I've finally managed to sort out the travel arrangements for my sabbatical, and can now announce that I will be departing Keflavík at 08h00 on Saturday July 17th, landing at Manchester at approximately 11h30.

:)

Icelandic volcanoes produce basaltic lavas, which don't tend to produce a lot of ash (relatively speaking). This phase of the eruption, therefore, is likely to calm down reasonably quickly (in days rather than months - see The Icelandic Weather Report for more details). It will, however, still produce some interesting toxic gases, and the entire ( Read more... )

One advantage of working in a university with active links to the geological services here in Iceland is that the gossip can occasionally be of scientific interest. Like today ( Read more... )

Yer've got yer Nana's hands, various members of the extended family used to say to me when I was a teenager. Yer Nana had luvley hands....

Had being the operative word. Nana's hands, by that point, were twisted and swollen by arthritis. I'm therefore a little paranoid about my hands, partly because I do so much in terms of handicrafts and partly ( Read more... )

I do like my hat. Particularly on days like today when it is raining buckets. Yes, it's not just the north west of the UK that's being drenched at present - although thankfully we're not getting it quite as badly as Cumbria. It does, however, make driving interesting from time to time ( Read more... )

This year's Ignobel prizes have been announced. I am most amused by the Economics prize:

ECONOMICS PRIZE: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks - Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland - for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa - and for ( Read more... )

It is, to the day, five years since I arrived to live and work in Iceland ( Read more... )

Or, as a friend said, just like Friday but on a different day. ( Read More... )

This goes by the name of bragðafedur (or something similar). ( Read More... )

The Icelandic government has resigned with immediate effect after the collapse of the ruling coalition. I seem to be living through a real-life revolution up here.