Shopping Shopping & Puffin Steak! YES PUFFIN STEAK!

Noooo! don´t believe the titles! no puffins were harmed by me.. i can´t vouch for the restaurants selling them but AHHH! they eat whale and puffin steak! that´s like taking a poor owl and turning it into Jiku-Meat! NOOO!

So rewind.. cast your mind back.. look at your man.. or co-worker.. now back at the screen.. now back.. at your man or co-worker.. give them a wink.. yes.. a little wink.. comment this post with their reaction..

Actually cast my mind back.. this morning.. breakfast.. uninspiring and lacking flavour.. alas cereal is so bland! we brought the rain with us again! BUT all in all an amazing day! especially for Ciara!!! we went to the viking monument! a beautiful sculpture by the harbour.. waiting for the shops to open.. alas we were convinced it was sunday.. but at the end of a long day we discovered it was actually saturday.. this didn´t make the shops open any earlier.. ie 11am-5pm and THAT! is not enough shopping time!

The Icelandic people are such amazing designers, craftsmen/women and driving to my latest CD i can see how their landscape inspires such individualism in music as well!

a trip down Laugavegur and our first purchase! Chicken Feet Bracelets! yes! Chicken Feet Leather! HOT! I´m struggling to pronounce any names of anything so ciara and I have invented our own ikea inspired speaking for how to pronounce what we´re trying to convey to eachother when giving directions... BUT we found an amazing silversmithing store.. beautiful beautiful display and pieces like works of art! Ciara was in heaven both from a shopper and designer´s point of view.. just stunningly creative work executed flawlessly! post beautiful purchases we went for coffee and on to the Hallgrims church in the centre of town.. coffee was voted number 2 in the world barista challenge.. it was good.. i don´t know if it was great.. but a good pick me up post shopping!

Later we raced through the Icelandic Gallery via The Pond.. yes.. it is a pond.. the only pond.. hence The Pond!

we also managed an extremely rushed tour of the Icelandic National Museum and saw some awesome Viking artifacts!

Tomorrow! on the road for 8 days!

I´ve managed to get myself sick so I´m trying to work out the icelandic for Sudafed!

So It´s the next day and we´re driving! I'll keep you posted as to our goings on in more detail but for now here are some pics!






























Oh Iceland Cat!! Why are you so thirsty!

Off to Iceland! Via 8 hour London!

4am wakeup + tom + ciara.. need I say more.. luckily! Ciara had found an awesome idea! terminal 4, london airport, yotel! YO! best idea ever! a guy got inspired by those japanese hotel pod thingamos and decided to build a minimum 4 hour hotel room for people in transit!

on the heathrow express from terminal 1 to 4 and then into our awesome purple lit room! it had a shower and bathroom, internet, movies and food on demand! mmm food! since I´ve stopped chewing my nails I think food has naturally found its way back into my diet!

post a delayed flight we arrived in Iceland! our hotel right in the center of Reyjkavic is awesome but it´s 2am so boo! sleep time!

OWWWLLLSSS Tartan and Edinburgh + Rain = Happy and Drenched!

So! up early this morning.. we headed off to Edinburgh via some seriously fail coffee made by a guy with only 2 or 3 teeth.. I should´ve suspected coffee may not be good at the cafe but assumed he had lost his teeth from drinking so much excellent coffee and not brushing inbetween cups!

We took a detour and went to Lochcarron weavers! oh beautiful tartan! they make tartan for designers such as Paul Smith, Paul Frank and it is all so shiny and pretty! we picked a tartan and then alas were told no.. they don´t have a long enough bolt in stock.. SO! funny thing! their head office was south of Edinburgh and yes! most certainly we could go pick up our selected tartan post our owl experience as we were heading down that way anyway! HOW AWESOME!

We arrived at our hostel only to find it was closing down in 2 weeks.. a beautiful building by the sea with stunning views.. and yes.. no one will buy it.. they´re boarding it up and closing it down! anyone feel like buying a palacial sandstone building with sea views in Edinburgh? Ciara will design all your royal Jewellery and Ill tend to your Owls & Falconry needs while working ´from home´ for my Australian-based employ!

A wonderful part to the evening was when it was highlighted to me just how much I have learnt from my darling wife.. Take one mosquito flying around your room.. picture it.. the buzz.. the sting.. the buzz as it passes by your ear.. take one bag of laundry detergent and one wife.. wife hits mosquito.. coats the room in soapy white powder! OH HENRY! (oh henry is a candy bar we ate in NYC but funnily enough every hostel we stayed in used a Henry Vaccuum cleaner like the one we have at home!) The best part was that whole experience was something I´d usually be in the middle of but I warned Ciara and she didn´t listen.. Men 1 Women 0.. actually if I might just clarify.. Men 0 Women googleplex.. (men aka tom was actually -1 for being toolish and women are always right)

The next morning we awoke to... OOOOWWWWWLLLLL DAY!

I was so excited to experience something I´m so passionate about with the woman I adore! Ciara was excited as I was!

We drove to Dalhausie castle.. I barely pulled up the handbrake before I was out of the car and cooing at every owl and falcon there.. yes I get it! I´m clucky and living vicariously through owls.. no actually the owls were AWESOME!

Ciara (and Jiku) fell in love with a ´Little Owl´ called Doctor Zoidberg (yay futurama!) he had cool eyebrows (see below)



we took photos of an awesome array of owls, a great grey, a turkmanian-scandinavian eagle owl called ´shiloh´ who´s parents were in Harry Potter! Ted & Betty were 2 tawny owls.. It was so cute seeing Ciara´s face light up too! we got to see barn owls and even a Mexican Striped Owl called Nimouhey (at the time the only one in the UK..) We showed Jiku to her friends.. boy that didn´t go down well! I think they wanted to murder her!

The first owl we flew was Ted.. we walked down a wooded path while he flew to us from tree to tree.. Shiloh we flew second.. she was HUGE in comparison and very heavy on the hand! then they were kind enough to let us fly Doctor Zoidberg! He was in training so we got to extend a leash each time he flew! Poor tiny owl.. he hopped and flew as best he could.. the sad part of the day was feeding and seeing ´Nimouhey´ (probably my favourite).. she´d suffered a stroke and was such a sweet little owl but it was upsetting.. I got to help feed her her chickens and stroke her above the beak..

It was such an awesome day for both of us!! IF IT COULDN´T GET BETTER! off we went to tartan town! we picked up our tartan..

ok.. ok.. i get it.. today was all about me.. poor Ciara.,. even dinner was about me.. Ciara took me to Toby´s Carvery! Think all you can eat sunday night Grandma´s roast for 6.95.. AWW YEAH! I think they´re going to have to freighter me home..

The best part of today was just getting to share the experience with my loving supportive wife.. like into the wild.. sharing an experience is so much more than having the experience alone..














































The next day.. the weather turned.. Edinburgh opened it´s floodgates the day we decided to explore the city! (there´s so a theme going on with rain and us!) we went shopping, saw the castle.. burned dvds and tried to wake up and brave the rain! we tried to keep it low key because 4am! London then 8 hour layover then.. Iceland!