This weekend we went to see the exhibition ‘A day in Pompei’ at the Melbourne Museum. Suzy was very impressed with the whole exhibition and I enjoyed parts of it. The casts of the people who died are surely the most powerful part of the exhibition, they really take you back to the very moment when the blast hit the city and people were engulfed by the ash. It is very moving to see the people in the very position they were in when it all happened. The other parts of the exhibit showed items from the city of Pompei recovered by archaeologists. It struck me how their implements are much like ours. I should have found that amazing but I just found it boring; 2000 year old household items that look just like what you see at any old market today. Suzy was a bit more sensible though and enjoyed how the exhibition brought live in the city right before your very eyes. The exhibition also depicted the story and timeline of the actual event but there were such a huge crowd that we could not really be bothered discovering more than we already knew about the event. The 3D animation was probably pretty good though.

Happy birthday Auðunn, this one is for you.

Some time ago now we were doing voice recordings for an email system with a personal email notification. My mother gave us a few goes but this one was a winner:

Winter in Melbourne

It is now winter in Melbourne. Leaves are falling off the trees and the sun hangs low in the sky. Temperatures which a few months ago were in their upper 30’s have now plummeted to single digits and strong winds sweep the streets. This is no time to go sailing but I am hoping that this weekend the promised 20 degrees will provide a reasonable day on the water. For the last few months our boat has been sitting in the water providing a platform for seagulls to meet and greet and seaweed to hang out. But no longer; the scrub is coming out and the boat will be cleaned. The best thing about Melbourne winter is winter food. Warm casseroles, stews and red wine. This winter we are having Winter Christmas at our house with friends. I think we might even bring out the Christmas carols along with some traditional Icelandic Christmas food; roasted lamb, rauðkál, caramelized potatoes, home made ice cream and hopefully Malt og appelsín.

It has now been almost three months since my last confession, erhm blog I mean. Lots has happened in that space of time, our daughter Sóley was born on December the 20th and hence began our family saga. Sóley is doing really well and growing fast. I will be putting up a page with pictures and video for family and friends so watch that space. Currently I am upgrading the Wordpress blog system and making a few changes. The old look and feel will be back but right now the templates need amending.

For a short while a long time ago I took part in the photography club at Menntaskólinn við Sund. We learned to develop our own film and produce the pictures through a process of light and chemicals. I mostly did black and whites and really quite enjoyed the experience. The thought of doing photography as a profession never really entered my mind though as it was just a hobby and that´s all I wanted it to be. Like my brother used to say; there was no reason to ruin my hobby by doing it to earn a living. Eventually though my old Olympus camera was stolen as I was travelling in Europe and that was the end of my little hobby, until now. Just recently I got my self an SLR camera and started taking pictures again. The process has changed significantly though as the labourous part has been assigned to a romantic past and replaced by a Digital process. An element of mystique has been lost but in return Photography as a hobby has become significantly cheper and post production has become an art form in it self. The web has also added a new dimetion to the hobby. Pictures are now a valuable asset on the web and sharing and showing off your work is easier than ever. The process of getting your images printed requires more equipment now though, the old days of the darkroom are gone and heavy equipment or third party processing is now required. I have been taking photos again now for a few months and still very much enjoy it. I can see marked improvements in the qality of my work from when I started, but as every answer spawns more new questions I can now also see how far I have yet to go.

+ My photography showroom on Flickr

It was meant to be good sailing weather today, moderate to fresh winds, so I did the only sensible thing and went sailing. It was already looking a bit more like fresh to strong when I got there but finding that I needed to test the boat out in sub prime conditions I got ready and headed out. It was blowing a north westerly and pretty fresh when I got out there and with one reef in the main I headed downwind to enjoy the most marvelous run down the coast. Rushing past the coast at 7 knots is pretty good for a 30 year old 18 foot keel boat! The sail back was more treacherous. Beating into the wind in 30 knots with a heavy swell was hard work. My poor girl does not go that well to windward in those conditions, I´m afraid. She kept broaching in the gusts and without the jib she was not pointing very well. Eventually I cracked on the motor and plowed back into the wind. As is was blowing directly from where I was going I motored about half the way back. Once we got back I was wet through and quite tired. I have in fact decided to put on hold my ideas of sailing her over to Tasmania, for now anyhow.

Suze is now most of the way there with the little bubba. Things have progressed very well so far, she has gone through all the classical stages in very classical ways and is now at the stage where putting her feet up feels like heaven. We still have about 3mts to go, but quite honestly time passes exceedingly quickly these days.

As many of you know, Suze is pregnant and is claiming that I am the father. I guess with these pictures as proof I can no longer deny the unavoidable; I AM ABOUT TO BECOME A FATHER!!! We, yes I am saying ‘we’, went for the sonar scans this morning, and the results are these stunning pictures. As many of you know this will delay our wedding plans. The new date is not announced yet. The new date will need a little rethinking but we will let you know as soon as we make the decisions. But for now, the search for a name! We have already decided on a name for a girl, but as me and my family are sure this will be a boy we will need a good male name. I have already put my best suggestion forward: Aragorn! But Suze is not keen

So now we are have taken to trawling the internet for sailing boats, rather than apartments. Boatpoint.com.au has taken over from realestate.com.au as our most popular website. Suzy likes the bright and open spaces of the Catalina and I keep hoping we will find a reasonably priced catamaran at a livable size. The end result however is more likely to be a hardcore cruising yacht of about 33 feet. Most likely an Australian design and build as they seem to be more reasonably priced than the imported boats. Australians are also very good at designing and building boats intended for living aboard and cruising the Pacific. Bruce Roberts, Adams, Van De Stadt and Hartley are all good examples. In the catamaran category we have the Seawind, Jeff Schioning, Craig Schioning & Prestige which are all very good cruising cats.

Unfortunately Melbourne is not the best place in Australia to buy a good value cruising boat. The best deals are up in Queensland, Sydney, Darwin and Perth. Going to these places to have a look at yachts, and then getting the boat we buy down to Melbourne will be a challenge. To make it easier we may even tie the timing of the delivery to Melbourne to our wedding, which will be in August this year. Stay tuned, I will keep posting news on the boathunt as things progress. Right now we are both very excited about this option. This is the second time in the last months we consider taking this option and this time we are quite serious about it. Don’t be surprised if when you next come to visit us, you will be staying on the bay rather than by the bay.