Slight deviation from schedule to bring you some running April
Today is one of my favourite days of the year here in Niceland because today is the day that all the Nicelanders try to trick each other into 'Running April', as it's called here. What this means is that the April fool's joke has to get you to cross a threshold, otherwise it's a failure.
In past years YT has been highly successful in the April-running sweepstakes, getting EPI and AAH to cross the threshold every time. I didn't play any tricks today, mostly because it was a normal working day and everyone had left by the time I got up and by the time they got home they were already well on guard. EPI meanwhile sent me a text message this afternoon asking me to please call him at a given number, not his cell phone number because he was running out of battery juice, and that it was urgent. I suspected not a thing and dialled the number, only to get a recorded message that it was for a rather dubious enterprise offering certain, ahem, carnal services. [Apparently this was a SMS message that was making the rounds today.] However, EPI didn't get me to cross a threshold, so his tomfoolery failed, nyah nyah!
The other fun thing about this day is that the media all plays the game, and tries to get people out to run April. Fréttablaðið had a report on its front page that between 7.30 and 9.30 this morning a certain gas station in the city was offering gas for ISK 107 a litre as opposed to the ISK 149 that it costs these days [we have massive ongoing protests about this, the country's truck drivers are out every day blocking traffic, I feel like I'm living in freaking France] to highlight how much of the price per litre the government pockets in tax. ~ Morgunblaðið ran this story that Bob Dylan was in town to check out the facilities for his upcoming concert here and that he was going to do some busking along with Iceland's singular busker, Jo Jo [seriously, he is the only one], outside Eymundsson in Austurstræti at 2 pm. ~ Meanwhile, visir.is reported that Al Gore, who is [really and truly] in town to give a talk tomorrow on [what else] global warming, would be staying on a yacht formerly owned by Saddam Hussein and now owned by Icelandic entrepreneur Pálmi Haraldsson. The yacht was supposed to arrive in Reykjavík at 3 pm and the public was being invited to view it before the US security people went in to inspect it for bombs and stuff. ~The evening news on Stöð 2 ran an elaborate story that the first iPhones were finally being sold in Iceland on account of Vodafone having unexpectedly reached an agreement with Apple. The clip showed a line of people and interviewed one punter who was shown opening up his phone package and going on about how great it was that he'd waited, as opposed to ordering his phone from the US. The phones [the clip said] would be sold at the main Vodafone store in Reykjavík and Akureyri for another few hours, or while supplies lasted from the rather limited shipment that had been received. ~ There were lots more, but probably the best one was by the Feminists Association, which claimed it would protest the objectification of women at the Vesturbæjarlaug swimming pool at 5 pm today, and urged women to swim topless. Rock on!
AND EVEN THE WEATHER PLAYED ALONG AND GOT EVERYONE OUTSIDE
Because it was gorgeous today, brilliant sunshine and less wind than we've had in the past few days, although there was still enough of it to give me a good workout during my run. Spirits were buoyant and it honestly felt like spring had finally arrived. At the moment we have 1°C [34F], with sunrise this morning at 6.44, sunset at 8.20 pm.
PS - Apparently Google ran an April fool's story about being able to backdate emails. I had to smile [wryly] because coincidentally I had just talked to someone who I'm sure would have jumped at the chance to do so prior to our exhchange. I'll say no more.
[Incidentally, I haven't forgotten about the questions.]
In past years YT has been highly successful in the April-running sweepstakes, getting EPI and AAH to cross the threshold every time. I didn't play any tricks today, mostly because it was a normal working day and everyone had left by the time I got up and by the time they got home they were already well on guard. EPI meanwhile sent me a text message this afternoon asking me to please call him at a given number, not his cell phone number because he was running out of battery juice, and that it was urgent. I suspected not a thing and dialled the number, only to get a recorded message that it was for a rather dubious enterprise offering certain, ahem, carnal services. [Apparently this was a SMS message that was making the rounds today.] However, EPI didn't get me to cross a threshold, so his tomfoolery failed, nyah nyah!
The other fun thing about this day is that the media all plays the game, and tries to get people out to run April. Fréttablaðið had a report on its front page that between 7.30 and 9.30 this morning a certain gas station in the city was offering gas for ISK 107 a litre as opposed to the ISK 149 that it costs these days [we have massive ongoing protests about this, the country's truck drivers are out every day blocking traffic, I feel like I'm living in freaking France] to highlight how much of the price per litre the government pockets in tax. ~ Morgunblaðið ran this story that Bob Dylan was in town to check out the facilities for his upcoming concert here and that he was going to do some busking along with Iceland's singular busker, Jo Jo [seriously, he is the only one], outside Eymundsson in Austurstræti at 2 pm. ~ Meanwhile, visir.is reported that Al Gore, who is [really and truly] in town to give a talk tomorrow on [what else] global warming, would be staying on a yacht formerly owned by Saddam Hussein and now owned by Icelandic entrepreneur Pálmi Haraldsson. The yacht was supposed to arrive in Reykjavík at 3 pm and the public was being invited to view it before the US security people went in to inspect it for bombs and stuff. ~The evening news on Stöð 2 ran an elaborate story that the first iPhones were finally being sold in Iceland on account of Vodafone having unexpectedly reached an agreement with Apple. The clip showed a line of people and interviewed one punter who was shown opening up his phone package and going on about how great it was that he'd waited, as opposed to ordering his phone from the US. The phones [the clip said] would be sold at the main Vodafone store in Reykjavík and Akureyri for another few hours, or while supplies lasted from the rather limited shipment that had been received. ~ There were lots more, but probably the best one was by the Feminists Association, which claimed it would protest the objectification of women at the Vesturbæjarlaug swimming pool at 5 pm today, and urged women to swim topless. Rock on!
AND EVEN THE WEATHER PLAYED ALONG AND GOT EVERYONE OUTSIDE
Because it was gorgeous today, brilliant sunshine and less wind than we've had in the past few days, although there was still enough of it to give me a good workout during my run. Spirits were buoyant and it honestly felt like spring had finally arrived. At the moment we have 1°C [34F], with sunrise this morning at 6.44, sunset at 8.20 pm.
PS - Apparently Google ran an April fool's story about being able to backdate emails. I had to smile [wryly] because coincidentally I had just talked to someone who I'm sure would have jumped at the chance to do so prior to our exhchange. I'll say no more.
[Incidentally, I haven't forgotten about the questions.]
Labels: Traditions
posted by Alda at 8:54 PM
<< Home