Tuesday, October 31, 2006

eighties nostalgia


I found these on the top shelf on one of the labs at work. That little logo on the right says British Broadcasting Corporation. Yes, they're BBC computers. I haven't seen one of these since the eighties! Brings back good memories of playing Space Invaders, Pacman and the like. I also remember a curious little game called Frak - you controlled a caveman wielding a yo-yo which he used to kill all the baddies. Surreal, huh?

Thursday, October 26, 2006

airwaves

Last week was another busy week - the Iceland airwaves festival was on in Reykjavik from Wednesday til Sunday. It started off badly for me, nearly getting crushed to death in Gaukurinn on Wednesday night, then having to stay in on Thursday with a headache. But Friday and Saturday were a lot of fun. I'd been looking forward to seeing the Kaiser Chiefs for months and, well what can I say, they didn't disappoint. I took loads of photos, but owing to my utter incompetence with cameras didn't get a single good one. Well, alright here's one,

I know, I know. But I think you can just about recognise the singer. Anyway, there were lots of other bands playing. I also really liked the Islands and Patrick Watson from Canada, and local boys Mugison and Tarnus Jr. I probably would have enjoyed We Are Scientists as well, but I couldn't really concentrate on the music - I was too busy trying not to get crushed. Looking forward to next year already!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

napoli

I haven't blogged for a while cause I spent the whole of last week attending a conference in the lovely city of Naples. They say it's the most beautiful city in the world. I can't comment on that because I haven't seen all the cities in the world. But it's certainly very easy on the eye. There wasn't much time for siteseeing, but I managed a quick tour of Pompeii and a stroll around Naples itself. One thing I noticed was how carefully arranged all the shop window displays are. For example the display below shows knobs for drawers (no innuendo intended!)

Wig anyone?

Or, seeing as this is Italy, how about some pasta?

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

nice idea ... shame about the weather

Last Thursday they turned out all the street lights in Reykjavik for half an hour in the evening. The idea was to cut down on the light pollution so people could gaze at the night sky and see exciting things like stars, Northern lights etc. Well, I took a walk down my street to take a look. I saw one star. The problem was, this being Iceland, the whole sky was covered with clouds. Still it was kind of fun to walk down my street in the spooky darkness. There were lots of people milling around and chatting. So if nothing else it probably did a lot of good for the community spirit!