“For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.” ~ T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

I must say although it has been a good year in many ways it has also been one of the toughest for me, mainly financially.  Whilst the apartments have done well for their first full year of operation it was made difficult by the fact that I had over extended myself financially with the renovations. I always had a strong feeling that it would be difficult which it was and that it would go right down to the wire whether I survived it or not...and it did.  However I have now turned the corner and enter 2014 absolutely debt free...which is oh such a lovely feeling!  The plan when I moved here was to become debt free and I have now achieved that, so the next plan is to just maintain the status quo.  The intention is to live simply, be more creative, I have everything I need, just want to be able to pay my bills and have enough money to do a bit of travelling this end of my life.

Been meaning to tell you all for sometime this news that happened back in late September...out of the blue I was offered a little part time position with NES artist residency as events manager, coordinating residencies, exhibitions, artist talks, open studio days between FNV the high school here, Sólon the artist collective, both situated here in Saudárkrókur and NES the international artist residency situated about 50 km away in the next town Skagaströnd. It is funded by a grant, so at the moment just a one year position. I am meeting not only artists from all around the world but more locals as well and thoroughly enjoying the interaction and experience.  If you are friends with me on facebook you would have noticed some info I share on exhibitions and events that the artists are involved in. Timing is everything and now that I have an understanding of how the apartments will operate and they are running smoothly I have the time and brain space to delve into this new position with relish.

I have just returned from a whirlwind trip to Melbourne...just 16 days in the country.  I had the opportunity to catch up with my 3 children still in Australia which was really lovely and I am so glad I went. Jesse popped over from WA for the first weekend I was there. 

A pensive Jesse catching a bit of sun (about the only bit while he was in town)

Eva called in on her way back to Perth from Sydney where she was a bridesmaid for a friends wedding.

Eva and John at friend Bec's wedding

Did not do much but hang out with them, I am not a shopper and was not really interested in spending too much time in the city, other than half a day.  

Christmas in the city, very english

I find the hype, noise and glare of the big shops and the consumerism quite obscene these days and prefer to stay out of it as much as I can....so another reason why this little fishing town in the north here suits me to a tee.   However if there is something I want/need I will seek it out and did manage to get things on my list including vegemite, cherry ripes, turkish delight and violet crumbles.  My best outing for shopping was a visit to Melbourne Etching Supplies and I could have spent hours there, what a lovely place, spent a good deal of dollars purchasing new press blankets, inks and brayers.  These things are not obtainable in Iceland so I think every trip outside the country will be used as an opportunity to source art materials. 

I do miss the choice in foods and my son is fortunate to live close to a fabulous food market where there was a fishmongers, butcher, fresh raw chicken place, an italian or greek style supermarket which stocked a huge array of pastas, cold meats, cheeses, plus a whole fridge stocked with a variety of feta's, a shop full of pulses and nuts etc, bakery, plus the best fruit and vegetable market which was huge and everything just oh so crunchy fresh, all just servicing the suburb of Thornbury which has a population of about 18,000.

Just a small section, this place was about 4 times larger.

I spent a good deal of time with my eldest son Dom which was lovely, we just had quiet evenings in mainly, he thoroughly enjoyed my home cooked meals.  The night before I left I got to see him play at a little pub venue in Footscray which was lovely, he is always quite mesmerising to watch.

The majority of the time the weather was cold and rainy in Melbourne, one day got as low as about 3° around midday and it snowed somewhere in Victoria that day.  I did not bring any winter clothes with me and one of the trips to the city was to buy a cardy as I was freezing, I even had the heater on a couple of evenings...this is summer in Melbourne as the taxi driver tells me. However I did get to experience one 40° day, so with Eva and Dom we drove to Phillip Island for a swim...first swim in the ocean for well over 3 years, even though it is on my doorstep. 

 Eva and Dom

 The beach was not too crowded as it is about 130kms from Melbourne

but quintessentially Australian with children and sandcastles,

 surfers,

  swimming between the flags,

 games of frisbee,

seagulls

and beach umbrellas now replaced with the sunshade tent thingy's.

40° is an unusually high temp for Melbourne and one news station demonstrated how hot it was by placing a tub of frozen icecream in a hot car and timing how long it took to melt...as you would?!!!

In between Jesse leaving and Eva arriving I took a short trip to northern NSW and visited a dear friend Zoy who I admire immensely,  Zoy and I worked together for several years and have remained the closest of friends. Hopefully if plans go right Zoy will get to visit me in Iceland next year.  The little town of Dunoon was pleasantly warm, quite perfect weather, not too humid and a little stormy.

a balmy evening with a little thunderstorm

I got to see lightning (did not get a photograph although I tried...too slow) which I hadn't seen since I moved here as it is quite a rare occurrence in Iceland.  

Something else I wouldn't see in Iceland is a lizard, just warming itself on the paving in a local outdoor cafe in Mullumbimby NSW.

I also got to experience a very ocker rendition of Cinderella at the local Dunoon sports club for their annual Christmas pageant.

 Cinderella with her prince and ugly step sisters

dancing gangnam style

I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel returning to Australia...this was the first visit since I left over 3 yrs ago, I wondered if I would regret my move and feel all homesick but whilst it was wonderful visiting and connecting again, Iceland does now feel more like home and I have absolutely no regrets about the move.  The first thing I noticed as I walked around the suburb of Thornbury where I was staying is the smell and the sounds of Australia plus the teeming insects everywhere (an insect is something I rarely see in Iceland other than the summer flies). The bird noises are unlike anywhere else, so loud and constant anytime of the day, plus the scent of the ozzie flora is unmistakeable. 

Suburb of Thornbury

Thornbury was full of the colonial houses that reminded me so much of my early childhood in Geraldton and distinctly Australian with their bullnosed verandahs.

It was a good trip albeit short but hopefully won't be as long before I visit next time. If all goes to plan I will travel to Perth Western Australia in Jan or Feb 2015 for 4-6 weeks.

2014 brings much to look forward to. In approximately 2 weeks my second grandson will be born and in the second half of the year my daughter will marry in Greece.  In October I plan to visit Ireland and meet new found Irish cousins, plus who knows what else will pop up as the year progresses.

As you will have noticed I am struggling with the blog for some reason...laziness I guess but am determined to keep it going as it is a great form of diary for me and handy reminder of happenings that would normally slip my mind. Plus I know there are family and friends who like to know what I am up to and the blog is a great way to keep everyone informed. So I will definitely be back in 2014.

As I am writing this there have been plenty of fireworks going off in the background since this morning, even yesterday there were some and no doubt more will go off in the remaining week. It is not even 5pm yet and the New Year celebrations sound like they are well underway around town. So until next year I wish you all a happy one!  

Monday Ice: An Aussie Ice today!

Although born in new Zealand Australia definitely claim Russell Crowe as one of their own, he is currently in Iceland for the movie Noah and has been caught on camera singing at the annual cultural night in Reykjavik.

Beer Club and Crocodile Harry!

To celebrate the end of our official Icelandic course (although unofficially we are continuing) we all enjoyed a social evening last night at the Icelandic Beer Centre situated in the small town of Hólar in the Skagafjörður district.

The Beer Club as it is more commonly known, is situated in the grounds of Hólar University, a very pretty spot, lovely old buildings and spectacular scenery.

 

 

And the view later in the evening.

 

Initially it was started out as a club for faculty and students but has since expanded to the public and tourists.  The club house is tiny, one very small room, although they once had 75 people there...25 inside and 50 outside. However even though they are a small concern they have the highest variation of beer for sale in the one place in Iceland, between 40 and 60 different brands from around the world in bottles and 2 on tap, the bottle selection changes on a regular basis.

 

A view of the little bar and the creator of the club/barman/beer connoisseur/zoologist and assoc professor Bjarni (seated) explains to us how to drink beer, apparently you miss out on all the aroma if you drink it from the bottle he compared drinking from the bottle as eating your xmas dinner with a peg on your nose....it was a bit like wine tasting except you don't spit the beer out at the end.

The club is run by volunteers and is a non profit organisation, they make enough to cover costs and to provide about 4 social events for the University.  They also are in the process of establishing their own smaller than micro brewery in the cellar and will produce around a 1000 bottles a year.

Here is a view of the tiny space we were in, picture taken from the bar...this is pretty much the entire room.

 Ross tried an Aussie beer he had never seen before, Australian Crocodile-Doppelbock-Dunkel, the label design is very cliche Australiana, however despite the label I think he thought the beer was ok... malty dark brown looking stuff.  The beer label led to a discussion about the original Crocodile Dundee (not the movie) with one of our Latvian colleagues Madara who explained to me that he was Latvian and the inspiration for the movie.  The movie Crocodile Dundee was based on Latvian born Arvids Blumentals.  Arvids left Latvia in the 1950's after the Russians invaded his homeland and moved to Australia, he became known as Crocodile Harry and was Australia's best known crocodile hunter, he is rumored to have killed 10, 000 reptiles. Besides hunting crocs he also searched for opals and lived underground at Coober Pedy, his home is now a major tourist attraction.

Arvids Blumentals 1925-2006 pic source

The real Crocodile Harry (Dundee)

pic source

  pic source

His native town of Dundaga in Latvia, erected a huge monument of a stone crocodile in his honor.

A video interview with Crocodile Harry at his home in Coober Pedy checkout the great Outsider Art that is going on...love it

Monday Ice: Politics Shomolitics!

The 2010 election campaign in Australia has been dismal...with Australians required to vote for the lesser of two evils...at the moment it looks like Australia as the UK did just recently will have a Hung Parliament, with the major parties now having to woo the Greens and Independents to be able to govern the country.  We will probably not know the final outcome for a couple of weeks.  The only bright sparkle in this election is that the Greens doubled their swing from the 2007 election and will hold the balance of power in the Senate and have won a seat in the House of Representatives. Hopefully they can continue to build on this for the next election.  Of course I voted for the Greens which I have done now for sometime but I refused to let my preferences this time go to the labour or liberal party and numbered the ballot sheet from 1-55 making my own preferences...with the two major parties at the bottom of the ballot.  There is a higher rate than normal in this election of informal votes which also suggest the disenchantment the general public have about this election.

Instead of wasting our time voting we could have protested the way some Icelanders are by throwing fish and bread around parliament house so that the seagulls will come and poop all over it...I like their style!

Source of pic
An Icelandic protester feeding birds around their Government building

 

Source of pic

Inspired by Iceland...I know I am!

Now that Iceland has been in the news on a fairly regular basis and becoming common dinner time conversation around the world, the Iceland tourist bureau have stepped up their ad campaign to encourage tourists to visit Iceland.  They are spreading the good word in a most cost efficient way with  their Inspired by Iceland social networking campaign, the webpage even has Iceland Live, where webcams have been strategicaly placed at hot tourist spots for view by internet streaming.   Their Facebook page after only a few weeks has just under 25,000 fans and you can view dozens of videos of tourists telling you to come and visit Iceland via their Vimeo pages.  The telephone company in Iceland is also part of this national campaign and last weekend  offered free International calls, so Icelanders would ring and entice friends and loved ones to come for a visit.  The video below is what was released during the Iceland Hour....it is 35 mins long but provides a good snapshot of life and happenings in Iceland.

In a world first, the entire nation of Iceland is to gather together online to show the world their country is open for business, open for excitement and open to inspire the world. This video was shown during this hour.

This advertising strategy adds to and supports their Friend of Iceland campaign which sends out personalised emails letting you know its still there and most recently not covered in ash.  The Icelandic sense of humour permeates these emails and always make me smile.

Dear Vicki,
It has been a while since I sent you my first email. I would have written to you before, but as you have probably seen on your tele-vision and your inter-net, I have been a very busy island.

For a while I was even quite famous.

But now my Eyjafjallajökull has stopped erupting and making a big mess for everyone. This is good. I am no longer famous, and I have time to write to you again.

** I APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE **

...and so it goes on, with lots of links...you get the idea!

Australia has also just released it's new tourist advertising campaign costing in excess of 80 million AUS dollars. They are of course hoping to have better luck with this one than they did with the last campaign 'where the bloody hell are you' which was banned in the UK and Canada.
On Monday (7 Jun) the Morning show in Australia discussed the new Icelandic tourist campaign and compared it to Australia's, debating the merits of spending $80m when the same thing could be done for far less and obviously quite successfully when you have other countries (as Australia was) talking about it and giving it air time.

Take a look at the Aussie one here and then the Iceland one below....which one do you prefer?  I know which one is my favourite...but I am biased and obsessed!

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Hopefully my turn is coming soon...I certainly miss the place and can't wait to get back there!