Shiny happy people

So, I got to thinking today that maybe I'd seemed kind of underwhelmed by my Swampy award yesterday because I wasn't jumping all around the place going I WON I WON I WON I WON... like I probably should have, because I really did feel very happy about it. Just as, you know, you feel happy when someone likes what you do, and gives you a little bit of recognition for it, like when people leave me comments, f'rinstance [hint hint]. And also because I think Tim is a swell guy and very funny and I love his blog and I feel honoured that he bestowed the Swampy on me for, like, in his opinion the best non-British blog of 2006!! Yow-sa!

And then I got to thinking a little deeper about it [as I occasionally do. think about things. deeper] and I realized that the fact I might have seemed a little underwhelmed yesterday [which I wasn't, as I've explained] was that my innate Icelandic-ness was sort of pressing to the forefront, that oh-so Icelandic trait that is completely uncomfortable with praise or any sort of attention or recognition whatsoever. Because here in Iceland ... you just get on with it. It's bred into our genes. Our ancestors who lived on turf farms and were cut off from civilization for much of the year and kept their animals beneath their living quarters for warmth and got used to not having anything to eat throughout the winter except the food they'd allowed to go putrid so it would keep better and didn't know what fruit was and had to wash their clothes in the freezing cold brooklets next to the farm... they just got on with it, you see. They had no time for "Wow! You really shoveled that manure well today Jóhannes, and the barn looks spanking clean!" - no, they just got on with it. Much like YT just sort of ... got back to business.

So you see, it all makes sense.

OKAY THEN! SPEAKING OF OTHER NICELANDIC TRAITS...
Today I got a call from a very nice-sounding man named Eric who is a journalist with National Public Radio in the US and who is here in Niceland to investigate just why we Icelanders are so damn happy all the time. [Do we have a reason to be happy? Hell no! We have a reason to be SAD*.]

Anyway, Eric [hi Eric! if you're reading this] was directed my way by my friend Krista, who reportedly told him to get in touch with me because I have "an opinion about everything". [Wot!? Surely a case of mistaken identity ... all my readers know that YT resolutely avoids having opinions, as they're too much damn work] So tomorrow I'm meeting with Eric and he will probably want to have my opinion on such issues as 1) Why the Nicelanders are the happiest nation in the world [there was some study done in Holland], 2) if Nicelanders are the happiest people in the world, why do they hold the Nordic record in consumption of anti-depressants, 3) why does the Nóatún supermarket always have a different price marked on the shelf to the one that comes up at the check-out, 4) why are Icelanders such horrible drivers and why do they insist on parking their cars diagonally across the sidewalks all the time, 5) why do the Icelanders persist in selling their beautiful countryside cheap to evil international aluminium corporations, 6) what possessed the Icelanders to build a large shopping mall in the shape of a penis in Kópavogur, 7) why is the Krónan supermarket so crappy?

And I shall probably be able to tell him.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE WEATHER STATION
The snow is still on the ground, meaning we've had sub-zero temps the last few days, meaning it's been cold. There's that pesky wind that exacerbates it all - which I hope is dying down soon. The wind is the worst part about living here. Seriously. Not the cost of living, not the atrocious service - the wind. If there's no wind, the weather is always beautiful. Temps currently °C according to the mbl.is website, and the sun came up at 10.50 and went down at 16.26.

* Seasonal Affective Disorder. The greatest acronym ever.