Being and enjoying

I had a lovely weekend. Didn’t realize thought that it was the Icelandic Verslunarmannahelgi. Well not until Monday when I was back to work. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend in Iceland. Strange to be so far away and not knowing what’s going on and I sometimes feel detached from the society that I used to be apart of.

Can I really both be apart of it and live away from it, is it possible?

Well what I miss about living in Iceland is that feeling of being a part of a society, a community where I always know what is going on, both in personal and public life. If somebody internationally famous is visiting the country, everyone knows about it and it’s like a family having a foreign friend come over for a cup of coffee. And if an Icelandic person is doing well on an international stage everybody is routing for them, and they are ours, representing all of us to the whole world. Magni in Rockstar: Supernova is first and foremost Icelandic when singing to the world and everyone gets a family like feeling watching him. I do, watching him by myself on the Internet.

I don’t really get the same feeling of familiarity living in Manchester. It is a big city and with so many different societies and cultures. You kind of have to look for it, search a community out if you want to be a part of it, it doesn’t happen like in Iceland, it’s not just there. I don’t really know if a superstar is coming to town. I don’t realize if somebody from Manchester is doing well on the world stage. I don’t know and I don’t really care.

But it all got its pros and cons I guess.

I love living in Manchester because I can have a chat with the Cypriot shop keeper about our different cultures whilst buying a big bunch of fresh coriander for 50 pens. And I love going to my local pub and having a nice pint whilst playing the Tuesday night pub quiz and winning a gallon of beer only because I was part of an international team (Andy The English, Paul The Welsh and me The Icelandic). It gives you an advantage. I also love Saturday mornings, waking up with my Andy, going to the local deli and getting fresh Polish bread and lovely Cheshire cheddar and eating it outside in the lovely British morning sun.

Just thinking