Tuesday, January 28, 2003

A day to be remembered

Yesterday is a day to be remembered I think. After eating a traditional rotten acid food (yes it is fantastic) at my parents house I bought a little summer house, well rather some kind of a summer hut. It is not very big.

But as you might not know me and my family has been trying to raise a forest in a place called Myrdalur. And if you know anything about Iceland then you probably know that raising a forest in such a country is not an easy work. And this place Myrdalur moreover is one of the mist windy place in the whole country so it is nearly impossible. Yes I’ve been told I’m stupid and also a bit optimistic.

Our neighbor in the forestry has finally seen that the project is mission impossible so yesterday I made an agreement to him and bought his little 12 square meters hut.

Well, if you would like to see what this place looks like you can go to this webpage.

Sunday, January 26, 2003

It can be just so sad

One week ago I did catch cold. Maybe when skiing last weekend, I don’t know. But since then I’ve not been able to do any outdoor activities such as skiing or jogging. Well it has not been serious illness and I am getting better now but the sad thing is that it is just raining at the moment and I think the wonderful whit snow will just be in the see very soon. I don’t know if it is the green house effects or what but there have hardly been any snow in Reykjavik I think the last three winters. But in spite of that the summers have not been so good either. I really want those green house effects to be more effective in the summertime than in winter. I want warm summers with lot of sunshine and I also want cold winters with a plenty of snow (and in fact sunny also if possible).

Saturday, January 25, 2003

The small country life

It's not so bad to live in such a small country as I do. As part of this 280.000 population:

I have met the president more than one and the last president also and even the prime minister. Well he was only he major of Reykjavik. And I think most of the nation has.


I can go to a public open web page and see how everyone in the country is related to me. And believe me I seem to be related to all other Icelanders living to day. Well it’s usually not very close relationship. Usually I’ve the same grand grand grand grand grand father. And moreover it’s believed that all Icelanders are descendants of my grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand grand father (yes it was 13 grands) who was the last catholic bishop in Iceland, killed with his sons year 1550. That is:
Jón Arason 1484 - 1550 (the bishop)
& Helga Sigurðardóttir (his vife)


Björn Jónsson 1506 - 1550 (the son of the
bishop, they were killed by an axe the very same day)
Teitur Björnsson 1545 - 1619
Jón Teitsson 1590 - 1650
Sigurður Jónsson 1635
Jón Sigurðsson 1665
Guðmundur Jónsson 1691 - 1762
Þórunn Guðmundsdóttir 1724 - 1787
Guðrún Þorvaldsdóttir 1756 - 1836
Gunnar Gunnarsson 1796 - 1870
Gunnar Gunnarsson 1825 - 1890
Gunnar Gunnarsson 1851
Gunnar Gunnarsson 1889 - 1962
Sigurður Heiðar Gunnarsson 1933 (my father)
eiraggi@hotmail.com



And my grandgrandgrandgrandgrandfather (or maybe some grands more) was also the grandgrandgrandgrandfather of the president!

Friday, January 24, 2003

My desire for good coffee

Sometimes I think I’m drinking to much coffee. The first cup is in the morning and the second cup is also in the morning. There are even more cups in the morning but I’ve never been able to count them all.

In the afternoon there are even some more cups to come. An now I’ve an invitation from a coworker to taste a special organic coffee. I hope I’ll not be hooked on it!

But if you want to try the best coffee in Iceland, go to Kaffitár. I Most often drink their Exprsso Krakatá coffee. It is just marvelous


Expressó Krakatá
Kröftug blanda Mið-Amerískra og Indónesískra kaffibauna brennd Vínarbrennslu. Krakatá hentar einkar vel í heimilisexpressóvélar fyrir kaffiunnendur sem vilja hafa Expressókaffið sitt aðeins minna brennt en venjulegt er með Expressókaffi. Krakatá hefur súkkulaðikenndan keim, þykkt og með örlitlu sykrukenndu eftirbragði. Það er frábært kaffi í heimalagað expressóskot, gefur góða kaffifroðu og fyllingu.


Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Awakening

I woke up in the middle of last night hearing some "beep-beep" sound. No the house was not burning and it was neither an alarm of a nuclear war. It was just my GSM phone receiving an SMS message from a friend of mine from the company where I used to work two years ago. Good news, he was proudly announcing the birth of his daughter. He and his wife had before one son.

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

I Love my country

It is getting rather cold these days here in Iceland. 11°C below zero this morning. Has now gone to -8°C at 10 am. But the weather is beautiful, the sun will soon be shining. Actually the sun is rising at these very moment at 10:16. Sunset will be at 16:35. But anyway I will maybe have some northern light in the evening!

Well actually, this is the weather I like most in the winter. Some mellow endless rainy days are not my favorites!

Monday, January 20, 2003

The Icelandic North Atlantic Tragedy at Karahnjukar


You can read about the tragedy here:  http://www.inca.is/



Can you imagine, this beautiful landscape will be under mud and
water for ever!




Can you imagine, this powerful beautiful river (Kringislá) will be just
history after 5 years!




Not many of it's kind in the world.  You will never be able to see this
after few years.