August 2009

August 31, 2009

Lyra is always intrigued when I pull out the yoga mat for a little practice. Often she’ll want to join in, and effortlessly folds herself into positions I’ll never achieve no matter how much I practice. Today, she came over and peered down at me in my reverse plank. I’ll think I’ll have a little ride!” she announced, clambering cheerfully onto my quivering abdomen.In the afternoon, we went blackberrying on Hampstead Heath with the girls. We didn’t have much luck at first — just a few random berries up high, down low, or lurking amongst the sting nettles, but along the path after the ladies bathing pond we hit paydirt. There was a massive sprawl of blackberry vines absolutely laden with berries, and we filled our three buckets to the brim. I’d estimate we picked a couple of kilos.

Back home, I washed and graded them, then made:

• blackberry vinaigrette
• blackberry smoothies (delish)
• blackberry sorbet (stunning)
• blackberry and apple crumble (too watery for some reason)

Still have lots left, which I plan to freeze if we don’t eat them in the next couple of days.

August 30, 2009

While Adam and Lyra were at church, I took Nova on an IKEA/Costco run. We’ve decided to replace the dining room chairs, which are stained and permanently encrusted with food. I don’t know what we were thinking buying cloth-covered chairs with small children in the house…We’ve replaced them with dark brown “Gilberts” — basically, the cheapest chair IKEA does that isn’t also nasty. Got a family assembly line going in the afternoon while our ham simmered on the stove — and they were all finished by the time the food was ready. I thought they might look odd with our battered old pine table, but they’re nice together.

Watched Angels and Demons once the girls were down. Well, Adam watched it — I saw the first five minutes, then drifted in and out until the credits. I gave the game away when I said, “Was Euan McGregor in it?” as apparently he’s in practically every scene (after the first five minutes). I remember thinking it was a more plausible story than The DaVinci Code — if you overlook the dodge particle physics and the way the hero survives a ridiculous mile-high jump from the airplane using his jacket as a parachute…

August 29, 2009

Started the day with a family run to Waitrose, the pet shop and Iranian/Polish grocery on Ballards Lane. We’ve been stretching our money by getting more of our fruits and vegetables there, then topping up at Waitrose. They do great mini-cucumbers and peaches, and I bought some beautiful ripe figs today.Today’s yoga class was entirely focused on opening the hips. Felt like my hips might never close again by the time we were finished….

August 28, 2009

Had a massive fight in the morning at breakfast — we’re both so tired, what with Lyra waking up every single night… Once the dust settled Adam took the girls out, and I flew at the housework as usual…The girls spent the afternoon watching The Wizard of Oz, Nova’s new favourite film. Lyra loves it too, and calls it Dorothy…

August 27, 2009

Nova and I had our perfect day today. We started with the London Eye. While it wasn’t sunny, it was clear enough that we could see the ridge that crests at Highgate and even pick out the spire of St Michael’s Church. Whenever I gain a bit of perspective on London I’m always surprised that things aren’t where I expect them to be. I think it’s because London is such a dense labyrinth, with barely a straight road in the entire city.The Waterhouse exhibition was wonderful. I was only familiar with a couple of his paintings (The Lady of Shalott, and the one where the Argonaut is seduced by water nymphs, but loved practically everything in the show. Nova enjoyed it as well, and lingered for ages in front of the Lady of Shalott, picking out various details like the swallows darting among the reeds:

Arriving at Gerrard’s Cross for our dim sum lunch, we were shown to a large window table although the restaurant was crowded. I’m sure we had Nova’s glamorous outfit to thank — she was wearing her navy spotted dress with a knitted black shrug. Ordered crispy duck pancakes, a few dumplings and a pot of jasmine tea. Enough to fortify us for the shopping ahead.

Covered the whole length of Oxford Street in the next few hours, buying school clothes for Nova — new school shoes, trainers, ballet slippers, school trousers. We looked at a lot of backpacks as well, but didn’t find anything that was quite right.

Next stop, high tea at Claridges, where I treated myself to a glass of champagne. Filled up on plates of little sandwiches, scones with cream and jams, and a raft of beautiful little confections, while enjoying the amazing chandelier and quartet. Nova disappeared off to the powder room a couple of times to freshen up, and always turned a few heads on her return.

Caught the tube to Victoria for the evening performance of Wicked, which I thought was pretty good. It’s billed as the true story of the Wizard of Oz witches, and I’d rented that film in preparation. Nova was a little puzzled by the prequel concept at first — “But how can they make something that’s set before the Wizard of Oz after the movie was made?” — which kicked off an interesting conversation about other prequels that we could write. For example, why did brother and sister Marilla and Matthew in Anne of Green Gables never marry?

Home about midnight, exhausted but happy. It really was pretty close to the perfect day…

August 26, 2009

Guidance launch today… The Institute publishes guidance on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Often there will be eight or nine new publications in various versions, with numerous supporting documents and press releases, as well as a newsletter to get out. Because the whole organisation works towards that Wednesday deadline, my team seldom gets the documents they need more than a day or two in advance. It can be a real scramble to get everything up in time, made worse this month by all the people on leave…

August 25, 2009

Working from home today… Eva had a nice outing planned for the girls today — a bus ride to Brent Cross, an hour or two at Topsy Turvy Land (a soft play environment), followed by a picnic lunch in Golder’s Hill Park. They set off straight after breakfast… and were back 45 minutes later….It turned out the Lyra vomited spectacularly on the bus. Eva stripped her down, sacrificed her cardie so Lyra had something clean to wear, and crossed the road to catch a bus back home.

Later that day, she discovered that both girls have nits, and spent best part of an hour combing them out in the bath. I’m sure she was glad to see the back of them when 6:45 rolled around…

August 24, 2009

I was absolutely exhausted this morning. Last night’s drive home seems a surreal memory now — we were way too tired to have done that… 

It was almost 11am by the time I got in to work. Had an OK meeting with my manager, the first since she returned from her one month holiday. In an attempt to start things off on a good foot, I actually told her it was good to have her back. To be honest, I don’t think anyone across the organisation has even noticed the difference…

August 23, 2009

Last day of the Green Man… Grayer than yesterday, but actually you don’t want the weather too hot at a festival. A little cloud cover is no bad thing…Returned to the movie tent after breakfast to watch a Buster Keaton film, with a real orchestra in accompaniment. Nova wasn’t feeling great, and eventually went off and threw up. Fortunately, that pretty much sorted her out… She has such a delicate stomach…

Mid-afternoon, we packed the tent, humped all our stuff to the car, then returned to site to watch Rodriguez. It was spitting a bit, but we sat happily on the grass drinking our pints and listening to him perform his long-lost 60’s psychedelia. Lyra dozed most of the time, before waking damp and grumpy.

Said our goodbyes, changed the girls into their pyjamas, and struck out on the long drive home. We were both so tired — it was a real struggle to stay awake, and more importantly to ensure that Adam did. Finally pulled in about 1am…

August 22, 2009

Poor Nova had an accident in her sleeping bag, which necessitated an early morning shower. I’m not surprised — it was such a cold night… Nothing to do about the sleeping bag except hang it out and hope it’s dry by nightfall.The summer I was seven I went to Camp Puntchesakut outside of Quesnel for a week. I was supposed to be eight, but mum lied about my age… I was bought a new half-sized sleeping bag for the occasion, which I wet my first night in camp. “Who wet their sleeping bags?” the counsellor asked cheerfully the next morning. Six or seven little girls put up their hands, and their sleeping bags were taken outside to dry. I wouldn’t have dreamed of owning up to such an embarrassing lapse, and consequently slept in a damp — and smelly — sleeping bag for the rest of the week…

Fortunately, I’d noticed some lovely hemp pyjamas on a stall yesterday, and was able to pick her up a new pair. Spent the morning in a large tent watching animated films provided by a group called Seven Inch Cinema. They had some great East European animations that the grown-ups enjoyed at least as much as the kids.

Nova has been obsessed with getting her hands tattooed with henna since we arrived. The programme mentioned that someone would be doing it in the kid’s field, but the person never materialised. She has been so relentless on the subject — (“Do you think I’ll get my hands hennaed today?” “Do you think the person has showed up since we last checked?” “I’m a little disappointed my hands aren’t hennaed yet…” etc) — that I took her on a recce round a few outlying fields to see if we could find the henna tent.

We were just having a conversation along the lines of: “Nova, we’ve searched the whole festival and THERE IS NO ONE DOING HENNA! I wish you could get your hands hennaed too, but IF THE PERSON ISN’T HERE, there is NOTHING I can do about it!!” when she spotted a tiny, badly signed tent with a hungover hippie chick sitting on a lawn chair. It was indeed the elusive henna artist, and after finishing her tea she proceeded to trace an elaborate henna design on Nova’s arm and hand. Nova was beside herself with satisfaction, and went around with her hennaed arm pressed carefully across her chest like a little Napoleon until long after the henna was sure to be dry.

Had an afternoon break from childcare with Michaela to go see Noah and the Whale. Unfortunately, they didn’t play their great boppy songs, and treated us instead to a bunch of dirges they haven’t released yet…

Took Nova back on site in the evening with Ben and Aphra. Watched a great duo called the Golden Animals, sat around the massive bonfire, and enjoyed the sight of the illuminated Green Man — a twenty foot high figure formed of branches, that will be torched on Sunday night.

Nova was too tired to stay on for Bon Iver, so I returned her to the tent, then headed back out to see Jarvis, who was headlining. He’s a great performer, and I really enjoyed his set, though one downside of festivals is that you end up with people in the audience who just happen to be there, unlike a gig where people don’t generally cough up the money for a ticket unless they are actually fans…

August 21, 2009

Rained heavily in the night. Our Halford’s bargain tent isn’t really up to the job — I’ll try seam sealing before its next outing, but I think it’s a case of getting what you pay for…We were huddled under our little “porch” after a miserable night’s sleep, drinking our first cup of coffee, and watching the awning sag ever lower as a great belly of water collected over our heads. Adam stood up to empty it, and managed to dump it all on my head. I surprised myself by how well I took it…

Spent the morning in the children’s field, checking out the various activities. The repeated downpours kept us under canvas most of the time. Nova was happily engaged in building some sort of wicker structure with a bunch of earnest hippies, while Lyra played with a large tangle of pants elastic.

Went onto the site proper in time for lunch. Adam chose a Moroccan lamb kebab, which was let down by stale flat bread, Lyra had a bacon sarnie, and Nova went for an amazing steak and ale pie with mash. Festival food has definitely come on in the last five years, with things like Goan fish curry, paella, and woodfired pizzas now on offer.

Festival toilets seem pretty decent now as well… The main advance is a discreetly formed basin, so you don’t have to look down at a nasty big mound of previous visitors’ deposits…

Spent a half an hour with Michaela in a knitting tent, contributing a freeform square to some vaguely defined collective knitting project while the kids mucked around with juggling equipment on offer nearby…

In the evening Adam went out with Ben. Michaela and I planned to spend the evening drinking wine back at the ranch, but it was too damn cold. Had to retreat to our respective tents by 9:30. Lay there shivering in my sleeping bag for a good hour before I was warm enough to fall asleep…

August 20, 2009

Spent the morning getting ready for our festival camping weekend while Eva looked after the girls. Set off at 1:30 — I’d downloaded the top track from a number of bands who are playing this weekend and burned a cd which we listened to on the way. I knew I wanted to catch Jarvis Cocker, but Bon Iver, Emmy the Great and Rodriguez are also on the agenda now. Thanks iTunes…I’d packed lunch, so we didn’t need to stop and had a pretty smooth run to Wales. The weather steadily worsened the closer we got to festival site in the Brecon Beacons. The Green Man festival is a modest size. It wasn’t too much of a hike from the parking field, and it wasn’t overly crowded. Easily hooked up with Ben and Michaela and the girls, who have been camping here since Tuesday and managed to pitch our tent next to theirs before the rain started. Strategically arranged windbreaks secured us a little “yard” as well…

Spent the evening drinking wine, retreating under canvas whenever a squall blew over. They’d bought five bottles, and I think we drank four of them tonight. Fortunately there is a bar tent on the edge of our field when we run dry…;-)

August 19, 2009

Very long work day… more than half the team is on holiday, but the workload is the same as ever. I’m covering for both my direct report and my job share at the moment…Lunchtime found me shopping for a leaving gift for a team member — it’s hard to shop for someone you don’t know. She’s planning to do that pilgrim walk in northern Spain, so I focussed on that, and pulled together a reasonable goodie bag with my £34 collection: Swiss Army knife, head torch, travel book, 1000 mile socks, tiger balm etc. Had to organise cakes and make a speech on her behalf to thirty assembled staff as well…

It had gone 8pm by the time I got home. Nova was heading out the door for a sleepover at Fay’s, and Lyra was calling from her bed upstairs. “I want to have you for a little while,” she said when I went into her. Hard to refuse a request like that… Stayed until she fell asleep…

Fed the cat, and administered to the hamster, who was standing on his back legs and looking forlornly out of his cage. He seemed very passive when I handled him, and I wondered if he might be a bit too hot in this warm weather we’re having. I took him out onto the deck for a spot of fresh air, which definitely perked him up.

Finally sat down with my dinner about quarter to ten. The cat immediately leapt up and started vampire batting me around the neck — it feels like an entire day of people sucking things out of me…

August 18, 2009

Nova and planned our “perfect London day” at breakfast. Next Thursday’s itinerary:

• London Eye
• Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy
• crispy duck pancakes for lunch in Chinatown
• shopping for school shoes and bag on Oxford Street
• high tea at Claridges
• an evening at the theatre seeing Wicked

Like most little girls, Lyra loves to dress up. Most days find her in a fairy or party dress, crown, multiple necklaces and bracelets and a pair of Nova’s shoes. Actually, “pair” isn’t accurate — she consistently chooses two different shoes — a purple sequinned party shoe, and a sparkly white slipper for example. I imagine she thinks she’s covering more bases that way.

Another Fay sleepover — those two are inseparable at the moment. It’s nice for Nova to have a good friend that lives so close — it’s not a given in London, with even the youngest kids often commuting to school.

August 17, 2009

I seem to have lost my watch — at least I haven’t seen it for days now… I suspect Lyra, who loves to play with it. It’s likely stuffed into one of her many handbags. While it’s not remotely valuable, but it’s annoying not to have one, particularly at work.Spent my lunch hour checking the local shops for a replacement. There was nothing cheap I liked — everything had too much bling about it — “diamonds” around the edges etc. It’s annoying the way cheap stuff often tries to look expensive and ends up looking even cheaper.

Watched the film version of 101 Reykjavik this evening. Interestingly, the filmmakers took the opportunity to fix a couple of major problems with the structure of the novel, and ended up producing something much more coherent. It’s rare that that happens…

August 16, 2009

Lyra was awake off and on throughout the night — what’s new…?
Woke up in time for Adam to take her to church. I made pancakes for the big girls — they turned out really well, and I ended up having a couple myself. Afterwards the girls treated me to a massage. As I reclined on the sofa, having my head massaged with one of those scratchy things, and my feet gently rubbed, I imagined the likely scenario at St Michaels — Lyra bellowing while the minister tried to deliver his sermon, or tearing up and down the aisle when she was supposed to be sitting nicely on her cushion.I wasn’t far off the mark… A frazzled Adam reported that Lyra had managed to wee on the pew, and had indeed bellowed more loudly than the poor minister was able to preach. Adam seems to be leading the breakout Sunday school group now, organising the sign-up sheet and leading the singing. The man just can’t help himself…

Went round for an impromptu dinner at Pete and Pasc’s — roast chicken in the garden — then left Nova for a return sleepover. Got Lyra down in time to watch Murray finish the job and win the Canadian open. He’s ranked second in the world now, ahead of Nadal, which is pretty amazing…

August 15, 2009

Bye bye Boekers, and hello again… They set off for the airport at 8am by taxi. Patty and the boys were scheduled to fly to Vancouver at noon, and Pat went along to keep them company though his flight to Edmonton wasn’t until 3pm.We’d just stripped the beds in the flat and removed the extra chairs from the dining table when the phone rang. The Vancouver flight was delayed until 8pm this evening, so Patty and the boys were returning to hang out for the day. Should have learned the phoning lesson after our delayed flight from Iceland…

I was in a bit of house cleaning mood and Patty kicked in too, giving the stove and oven a good scrubbing. Washed the kitchen floor at last, which has been driving me crazy all week…

Nova spent the day playing at Sadies, and hadn’t been home ten minutes when Fay turned up (and ended up staying overnight). I made them a simple pasta dinner l(eftovers for us) then settled them in our bed with a video.

Watched Andy Murray win in the semi-finals of the Canadian Open. Great watching tennis on our new television — the players seem practically live sized. The quality of the image made it painfully clear how badly dressed canadians are. One guy sitting in the service end was wearing a baby blue and apricot striped teeshirt (with contrasting red collar) of such eye-watering awfulness that it was impossible to concentrate on the game when he was in view. The Eurosport cameraman did that thing they often do where they pick girls out of the crowd. But the “beauties” he kept serving up had us convinced he was having a laugh…

August 14, 2009

Pat came upstairs early this morning to discover Cleo playing with a little blue tit chick. He managed to rescue the bird and set it on the ledge outside, where it gathered its wits for an hout before flying off.After breakfast, I headed to the pet store with Lyra to buy Cleo a bell. (We picked up a scratching post as well, as she’s shredding the rattan toy box.) She’s a jingle cat now — it sounds like Santa and his sleigh when she comes bounding up the stairs. According to the box, the bell should reduce bird fatalities by about 40%. (“Six out of ten birds surveyed say their prefer cats to wear bells,” quipped Adam.)

Nova and I spent the afternoon in the West End with the Boekers and some other friends from Canada who happen to be in London — Daniel, Kyung-ae and their daughter Rhea. Wandered from the British Museum to the Embankment, via Foyles bookstore. (“Before there was Amazon, there was Foyles.”)

I lost my little flock in Trafalgar Square, when they veered off down Whitehall instead of following me to Charing Cross. By the time we reconnected on the Enbankment, Daniel and co had had to dash for the Globe. The rest of us sat on the sunny terrace of the Southbank Centre, drinking beer while Nick and Nova frolicked in the water feature/fountain in their underpants. Nice, lazy summer afternoon…

August 13, 2009

The Boeker angst continues… Pat is driving up to Stafford tomorrow morning to sell their car, but they’ve shipped their proof of ownership papers to Edmonton. There also seems to be some complication with the forms for Adam’s student visa, but I didn’t catch the details of that one. Patty kept apologising, but actually I thought they kept it together pretty well. I’m sure Adam and I would have had a massive blowout over it.Went to Halfords to buy a roof pod and rack for the car, and did a massive grocery shop as well. Spent the afternoon cooking a big Indian feast oblivious to the maelstrom swirling around me. I’d hoped cathy and dave would be able to come as well, but they are busy organising their return to Canada this Sunday (a day after Pat and Patty). Quite a interesting coincidence that our two sets of Canadian friends in the UK are both emigrating to Edmonton on the same weekend.

The food turned out really well — “This is the best curry I’ve ever had!” Adam B told me, as he happily tucked into his third serving. We had poppadoms; chicken kebabs; a spinach bhaji; Goan prawn curry; tamarind beef; carrot raita; naan breads; basmati rice. Nova wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to try most of it though I’d kept the seasoning quite mild. She is a few years younger than Adam and Nick.

Put my new rice cooker to use for the first time. New to me — it’s the same rice cooker that Patty and I bought one time when she was in London. It’s a chunky one, in an unexpected shade of avocado green. When I said I would like it, I didn’t realise it meant Pat and Patty would have to shlep the thing on their two week camping holiday.

Got an email from Wendy this evening, saying that Drew is thinking about getting married in Edmonton on the Thanksgiving weekend, and asking whether we’d want to attend. It’s pretty short notice to be organising a family trip to Canada, but I’d certainly try to go, either on my own or with Adam or Nova.

August 12, 2009

Happy birthday, Greg!
Spent most of the day in meetings, half of them about the ailing project…Pat, Patty and the boys arrived shortly after I got home from their holiday in France. They told me they would eat on the way, but it turned out they hadn’t. Ordered a couple of pizzas from Pappadel’s and watched the England v Holland friendly.

They’ve been on holiday for the last couple of weeks, a mixture of camping and gites in Cornwall, France and northern Spain. There was clearly some tension in the air, and once Pat and the boys were downstairs Patty filled me in. The camping was a disaster — endless rain, heaving campsites with loud discos that went on half the night. (We Canadians are used to a far better standard of campsite than they are in Europe). After one particularly nasty fight, Pat threw the tent in the rubbish and they spent the last few days of their holiday in a hotel…

August 11, 2009

Working from home today — management crises all over the place. I’m still not in the right frame of mind to give much of a shit about any of it. Spent half the morning crafting a careful email to a director about a project that has come off the rails…

August 10, 2009

Spent the day wading through 300+ emails… I do enjoy the complete detachment that comes with a couple of weeks away from the workplace. Two team members leaving in the next month? Whatever… Recruitment still frozen? Who gives a shit… Invaluable colleague on indefinite carer’s leave with her two major projects hanging in the balance? Mañana, baby… I’ll enjoy it while it lasts…Watch Children of Nature this evening. It’s a wonderful film about an elderly Icelandic couple who run away from their rest home and return to the remote fjord where they grew up. I first saw it in the Vancouver film festival about 20 years ago, but have never been able to find it since. I’m surprised it’s so difficult to get on DVD, as it was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar the year it was released. I bought a copy when we were in Reykjavik. It’s in Icelandic, but the DVD had about six subtitle options.

August 9, 2009

Went for a run this morning, and unfortunately it turned out to be one of those runs you shouldn’t have done. It doesn’t happen very often but sucks when it does. Maybe yesterday’s yoga class weakened my legs or something. I felt lousy the whole time, and had to walk twice in a 1.5km run. My legs bothered me the whole day…Nova and Fay worked up a little singing concert this afternoon, and went around the neighbourhood knocking on doors singing to raise money for charity. They were asking for ten pence from people. They performed three songs that the sing in choir, so they all had religious overtones. They looked so sweet standing side by side, holding hands, singing earnestly and their voice marry surprisingly well. I was amazed when they told me later that the people at number 30 said said they wouldn’t give them ten pence because they were probably going to waste the money on sweets instead of giving it to charity. What a pair of assholes. Fortunately, none of the other people they called on felt that way, and they managed to raise £10.20 for Oxfam.

Made a great pasta dish for dinner — spaghetti with sardine sauce. One of those recipes that is so much more than the sum of its parts, and where the final result outweighs the effort involved. Sardine pasta, where have you been all my life?

Spaghetti with sardine sauce (2)

Cook enough spaghetti for two people. While the spaghetti is cooking, mash together until it is a thick paste:

– one tin sardines in olive oil
– 2 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 red chilli, minced
– 1 small bunch parsley
– 3 anchovy fillets, chopped

Thin the mixture with lemon juice and olive oil to a loose consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Stir into the cooked, drained pasta.

August 8, 2009

Adam took the girls to Waitrose, while I tacked still more housework. It’s hard to figure out how the house can need so much attending to when no one has been living in it for the past two weeks…Really scraping the bottom of the store cupboard now, I made a basic red lentil soup for lunch while they were out — red lentils, onion, garlic and cumin powder covered with water and boiled to mush. The girls not that crazy about it, but Adam and I both really liked it.

Adam’s tongue giving him a lot of trouble. He has a persistent headache and seems kind of out of it as well. It sounds like a nasty experience — I just hope they’ve done it thoroughly so it won’t have to be repeated.

Smoked salmon rice broccoli for dinner, using Margo and Aaron’s delicious smoked salmon…

August 7, 2009

Went over to the Adjoe’s with Lyra after breakfast to reclaim our cat. Cleo was not best pleased to see us… It might have been better not to bring Lyra along — she still ahs no idea how to handle the cat, and I’ve rescued Cleo from Lyra’s half nelsons.Adam had his tongue operation this afternoon at the Royal Free, and what with the seven loads of laundry and various other household chores, I didn’t manage to make it to the supermarket. I keep putting together increasingly less appetising store cupboard/freezer meals — freezer-burned crust toast for breakfast, cheese and jam sandwiches (with leftover airport sandwich for Adam), practically cheeseless mac and cheese for dinner.

Nova came back from the hair dressers and informed me that they wouldn’t blowdry her hair because she has nits. (Apparently the heat would make the eggs hatch or something). We’ve been sharing a hair brush all holiday, so I gave us all the conditioner treatment, followed by a good nit combing. I didn’t recover a single nit, and am pretty sure what the hairdresser saw on Nova’s scalp was black sand and bits of twig from our inadequate hairwashing in Iceland.

We have a backlog of Biggest Loser episodes on the TV. Spent a lazy evening blitzing through them. There’s nothing more satisfyingly slothful then lying on the sofa (ideally with a takeaway pizza and a couple of beers) watching those contestants work their enormous asses off… Definitely falls into the guilty pleasures category… 😉

August 6, 2009

Got off pretty well this morning — we’d done a lot of the packing last night… We left plenty of time to get to the airport without rushing. Just as well, as Lyra sick twice on the journey. It’s a bit hard to understand how she’s been completely fine for two weeks of cruising up and down these very roads and then day we’re heading for the airport (and least able to clean the carseat) she goes into vomit mode…Arrived at the airport two hours early to discover flight had been delayed three and a half hours. We’d already returned the hire car, otherwise I would have been tempted to zip off to the Blue Lagoon for a final dip. Fortunately it’s a pretty nice airport, with a good play area and a small but decent collection of shops. I bought provisions for a mid afternoon meal from the Taste of Iceland store — smoked lamb, cream cheese, flatbreads — ten minutes before they announced they’d be issuing us with meal vouchers. Collected them anyway and spent them on cake, coffee and drinks for the plane.

Once we boarded the pilot gave us an explanation for the delay. A technical fault, followed by flat tire. The weather was terrible for flying he continued, and promised us a bumpy ride. In the event it wasn’t too bad, aside from one of those hairy landings where you plunge and dip towards the ground, and bounce twenty feet off the runway the first time you touch down.

It was 11:30pm by the time we had our baggage, and the only Thameslink trains running were in to Victoria. At least it was a smooth journey and we had no trouble getting a cab. Home at 1am, Nova went straight to bed. Lyra demanded her whole bedtime routine — stories, songs etc — and still wouldn’t go to sleep. Brought her in with us at 2am, where she proceeded to writhe and kick until we ejected her at 7am…

August 5, 2009

Our last full day in Iceland — I’m going to be sad to leave, this has been such a lovely vacation. Did a different circular route today, one that took us east and then up to Stykkisholmar.Our first stop was the beach at Yrti Tunga, where seals are often seen on the rocks. We had to hike out quite a way on a loose, slippery shoal of rocks. Lyra was ludicrously attired for the outing in sundress and crocs, and required carrying most of the way. Fortunately it was worth the effort — a dozen or so seals lounging about, stretching and waving their flippers.

Reached Stykkisholmar in time for lunch. It’s a charming town, full of old buildings that have been carefully restored. Decided to eat in a nice fish restaurant to compensate for yesterday’s service station hotdog. We’d just sat down when Nova remembered her nice dress in the back of the car. I returned to the car with her and helped her change at the side of the road in the drizzle. She made a triumphant re-entrance, which was noticed by a few of the other diners. Lunch was lovely — fish soup (bit of an Icelandic staple), smoked guillemot breast (very tasty), catfish and sole for our entrées, cake for dessert.

Wandered around Stykkisholmar for a couple of hours, checking out the shops (Adam bought an Icelandic jumper) and the new volcano museum. A local volcanologist started it up a couple of months ago to display his personal collection of art and artefacts from a twenty year international career. I particularly liked the representations of volcanos from around the world — Japan, Central America, Italy, Indonesia. There was a gorgeous Andy Warhol silkscreen of Vesuvius that was worth the price of admission.

We also checked out the Roni Horn Library of Water, or Vatnasafn. I wanted to see it, as it was the Roni Horn exhibition at the Tate Modern that we saw on Adam’s birthday that gave us the idea to come to Iceland. I privately thought it sounded a bit pretentious, but it turned out to be lovely. A open modern building on top of a bluff overlooking the town and the harbour. In the space, there are seventeen randomly spaced perspex columns filled with water from different sites around Iceland. You can see through them to the view outside, and also catch refracted views of the people moving around inside.

Next stop, the rotten shark museum in Bjarnarhofn, which is such a small place I’m pretty sure Bjarnarhofn means “Bjarnar’s house”. Our visit coincided with two busloads of Icelandic pensioners, They were pretty raucous, and the cause of all the excitement was the table of rotten shark and bread.

Honestly, it was like a feeding time in a fish tank. They were crowding round the stuff, repeatedly spearing multiple pieces on their little toothpicks and scoffing it down. I can’t think of a food that would induce such frenzy in British pensioners. It was even more inexplicable when we got a chance to taste it ourselves. Served chilled, felt like a little piece of sushi at first, but became overpoweringly ammoniac as you chewed it. Lingered a long time afterwards as well…

The woman of the house gave a short talk about how her grandfather used to fish for the Greenland shark in a modest little boat they had on display. Poisonous when first caught, they cut the shark up and stick it in crates to rot for five weeks, followed by four months hanging in a shed outdoors. From toxic to rotten in just five months…

Made a dinner that used up the contents of the fridge — broccoli cream pasta for the girls, a dodgy greek salad for us. Last family hot tub — it’s been such a bonus, have something to do that we all enjoy equally. I’m going to miss it…

All day long, Lyra’s been talking about how she has a baby in her tummy called “baby Sam” and how he popped out. We’ve talked about how she’ll give him a teddy blanket and a teddy and a foffy, and sing him song, kiss and cuddle him when he cries etc. It was all very sweet until Nova introduced a monster into the mex. Now poor baby Sam is repeatedly being eaten up by monsters, taken away etc…

Good news on the cat front — Cleo has been taken in by the Adjoe’s who live in our street. They have been feeding her since Saturday morning. Jemima’s been worrying about her in LA, and phoned around the street until she discovered what happened. Personally I think it’s really not on to feed other people’s pets, but at the moment we’re just glad that she’s alright…

August 4, 2009

Even lazier start this morning — it had gone 11am before we set off. It’s very difficult to get the girls to bed with these light evenings. On the plus side, we did a load of laundry this morning, which was great as been handwashing pants and socks with dishsoap all week…Our plan for today was to circumnavigate the glacier. First stop was the westernmost point of the peninsula, a place called Djupalur beach. Amazing columnar rock formations, the four “lifting stones” local sailors supposedly had to be able to heft before they were considered strong enough to go to sea, and the remains of a British shipwreck from 1948.

Continued round to the north coast, where we stopped for a hotdog lunch at the gas station in Hellandur. Not our finest dining moment, but it was well past the girls’ lunchtime, and you’re not exactly spoiled for choice in these parts…

The town of Olafsvik turned out to be a bit livelier. A fishing port of 1,500 people, it boasted a swimming pool, supermarket, and charming (and free) maritime museum. There were collections of shells and rocks, and an enormous preserved cod in the entrance hall. We went through into a cavernous, dimly lit space, where we were approached by a boy of about 13 who started guiding us round.

He picked a crab from a little tray of water and showed us how you could tell it was male, and identified the local fish moping about in the murky tanks — cod, haddock, father lasher (hadn’t heard of that one), monkfish, dab, halibut, lots of little crabs and whelks. There was a chalkboard on the wall showing the weekly and year to date catch. They’re landing 150kg of cod a week, 90% of which is exported.

The road to the south side of the peninsula crossed the mountains, and was gravelled in places. Actually it was cobbled, except that the cobbles weren’t stuck together and were very tricky to drive on. They are paving it this summer, and I suppose they start with the large rocks, top that with gravel and then a coating of asphalt.

Stopped at the church at Buðir. It is set in a beautiful spot amazing view of the glacier and sand dunes leading down to a beach. From what I could see, it looked like the sand might be golden, but Lyra was sleeping in the car and didn’t want to stray too far.

Made tuna chowder for dinner. I didn’t have any flour, so I thickened it with extra potatoes and a bit of cream, and it was all the better for it. Had a pre-bed hot tub with the girls, hoping it would relax them a bit so they could have an earlier night. Didn’t work out that way — Lyra shouted and cried so much that we put Nova in our room, and then she shouted and cried about that: “I want my sister BAAACCKK! I want to be kind to my SIIIIISTERRR!” Had to stay with her until she fell asleep.

She kept going on about cutting her knee when she fell on a rainbow… none of us are quite sure what she’s on about…

Watched a Sigur Ros DVD that Edda lent us. Called Heima, it’s about a series of free concerts they gave in little places around Iceland in the summer of 2006, including Olafsvik. Their ethereal, haunting music interspersed with scenes of Iceland and interviews. Strangely compelling stuff…

August 3, 2009

Lazy start, partly because of our busy day yesterday, partly because of our late night, and partly because I got sucked into watching the Bratz movie, which was surprisingly entertaining…;-)Popped Lyra in the backpack and went for a walk to Hellnar. There is a well-travelled coast path between the two villages, but we made it a circular walk by heading over the lava fields on the way out. There’s a small cafe in Hellnar overlooking the cove where we enjoyed a lunch of fish soup, homemade bread and cakes. Afterwards we sat on the beach watching the baby seagulls nesting on the cliffs. Some of them looked suspiciously quiet, but maybe they were just resting their eyes…

Walked back along the coast path, taking in the glorious views over the cliffs. The last stretch passed through a field where arctic terns were nesting. The aggressive little buggers strafed us whenever we inadvertently approached a nest. “Let’s do fast running!” Lyra yelped. Headed straight to the hot tub, which the girls both loved. Here’s my timer photo of the family that soaks together:

In the late afternoon we went for a tour on the Snaefellness glacier. You don’t know until an hour before whether it’s happening as it depends on the cloud cover up there. But it got the thumbs up, so we leapt in the car and headed up to the base of the glacier through the national park. It was one of the dreaded F roads the car isn’t insured to drive on, and was pretty hairy in parts — loosely gravelled, steep and curving, with sheer drop offs. The cloud drew in as we climbed, and it was increasingly hard to see the road.

When it got really confusing, Adam stopped the car and I hopped out to see if I could determine which way to go. The most likely looking route required us to cross a small river… Just then a big, red 4×4 emerged from the mist. It was the glacier tour guy who’d come looking for us and drove us the last kilometre or so.

Climbed into the snow cat with a dozen other people. The guy fired it up and off we went, crawling across the ice on enormous tank treads. We soon emerged into blue sky, and in another twenty minute or so we reached the top of the glacier. There was a sheer edge with a 200m drop off a dozen yards in front of us, so it’s just as well we stopped …;-)

There were amazing views down to Arnastapi, and behind us over the dropoff. Spent a good half an hour up there. Lyra was completely in her element, happily “touching snow”. She’s like Sam McGee in reverse — it’s the first time she’s been properly cold in ages…

The road down seemed much less hairy… It’s knowing what to expect I guess, plus no time pressures. Made a low key dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches with slices of cucumber and tomato on the side.

The only blot on a perfectly lovely day was the news that our cat Cleo is missing. Pete and Pasc haven’t seen her once since they took over the feeding on Saturday morning. We’re worried she might have wandered off in search of Ruby and got lost or trapped somewhere…

August 2, 2009

After breakfast, we packed our stuff, and cleaned and tidied the cottage. I wanted to leave it in a decent condition. It used to be when you rented a place you were expected to break out the cleaning products before you left. Not anymore — that never really made sense… “Now that you’ve payed large sums of money for staying in our holiday cottage please end your holiday with a big burst of cleaning.” But then I was one of those people who always did a fair amount of cleaning and tidying before the cleaner arrived (in the days when we had a cleaner…)Drove into Reykjavik, where we’d planned to spend a few hours before heading up to our new cottage. Nova was very keen to do a bit of shopping — sor far, opportunities have been limited, and the money we’ve given her to spend on souvenirs is burning a hole in her pocket.

Although it was Sunday of the holiday weekend, we took a little stroll along the main shopping street in the hope something might be open. Got lucky with a Christmas shop, full to overflowing with the cute little knickknacks that Nova is crazy for. After fifteen minutes of serious consideration, she finally settled on a little figurine of a girl in a winter coat holding a puppy. Doesn’t exactly shout Iceland to me, but she’s happy, and the whole point of giving her an allowance was so she could buy whatever she wanted within her resources, without me passing comment on it.

Ate at an funny little place called Seagriffin. The menu consists of three or four types of fresh fish kebabs (the catch of the day) on display, and lobster soup with bread. You place your order at the till, then sit down at some rickety old tables until they bring it to you. The minke whale kebabs wouldn’t go down well, but otherwise I could see their business model working well on the West Coast.

There were jugs of water on the sideboard, or a choice of drinks in the cooler. Adam bought one of those malt extract drinks we’ve seen people drinking everywhere. It tasted a bit like homemade coke or those rootbeers dad used to make. Lyra pronounced it “disgusting!” after one sip…

After lunch we took a puffin tour out of Reykjavik harbour to a little island a couple of kilometres off shore. There were lots of puffins about, but they all seemed to be busy fishing. I think it might have been past optimum viewing season — apparently they are all take to the sea next week and stay there until next May without setting foot on land. It was quite interesting to see them buzzing about like little bees, but photo opportunities were limited.

Headed north out of town afterwards. The 6km tunnel under a bay was an unexpected and slightly unpleasant surprise, but the scenery was stunning. It was a clear day, and we could see the Snaefellness peninsula with the glacier at its tip for an hour or more before we reached it. Fore something “deceptively close to Reykjavik” according to the guidebook, it took a hell of a long time to get there.

Killed time playing the alphabet game — trying to spot each letter of the alphabet in the right order outside the window. “Q” being non-existent, we swapped it for that strange Icelandic ð. As a finesse, we took turns saying words that begin with the letter we’re hunting until we see it. It kept the three of us amused, but Lyra eventually got a bit fed up, “I don’t want to go for a little drive in the car car anymore!” she shouted. Followed by, “Where are we going, mummy?” “We’re going down there by that big glacier.” I told her. “I’m not!” was her response.

When we arrived at our cottage in Arnarstapi, Edda the owner was there to greet us. It is smaller than the last place, but still really nice and homely. Another difference was the various signs telling us what to do (or not do). I don’t think you can ever really feel at home in a place with signage — it’s like being watched…

After a quick pasta dinner, and a chunk of Black Beauty we got the girls into bed. However it had gone 11pm before they finally went to sleep. Hit the hot tub on the deck with a glass of wine before going to bed ourselves…

August 1, 2009

A new month… I think the days have shortened even in the week we’ve been here,. Our last full day in the south, we’d planned to do some walking in the hotspring area above Hveragerdi. Stopped at the local bakari to buy sandwiches — their claim to fame is a unique oven that uses steam from the earth to bake their bread. 

There was a low bank of heavy black cloud directly above the mountain we wanted to climb, which was a bit discouraging. When we noticed the bright blue skies over the coast to the south, we decided to head out that way instead. The road took us past the group of cottages where we were originally booked to stay. They looked fine, but we definitely came out better by being moved to Snorrabud.

Drove out to Thorlakshofn first, where the ferry for the Vestermann Islands departs. We were looking for beach access, but there was nothing much to the town but the ferry terminal and a fish processing plant.

Spotting a promising bay east of the town, we headed out that way, until the road terminated at a golf club. We parked up, followed a dirt track up into the dunes and we eventually rewarded with the sight of a glorious, sunny completely empty black sand beach.

A bit of a scramble down a steep sand bank, and we were there. Spent a couple of happy hours beachcombing and birdwatching. Dozens of arctic terns were fishing for their young. Every so often one would plunge into the sea, and if they managed to catch something, head back overhead with a fish dangling from their beeok to feed their young. We even spotted a wild mink ambling along the shoreline. When he caught sight of us he turned on his heels and dashed for the dunes.

Dinner was a fridge clearing sort of affair, that left me feeling a bit dyspeptic. I just don’t have the digestive system I used to…