1240 days or thereabouts

Is roughly how long it has been since I last saw Karl, my big full brother. I can’t really say he is my big brother because I have four of them and Karl is the youngest of them. To say I am excited is something of an understatement.

We have just picked up Karl from the airport, which was all very exciting and this is one of the goodies he brought with him. I keep on bringing the package up to my face and inhaling the delightful smell. mmmmm dried fish!!!!

The mother ship has arrived!

day 18

A blog a day in November, what on earth was I thinking?

Today I got up had a shower/breakfast and rushed out the door to work, then it was home for a bite to eat and then over to Group for another night out with the SES. We spent the night travelling to various homes that placed calls since Sunday night to see if a) they still needed assistance or b) what assistance they would need. It’s raining a lot more tonight than it was last night. I have now been home long enough to grab a shower and start this post and all along all I can think is that man oh man I just want to go bed but I’m not about to pike on making a post a day when I have managed to stay on track for the last 17 days.

Today though apart from been work, rain and SES also marks the day in two weeks time that Karl will be walking off a plane at the Airport to spend Christmas with us. Excited? Very! Then the following day Toti and his crew arrive! Two weeks! and I will have my brother home (well one of them)

Easter Cooking

no not hot cross buns but just good food. I had plans of going away this glorious four day weekend, going bush and exploring. Sadly though that has not been the case as it is nearly two months from when I wrecked my ankle and it is still causing me havoc. Most recently from me thinking it was better than it was and overdoing it, so much that I spent a fair bit of Friday in bed recovering.

Yesterday we had not one but three phone calls from Iceland!!!! That does not happen very often even less than once in a blue moon, more like once is a red moon. It was one of my brother’s birthdays so he rang to say hello and then he passed the phone to one of our other brothers. Then one of my sisters rang to have a chat. Then to top it off Karl the next eldest in age brother from me rang from Ísafjörður the town of his birth where he and a big handful of mates were at Aldrei fór ég suður or I Never Went South a music festival that is exactly how I think a festival should be and so looking forward to going to one year soon. One of the first things Karl mentioned was that he had seen Svavar play with his band Hraun earlier on and commented on his polaroid picture taking which I had to laugh at as last year when Svavar was here I think he quite possibly took more poloraids than he drank beers and that is saying something. A little while later Karl asked if I wanted to speak to Svavar as he had just walked outside, I said of course why not and that was then the most amusing thing. Karl handing a phone to someone who does not know him and saying there is a girl on the phone from Australia for you. Very hilarious. So that was quite a fun thing.

When I woke up Sunday morning I didn’t expect to speak to any family in Iceland and much less Svavar.

Back to the food.

Easter Friday I made a a big whopping batch of pesto (we are talking 1kg plus here). Don’t underestimate my love for pesto or the fact that my pesto could rival that of the best Nonna made pesto from Genoa well I haven’t tested it against a Nonna from Genoa but I think it could. I made a pesto loaf using a slightly different bread recipe to what I normally used and well moral of that story, when making a plain white loaf, use the recipe you know! It is edible but that is about it, the Mum analysis is that I probably altered the water content too much when adding the pesto.

Dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.
lunch and dinner
Four slices of bread toasted on/under the grill, rubbed with a little bit of garlic, topped with some more pesto, then some toasted prosciutto, some semi-dried tomatoes, a sprinkle of salt/pepper/oil and a fine grating of pecorino. It was quite delightful, my only wish would if we had had some salad greens in the fridge to add as well.

Lunch for Mum and I today as well as lunch for the next two days.
lunch today for Mum and I
Little egg and bacon tarts.
Puff pastry shell pre-baked for a few minutes to crisp the bottom up, spread with some pesto, filled with sautéed onion, garlic, shallots and bacon, topped with egg, pecorino, seasoning and cream fraiche with a semi-dried tomato on top, baked for a handful of minutes and served with a quick grate of pecorino and served with a good handful of fresh beans.

Then in the freezer I have some lime granita and I made a pretty tasty dinner tonight which was cannelloni stuffed with mince, pesto, ricotta, parmigiano, bread crumbs, seasoning, parsley, semi-dried tomatoes, onion and an egg to help bind it all together in a sauce of tomatoes, spinach, ricotta, onion, garlic. Pretty nice, no photos of either though because the lime granita is just that and well the cannelloni as good as it tasted didn’t exactly look good and most of it disappeared pretty quickly.

Tomorrow it is Tuesday which means the end of the four day weekend and back to work.

Australia Day Celebrations

2 Countries, 2 Hemispheres, 2 very different days.

Karl, like the typical Aussie Expat hosted a very fancy Australia Day Beach BBQ in Reykjavik. It was 1 degree above freezing. Still they had a beach, a flag, a bbq, Vegemite, three different types of Karl’s very own beer on tap. The photos are a hoot!

Helen, was assisting at her first wedding for local wedding photographer Tim Harris. It was 31 degrees in the shade at the Bride’s house. I had a great day though, holding flashes, cameras, flowers etc etc and taking a few photos as well. The whole bridal party were a great group and I enjoyed the day, though I was pretty buggered when I got home. 😀 I also hit the 10k mark on the 5d at about 1:59pm. She was 159 days old yesterday.

The Wedding

cake, 26/366Anissa, a moment of reflectionGiftsReceptiondressshoes

Australia Day also means the Triple J Hottest 100. Only two of the songs I voted for made it into the hottest 100, a couple of the other artists I voted for made into the list but not with the songs I voted for.
56 Xavier Rudd Better People
68 Ben Kweller Penny On The Train Track
I had a much higher hit rate on the Triple Zed Hot 100. Like getting I think five out of the top ten songs.