( The Land of the Midnight Sun )
The Old Friend
Day 2. 16 June 2004
Wednesday. A good night’s sleep later – should I say ‘night’ when it never actually got dark? I rise and wash quickly before settling down to breakfast. the house is empty -the family having departed for work, though Adi does return briefly for his own breakfast.
Icelandic breakfasts are good. Sadly there is no skyr on offer, still, I do laiden several kinds of mjölk and fruit compôte onto the Bónus muesli. Orange juice, coffee, toast and rhubarb jam accompany the fair.
Following breakfast I wander up the road past the local shops and the school to the leisure centre. I wash and shower at the swimming pool – taking note of the graphic instruction chart for washing – before descending into geothermal bliss. I first try out Hot Pott 1 with it’s 100° heat, move up to Hot Pott 2 at 106°, but shy away from Hot Pott 3 and it’s 109° temperatures. I take a plunge into the main pool, with it’s outside temperatures – or at least so it seems – and swim a few lengths before plunging again into the hot pots and trying out the alarmingly exhilerating water slide.
Word Choice…
The light is beautiful, setting off the virulent and irridescent colours of Iceland – the lush green pasteurs, the blue of lupins, the pale of cowslips, the scree, the moss, against blue skies and the heavy, dark clouds on the mountain top.
Are you sure you wanted to use “virulent” there? You’re describing the beauty of it. Virulent is “harsh,” “obnoxious,” et cetera, when not describing pathogens and such, in which case it would be extremely infectious.
Re: Word Choice…
Changed… thank ye! ^__^
Re: Ta’
Good good. The question is, will it make more sense to you once you’ve read a few of these entries?
Which poem was it that I sent you?