day, celebrating the day in 1814 when Norway signed it's constitution declaring it an independent nation. As a result, we were invited to a drinks reception at Nordic House hosted by the Norwegian ambassador. Icelandic prime minister Geir H. Haarde was also there, fresh from the discussions between his independence party, Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn, and Samfylkingin (Alliance party) who are currently trying to form the new coalition government after the general election last Saturday. Geir was there to present a new publication of Sverrir's Saga, the story of an old king of Norway, in old Norse to the ambassador - I didn't understand all the Icelandic so most of the details were lost on me unfortunately. A fat guy sung (very well) to finish proceedings and we then rushed across town to the National Theatre to be a production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline by the British company Cheek By Jowl.

I'm not always a great fan of moderdized Shakespeare but this proved to be an enjoyable production, set in 1950ish and turned into more of political drama. It used minimal set and props, good use of music, together with excellent lighting, allowing the dialogue and acting to do the work - making a refreshing change. It's currently on tour around Europe and is on in London's Barbican next month - worth seeing if you get the chance.

Graffiti

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:50:00 +0000

When walking home last night, I took the usual route to my street after crossing the Miklatún park. This involves using a small pedestrian subway under Miklabraut on the crossroads of Langahlíð. The subway itself normally stars in every Icelandic made rap video as this is the closest thing Reykjavík has to the 'ghetto'.

Inside, there seems to be a constant battle going on between the city council and the graffiti artists. The walls are probably painted in gleaming white paint at least 2 times a week and within a few hours of them drying the first tag appears. Within a day or so it looks exactly the same as it did before.

This always seems stupid to me, simply because of the time, effort and money that this must waste.

On the whole, graffiti in the city is restricted to these types of place so either just let them be (perhaps allow them to do something more artist there) or make more of an effort to stop it.

It's pretty clear that this is done by a few 15 / 16 year olds with nothing better to do and being the small world of Iceland, i'm sure they know exactly who it is.

At the very least they could try a different coloured paint so at least it wouldn't look so obvious...

Áfram Fylkir

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:01:00 +0000

Whilst at home, the football season is coming to an end, here in Iceland it's just beginning. As a faithful follower (!) of Fylkir, the team from the Árbær neighbourhood of town near where I used to work, I headed off to Kópávogur yesterday for the away match against Breiðablik.

The thing that strikes me as being most different in Iceland compared to other games I've been to in the world (apart from the lower standard), is the way the crowd behaves. On the whole, the amount of noise is pretty minimal. Sure there're a few people that bring musical instruments. Fylkir has a family of supporters who, rather annoyingly if you're sitting anywhere near them, bring a part of a drum kit each and bang it loudly for the entire match. Yesterday Breiðablik somehow mustered together a small brass band. However their repertoire only consisted of "When the saints go marching in" and the theme from the "Great Escape" so it got tiresome pretty quickly.

Apart from that, there's the occasional shout at the ref, a couple of people who manage to instigate an 'Áfram Fylkir' chant that fizzles out after about 20 secs at most, and a bit of clapping at the end and when there’s a goal. It’s all too polite – there’s no jeering the opposition or the referee (which there should be after the awful one from yesterday) or humour in the chanting.

Why don’t Icelanders make a bit more noise – it’s not as if it's normally in their nature to be quiet? Sometimes this gets a little embarrassing - I remember at a recent Iceland-Spain friendly match, 8 Spaniards out sung an entire stand of people. The response was to start a Mexican wave.

Still the main thing is that Fylkir scraped a 1-0 win against 10 men so they are off to winning ways…

The loyal fans

Almost a goal - the best action shot I could manage given that it was a long way away and into the sun

Le Royaume-Uni: Nil points

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Thu, 10 May 2007 10:49:00 +0000

It's that time of the year again. The semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place tonight with Iceland hoping to make the final on Saturday this time around.

In most of Europe the whole event is considered, at worse, to be an expensive waste of time, full of awful songs. At best, it's an excuse to have a laugh and get drunk with Terry Wogan, keep up international relations by voting for all your neighbours, and hide behind the sofa in embarrassment when your own country's song comes on.

However, Icelanders see it as something in which they can compete on a par with the others, and so seem to take the whole thing much more seriously: everyone is convinced of victory, numerous Eurovision parties are organised and you can't listen to the radio without hearing the song. Most of these parties appear to be organised for Saturday which is a little premature perhaps.

Iceland's representative, the rocker Eiríkur Hauksson, has already taken part twice in the competition, once for Iceland and once for Norway. Not content with this, he is going for the hattrick of failures this year.

I stumbled across a preview program on television last weekend where a panel of people from each of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden where reviewing the songs and giving them a mark out of five. Iceland's representative was the main man, Eiríkur himself - apparently it seems he was the only person avaliable who was willing to do it and also able to speak Norwegian. In true Eurovision fashion, when all the votes were counted, 5 of the top 7 countries were, you guessed it, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. All that was missing was Cyprus to give Greece full marks and the Eastern European countries awarding at least some points to the old Motherland to maintain gas supplies for another year...

Bad light doesn't stop play

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:40:00 +0000

"They" say that Reykjavík has at least one of everything. There's always someone here who's managed to rustle up enough willing Icelanders to give whatever it is a go. Failing that, Icelanders bring back to the rock whatever they find on their travels.

Yesterday evening the weather was sunny enough for the first practice in 2007 of the Reykjavík / Icelandic cricket team.

Having played for 'CCC' in the dizzy heights of the North East of England Mid-Week Cricket league (Divison 2) for the past 3 summers, I was assuming that, once in Iceland, it might be hard to carry on playing. However, it seems a small group of Icelanders and Brits, together with the odd Pakistani and Nepalese get together each week over the summer to practice near the Electricity Museum in Elliðarárdalur in the east of town.

Anyone is welcome to play, even if they've never done so before, and if you know all the rules and which way around to hold the bat you're considered an expert. It's an enjoyable way to spend a summer's evening and seems to interest the joggers who run through the park. It's also nice not to have to worry about bad light.

Of course the problem with being the only team around is the lack of anyone else to play, but we're working on that one...

We all have to start somewhere...

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH HAYWARD) — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:15:00 +0000

So after a few months of having a blog set up waiting for a post, I'm finally getting around to it!

Now that the run of Epli og Eikur that I was playing in is over, it means no rehearsals for a while (until the next show of course) . This and the fact the Icelandic spring is looking as if it's here (we had a whole day of sun on Tuesday) has given me some inspiration to write. I'll hopefully be out and about more in the countryside too so will be able to post some photos.

In the meantime here's some of the winter...