Cold Atmosphere

Sunday is a day for solving cross-word-puzzles. A good breakfast in good company and the Sunday paper. The rest of the day I have worked hard at doing nothing and succeeded rather well, except for a couple of hours in the kitchen doing some cleaning.

The whole world seems to be celebrating Mozart's birthday. Good concerts on both radio and TV all over, Swedish radio has even had an extra radio channel going with Mozart and nothing else.

The more serious part of life is the problems that have risen since a Danish newspaper asked several Danish artists make pictures of the prophet and published them. It is not customary, in fact not allowed, to publish pictures of Mohammed. This happened some time ago and there have been heated discussions here since. Several foreign ambassadors here asked to meet with the Prime Minister, but he refused. Several Danish ambassadors sent a letter to the PM, he reacted in a rather unfriendly way. The Danish government does not want to treat other people's religion respectfully, at least not if it is a non-Christian religion. Freedom of speech is more important than respect for other people's believes.

Starting in Saudi Arabia, people have been boycotting Danish products and it is spreading fast in the region. The government here has criticized the Saudi Government, and they have answered that this is not their initiative. And Saudi citizens say: You have freedom of speech, we have the freedom to chose what we want to purchase and what we would rather leave on the shelves or even not have on the shelves at all. It turns out that shopowners have removed Danish goods from their shops.

The Danish government wont budge, the newspaper will not apologize, says they are sorry if they hurt someone's feelings. And now the EU is getting involved.

I find it truly amazing, when the situation in the world is so volatile, that a Danish newspaper would chose to act in such a way. And even more so that the government acts the way it does. It is in a way, not surprising. Since the Conservatives and Liberals got elected in November 2001, the climate here has gone from bad to worse. They are supported by a far right party that has said that they would prefer a Denmark free from foreigners. Maybe that includes me?!

Genius

250 years ago, on January 27th. 1756, Joannes Chrisostomos Wolfgang Gotlieb was born in Salzburg, Austria. The name Gotlieb, the one loved by god, later became Amadeus and as a grown man he wrote Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, or just Mozart.
The fact that he wrote a huge amount of letters throughout his (short) life, letters the recipients treasured and kept, means that we know a lot about the man, not only his music. Many of these letters have been published. The book I have (in Danish), also contains a list of his compositions.
Mozart died on December 5th. 1791, only 35 years old.
For those that have seen the film 'Amadeus', please remember that the script is written in Hollywood. Mozart's wife Constanze was not a simpleton, not at all and Salieri was a completely different person than the one portrayed in the film.
I visited Salzburg in August 2002, this is the house Mozart was born in.

A Blue One

Yes, felt rather blue this morning so I went out to fetch something really blue and it cured me, for now.
Even though I know that the days are getting longer, that there in fact is more light now than a month ago, it doesn't seem to help much.
Snow does make life a easier, even if I seem to be the only one in this country that thinks so. Snow is something many people only appreciate when they are heading towards the Alps to go skiing.

Precious One

This is my 5 year old granddaughter. I usually fetch her from Kindergarten once a week and today is that day of the week. And thus a new photo op.
We went straight downtown and by her aunt's restaurant. She gave us coffee and hot chocolate 'to-go'.
It seems that Kindergarten is a demanding place; I have a very tired young lady, and hungry too.
We are indeed fortunate today as we are invited next door for dinner.
The winter weather continues, we even got a bit more snow today. Creates problems as the Danes are not used to driving in snow. In a few days the snow will have disappeared and bad tempered drivers will have to find something else to get upset about - I am sure they'll manage :-)

Picture One

Saturday, I went down to the ocean with a bag of food fit for birds and they flew in from all over. It was a cold weekend and particularly windy that day. Not many people out and I was the only one that brought something edible. Yes, I became very popular among seagulls and ducks, and they had no idea that there was a catch ... I had my camera with me. It's my first picture-post, hope this works out.

Day One

The first question was inevitable ... what language should I write in? I don't have to cut a long story short, there was no long story, and you are reading in the language I picked. Well, family and a lot of friends are Icelandic, but then there are the friends scattered around the globe, friends who like and love me, but have not developed affection for my native language, and they all have English in common (and their love for me :-) ).
Most of you know that I have been part of an innovative project the past 6 months, writing texts on books and authors for the mobile internet. A thrilling experience but the phone company has decided that tones and wallpapers are what they want to give to their customers, not culture. So for now, the project is at a standstill. We might continue, but for now, we're in limbo.
I has been good and very necessary to have some time off:
First of all to rest, it has been hectic and much too much for my health.
Secondly, for my own sake, I needed to spend more time with my loved ones.
Thirdly to take my Nikon D70 out again, the results will appear here.
And last but not least to be able to read books of my one choosing and do some writing of my own.
Hope you'll come by every so often and you are more than welcome to leave a message. Does not have to be in English, but please pick a language familiar to me.
Stay safe.
Guðrún