Being in a somewhat bloglazy mood this evening, I thought I would introduce you to a certain Mr Outlander, whose acquaintance I have recently made. Now this guy has a pretty groovy gig going, namely: touring around Iceland in a beat up old jeep and writing a book about it. Oh, and of course blogging from the field.
At any rate, he’s got a pretty hilarious take on the Icelandic telephone directory, or more specifically its “instructions for the general public regarding natural disasters in Iceland”. Very enlightening for us natives. F’rinstance I have never considered just why there are four pages of such instructions for us Nicelanders, whereast there are only two in English for the foreign punters. And you can bet that as soon as I have some free time that I absolutely do not know what to do with [unlikely to happen anytime this century] I will study those pages in-depth in an effort to discover the answer to that.
Incidentally, what he says about the Icelandic phone book is true. We’re all listed by our first names. First name, then middle, then last, then profession, then address, then telephone number. [This because you address everyone by their first name here – your boss, your teacher, hell even your friends]. In fact, until very recently you could look the Prime Minister up in the phone book and ring him up if you felt like it. A quick search reveals that he’s since gone undercover; however, the leader of the opposition is still listed. Hm. Wonder how long it would last were she elected to office.
Right. Cynicism showing. Better stop.
THE WEATHER
Another excellent day, at least initially. Sunny skies, temps reaching 18°, nice. Then it clouded over and got a wee bit chilly, although it was still nice because there was very little wind. Incidentally, Icelandic farmers – who have traditionally worried most about there being too much rain so they couldn’t dry their hay – are now deeply concerned about this extended drought and are saying that if it doesn’t rain soon they will have to buy hay from abroad. Like, say, England, where I understand it’s raining like gangbusters. Lucky for them and their pocketbooks there’s rain in the cards for tomorrow out east, and here in the southwest for the remainder of the week. Including June 17, our National Day, when it looks as thought it will precipitate on our parade. The sun came up at 02.58 and will go down at 23.59.