ice breaks ice

Bjarki and Naes' Incredible Numerical Challenge (Part 2)

I call it... brick wall with mop.

The ball is in your court now bj.

Ha!

Sign on a winter holiday

...all the egg layin´ creatures left Iceland last autumn and havent arrived yet for the summer (if they are smart enough!)

..and i couldn't resist adding this bus-sign and lamppost snuggling up against each other in the cold.

Bjarki and Naes' Incredible Numerical Challenge (Part 1)

I actually struggled a bit with this 1. I had this idea of shaping the number 1 using snow on a dark background, but there was no snow for some time, and spring was pretty much around the corner. Then to my surprise and joy, the snow arrived. In the end i liked this version better (slightly photoshopped to fit the brief):


...but to give my original idea justice...

Driving on the Other Side

A few random shots from my travels round the country way back in 2001, involving a lot of driving. 18000 Kilometres yo be exact. Cheating maybe but these pics have been in the shoebox since then and when they heard we were doin a driving article, wouldn't stop nagging.

'are we there yet?...are we there yet?'

Driving at the top of the world

Driving is always an adventure in Iceland, especially when you drive past such nicely shaped piles of snow...mmmmmmm....

Post(card) History: Episode 2

As you might notice, this is the 'popular' bowling green in sunny Mildura, about 4 hours north west of Melbourne. The town's 'unpopular' bowling green, located across the tracks on the the other side of town, recently raised their beer prices by 20 cents.

There seems to be some debate about the highest recorded temperature in Mildura, with 47.2 degrees celsius recorded on January 10, 1939. It might have reached 50.8 degrees once but no one there can tell me exactly when. Seems they were all at the popular bowling green knocking back some cheap beers..

^some Milduran meterologists yesterday. source: www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/mildura/history.shtml

Bjarki and Naes' Incredible Numerical Challenge (Part 0)

It's time to get all Mathematical on ya 'ere at the Exchange. The object of the Incredible Numerical Challenge (INC) is pretty straightforward; take a photo of an actual number or something representing that number, starting at the beginning and ascending in order until the marvellous and wondrous end of the universe! (or we get bored)

So without further crapping on, I present thee.. Zero! (Some might say that Zero is not actually a number, but I say let's get naughty!) Over to you up there bro..

r u ready?

Glacial Lagoon ´Jökulsárlón´gone mad...

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so you think you've got some cool arrows up there ey?

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I thought I was seeing double x 2... Picture taken in the lovely town of Hafnarfjörður, where they have more elves and hidden people than most other towns I know.

Natural Landscape from the other side

Don't jump!

This is the Mitchell River National Park in Victoria. A slightly hairy vantage point from the 'pink ribbon trail', a somewhat dubious track mostly followed by spotting random pink ribbons hangin off trees.

The rewards for a hard day's hike: blissful freshwater swimming and maybe the chance to see a rock wallaby or two.

Natural Landscape in Iceland

You could say this is a natural landscape within the city. This photo is taken from one of the busiest traffic streets in Reykjavík; Sæbraut, the mountain is called Esja.

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Bonus Supermarket in Reykjavík, the icicles initially caught my attention.

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welcome to episode 1 of what will hopefully become a regular segment on the exchange..

this is a strangely birdless Southern Cross station in Melbourne.. maybe it's cos they've got nothing to eat.

Driving with Tom Waits

The Local Market - Williamstown Australia

I've finally found meself a market! Held on the 3rd Sunday of each month about 15 minutes out of Melbourne, the Williamstown Craft Market features all handmade goods, some cheap plants, weird wooden stuff, snags cookin on the barbie and some beautiful trees to have a snooze under.. everything good in an Aussie market.

Lost?

Play repeatedly for desired effect....

The Local Market - Kolaportið in Iceland

Kolaportið is Reykjavík´s version of the local market. It has survived for quite a number of years. The reason; it´s indoors! Rain or snow its open every weekend. One of the few places in Iceland where you can walk around taking pictures unnoticed. But it´s also a nice place to talk to people. There you find people like Reynir Sverrisson who sold me the postcard in the post(card) history post. He buys and sells Icelandic postcards and stamps, he even travels abroad to acquire Icelandic stamp collections which ended abroad after the war.

Post(card) History

Photo: ©Helgi Árnason
Sigurður Guðmundsson appears to have been considering the resurrection of the Icelandic women's costume as early as his student years in Copenhagen. When he returned to Iceland for good in 1858, he soon started work on designing a new costume, which he felt was a reflection of the spirit of the costumes that Icelandic women had worn from the early days of Icelandic history.
The skautbúningur came into being in 1858-60. The oldest extant example of a skautbúningur was made in the first half of 1860 by Sigurlaug Gunnarsdóttir, wife of Ólafur Sigurðsson of Ás, Hegranes in north Iceland, who was a relative of Sigurður's. Letters from Ólafur to Sigurður are preserved, in which he requests patterns and more detailed instructions on the sewing of the new costume. These are the principal sources for the history of the design.
(source: http://www.buningurinn.is)

Post(card) History

Lamington National Park in Southern Queensland was named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie the 2nd Baron Lamington who was the Governor of Queensland from 1896 until 1901. He also gave his name to the Lamington, a ripper cake dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut, or as the Gov preferred to call them:"those bloody poofy woolly biscuits".

Welcome from Iceland

Self Portrait - Part 1 of the Exchange completed from the top of the world...
me and the rest of the bunch...

Welcome

Hello from down here on the other side.. and our first assignment for the Exchange.. a self portrait.. dancing with the bees.