6 Days since the last blog.... Sorry folks. It's all go here.

I am currently keeping warm indoors after braving the Icelandic waves and plunging into the surf for a swim..... Well, the surf was none existent as the water looked more like a millpond. Also, the water was so shallow to such a distance out, that it was more of a crawl on my stomach along the rocks and slimy things of the sea bottom. I call it swimming because I was submerged, except my head and wooly hat, I moved my arms in a breast stroke kind of motion and tried to kick my legs, resulting in a cut foot. From a distance it probably looked like Sharon Davies or Rebecca Adlington, obviously. 

the harbour on the way to the 'beach'

It was a lovely day today, around 4° air temp and colder sea, no wind, so we decided that we would do it. It has been the topic of discussion virtually every day since getting here with lots of brave people saying 'yes yes, I'll do it'. Well, 4 swimmers and one photographer made it to the beach and got on with the task of deciding how quickly it would be possibly to take clothes off, go into the sea, swim, get out (across the rocks) get dried, get dressed and walk the 10 minutes home for a gin. In fact we stood in our swimsuits after getting out of the sea as it felt so warm in the by now 2° air temp. 

I haven't got any photos of me yet, but will post on f/b, Instagram tomorrow. These are a few from my phone of Sophie, Luccia, Caroline and Marija.

High Five - Sophie and Luccia

Sophie with bright red freezing legs

Marija - Photographer!

Sophie - Apres Swim

and Luccia Apres swim

Caroline, trying to get warm

What an amazing zingy wonderful experience. Loved every second. We are planning to go again but I only have 11 days before Tom and Linzi come to visit me before I leave Iceland.

Yesterday I made a photographic studio in the freezer at NES with some old lights that were lying around. They are fluorescent tube lights that are supposed to hang from the ceiling and I wanted them to stand up on their ends, so I tied them to a chair each. The chairs in question arrived a few days ago for the artists to 'use in some way'. They were from a trawler and not only weighed a ton, with metal chains to hold them down on the boat, but they also stink of fish. Really badly. The whole place now stinks of fish. Anyway, I took some images of my house mate Caroline, who is very beautiful and has stunning bone structure and eyes. 

Caroline is an author and has described her previous works and current novel to me. I am desperate to read them, but she is Dutch and they haven't been translated into English. I don't think Google translate could cope with a whole book, it struggles with single sentences... 

Apart from swimming in the sea - did I mention swimming in the sea? - today was another photo shoot day with Marija who is equally stunning.

So what else has been happening in the 6 days since last we met...? Well, I made the initial stage of a layered piece of work which I am happy with. There's a lot to do, and I can't work on these here as my computer screen is too small. But this is the work in progress.

I left the blog to find the layered image and have now spent the last hour searching for it on my computer.... to no avail. This is a photo of it from my studio wall. I'm a bit upset as it took me a day to make it. I'll have another look in a minute.

Ah well, the file is gone. I will attempt to recreate it, but it won't be exactly the same.

What else??

I have been living on veggie curry for much of my stay. The reasons for this are 1) spices keep me warm, 2) the veg is often a bit limp and wouldn't look great 'au naturel' as it's often travelled a long way to get here from across the sea and 3) I am trying to be healthier in general. That's working if you don't count the bars of chocolate and half price pick and mix at weekends. Oh and the chips at the Ollis Garage. I haven't had any normal potatoes since I got here - except the chips!

The whole village were out today - which is unheard of. Why? because Samkaup is being transformed. What is Samkaup? I hear you ask. Samkaup is the 'supermarket'. It's about as big as a normal sized Lidl and serves the whole village for everything from knitting needles, through light bulbs, to chocolate, veg and cous cous. (called Kus Kus here). Anyway, it is being renamed, revamped and refitted. It is actually closed on Thursday for the WHOLE DAY. People were saying goodbye to their favourite aisles, they're all changing. No longer will one be able to walk in, turn right, then left and find the praline salted chocolate on a shelf with other chocolate. I went in today, DAYS before the change around and the chocolate had been taken off the shelf and replaced with some air freshener. Not an appropriate transformation methinks. What if a visually impaired person goes in and grabs the air freshener and starts to eat it......? Or what if I go in and grab the air freshener and eat it because it's the nearest thing to my salted praline???? It's all so stressful...... They have a new freezer too. I wonder if they will keep the little customer satisfaction machine? It has happy green faces moving to sad red faces that you press to say how satisfied you are with the shop and the service. Well I'll not be pressing Mr. Green if the chocolate doesn't reappear.

my walk to the studio every day

I just put this in because every single day there is beauty in this place.

Marija has just uploaded some images from our swim! Here they are:

Heading towards the black sand beach. That's me in the middle!

pointing, at something. Probably some ice floating on the surface....

getting ready. Woolly hat stays on obviously

We're in. We did all go fully in, promise  but there is not
currently a photo showing this.

Thinking of South Shields

Happily on our way home. We had a G&T

What a way to spend a couple of hours. Already planning the next one. I have been searching and searching for my photoshop file but it is lost. I will have to start again....

Our gorgeous little village. 350 people, one supermarket, one
bar/restaurant, bank, school, post office, old peoples' home, soothsayers museum...

Oh I forgot, yesterday we had incredibly strong winds and nearly got knocked over walking to the studio. The sea was amazing and we kept running outside to take pictures and feel the wind. Michael, the only other English person went out in his t-shirt..... It wasn't actually too cold, around 4 degrees, but the wind chill made it freezing.

Camera movement trying to keep still to take Michael's photograph

Silly English people...

Ok folks, that's all I think. I need to try again to find this lost file. I don't hold out much hope but it's 11.10 now and I want to find it tonight or let it go......

I can't believe the time has gone so fast. I have been here for 41 days and I have 15 left. I've missed everyone very much, but I don't feel ready to go yet. I'll have to come back again, and again. And again. I love this place.

Bless bless

Love,

Aly x