Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Fridayish
Or, as a friend said, just like Friday but on a different day.
Although today is technically Wednesday, here in Iceland today is treated more like a Friday. The reason for this is that tomorrow, Friday and Monday are all public holidays, leading to a rather long weekend. As a result people start partying on Wednesday afternoon or travel to visit friends elsewhere in the country. Certainly when I arrived at Reykjavík domestic airport the car park was not only full but overflowing into the nearby roads and other car parks. Even the flight was fairly crowded.
From the airport we headed into town to the closing-down sale at the leather shop. I went a little wild and bought a full hide of blue-dyed leather to make a jerkin to go over my fencing shirt. I probably only need about half of it but I'm sure that I'll find something to do with the rest. I also picked up some very soft red glove leather (for gloves that I promised to make for someone several years ago) and some rather nice black leather that should be enough to make several pairs of indoor shoes.
There was also a trip to a fascinating, er, school supplier. This is a craft shop that sells the normal stationery, threads, papercraft materials and craft books but also sells equipment for chemistry labs. If you happen to need variegated perle thread, peel-off card decorations, conical flasks and test tubes then this is the shop for you. It appealed to so many facets of my inner geek.
Tomorrow I have an 07:30 flight to Stansted, which means I have to be up at oh-dark-hundred to get to the airport. Although up here now we don't really get oh-dark-hundred any more, rather we get oh-surely it can't be light yet?-hundred instead. Whichever it is, it calls for an early night tonight.
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Although today is technically Wednesday, here in Iceland today is treated more like a Friday. The reason for this is that tomorrow, Friday and Monday are all public holidays, leading to a rather long weekend. As a result people start partying on Wednesday afternoon or travel to visit friends elsewhere in the country. Certainly when I arrived at Reykjavík domestic airport the car park was not only full but overflowing into the nearby roads and other car parks. Even the flight was fairly crowded.
From the airport we headed into town to the closing-down sale at the leather shop. I went a little wild and bought a full hide of blue-dyed leather to make a jerkin to go over my fencing shirt. I probably only need about half of it but I'm sure that I'll find something to do with the rest. I also picked up some very soft red glove leather (for gloves that I promised to make for someone several years ago) and some rather nice black leather that should be enough to make several pairs of indoor shoes.
There was also a trip to a fascinating, er, school supplier. This is a craft shop that sells the normal stationery, threads, papercraft materials and craft books but also sells equipment for chemistry labs. If you happen to need variegated perle thread, peel-off card decorations, conical flasks and test tubes then this is the shop for you. It appealed to so many facets of my inner geek.
Tomorrow I have an 07:30 flight to Stansted, which means I have to be up at oh-dark-hundred to get to the airport. Although up here now we don't really get oh-dark-hundred any more, rather we get oh-surely it can't be light yet?-hundred instead. Whichever it is, it calls for an early night tonight.
Labels: iceland
0 comments
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Signs of the times
I noticed another sign of the kreppa today.
It is no longer possible to get a bottle of wine for less that 1000 kr. Last time I went into Vinbúð you could still get a cheap and cheerful bottle of sweet white for about 800 kr, while if you wanted, say, a Gallo white then it would be about 1300 kr. Enough to make me leery of buying wine often but not so bad that I didn't bother. Today that same bottle of Gallo white is 1700 kr (about £10). It's not just the exchange rate issues that have led to the rising price of alcohol; the goverment recently raised the alcohol duty as well. My inner cynic suggests that they have thought this out well - people are miserable so they drink more to cheer themselves; let's raise the alcohol duty so that we can make a bit of money from this.
I didn't go into Vinbúðin looking for wine. We had a 'leaving lunch' for my other departing colleague today and as one of us wanted to swing by there on the way back to the office I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to pick up some more local beers for S. I managed to get two microbrews, one local and one not, plus the jólabjór from the two main breweries. These are generally stronger and considered rather better than the normal beers. They're now sitting in the cupboard waiting for my trip to Redepmtion in February when I can hand them over.
It has been quite cold today, below -10C. I've got used to scraping the ice off the car windscreen before driving into work in the morning. I've even got used to scraping the ice off the car windscreen before driving home from work at tea-time. I do, however, draw the line at having to scrape the ice off the car windscreen at local noon (to within 10 minutes) in order to drive down into time for lunch. That is definitely taking the joke a bit too far. :)
Tonight, though, I'm curled up here in the warm hoping to complete the cross-stich bit of the current embroidery. If I manage that and get into the backstitching I will be happy.
5 comments
It is no longer possible to get a bottle of wine for less that 1000 kr. Last time I went into Vinbúð you could still get a cheap and cheerful bottle of sweet white for about 800 kr, while if you wanted, say, a Gallo white then it would be about 1300 kr. Enough to make me leery of buying wine often but not so bad that I didn't bother. Today that same bottle of Gallo white is 1700 kr (about £10). It's not just the exchange rate issues that have led to the rising price of alcohol; the goverment recently raised the alcohol duty as well. My inner cynic suggests that they have thought this out well - people are miserable so they drink more to cheer themselves; let's raise the alcohol duty so that we can make a bit of money from this.
I didn't go into Vinbúðin looking for wine. We had a 'leaving lunch' for my other departing colleague today and as one of us wanted to swing by there on the way back to the office I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to pick up some more local beers for S. I managed to get two microbrews, one local and one not, plus the jólabjór from the two main breweries. These are generally stronger and considered rather better than the normal beers. They're now sitting in the cupboard waiting for my trip to Redepmtion in February when I can hand them over.
It has been quite cold today, below -10C. I've got used to scraping the ice off the car windscreen before driving into work in the morning. I've even got used to scraping the ice off the car windscreen before driving home from work at tea-time. I do, however, draw the line at having to scrape the ice off the car windscreen at local noon (to within 10 minutes) in order to drive down into time for lunch. That is definitely taking the joke a bit too far. :)
Tonight, though, I'm curled up here in the warm hoping to complete the cross-stich bit of the current embroidery. If I manage that and get into the backstitching I will be happy.
Labels: iceland
5 comments