The past week was quite a long one, it seemed to drag on. Work was constantly interrupted by the rain. The problem with the rain is that because we are working on clay and peat, any amount of water makes a complete fucking state of the ground and all the hard work is very quickly undone. This can be very frustrating but we are supposed to be getting a new tent to cover the new area that has been opened up. Hopefully this will alleviate the problems some what. The thing with Icelandic archaeology is that when dealing with volcanic island we can quite quickly date deposits due to the documented fall of volcanic ash called Tephra. There are several years throughout Iceland’s history that volcanoes have erupted and laid down a carpet of ash. There is one from the thirteenth century, the sixteenth century, and most importantly the late ninth century. This one, from 871 plus or minus two years, is the settlement Tephra, and can quite precisely date a structure if the Tephra is found on a construction or within the turf used to build the structure. This spot dating certainly beats scratting about for bits of rubbish pottery like in the UK.

I went over to Thingtakk’s rehearsal on Tuesday night, along with Kipp. I have only heard them on CD and they blew me away live. They are all incredibly talented musicians, it makes me fucking sick. For the last half an hour I demonstrated some Sudoku songs: Ninja!, Ninja Is For Life and Do You Wanna Get Pumped? We have an idea to play live at some point; the main problem is locating Ninja costumes in Reykjavik. This is the first time I have heard Sudoku with live drums, being that we only ever played with a drum machine, and it sounded fucking brilliant. At least from where I was standing…

The latest edition to our crew turned up on Tuesday night. Jo has come from London after working for PCA for eight years. I didn’t get to meet her on Tuesday night as I was in bed, but met her on Wednesday when she visited site for the first time. After work, Duncan, Roz and myself took Jo to the local swimming pool. I spent the whole time in the hot tubs.

We have this three week old tradition on site where someone makes a cake on Friday. Last week Lilja made a cake and cookies, she raised the bar somewhat and then chose me to make one this week. So I spent the first part of Thursday night making a cake and some brownies. Jo found a box of icing pens in the house and I used them to write abuse all over the top of the cake, see my Facefuck photos to see the results…

After baking class was over, Jo and I headed over to pick up Duncan and head down to Dillon to see Thingtakk perform. They were supported by a TOTAL FUCKING METAL band, called, I think, Rimmer. They were excellent live and didn’t give a shit about being TOTAL FUCKING METAL!!! Thingtakk put on a great performance, they’re drummer is a fucking machine! I also met Brant Bjork, he was playing on Saturday and was obviously in town a few days before for some expensive beers. I was chatting to him about DAM Pedals.

I was pretty fucked on Friday, I can’t drink on school nights anymore, but I got through the day and I spent the evening in the house with Duncan, Roz and Jo, drinking wine.

On Saturday I was going to go on a Reykjavik Excursions trip on the Golden Circle, but Atli and Hrön offered their services and said they’d take myself and D&R around all the major sites that the tour has to offer, plus a couple of other places too. The first place we visited was the volcanic crater at Kerið, I fucking love craters. There is something so mysterious about them.

We passed a fairy stone that the road had been diverted around outside of Selfoss, and this led to a discussion about Fairies and Hrön telling us her Grandfather had seen one once. What do they look like? Asked I. Like us, but more beautiful and better dressed she told me. So your Grandfather saw a good looking man in nice clothes? I asked. No, they are smaller than us, she countered. To which I replied: So your Grandfather saw a good looking well dressed man, who was standing far away?

We drove on to the excavations on the Bishop’s house at Skálholt that both Atli and Hrön had worked on as students. It was quite interesting, but I am not too keen on Churches, so thankfully we didn’t go in. The most interesting thing was the detail of a painting of Skálholt in the eighteenth century showing the turf houses.

Next stop was Geysir, where all the Geysers in the world are named after. The big one hasn’t blown since the eighties when an earthquake shook it up and it blew off. The smaller Strokker still blows every eight to ten minutes and is amazing to see. As is my usual luck with cameras I was waiting for the fucker to blow and my batteries ran out. A quick visit to the shop for batteries and chips and we finished our tour of the hot pools of Geysir.

The next stop on the itinery was the waterfall at Gullfoss which was breathtaking. It’s at least two tiers of cascading water and falls for meters. The sheer size and amount of water that runs down them is mindbending. I asked Atli if he would consider going over it in a barrel, he said yes as long at it was a metal barrel, with an oxygen canister in it. And a TV.

Driving on a grit road over incredible Autumnal landscapes of lava fields we arrived at Þingvellir were the original Parliament met during the Viking period. It remained in use up to 1798 but was reused during the independence declaration in 1944. The site is set in between a rift in the North Atlantic ridge that rises up in Iceland. It’s the only place in the world where you can cross from Europe to North America in a few steps. It’s also cheaper than flying. Darkness was falling as we left so we threw some coins into the water and made a wish. I really wanted mine to come true so I fucked a handful of cash into the stream.

I got back to Reykjavik and had some food before heading out into town with Jo to go and see Brant Bjork and the Bros at Café Amsterdam. At the bank machine Jo got confused and withdrew 100,000 Kroner, wishing to get about £60 out she ended up getting £600 out… Being obviously nervous about having so much cash in her pocket she headed back to the house to drop some off, I headed into the gig as the first band had started. They were pretty good laid back American bluesy stuff, I wouldn’t buy anything by them but they were good live. The second band were called Brain Police and were fucking heavy. They ended up with a cover of a Kyuss song, which I had not heard for maybe twelve years. The really got the crowd going. Then Brant Bjork and the Bros took to the stage and they played a fucking amazing set. I am not really into them, but have heard most of their back catalogue at Dave’s house. They kept coming back on, and must have played for about two hours. Great value for money. Jo and I hung around in Café Amsterdam afterwards until about four when we headed home, drunk and satisfied with the evening’s entertainment.

Sunday was spent in a café drinking coffee, reading National Geographic, using the free internet access and then coming home to watch Enemy at the Gates.

Goliath and the Vampires

This has been a turbulent week, Roz and Duncan showed up on Saturday but because I was at a party I couldn't meet them in town, so on Sunday I met them and we all went to the Longhouse Museum which is located just over the road from our site. It´s an excellent place full of touchy-feely exhibits. I wanted to go as we may be able to catch some of the outhouses from this structure on our site. I wanted to see how turf walls look in situ. The museum has the fully excavated longhouse totally preserved, so the walls were there in all their glory. We wandered around town for an hour or so, then I headed back to my apartment and food. After which I met up with them both again and we all went swimming in my local pool. Apparently the sauna is the place to pick up gay men in Iceland, so needless to say I stayed away... I spend most of my time int he swimming pool in the hot pots, there´s four of them and the range in temperature from 32 degrees to 44 degrees. I can only take the 44 degree one for a short while before my heart starts beating too fast.

On Tuesday a massive storm hit us, it mainly went through the night. It was so strong that the Iceland rescue team (A sort of Paramilitary armed force that Iceland has instead of an army.) had to be called out to help secure the poles, with the use of the mini digger.

Hrafnkell and I had been taking about playing Sudoku live, here in Reykjavik, in support of his band Thingtakk, so we were supposed to go and practice on Thursday night. It was also a chance for me to go and check out his band. The bassist called in sick, however and rehearsal was cancelled, so instead Hrafnkell drove me over to his house and his wife made us dinner, then I showed him a few ninja riffs.

Friday night was PARTY night!! We had a visit from the archaeology department from the University of Reykjavik, it´s called a science trip, where the students were given a lecture and then we all tucked into lashings of beer. The problem was it all kicked off rather early by Icelandic standards, about 7.00pm. So by the time we´d all got to the pub about midnight everyone was well and truly wankered. Atli The King of Scotland bought me a stupid drink he called a Blue Cadillac, it was four shots; two separate shots of vodka, each topped up with sambuca and tequilla. The sambuca and vodka were set alight, the flame was blown out and I began drinking it through a straw whilst Atli poured the tequila and vodka mix in on top... Needless to say, I didn´t stay out much longer.

I spent yesterday trying, in vain, to buy a ticket to Boston. The fucking ticket office of Icelandic Air doesn´t open on a Saturday... as the airport was close to the Perlan (the building which provides Reykjavik with it´s geo-thermal hot water.), I wandered up to have a look at the Saga Museum that is located in one of the disused tanks. This was a Viking version of Madame Tussuad´s, maybe it would be better named Madame Tussuadsðottir. Various wax models told the history of Iceland in a rather potted way, I was quite disappointed as I was expecting preserved copies of the original Sagas, not some two-bit waxy Viking bullshit. On the slopes of the Perlan I found some, slurp slurp, concrete bunkers from the last war. I don´t seem to be able to go very far without tripping over some battlefield archaeology. I would have took photos, but being the cunt that I am, I forgot to take my camera. And my hat. Which I needed on the way to the airport when it started hailing sideways, when I was walking over some open fields. Then I met Angelos and we had a coffee and well needed chat, then bumped into Duncan and Roz and arranged to meet them both later for a few drinks. We went into town about midnight and went to the cheapest pub in Reykjavik (only 78 pounds a pint!). I wasn´t really in much of a party mood and probably wasn´t very good company, for which I can only apologise to Duncan and Roz.

One week in....

Now I´ve been here over a week I think I am more than qualified to comment on Iceland. The first thing that struck me was the determined nature to encourage binge drinking. In the UK, Diaggio put out warnings about drinking responsibly. Last weekend I picked up a guide to Reykjavik, the back page was given over to an advert for Olivers a bar in town, with a picture of a girl with a drink in hand and the slogan ´PARTY LIKE AN ANIMAL!!´emblazoned across her! I have never Loled so much in my life. Yes, binge drinking is not only encouraged it appears to be a part of the law. Having said that, for all their madness during the weekend the Icelanders are fairly quiet during schooldays. Nobody goes for a pint after work.

Last Saturday I was invited to a party, we got a lift off Atli (the King of Scotland) and arrived at some apartment on the outskirts of Reykjavik, whereupon we proceeded to drink ourselves stupid before going out into town. I was out until 5am, and I was the first to leave the festivities...

The work is cool, we don´t use permatrace or pencils or anyother recording materials except for a Total Station Theodolite, which is a machine that records everything on site for us. It saves spending about half an hour walking round site looking for masking tape.

I can´t think of much else to say at the moment, so I´ll leave if for now...

ROFL LULZ!!!!111!!!!!

I just remembered, last saturday night, angelos and I got chatting to these two girls in the street on the way home the conversation went along these lines:

Her; You´re English? Do you know the Isle of Wight?

Me; Yes of course I do.

Her; I was at a festival there

Me; Really? The Isle of Wight Festival? Did Jimi Hendrix play?

Her; I don´t think so, I may have missed him.

Me; You probably did love, he´s been dead nearly forty years.

Oh yeah, and some guy was taking photos of me Robot Dancing. What was that all about?

Ha ha, here is my first posting since arriving in Iceland. Man this country is MAD!! With a capital M A and D. I arrived after a three hour flight at Keflivik Airport, flying in over some Lava fields. Angelos met me at the Bus station and we took a taxi to the apartment. Now, this place is like the house equivalent of the Marie Celeste. It´s just as though the people living there just upped and left, the place is still full of their stuff. It´s kind of like being a house guest in your mate´s mum´s place. The house was full or Religious ornamentation, but the other lads took it all down before I arrived. Possibly in case I melted or went into a warp spasm.

Angelos and I hit the town on Saturday night and the reputation that Reykjavik has as a party town was not just talk. It wasn´t until about midnight that places started filling up and when they did, it got mad. Even at 4am people were queueing to get into the hottest bars. The only reason I didn´t stay out was that I´d been up and travelling since about 7.00am the previous morning. This Friday will be different though...

I was up quite early on sunday and went into town to visit the national museum, with it´s excellent Viking bits and pieces. Then Angelos and I went over to the local swimming pool and had a dip in the hot pots.

Work wise, it´s all grand, the crew are nice but inexperienced and I get free internet at lunch time, as it is now...

Not much else to tell right now, I will add more when i can......

New Blog

OK, Craig asked me to start writing a blog again and along with the move to Iceland I thought now would be a good time to do so. Obviously this all depends on how much access to the internet I get whilst I'm in Iceland but I'll try to keep it regularly updated when I can.

The last few days have been pretty mad, various trips to Wales, North Yorks and Rotherham town centre have been the highlights of the preparations for leaving England.

I haven't much else to say in this post, so I'll leave it now and update when I can...