Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tis the season


It snowed today. No air traffic had to be delayed as a result nor did traffic grind to a halt, as here this is as expected an occurrence in the wintertime as sunshine is in Florida. Having passed through JFK on Monday and seen the horrendous lines leading from the British Airways check-in counters, ending god knows where, I must say I feel for those living in places where snow seldom falls, not frequently enough to warrant having snow removal equipment on standby, but at least one times too many for those travelling when the white stuff flutters to the ground in an endless procession from the heavens. The looks on the faces of the stranded people reminded me of the images from airports when Eyjafjallajökull was sending ash in the opposite direction. This time however Iceland was not to blame. Thank god for small miracles.


On the news here there is not much report-worthy. The only thing that has grabbed my attention is an interview with our finance minister which he gave to quell rumors of his alleged affair and to emphasize that he his happily married and not on the verge of divorce. This is something that politicians everywhere go on about when a hooker or mistress has come forward or been found out, but in this case the statements are a bit odd considering that no one had heard any rumors about him at all. Everyone here is asking around to find out if anyone had heard any of the stories the man was referring to, but even the most efficient rumor mongers are at a loss. As a result the man somehow managed to ignite the wagging of tongues with his fidelity proclamation – a self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.

Here in Iceland we have almost only one religion so I am really not good at wording what I want to say to all of you, irrespective of the individual beliefs. My meager attempt at conveying my well wishes to you at this pinnacle of winter is the following:

To all of my murder is everywhere friends, I wish you a safe and wonderful holiday. May you meet all of your loved ones and enjoy warmth both inside your heart as well as your home. Lastly, may many, many great crime fiction books come your way in the New Year – 2011.

Ok. I realize that I went a bit overboard with the New Year thing, considering that I am to post next Wednesday which is still 2010. This is a result of the brain damage massive gift wrapping has induced. Luckily for me it is a temporary infliction, something I know from previous years. At least, since we are still living in a box, my hands are not bloody and raw from putting up three thousand or more lights on a Christmas tree. Although we are a bit less festive as a result, our presents will look less like crime scenes, i.e. there will be no blood on the wrap or ribbons. Apparently every cloud does have a silver lining. Except for the snowing kind in Europe.

Yrsa - Wednesday

2 comments:

  1. Yrsa, I live in New England. We get snow. Sometimes, with the first storm of the year, we get an inch or so sometimes we get a foot or so. It doesn't matter - we turn into England, pretending that we are taken completely by surprise. People forget how to drive, pedestrians forget how to walk.

    Perhaps your finance minister just needed to see his name in the headlines. Every now and then we have politicians who say utterly inane things just so they get their 30 seconds on the national news.

    Gift wrapping is so much easier now that I don't have to worry about a child catching me doing it. Fortunately, we do have little people in the family. My niece found a website that allowed her to make a video in which Santa talks to the child by name. Her six year-old called me yesterday so excited she could barely breathe. Santa told her he knows exactly which Barbie she wants. Her three year-old sister had her own video, too, but she was made speechless by the wonder of it all.

    I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Our's is a lot different now that the kids aren't kids but they get to spend a lot of time together. They talk over each other and around each other. Someone starts a sentence and another one finishes it. One of them will mention something and all three will laugh hysterically. The dogs will be annoyed because they are used to a quiet house.

    New things become traditions.

    I remember the tree you did last year. It was magnificent.

    Beth

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  2. Yrsa

    I'm going to miss seeing a picture of your wonderful Christmas tree. A good thing not to have blood on the gifts though.

    Thanks for so many great posts. Enjoy the holiday.

    Jacquie

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