look ma no hands

wow, this one totally snuck up on me. When I started riding a bike here in Reykjavík, I started trying to ride no-hands, like we always used to do when we were kids. So that's about 2 years ago I started trying, and it was really hard. But, riding home from the swimming pool the other night at about 3am (night-swimming, yay!), I realised I was talking to my friend and I was just riding along no handed, without even realising it! Woo-hoo! How great when a long-term project like that finally bears fruit! :D

Woot!

This week I've shot a shot gun, driven a 4wd over some insane obstacles, gone out into the forest in Rob's Land-rover to use my chain-saw to get a couple of trailer loads of wood (there was SO much mud), played poker and did some plumbing on the sprinkler system.

The country can be fun! Expecially when the slabs of Becks cost $49.

(BTW, that's the new, hipper, country way to spell. There's a guy here who says 'arkse' every time he means 'ask'. Isn't it endearing?)

It's the return of Sink Cat

Pepper-sink-cat circa February 2010:

Pepper-sink-cat cat circa May 2010:

Found things!!

Ooh! Ooh!

I found my pocket knife! Once again I can smugly walk about with a pair of blades, some little but remarkably effective pliers/wire cutters, an assortment of screwdrivers, a can opener and, importantly, a bottle opener on my person, ready to whip out and solve people's problem that they didn't know they had and lecture them that a pocket knife is "usually the WORST tool for the job, but you can normally get something done well enough while everyone else is still looking for the right tool. Ah! There you go! Finished. You can put those scissors away, we didn't need them after all!"

Hooray!

Oh! And I found the camera! Which means that I can take a video of Ella on the climbing wall - she's actually really very good at it when she doesn't know that she can't do it. Because she's so little just about every hold is a clear 1 or inches out of her reach and she has to stretch from full tip-toes to the very tips of her fingers then quickly transfer her weight. It just reinforces for me that kids are natural climbers: they do little tricks and moves that grown adults take months to learn.

Oh! And yes! The camera was with my work phone - for which I have been in deep shit for not being able to find this week. I'm very happy to have found that.

new music!

It's always a bit of a wild punt buying cds at a gig where there's just some bloke bashing away on a guitar, and his cd is 'with a full band'... This gig I was at last night started out with 3 people in the audience - me, my friend who was also support, and his housemate, and finished with just over a dozen people in the room (which we filled out pretty nicely - it's about the smallest venue I've ever seen!). Anyhow, I think this is my new favourite cd! I thought it'd be more Darren Hanlon-y, but it's kind of more Man Bites God-y - TOTALLY right up my alley! But in Icelandic, of course :D Yeah, and I haven't yet worked out a) what the guy's name is, b) what the band's name is, nor c) what the cd is called. Nor does the intermanet/iTunes know - I'm so edgy, vikings keep falling off me!

Couch to 5k

So I've been doing the "couch to 5k" programme. It's supposed to be a 9 week thing, but I've taken about 6 months on it what with sickness and injury and laziness.

Anyway.. I ran exactly 5km without stopping for the first time yesterday! I was pretty stuffed by the end, but my legs were still moving. Totally stoked that I got that far - this is the most fit I've been in my life.

Being the gadgeteer that I am, I recorded the track (incl. warmup/cooldown walks)

Next target: 10km.

(edit: make the link link..)

New job!

I got a concrete offer today on a new job. I'm really keen on it. I'll be working in the city for a change, and it'll be with some people I know are awesome. Oh, and for more money. Start there May 10th. Can't wait!