Sorry, Beckerman, your first name is Wilfred and not William. And sorry, all Williams of this world.

No, now I'm being usaklig, as the Norse would put it. That's a bad thing to be, according to Arne Næss. Actually there's a lot of interesting points in Beckerman's book. Should I discuss them at any length here? Nope, still have sooooo many slides to put into frames. Am actually writing this with the light from the light-table behind me. And my workmate Håkon just asked me if I've "grodd fast" here at Erik's desk. Scary scary...

Today my friend Erna has made me so happy. She now lives in New York and is coming home to Iceland in May/June for a 12 day visit and we have decided to go on a long trek together in NE-Iceland. Trek, or Shakira-style mud-crawling, don't know which it'll be, but we're planning to make our way from Mývatn to Ásbyrgi in as much as 6 days. Gee, I'm looking sooooooo much forward to it!!!! It's a trek I've wanted to do for a long time, and doing it girlie style with Erna is going to be fabulous!! Also I've never been on a long trek in Iceland in early summer (of course there's a reason for people not doing too much trekking at that time of year) and am looking forward to it as a new challenge. Yes!!

Being sykemeldt is really turning out to be bad for my health... it gives you too much time to party! Last Sunday we had an avslutningsfest (end-of-season party - even if the season is still going strong) and it was hard work, starting at 7 p.m. and finishing at 6 the following morning. But man, it was such good fun! It all began in Kroa (the hunting-cabin-style restaurant in town) with a HUGE dinner (half of which I gave to Per Martin because he's still growing), and some gudaveigar, half of which I didn't give to anyone but kept it all for myself ;) Soon a guitar popped up and Ragne and Sivert became responsible for keeping everyone singing. That included, among other things, a red-haired Icelandic girl standing on the big rould table singing a heavy-metal version of the Swedish classic "Vem kan segla" for her workpals, and later calming down a bit as she sang her favorite Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu as a small tribute to all the nice guys she works with (some of you might remember that same red-haired girl complaining on this site about them being mind-crippled idiots... mmm... PMS.... hmmm....), oyoyoy. Very good we don't have these parties more than once a year!! When Kroa kicked us out (they closed, we were very well-behaved...) the party moved to Puben where the guide-gang mixed with the locals and all the muddle went then to Kjell's place (he's the most philosophically-minded guide of them all) to continue discussing Bjørk's lyrics (or was it I lecturing on it??). Hard work as you see, but very rewarding! Until Monday morning, that is, when I had to get up and meet some Icelandic media-people at UNIS. They were very nice, but I didn't really get to know any of them since I couldn't take them on their trip to Barentsburg today because of the sykemelding....

Asch, the slides are waiting!

Best news since last: Aung Saan Suy Kuy (I'm writing this from memory - no guarantee for spelling here) has been released from her house arrest. Yippi!!!