Saturday, July 04, 2009
Farting about with fittings
Sleeve fittings, to be precise.
The plan for the weekend was originally for M and B to come over and we'd do some dressmaking. In the end, they came over last night, we ate, drank, played games and were merry, and did no dressmaking at all. :) That was partly because B had no fabric but an invite to go climb a local mountain today, and partly because there was much alcohol drunk last night. It seemed a good time to break out the olivewood communion goblets I got from eBay as tablero pieces (I've had them for three years but haven't got around to making the embroidered board to go with them yet) instead of the plastic shot glasses. They are definitely superior, as they hold about 1/4 of a shot, thus allowing the game to continue far longer.
Oh yes, and there was Cointreau Chocolate Mousse. Very rich. Very yummy. :)
Today, then, I was the only one to get any dressmaking done, mainly because I'm here on my own right now while M has gone to the shire meeting (I'm still taking a holiday from local SCA matters). What I've done isn't actually making garb, it was rather the process of making a useful pattern for doublets and the like. My shape is such that it's much easier to make my own pattern than buy one, particularly if it involves sleeves.
The problem is that the old injury to my left shoulder meant that my arms have received disproportionate amounts of exercise, leading to a signigicant difference in biceps measurement between the two. A pattern that fits one are is either far too tight or far too loose for the other, leaving me with little option but to create for myself a basic pattern with seperate left and right arm pieces.
And it fits! This is definitely a Good Think, as it now means that I can forge ahead and make myself doublets to go with a couple of skirts and (finally) make some progress on my Spanish Court Garb. The aim is to complete it by Raglan, although that might be a little optimistic.
0 comments
The plan for the weekend was originally for M and B to come over and we'd do some dressmaking. In the end, they came over last night, we ate, drank, played games and were merry, and did no dressmaking at all. :) That was partly because B had no fabric but an invite to go climb a local mountain today, and partly because there was much alcohol drunk last night. It seemed a good time to break out the olivewood communion goblets I got from eBay as tablero pieces (I've had them for three years but haven't got around to making the embroidered board to go with them yet) instead of the plastic shot glasses. They are definitely superior, as they hold about 1/4 of a shot, thus allowing the game to continue far longer.
Oh yes, and there was Cointreau Chocolate Mousse. Very rich. Very yummy. :)
Today, then, I was the only one to get any dressmaking done, mainly because I'm here on my own right now while M has gone to the shire meeting (I'm still taking a holiday from local SCA matters). What I've done isn't actually making garb, it was rather the process of making a useful pattern for doublets and the like. My shape is such that it's much easier to make my own pattern than buy one, particularly if it involves sleeves.
The problem is that the old injury to my left shoulder meant that my arms have received disproportionate amounts of exercise, leading to a signigicant difference in biceps measurement between the two. A pattern that fits one are is either far too tight or far too loose for the other, leaving me with little option but to create for myself a basic pattern with seperate left and right arm pieces.
And it fits! This is definitely a Good Think, as it now means that I can forge ahead and make myself doublets to go with a couple of skirts and (finally) make some progress on my Spanish Court Garb. The aim is to complete it by Raglan, although that might be a little optimistic.
0 comments
Friday, July 03, 2009
Can we fix that too?
Er... possibly not.
I took the car for its MOT-equivalent today, to find that there are several other things that need fixing. The most important one is that the right front brake is showing a tendancy to seize up (which would explain the intermittant shudder I get occasionally and is almost certainly because I didn't use the car for quite a while even into the early summer thanks to the snow). It's not a death-no-saving-throw fault, but one that I have to get fixed by the end of August and then take the car back for a retest.
This fix and retest within a set time-limit is, in my view, a far better approach than the UK can't drive it until it is fixed one. I've always wondered what you're supposed to do if you maintain your car yourself but then it still fails, as I doubt that many garages would be happy to have you fix the errant item on their premises. Perhaps its just another part of the no user-serviceable parts philosophy.
For a brief moment I considered picking up the Haynes manual while I'm in the UK and then doing the job myself... but as I don't have a large lump hammer with which to hit them, nor a suitable workshop in which to do the deed I suspect it's going to be a garage job once I get back from the UK.
So for now, instead of having a nice new red '10' sticker on my licence plate I have a luminous green '8' sticker instead. The stickers are used instead of the UK tax disc, and are stuck to both plates. This makes it a lot easier to work out from a distance if a car is legal or not. The final digit of the licence number dictates the month that you need to have the car tested, although you do get 2-month period of grace after the end of that month before you have to pay extra. Once you've passed the test you then get a sticker with the year in which the next test is due; these are colour-coded for ease of recognition - 2009 is yellow, 2010 is red, 2011 is blue and so forth. Cars don't need to be tested for 3 years from new so you start seeing two colours ahead at the start of the year.
Not too surprisingly, while there are many 2011 cars around, I have seen very few 2012 cars. I suspect that this is a clear result of the economic crash, as no-one can afford to buy a brand new car at present.
0 comments
I took the car for its MOT-equivalent today, to find that there are several other things that need fixing. The most important one is that the right front brake is showing a tendancy to seize up (which would explain the intermittant shudder I get occasionally and is almost certainly because I didn't use the car for quite a while even into the early summer thanks to the snow). It's not a death-no-saving-throw fault, but one that I have to get fixed by the end of August and then take the car back for a retest.
This fix and retest within a set time-limit is, in my view, a far better approach than the UK can't drive it until it is fixed one. I've always wondered what you're supposed to do if you maintain your car yourself but then it still fails, as I doubt that many garages would be happy to have you fix the errant item on their premises. Perhaps its just another part of the no user-serviceable parts philosophy.
For a brief moment I considered picking up the Haynes manual while I'm in the UK and then doing the job myself... but as I don't have a large lump hammer with which to hit them, nor a suitable workshop in which to do the deed I suspect it's going to be a garage job once I get back from the UK.
So for now, instead of having a nice new red '10' sticker on my licence plate I have a luminous green '8' sticker instead. The stickers are used instead of the UK tax disc, and are stuck to both plates. This makes it a lot easier to work out from a distance if a car is legal or not. The final digit of the licence number dictates the month that you need to have the car tested, although you do get 2-month period of grace after the end of that month before you have to pay extra. Once you've passed the test you then get a sticker with the year in which the next test is due; these are colour-coded for ease of recognition - 2009 is yellow, 2010 is red, 2011 is blue and so forth. Cars don't need to be tested for 3 years from new so you start seeing two colours ahead at the start of the year.
Not too surprisingly, while there are many 2011 cars around, I have seen very few 2012 cars. I suspect that this is a clear result of the economic crash, as no-one can afford to buy a brand new car at present.
0 comments
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Can we fix it?
Yes we can!
No, I haven't decided to quit academia and go into the building trade. I've not even being doing household DIY, rather a little car maintenance. A task of laughable simplicity compared to the rebuilding work that my friend A regularly performs, but it worked and thus gave me a small thrill of victory.
I changed a bulb.
Yes, I know that sounds silly, but unlike my previous cars - Fords and Citroens - the Toyota is not a simple reach in, undo the clip, slide out the fitting, replace the bulb and then reverse previous actions job; this one requires you to unbolt the whole light module to gain access to the bulbs. Once you've got the module off it's actually much easier than the other method, as you just have to twist and remove a plastic fitting which has a standard bayonet-plug bulb attached.
The problem, of course, was the detatching the light module. On some Carina models this is attached with large clips, but on mine it is held in place by three 10mm bolts. Three recessed 10mm bolts. My first attempt, armed with an adjustable wrench, succeeded in unbolting the least-recessed of the three bolts. The other two required a trip into town to the car tool shot for a ring-end spanner.
(As a complete aside, one of the shops opposite the tool shop was having a sale. Sitting there in the window were three Celestron telescopes. I was tempted. I was very tempted by the AstroMaster 90AZ. But I was strong (and broke this month). Besides, what I really want is the NexStar 6 SE. One day. When the economy is functional again. Anyway, my Galileoscope should be arriving soon. Mind you, if the 90AZ hasn't been sold by the time I get back from the UK I may have to think again.)
So anyway, I now had the necessary tool to complete the job and the other two bolts rapidly caved in under the appliance of, er, engineering. The bulb change then took mere seconds (although slightly delayed by the fact that the bulbs have asymmetrical bayonets) and the module was refitted. Engine on, and yes, we have a functioning light. Woo-hoo! I can now take the car for its MOT-equivalent tomorrow morning.
0 comments
No, I haven't decided to quit academia and go into the building trade. I've not even being doing household DIY, rather a little car maintenance. A task of laughable simplicity compared to the rebuilding work that my friend A regularly performs, but it worked and thus gave me a small thrill of victory.
I changed a bulb.
Yes, I know that sounds silly, but unlike my previous cars - Fords and Citroens - the Toyota is not a simple reach in, undo the clip, slide out the fitting, replace the bulb and then reverse previous actions job; this one requires you to unbolt the whole light module to gain access to the bulbs. Once you've got the module off it's actually much easier than the other method, as you just have to twist and remove a plastic fitting which has a standard bayonet-plug bulb attached.
The problem, of course, was the detatching the light module. On some Carina models this is attached with large clips, but on mine it is held in place by three 10mm bolts. Three recessed 10mm bolts. My first attempt, armed with an adjustable wrench, succeeded in unbolting the least-recessed of the three bolts. The other two required a trip into town to the car tool shot for a ring-end spanner.
(As a complete aside, one of the shops opposite the tool shop was having a sale. Sitting there in the window were three Celestron telescopes. I was tempted. I was very tempted by the AstroMaster 90AZ. But I was strong (and broke this month). Besides, what I really want is the NexStar 6 SE. One day. When the economy is functional again. Anyway, my Galileoscope should be arriving soon. Mind you, if the 90AZ hasn't been sold by the time I get back from the UK I may have to think again.)
So anyway, I now had the necessary tool to complete the job and the other two bolts rapidly caved in under the appliance of, er, engineering. The bulb change then took mere seconds (although slightly delayed by the fact that the bulbs have asymmetrical bayonets) and the module was refitted. Engine on, and yes, we have a functioning light. Woo-hoo! I can now take the car for its MOT-equivalent tomorrow morning.
0 comments
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Holiday Logistics
Today was the last day at work for a month. I'm free!!!
Naturally my thoughts are now turning to my forthcoming visit to the UK. Well, visits plural really; July is the main one but then there's Raglan in August. I've been looking at relatively low-cost ways of doing things, as the krona is depressingly and patherically weak right now - about 50% of its value when I came over here. Which is massively frustrating given that I have what should be a reasonably-paid job... or it would be if the Independence Party and friends hadn't destroyed the Icelandic economy.
I'll be staying at the caravan for most of the first visit, although I've got all of the weekends filled in already including an SCA event and the Satellite 2 convention. I wasn't early enough to book into the con hotel but as it turns out that was a Good Thing - I could get a room at the same hotel for £21 less than the con special price by going to www.laterooms.com. Even so, I've opted for the Campanile just down the road at almost half the price of the con hotel.
The hotel issue extends into my planning for Raglan. Normally I'd stay at the Beaufort Arms in the village, but it has occurred to me that it would be considerably cheaper to buy a tent and all of the necessary paraphenalia to camp on-site than to stay in the hotel for 4 nights. The big issue would be storage between events - not a problem if I can get back to the UK for good relatively soon, but more of a problem if I have to cart it to and from Iceland with me. This is something I'll have to investigate further.
For now, though, I have a few days here to summer-clean the house before I leave. I have my little list, and I've started to work through it.
1 comments
Naturally my thoughts are now turning to my forthcoming visit to the UK. Well, visits plural really; July is the main one but then there's Raglan in August. I've been looking at relatively low-cost ways of doing things, as the krona is depressingly and patherically weak right now - about 50% of its value when I came over here. Which is massively frustrating given that I have what should be a reasonably-paid job... or it would be if the Independence Party and friends hadn't destroyed the Icelandic economy.
I'll be staying at the caravan for most of the first visit, although I've got all of the weekends filled in already including an SCA event and the Satellite 2 convention. I wasn't early enough to book into the con hotel but as it turns out that was a Good Thing - I could get a room at the same hotel for £21 less than the con special price by going to www.laterooms.com. Even so, I've opted for the Campanile just down the road at almost half the price of the con hotel.
The hotel issue extends into my planning for Raglan. Normally I'd stay at the Beaufort Arms in the village, but it has occurred to me that it would be considerably cheaper to buy a tent and all of the necessary paraphenalia to camp on-site than to stay in the hotel for 4 nights. The big issue would be storage between events - not a problem if I can get back to the UK for good relatively soon, but more of a problem if I have to cart it to and from Iceland with me. This is something I'll have to investigate further.
For now, though, I have a few days here to summer-clean the house before I leave. I have my little list, and I've started to work through it.
1 comments
Monday, June 29, 2009
Introducing...
... Mythgardia!
Remember that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had made my first foray into venture capitalism? Well things are now beginning to come together. The project was a new board game by my great friend Bob Harris, the designer of Talisman. It was originally due to be published by Games Workshop as the official sequel to Talisman but eventually the rights reverted back to Bob and so he's now independently publishing it through the Mythgardia website.
I've played the original version of this a number of time (when it was known as 'Legends') and it is a fun game. Naturally I've got my copy ordered already, and I'm looking forward to a number of evenings of play in the near future. One of the big advantages I can see about Bob publishing it himself is that this way we'll get the original designers' rules, rather than the screwed-up-by-Games-Workshop rules. Yes, a lot of the gameplay issues with Talisman were due to GW rules tweaks. If you implemented the logical house rules for Talisman then you were probably playing closer to the original ruleset.
And no, I'm not getting commission for this. Assuming that Bob manages to sell the first 100 limited edition sets I'll make a small profit. Which will be offset by the cost of buying a copy myself, I'm pretty certain of that. But the profit isn't the point - the point is that it's getting a game that I enjoyed to a larger market. With a side-effect of me getting a copy of it myself. :)
0 comments
Remember that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had made my first foray into venture capitalism? Well things are now beginning to come together. The project was a new board game by my great friend Bob Harris, the designer of Talisman. It was originally due to be published by Games Workshop as the official sequel to Talisman but eventually the rights reverted back to Bob and so he's now independently publishing it through the Mythgardia website.
I've played the original version of this a number of time (when it was known as 'Legends') and it is a fun game. Naturally I've got my copy ordered already, and I'm looking forward to a number of evenings of play in the near future. One of the big advantages I can see about Bob publishing it himself is that this way we'll get the original designers' rules, rather than the screwed-up-by-Games-Workshop rules. Yes, a lot of the gameplay issues with Talisman were due to GW rules tweaks. If you implemented the logical house rules for Talisman then you were probably playing closer to the original ruleset.
And no, I'm not getting commission for this. Assuming that Bob manages to sell the first 100 limited edition sets I'll make a small profit. Which will be offset by the cost of buying a copy myself, I'm pretty certain of that. But the profit isn't the point - the point is that it's getting a game that I enjoyed to a larger market. With a side-effect of me getting a copy of it myself. :)
0 comments
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Another batch ready to post
I've completed another batch of backlog scrolls.
I got a bit carried away this time looking for alternatives to my previous 'standard' versal, and as I went through the set the scrolls became more and more complicated - to the extent that I could probably have completed three of the 'standard' scrolls in the time it took me to do each of the three with the floral borders.
For the first time I had a go at doing a pair of scrolls for a couple. Actually it's a set of three for a couple and their daughter, but I did the third deliberately similar-but-different to highlight that although she's in the family she's an individual in her own right. Here are the pair:
The complete set is in the usual gallery. It was also the first time I've tried that particular type of border, and I'm quite pleased with it. I've also created a set of templates for drawing circles, shields and so on for badges, which helps with the consistency. Now all I have to do is to parcel them up and stick them in the post on Monday.
0 comments
I got a bit carried away this time looking for alternatives to my previous 'standard' versal, and as I went through the set the scrolls became more and more complicated - to the extent that I could probably have completed three of the 'standard' scrolls in the time it took me to do each of the three with the floral borders.
For the first time I had a go at doing a pair of scrolls for a couple. Actually it's a set of three for a couple and their daughter, but I did the third deliberately similar-but-different to highlight that although she's in the family she's an individual in her own right. Here are the pair:
The complete set is in the usual gallery. It was also the first time I've tried that particular type of border, and I'm quite pleased with it. I've also created a set of templates for drawing circles, shields and so on for badges, which helps with the consistency. Now all I have to do is to parcel them up and stick them in the post on Monday.
0 comments
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tired but with cider
I'm back on my sofa once more.
It's been a long few days, including over a thousand miles of driving. Thankfully not all on the same day. It's strange, although it's a long set of drives I'd forgotten that it would top the thousand when added together. That's the problem of living on a large island without any 'normal' trans-island roads. Such roads do exist, but they should only be attempted with a modified jeep, experience in off-road driving and plenty of driving chuztpah. It would work as a Top Gear race - one of them goes around the ring road, the other goes across the interior. :)
Here's the day-by-day breakdown:
Wednesday We had to get an early start as I expected it to be a rather long day - Egilsstaðir in the east to Eyrabakki in the south west, via the iceberg lake at Jókulsárlón. The lake was full to overflowing with icebergs, so much so that the amphibious tour of the lake kept its water-bourne segment to the edge of the lake rather than sailing in amongst the icebergs themselves, which was a little disappointing. There were, however, waffles and cream to make up for this, and E seemed to be quite enchanted by the whole thing.
Then it was back into the car to continue west, stopping only at Lanfskalavaroa to put another stone on one of the many piles of stones there. I successfully idenified the pile with the rock I'd placed last year; hint - bring an easily-identifiable rock, such as a water- (most likely glacier-) smoothed dark red one with white spots... I think it's a porphyritic rhyolite but I can't find my book on Icelandic rocks and minerals to confirm that. This year's rock was a larger chunk of scoria from near Dimmuborgir.
We finally made it to the hostel at Eyrarbakki about 9.5 hours after leaving Egilsstaðir, which wasn't bad at all given the two stops. The 'hostel' turned out to be a set of four apartments, each of which had a twin bedroom and a double sofa bed for a very reasonable fee. Sufficiently reasonable that if a group of us decide to do a planning weekend close to Þingvellir for one of our projects then a couple of these would be a definite possibility.
Thursday This was a much more relaxed start to the day, as we only had to get about 110km from Eyrarbakki to Keflavík. We did take the scenic route, via Kerið, Geysir, Gulfoss and Þingvellir. Yes, we did the classic Golden Circle tour, but added Álfubrúin, the bridge spanning the Álfagja rift in the far south west. This is the 'bridge between the continents', with one side on the North American plate and the other on the European plate. Except that the rift zone is actually about 30km wide... but that wouldn't play well with the tourists. :) The local authorities do seem to have improved the access though - it now has readable signage so it was fairly easy to find, unlike my last visit.
We stayed in the Njarðvík hostel where P and I had spent a couple of nights last year. E had been reading the description in the brochure and was looking forward to relaxing in the hostel's hot pot but unfortunately it wasn't working. It was also raining by that point, and E did admit that she wasn't too sure about the idea of hot-potting in the rain.
Friday Having done huge amounts of nature stuff over the past few days this morning left us just enough time to do the Saga Museum. They let me in there for free now, as this was my 6th visit, and most of the time I'm bringing other people in to visit the place. My interest is normally the shop where, as usual, I picked up some more beads to go the the hypothetical hangarok (although that might actually get done next weekend... not holding my breath on it just in case) and a bronze valkure to hang between the beads. Then there were Belgian waffles. We were at Perlan; Belgian waffles are obligatory. :)
Then it was back to the airport to drop E off to catch her flight. I think she had a pretty good time over here. I then took advantage of being in the capital to meet up with M for coffee and to pay a visit to the big blue shed in search of a new breadknife (we'd accidentally left mine in Eyrarbakki) and some more glasses to be engraved. The glasses were there but there were no breadknives, unfortunately. Instead I picked up some jars that will work nicely to store the component spices for garam masala.
The journey up north was looooong. Probably because I found myself stuck behind a series of tractors, tractors towing trailers, cars towing trailers, cars towing caravans, cars towing camper-trailers, and even camper-vans. It was well over an hour longer than anticipated, but I guess that's what you get for driving on a Friday afternoon.
Eventually I arrived home, extracted (and opened) one of my two remaining bottles of real cider from the fridge and crashed on the sofa. There seems to have been a death while I was away. I wonder if anything else happened on the planet?
0 comments
It's been a long few days, including over a thousand miles of driving. Thankfully not all on the same day. It's strange, although it's a long set of drives I'd forgotten that it would top the thousand when added together. That's the problem of living on a large island without any 'normal' trans-island roads. Such roads do exist, but they should only be attempted with a modified jeep, experience in off-road driving and plenty of driving chuztpah. It would work as a Top Gear race - one of them goes around the ring road, the other goes across the interior. :)
Here's the day-by-day breakdown:
Wednesday We had to get an early start as I expected it to be a rather long day - Egilsstaðir in the east to Eyrabakki in the south west, via the iceberg lake at Jókulsárlón. The lake was full to overflowing with icebergs, so much so that the amphibious tour of the lake kept its water-bourne segment to the edge of the lake rather than sailing in amongst the icebergs themselves, which was a little disappointing. There were, however, waffles and cream to make up for this, and E seemed to be quite enchanted by the whole thing.
Then it was back into the car to continue west, stopping only at Lanfskalavaroa to put another stone on one of the many piles of stones there. I successfully idenified the pile with the rock I'd placed last year; hint - bring an easily-identifiable rock, such as a water- (most likely glacier-) smoothed dark red one with white spots... I think it's a porphyritic rhyolite but I can't find my book on Icelandic rocks and minerals to confirm that. This year's rock was a larger chunk of scoria from near Dimmuborgir.
We finally made it to the hostel at Eyrarbakki about 9.5 hours after leaving Egilsstaðir, which wasn't bad at all given the two stops. The 'hostel' turned out to be a set of four apartments, each of which had a twin bedroom and a double sofa bed for a very reasonable fee. Sufficiently reasonable that if a group of us decide to do a planning weekend close to Þingvellir for one of our projects then a couple of these would be a definite possibility.
Thursday This was a much more relaxed start to the day, as we only had to get about 110km from Eyrarbakki to Keflavík. We did take the scenic route, via Kerið, Geysir, Gulfoss and Þingvellir. Yes, we did the classic Golden Circle tour, but added Álfubrúin, the bridge spanning the Álfagja rift in the far south west. This is the 'bridge between the continents', with one side on the North American plate and the other on the European plate. Except that the rift zone is actually about 30km wide... but that wouldn't play well with the tourists. :) The local authorities do seem to have improved the access though - it now has readable signage so it was fairly easy to find, unlike my last visit.
We stayed in the Njarðvík hostel where P and I had spent a couple of nights last year. E had been reading the description in the brochure and was looking forward to relaxing in the hostel's hot pot but unfortunately it wasn't working. It was also raining by that point, and E did admit that she wasn't too sure about the idea of hot-potting in the rain.
Friday Having done huge amounts of nature stuff over the past few days this morning left us just enough time to do the Saga Museum. They let me in there for free now, as this was my 6th visit, and most of the time I'm bringing other people in to visit the place. My interest is normally the shop where, as usual, I picked up some more beads to go the the hypothetical hangarok (although that might actually get done next weekend... not holding my breath on it just in case) and a bronze valkure to hang between the beads. Then there were Belgian waffles. We were at Perlan; Belgian waffles are obligatory. :)
Then it was back to the airport to drop E off to catch her flight. I think she had a pretty good time over here. I then took advantage of being in the capital to meet up with M for coffee and to pay a visit to the big blue shed in search of a new breadknife (we'd accidentally left mine in Eyrarbakki) and some more glasses to be engraved. The glasses were there but there were no breadknives, unfortunately. Instead I picked up some jars that will work nicely to store the component spices for garam masala.
The journey up north was looooong. Probably because I found myself stuck behind a series of tractors, tractors towing trailers, cars towing trailers, cars towing caravans, cars towing camper-trailers, and even camper-vans. It was well over an hour longer than anticipated, but I guess that's what you get for driving on a Friday afternoon.
Eventually I arrived home, extracted (and opened) one of my two remaining bottles of real cider from the fridge and crashed on the sofa. There seems to have been a death while I was away. I wonder if anything else happened on the planet?
0 comments
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Two by two
That's two journeys, two days, two puffins, two rainbows and two blue whales.
E's gap year visit to Iceland continued yesterday with a shortened tour of the north. Shortened by the requirement for me to attend what turned out to be a pretty ineffectual meeting in work in the morning, with the knock-on effect that we didn't get back until dawn (that's about 01:30 at present). Fortunately I could do the rest of the tour today as we headed out to Egilsstaðir to stay with B overnight.
After lunch at Bláa Kannan, where they had the most delicious pineapple cake, we headed off for Húsavík in time for the late afternoon whale-watching trip. The reports on the website over the last couple of days had suggested that there were a lot of whales in the bay so we started off in high hopes. We then spent about two hours pottering around the bay seeing nothing more than a couple of puffins, a dozen or so gulls and an (admittedly spectacular) double rainbow. The crew were clearly getting a bit worried, as if you don't see any whales on a given trip then they give you a voucher for a free trip at some point in the future.
Just as we were giving up hope the cry came from the lookout that there was a whale spout on the horizon. This was, in my view, exceptionally good news, as I hadn't seen any spouting whales before now so it had to be a new species for me. This turned out to be not one but two blue whales quite a distance a way. It was the distance that made me realise just how large these creatures are - from our vantage point on the boat several hundred metres away they still looked big. Close up they would have been twice the length of the boat upon which we stood.
Unfortunately we didn't have much time to follow them as the boat was needed for a final tour that evening, so we headed back to the harbour at full speed. By now it was past 20:00 and we were feeling decidedly peckish so it was off to Gamli Baukar for deep-fried (but not battered) cod with salad and mashed potatoes before heading south to Jorðböðin at Mývatn. While E was quite excited by the whale-watching trip, she was utterly captivated by the geothermal pool. It was quite tricky to coax her out at 23:20 before the horde extricated themselves from the combination of hot water and cold beer at 23:30. Naturally we had to complete the entire bathing experience with the traditional ice-cream (caramel Magnum, in my case) before the hour and a half drive back to the house.
With an 01:30 arrival it was probably a good thing that we'd planned a slightly later start this morning, simply hoping to be on the road by 10:30. We succeeded in this, and by that point had made it as far as the Christmas House, another place of great amusement and delight. Today we could catch up on all of the things I'd missed out yesterday, like Goðafoss, Dimmuborgir and Námafjall, and E was suitably impressed with all three.
Then there was just the couple of hours driving from Mývatn to Egilsstaðir in the east. Route 1 through the highlands is okay, but then there's the Corner From Hell and then the seemingly-endless drive down the valley to the town. It's not one of my favourite drives but the prospect of B's apartment at the end of it kept me going, and we arrived in good time for once.
It's now ridiculously early to go to bed but I'm planning just that, given that we've got what is probably going to be a 12-hour journey to the hostel at Eyrarbakki for tomorrow night. I tried to get us into somewhere a bit closer but for some reason they all seem full at present. :) The only closer hostel can only be accessed by experienced drivers in modified 4x4s... and while the yeti has been appropriately modded my driving hasn't. I could probably do it, but the car isn't mine and I have a passenger so I'm not going to take any chances.
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E's gap year visit to Iceland continued yesterday with a shortened tour of the north. Shortened by the requirement for me to attend what turned out to be a pretty ineffectual meeting in work in the morning, with the knock-on effect that we didn't get back until dawn (that's about 01:30 at present). Fortunately I could do the rest of the tour today as we headed out to Egilsstaðir to stay with B overnight.
After lunch at Bláa Kannan, where they had the most delicious pineapple cake, we headed off for Húsavík in time for the late afternoon whale-watching trip. The reports on the website over the last couple of days had suggested that there were a lot of whales in the bay so we started off in high hopes. We then spent about two hours pottering around the bay seeing nothing more than a couple of puffins, a dozen or so gulls and an (admittedly spectacular) double rainbow. The crew were clearly getting a bit worried, as if you don't see any whales on a given trip then they give you a voucher for a free trip at some point in the future.
Just as we were giving up hope the cry came from the lookout that there was a whale spout on the horizon. This was, in my view, exceptionally good news, as I hadn't seen any spouting whales before now so it had to be a new species for me. This turned out to be not one but two blue whales quite a distance a way. It was the distance that made me realise just how large these creatures are - from our vantage point on the boat several hundred metres away they still looked big. Close up they would have been twice the length of the boat upon which we stood.
Unfortunately we didn't have much time to follow them as the boat was needed for a final tour that evening, so we headed back to the harbour at full speed. By now it was past 20:00 and we were feeling decidedly peckish so it was off to Gamli Baukar for deep-fried (but not battered) cod with salad and mashed potatoes before heading south to Jorðböðin at Mývatn. While E was quite excited by the whale-watching trip, she was utterly captivated by the geothermal pool. It was quite tricky to coax her out at 23:20 before the horde extricated themselves from the combination of hot water and cold beer at 23:30. Naturally we had to complete the entire bathing experience with the traditional ice-cream (caramel Magnum, in my case) before the hour and a half drive back to the house.
With an 01:30 arrival it was probably a good thing that we'd planned a slightly later start this morning, simply hoping to be on the road by 10:30. We succeeded in this, and by that point had made it as far as the Christmas House, another place of great amusement and delight. Today we could catch up on all of the things I'd missed out yesterday, like Goðafoss, Dimmuborgir and Námafjall, and E was suitably impressed with all three.
Then there was just the couple of hours driving from Mývatn to Egilsstaðir in the east. Route 1 through the highlands is okay, but then there's the Corner From Hell and then the seemingly-endless drive down the valley to the town. It's not one of my favourite drives but the prospect of B's apartment at the end of it kept me going, and we arrived in good time for once.
It's now ridiculously early to go to bed but I'm planning just that, given that we've got what is probably going to be a 12-hour journey to the hostel at Eyrarbakki for tomorrow night. I tried to get us into somewhere a bit closer but for some reason they all seem full at present. :) The only closer hostel can only be accessed by experienced drivers in modified 4x4s... and while the yeti has been appropriately modded my driving hasn't. I could probably do it, but the car isn't mine and I have a passenger so I'm not going to take any chances.
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
Midsummer Blót
Today is midsummer, and I celebrated it in quite an unusual way.
The original plan for the day was for E, Ö (one of the fencers) and myself to do the tour of the north. Yesterday, though, Ö arrived and invited us to join him at the midsummer blót this evening with other local Ásatrúar in the woods at Kjarnaskogur.
Ásatrú is the modern interpretation of the Norse religion and is a recognised and respected religion here in Iceland. The focus is, Ö tells me, upon living in a manner in accordance with the sayings of Hávamál as well as revering the spirits and the old gods.
We met at one of the car parks in the woods and then went in search of the great wooden sundial somewhere up on the high ground. It turned out that, of course, we'd parked in the furthest car park from the site, and that there was one almost directly next to it, although that required taking a different turning. Mind you, now that I know that the turning is there I'll probably go up there again myself to get some photos and then bore you all with a more detailed description and musings upon the astronomical alignments of this place (which made me think of Woodhenge rather than Stonehenge, but more of that in a later post once I've been back with a compass to check the alignments).
There were about 15 people at the blót including the goði and gyða, who'd come up from Reykjavík; they apologised for the lack of activity up north recently but suggested the group's FaceBook group as an excellent way of keeping in touch. Ah, how the Internet pervades everything... :)
The ceremony itself was short - about 10 minutes - and began with the lighting of a fire (in a barbecue brought along for the purpose) followed by an invocation to the sun and and the blessing of the contents of a drinking horn with a rather nice twisted iron oath-ring. Then came the offerings to Oðin, Þór, Freyr, Freyja and the Earth Mother, each of which was poured onto the ground before the fire. Finally the horn was passed around all present to drink to the gods or to individual deities of their choice.
The three of us then celebrated further with ice-cream at the Big Bridge Burger Bar. Other folk from the blót arrived shortly after and celebrated with burgers. :) It was definitely an interesting thing to attend, the more so that it was held in Old Norse, spoken slowly and clearly, and surprisingly easier to understand than modern Icelandic. I actually managed to follow much of what the goði was saying, which added to the sense of the event.
It was a very interesting experience, even for an atheist like me. I found myself remembering Gytha, and the passing round of the mead-horn at Brighthelm events. But it was a remembrance of happiness, which was good.
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The original plan for the day was for E, Ö (one of the fencers) and myself to do the tour of the north. Yesterday, though, Ö arrived and invited us to join him at the midsummer blót this evening with other local Ásatrúar in the woods at Kjarnaskogur.
Ásatrú is the modern interpretation of the Norse religion and is a recognised and respected religion here in Iceland. The focus is, Ö tells me, upon living in a manner in accordance with the sayings of Hávamál as well as revering the spirits and the old gods.
We met at one of the car parks in the woods and then went in search of the great wooden sundial somewhere up on the high ground. It turned out that, of course, we'd parked in the furthest car park from the site, and that there was one almost directly next to it, although that required taking a different turning. Mind you, now that I know that the turning is there I'll probably go up there again myself to get some photos and then bore you all with a more detailed description and musings upon the astronomical alignments of this place (which made me think of Woodhenge rather than Stonehenge, but more of that in a later post once I've been back with a compass to check the alignments).
There were about 15 people at the blót including the goði and gyða, who'd come up from Reykjavík; they apologised for the lack of activity up north recently but suggested the group's FaceBook group as an excellent way of keeping in touch. Ah, how the Internet pervades everything... :)
The ceremony itself was short - about 10 minutes - and began with the lighting of a fire (in a barbecue brought along for the purpose) followed by an invocation to the sun and and the blessing of the contents of a drinking horn with a rather nice twisted iron oath-ring. Then came the offerings to Oðin, Þór, Freyr, Freyja and the Earth Mother, each of which was poured onto the ground before the fire. Finally the horn was passed around all present to drink to the gods or to individual deities of their choice.
The three of us then celebrated further with ice-cream at the Big Bridge Burger Bar. Other folk from the blót arrived shortly after and celebrated with burgers. :) It was definitely an interesting thing to attend, the more so that it was held in Old Norse, spoken slowly and clearly, and surprisingly easier to understand than modern Icelandic. I actually managed to follow much of what the goði was saying, which added to the sense of the event.
It was a very interesting experience, even for an atheist like me. I found myself remembering Gytha, and the passing round of the mead-horn at Brighthelm events. But it was a remembrance of happiness, which was good.
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
A very English dessert
That's Rick Stein's rhubarb crumble.
Last Saturday I was indulging in one of my guilty pleasures - Saturday Morning Kitchen - when up popped Rick Stein cooking rhubarb crumble. As it happens, I have a rather large rhubarb patch in the garden her, and I'd quite fond of rhubarb crumble, so I paid him a little more attention than I might have for another recipe (I normally watch/listen to the programme while doing something else, like calligraphy or embroidery). His recipe was a new approach; rather than stew the rhubarb first, simply chop it up and put it in the bottom of a dish, add sugar to taste and a little flour to thicken the eventual fruit mixture, then cover with crumble mixture. That, I thought, would be a nice easy thing to try at some point.
'Some point' came today. This afternoon some of the shire came over for sausage-making, fencing and dinner. There was also supposed to be some gaming thrown in there but things started about three hours later than planned and sausage-making is not a quick task. We worked out that it takes six people to make a link of sausages - one to hold the stuffer, one to pay out the sausage skin, one to turn the stuffer's handle, one to add sausage mixture to the stuffer, one to force the mixture in the stuffer down into its depths and one to take the length of sausage created and twist it into triple-links of sausage (which was my job). I know it can be done with two people but it's so much easier, if not necessarily more efficient, to do it with six.
Before we got our hands messy with the sausages, though, we had a preparatory chocolate raisin muffin. E made these, baking chocolate muffins that contained chocolate-coated raisins (as opposed to chocolate chunks) and were covered with more chocolate. Mnom indeed.
Dinner was a variation on my standard chicken and leek soup - this time we added eggs to it in an attempt to get the nice thin strings of egg that you sometimes get in chinese soups. The extra protein was especially welcome after an hour or so of fencing. This was followed by the rhubarb crumble and custard. On a 'filling' rating of 1-10 this scored a 9. I'd put a little two much sugar on the rhubarb so it wasn't as tart as I prefer it but that made it a little more suited to the taste of my Icelandic friends. It was a big success, and I doubt that I'll evergo back to stewing rhubarb after that.
There's some left, which I suspect we'll have for breakfast tomorrow. Although I don't think I'll do custard with it. I just happen to have a carton of cream in the fridge, and I'm sure that would be far more suitable for breakfast.
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Last Saturday I was indulging in one of my guilty pleasures - Saturday Morning Kitchen - when up popped Rick Stein cooking rhubarb crumble. As it happens, I have a rather large rhubarb patch in the garden her, and I'd quite fond of rhubarb crumble, so I paid him a little more attention than I might have for another recipe (I normally watch/listen to the programme while doing something else, like calligraphy or embroidery). His recipe was a new approach; rather than stew the rhubarb first, simply chop it up and put it in the bottom of a dish, add sugar to taste and a little flour to thicken the eventual fruit mixture, then cover with crumble mixture. That, I thought, would be a nice easy thing to try at some point.
'Some point' came today. This afternoon some of the shire came over for sausage-making, fencing and dinner. There was also supposed to be some gaming thrown in there but things started about three hours later than planned and sausage-making is not a quick task. We worked out that it takes six people to make a link of sausages - one to hold the stuffer, one to pay out the sausage skin, one to turn the stuffer's handle, one to add sausage mixture to the stuffer, one to force the mixture in the stuffer down into its depths and one to take the length of sausage created and twist it into triple-links of sausage (which was my job). I know it can be done with two people but it's so much easier, if not necessarily more efficient, to do it with six.
Before we got our hands messy with the sausages, though, we had a preparatory chocolate raisin muffin. E made these, baking chocolate muffins that contained chocolate-coated raisins (as opposed to chocolate chunks) and were covered with more chocolate. Mnom indeed.
Dinner was a variation on my standard chicken and leek soup - this time we added eggs to it in an attempt to get the nice thin strings of egg that you sometimes get in chinese soups. The extra protein was especially welcome after an hour or so of fencing. This was followed by the rhubarb crumble and custard. On a 'filling' rating of 1-10 this scored a 9. I'd put a little two much sugar on the rhubarb so it wasn't as tart as I prefer it but that made it a little more suited to the taste of my Icelandic friends. It was a big success, and I doubt that I'll evergo back to stewing rhubarb after that.
There's some left, which I suspect we'll have for breakfast tomorrow. Although I don't think I'll do custard with it. I just happen to have a carton of cream in the fridge, and I'm sure that would be far more suitable for breakfast.
1 comments