A new WTC - only a single tower this time

The latest plans for a new building at the site of the Twin Towers have been revealed. A single tower will be erected, the same height as the former towers. The building will bear a spire that will emit light at night to echo the Statue of Liberty's torch. The new tower will be named Freedom tower. Hmmm. I'm really sorry,but this constant use of the word "freedom" in connection to the events of September 11th is beginning to annoy me. What about the freedom of the prisoners in Guantanamo bay ? The prisoners of Abu Ghraib ? Many of whom have been proven to be innocents grabbed of the streets in panic and paranoia ? What of their freedom ?? The freedom of the people, some longtime residents of the USA, that were taken into custody only because of race or religion and held without a right to an attorney or without being charged ?? It really leaves a bitter aftertaste that the senseless violence of September 11th is remembered mostly by mindless pursuit of revenge where everybody is guilty until proven innocent and laws and international treaties are ignored. It would hounour the victims more if some moral lessons had been learned by the tragedy, instead of abandoning all reason and go forward using brute force. The tower should be called Remembrance Tower, to remind us all of the wealth of human folly and cruelty. (Feeling philosophical and irritated this evening ;-))

Freyja relaxing at home after a refreshing outing 

An old raven's nest we found 

Steingrímur enjoying the scenery at Rauðhólar

A nice weekend, with a trip to Rauðhólar

Steingrímur Páll stayed with me this weekend and we had a nice time. Friday night the game club came over and we cooked dinner together and played gigantic Carcassone (see below). Steingrímur was allowed a short stay in the living room but had to go back to bed, even though he pretended not to be sleepy :-) Great evening, with the missing "link" present, Björg came from USA but then María had escaped to Ólafsfjörður ! (a tiny pin-prick of a village in N-Iceland). Hrmmmph ! Saturday was shopping day, we bought a new baby chair for Steingrímur. We had a quiet evening alone, still he wouldn't fall asleep early, even though there was no noise like the night before. On Sunday we went with my sister Steingerður and her dog to Rauðhólar, some lava formations close to Reykjavík. Freyja freaked out with joy, ran around and was totally beside herself with happiness :-) We walked around and enjoyed the scenery, and sat down every once in a while to rest. Our butts got a little wet though, it must have rained last night ! Then we went to Steinka's place and had cake and coffee. Then I headed home and had to give Steingrímur back to his parents. Check out his homepage to see the pictures from the weekend, the link is on the left side of this page.

Tonight the game club had dinner together,celebrating the fact that one member, Björg, is visiting from California. Magnea brought her Carcassone, and we added it to mine along with all the extentions. Very impressive !

Shake shake shake !

At 7:43 last morning I was still in bed, cuddling my pillow and hoping that the snooze alarm was just at bad dream. Then all of a sudden my bed shakes, like somebody bumped into it or tried to shove it. Being half asleep, I wasn't quite sure if it was an earthquake or a poltergeist loose in my house. One look at mbl.is revealed that this was indeed an earthquake, 3,4 on the Richter scale. Hmmmm.... maybe there is an eruption coming...

Steingerður, Svanhildur, Ólafur Steinar and Margrét watching the program in the rain

Ceremony in memory of the women drowned in Drekkingarhylur 

90 years since icelandic women got the righ to vote

Today, the 19th of June 2005, icelandic women celebrated the 90th anniversary of us getting the right to vote. The danish king signed the law permitting this on this day that every year since has been celebrated here in Iceland as Womans day. So, 9 different womens organizations organized a celebration meeting at Þingvellir, the ancient site of Alþingi, the icelandic parliament. I went there with three of my sisters and my mother. The only downside was the pouring rain, but hello, that is the typical weather during all icelandic celebrations so it was only to be expected. There were speeches, choir music, classical music, children dancing and a brass band playing. There was a ceremony by Drekkingarhylur (Drowning pool), a deep pool in the river Öxará where they used to drown women who had gotten pregnant without beeing married or committed other sinful acts. 18 roses where thrown into the water in memory of all the women that had perished there. We discussed this a little and then realized that only my sister Helen would have survived the middle ages, she was the only one of 5 sisters to have a child AFTER getting married. The meeting urged the need to increase equality and stop violence and exploitation of women. I just hope icelandic women will use their heads in the next elections and vote for something other than the stupid people that are in charge now.

The main waterfall where it plunges off the cliff. And yes, this is not a safe place to stand, I realize that. 

The view from the east side, the main waterfall falls in the narrow canyon west of this one. 

Glymur, Iceland's highest waterfall

Must boast of my latest outdoors activity. On Saturday I went with my sister Steingerður and her friends to Hvalfjörður, to walk up to Iceland's highest waterfall, Glymur. The elevation on the hiking trail is nearly 400 m. The waterfall is somewhere from 160-200 m high and falls into narrow but very beautiful canyon. I only got to see it from the east side, since my leg was hurting to much for going over to the west side where one can see the whole waterfall clearly. But I went out into the river and peered over the edge of the main waterfall, if I had slipped........200m of free fall ! Very nice trip, worth the pains !

You must be joking :-)

Some rib-ticklers to brighten your day:

AMERICAN Medical Association researchers have made a remarkable discovery.
It seems that some patients needing blood transfusions maybenefit from receiving chicken blood rather than human blood ...
..It tends to make the men cocky and the women lay better.

A MAN goes to the doctors and says: "I've got trouble with my bowels." The Doctor asks: "Are you regular?" "Every morning at 7.30," says the man. "So, what's the problem?" asks the doctor. "Well I don't wake up until eight."

Look at me now ! My "son" (yes, I'm trying to steal him from Júlíana :-)) Steingrímur is making great progress these days. He has started sitting up on his own and has become so strong that he doesn't need a body brace to stand up ! That's my boy !!! Look at him standing holding his mothers hands :-)

Rock paintings at La Sarga. Coolness factor very high 

Hilda and Guðlaug playing on the beach in Torrevieja

Hilda in the mountain village Guadalest

Ólafur Steinar getting a coat of sun screen before going out for the day

Hilda in a paper-statue museum in Alicante. Every year there is a parade where magnificent paper statues are displayed and then burned ! Some are saved and put in this museum. Cool :-) 

Guðlaug relaxes in the pool as Hilda jumps in :-)

Home, sweet home after a GREAT vacation !!!

The rain in Spain seems to indeed fall mainly in the plains, because I just enjoyed two weeks of wonderful sunshine by the Costa Blanca. We were staying in a sommer house just outside the town Torrevieja, courtesy of Ragnar's parents (my sister's boyfriend). It was simply wonderful. The house itself was great, there was a small swimmingpool that kept the girls occupied for hours and lots of opportunities and activities in the surrounding area. We travelled around a lot, we visited the cities Benidorm, Alicante, Murcia, Alcoi, Orihuela (very briefly when we got lost the first night :)) and Cartagena. We drove through many small villages, saw a lot of the countryside and the mountains. We visited a small mountain village called Guadalest, famed for its castle fortress built on a rock. It was very nice, but we only got to see half of it, cause the villagers close the castle area at 19:00 ! Mrrrd. We also visited a magnificent dropstone cave, Coves del Canelobre. It was great, only the coloured artificial lightning and classical music played by tape was a little too cloying. One of the first things we did was to sail to a small island called Tabarca. The sea around the island is a natural park, in the sea-grass a lot of fish species can be found. Hilda and Guðlaug went snorkeling and saw a lot of fish, but us grown-ups were rather miffed because of the horrible toilet accomodation. Hello, nobody told those islanders that the toiletpaper has been invented ??? We took the girls to a great park called Terra Mitica, where they happily enjoyed sometimes scary (according to me) rides all day. A great family park with something for everyone. My favourite excursion of all was to a place not so much visited by tourists. Under a cliff hanging at La Sarga, 10 km from Alcoi, we climbed up a steep hill to see some faded rock paintings some 7000 years old. It was so amazing to see these pictures, drawn by prehistoric men so long gone. Not by far the greatest site of its kind in a country awash with prehistoric paintings and remains of human settlement, but very modest and altogether very satisfying in a way I can't begin to describe. The biologist Svava also enjoyed some nice sights in this trip. I saw the following birds for the first time: Flamengo (flæmingi), Collared dove (tyrkjadúfa), Whiskered tern (skeggþerna), Black-winged stilt (háleggur), Avocet (bjúgnefja) and last but not least Hoopoe (herfugl). I also got to see a cockroach for the first time, albeit a little too close for comfort, since it was inside our house ! Yes, a great great holiday ! My wonderful nephew Ólafur Steinar also made every day great, high high cuteness factor ! Almost 10 months old, blue eyes and blond hair, he also made quite an impression on the spaniards, everywere we went people just loved him and gave him presents even ! Wunderbar :-) Yet still, it is great to be back. So, now to sleep to relax after a long journey. Tah dah !

Goodbye for now, catch ya later!

Can't sleep, the trip to Spain is to close at hand ! Only a few hours.... then I'm on a plane ! So, goodbye for now, more in two weeks ! Take care everybody !