Arna clearing the table 

Arna Ösp eating my phone. Mmmmmm ! 

Babysitting is fun fun fun :-)

Last Saturday me and Hilda were babysitting for my friend Sif. She entrusted us with Arna Ösp, 7 months while she was at her sisters wedding. We were left with the basic instructions and told to call if trouble got out of hand. That turned out to be totally unneccessary. Arna Ösp was every babysitters darling, she sat on my lap for two hours straight, just smiling and playing :) She fell asleep after a short irritable period and I very carefully walked towards the bedroom to put her in her bed. Then as I entered the room I stepped on a bump in the wooden floor and it gave a loud CRACK ! EEEEK ! Fortunately, Arna didn't wake up. But I told her mother off for not warning me about this little soundtrap ! 5 minutes before the parents came home she woke up and started screaming when she realized it wasn't her mother picking her up. As soon as her mother got her in her arms, everything was good again. So, on the whole it went very very well :-) Babysitting is fun :-)

Steingrímur sitting on his own :-) 

Nice weekend :-)

I spent the weekend with my "foster" child Steingrímur. It was really nice, just relaxing and taking care of a little cuddly person. He has made a lot of progress since last month, now he can actually sit on his own, without support. He is also more aware of his surroundings and smiles more. He is now 17 months old, but the doctors evaluated him to be like a 6-8 months old, but had to admit immediately that the evaluation was one month old and he had made a lot of progress since then. The little guy is tough and continues to move on, at his own pace. I got to spoil him a little bit, gave him a piece of a easter egg and yes,he likes chocolate :-) He also likes Kókómjólk and Svali :-) It is so much fun to have a baby in the house again, instead of a 12 year old teenager :-)

Ooooh, life goes on...

My father was buried on Tuesday. The funeral took place in the church in Fossvogur but he was buried in a small graveyard, Garðakirkjugarður, on Álftanes. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining and the sky was clear. The funeral was a difficult experience, but was very nice. My sister's daughter, Eva, sang beautifully for her grandfather, and a male singer sang my fathers favourite song. The church was filled with people; family, old friends, neighbours and former co-workers. It was strange to see the coffin go into the ground, but oddly comforting to know that he is resting in a nice place, with ocean view and all the ships going to Hafnarfjörður harbour have to sail past. A good place for an old sailor. I slept fitfully the night after the funeral and went to work late. When I turned on the car radio as I was driving from my house a line from a song filled the car: "Ooooh, life goes on". How very befitting.

My father's coffin and the wreaths 

Funeral blues

Tomorrow my father will be buried. It is a strange feeling, it will mean the end of the process that begun the fateful morning when the doctors told us that he wasn't responding to their treatment and wasn't getting any better. We carried on hoping, but fate had other plans. After tomorrow we will have said our final goodbye. That will be a strange feeling. Life goes on, everybody says. But it will be different. So now I'll try to sleep a little, tomorrow will be here too soon. I sign off with the words of W. H. Auden:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

My friends have been wonderful and supportive during this difficult time. I've recieved countless visits, phonecalls, text messages and hugs in the past week. My friend Dagmar Vala and her family gave me these beautiful flowers. I also got candles from my friends to light in my fathers memory. Lots of hugs and kisses, thank you all !
 

Dad, in a garden party at my sisters place, summer 2004 

Dad talking to my sisters husband last New Years Eve 

Steinar Pétursson, 05.01.1921-04.03.2005

My father died yesterday evening. He was very poorly the last week and it is a real relief that he doesn't have to suffer anymore. It is still so very very painful to loose him. Memories come flooding to me, of me going swimming with him, trying to get in to the hottest hot tub with him but not quite daring. And driving to the harbour, always afraid that dad would drive to close to the edge. Remembering him bringing gifts from abroad when he was working on the cargo ships. The chocolate that fell in to the harbour but we still ate it, and the metal crocodile he bought me once. The time he was driving my sister home but forgot her and drove away with only her son in the car. So many memories, so hard to think we are never going to meet again. My heart is broken.