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| Another belated update | ||
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Since the collapse of the Icelandic banking system, following the idiotic terrorist law invocation by Gordon the smeghead Brown, things have been going downhill for Icelandic businesses in general. I'm lucky that the main business season for the company I work for is still only rising, so I look to have quite a lot to do at work in the near future, yet I must be prepared for anything, since things can get turned on their heads very rapidly around here. I won't dwell on it though, being the incorrigible optimist that I am. There's no recession in our household, according to Kolla, we're just on a diet and I happen to agree with her viewpoint there. We are dead certain that we'll get through all of this and be stronger for it, because we're so positive in our thinking. Egill has finally started to use a few words that can be understood and he sees that we respond positively to them. The first word he started to use, was his own Icelandic version of "diaper", followed by saying "yes" and "no" to questions and now he's started to babble the Icelandic word for "daddy" and I think he'll come on leaps and bounds from now on. Birta has decided to call it a day on her Taekwon Do training and has started learning the guitar. But she's a bit too lazy when it comes to practicing her playing, but she'll get there. She also gets rave reviews from most of her teachers at school, so we know she's a smart girl. All she needs to do is to apply her intelligence and then she'll be capable of whatever she wants to do. Our first gig was a total disaster, but we are of the mentality that a first time failure is only the necessary evil before we conquer the world with our music. The second gig, 4 days later, was much better and we'll be giving a third one on December 7th. We know we're good when we're well rehearsed and well prepared mentally, so that's what we have to ensure when we perform next time. We'll also get a friend of ours, Anna Lilja, to play the trumpet with us, along with something we can hopefully conjure up before the gig. Tomorrow we're planning to do some house cleaning, and then hopefully we can visit Anna Lilja and play a bit. She needs it, following the recent surgery and subsequent rehabilitation she's undergoing. I just hope we can help her to overcome her physical problems, since her mental state of mind is many levels above the physical one. Currently listening to: Dire Straits radio on LastFM, current song is Supertramp - Crime of the Century |
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| Weekend update | ||
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This week was a mixed bag for me, seeing as I managed to hit my right knee quite hard against a small metal flap, that's welded to the chassis of the forklift that I work on. It was all the more spectacular, that usually I jump out and feel no after effects, but this time I was going down from the lift in a very cool and calculated manner. It just goes to show that it's best to jump out of those things, most of the time. It's only today that I'm feeling better, since walking up and down stairs was seriously painful and climbing into and out of forklifts was a toil, to say the least. But today I feel so much better, so it's obvious that I didn't chip the kneecap as I first feared. Now to a bit of sport, for a change. Liverpool beat Wigan, after the latter team was reduced to ten men, following the dismissal of Antonio Valencia for two bookable offences. Dirk Kuyt should really be listed as quite an asset for the Liverpool team, now that he's been quite prolific this season. His brace today took his tally to 4 goals in the last 3 games, if my count is anywhere near accurate, but please feel free to rectify my mistake, if I made one. Steve Bruce, Wigan's manager, was rather silly in his post match interview, citing that the first yellow card to Valencia was suspect and the other questionable, even though everybody in the world could see that both bookings were fair and just. The player was walking a tightrope all through the match, so I'm surprised that he didn't receive a yellow earlier in the game. Albert Riera's goal was sandwiched by Kuyt's goals, ensuring that the Reds left Anfield with all three points. Me and Kolla are now practicing hard to be ready for our little gig on Wednesday and we've already booked a second gig at the same place on the following Sunday. The material in both concerts will be about the same, though we might change the odd song. It will be decided later though. We call our microband Igloo, as I may have said somewhere else. The reason why we refuse to call ourselves a duet, is that sometimes we recruit friends and family to play along with us, so they'll be temporary members of Igloo when they do help us out. We're now just about ready with about 10 songs in our program, which will probably count around 20 songs, though we might cut short, depending on how good the atmosphere might be. I reckon we'll have a set of about 15 songs that we'll definitely play and then keep 5 songs in reserve, if we need to lengthen the gig. I just wish that Jason Jason could be here for the gig, but hopefully we can get a chance to tape the gig and also record it, so we can put some of the better songs onto our MySpace page. Kolla's grandson, Óđinn Fannar, came to us for a visit about an hour ago and seems to like it just fine, to be here playing with our Egill Úlfar. They are cautious, but seem to be getting on just fine. That's great and I just hope that Kolla's niece Hildur can come here as well, with her little daughter Andrea. Seeing the three little ones will be quite amusing, since they'll probably have a great time playing together, even though there's a difference of 6 weeks in age, between Andrea and Egill, and then another 4 months, between Egill and Óđinn. Still I reckon it would be a magnificent gathering and I really hope we can make it come off. Currently sitting by myself, in my bed, listening to the ticking of a clock in the background. |
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| Another night alone | ||
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I will have to spend another night alone in the house, with my little son Egill. He's great company, but sometimes it's important to have somebody around that you can talk to about anything and everything and expect some intelligent feedback on your issues. He responds to most things I say, but unfortunately it's in his own baby talk, so I have no idea what he's saying to me. Fortunately he shows nothing but happiness, being home alone with me, but I'm quite sure that he'll be absolutely ecstatic to have his mother and siblings back. I've got to find out if I can fit the baby seat into the only car I have at my disposal at the moment, a smallish pickup truck. If it fits, then I can go to work, otherwise I'll have to stay at home which is basically an impossible situation. I need the income and taking days off isn't exactly beneficial to my pay check. I'll figure something out, but that pickup isn't exactly the most comfortable thing I can drive, due to my size. He'll spend the day with my parents, if we can go, so he'll have plenty of fun there. They love him dearly and it's completely mutual, he loves being there and enjoys their company exceptionally well. Currently listening to: The background noise of Tom&Jerry, in the bedroom TV |
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| Home alone, or thereabouts | ||
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Earlier today, Kolla went to see her grandson, who's turning one year old around this time. I'm not quite sure about the date, but that's beside the point. She took her 8 and 13 year olds with her, Ingimar and Birta respectively, along with her 19 year old son Logi and his current girlfriend. Logi is the proud father of the lad, but was quite unlucky to have fathered the lad with the girl he did. But that's all over and done with and he's got to both take the consequences and play out the role of fatherhood, something he was way too keen on taking on. The fact is, he's not nearly ready or responsible enough to be a father or run his own home, because he hasn't really found out what should be on top of his list of priorities. It will hopefully come, but until then he's going to make a heap of mistakes. Fortunately he's got time on his side, but I just hope he learns from each mistake and avoids continuous repeats. While they are on the road, I'm alone in the house. Well not quite alone, since I've got my little rascal of a son, Egill, in the house with me to keep me company and what delightful company he's been. He's so loving and willing to help out his dad, even though some of the help isn't exactly that. But he's learning and he is a very keen learner of things, which means I better show him the right way to do things, and avoid showing him the negative sides. He's been asleep now for about 45 minutes and the house is eerily quiet. No TV that's blaring out, no scuffling or arguing between his siblings, no kissing or smacking noises from me and his mother. It's just the sound of keys being struck on my laptop, the CPU cooling fan on the laptop and the occasionaly noisy fart from me. That's all the noise there is and only one of the sounds is accompanied with an unpleasant smell  Tomorrow will be about as quiet I reckon, though I'll probably play a bit more guitar than I did today. I have played for about 3 hours, altogether, due to getting an annoying cramp in my left hand fingers. I should be OK by tomorrow, though I can never really tell. Fortunately I have a choice of two guitars to make, my 12-string acoustic and Kolla's 6 string classical acoustic. My guitar is only an 11-string at the moment, due to a chronic lack of cash, because otherwise I'd have replaced the entire set of strings already, well both sets, to be honest. On October 22nd, at 9pm, me and Kolla are going to perform our first ever gig as the microband Igloo. The set will be a mixture of many of our favourite songs, most of which are quite easy to play, though they need a bit of practicing, in order to sound decent. Some of the songs are already in a pretty good shape, so we only need to roll through them a couple of times to be ready for action, others need a bit of practice and some listening to, in order to be able to portray their meaning and feelings properly, and of course to do them justice. We already have a page on Myspace for the band, but so far there's no music, since we only want to put our own performances there. The URL to the site is http://www.myspace.com/iglooiceland and we'll be happy to give people a demo of our music, once we have something recorded. The sooner, the better, some of our friends might say, but we know that we can always improve and that's what we strive to do. Maybe we'll see a reason to take the band to other countries, though I reckon we'd only be doing that as a part of a vacation that took us in that direction anyway. But at the current time, we're happy to see the odd gig happen and to try our best to ease people's lives and give them a few moments of happiness, in the current financial climate. Currently listening to: My stomach complaining after overeating for the first time in ages  |
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| A concert tomorrow | ||
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I forgot to tell Kolla about it when I came home, but I'm dead set on inviting her to that gig. It's Icelandic pop/rock icon Bubbi Morthens, who used to be very cool and hard rockin', but since he started messing with women, he's become quite a soft touch. But despite all that, he's still a very keen social commentator in his music and he isn't afraid to tell people how he sees things. I'm working on a small musical piece to show my appreciation for the president of SGI, Daisaku Ikeda. I really admire the man, who's done more to promote the idea of world peace, than any other in recent history. I find it odd that he hasn't been given the Nobel peace prize for his efforts, but the ways of that committee are odd and often boring. Our thoughts about going to Denmark are making way to the idea of maybe moving to Norway. The idea is to go to a place where the family values are the strongest and where the spouse, who has to be at home, can get paid to stay at home and take care of the children. I know that would make a heap of difference to Kolla, cause even though she wants the kids to learn independence, it's always good to know that your work there is appreciated by the government. I know that Kolla is a great mother, no doubt about that, but sometimes it's good to get a small financial incentive. And of course it would enable her to pursue her artistic ideas even further. Currently listening to: Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark |
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