Just another workday for me this sunday. My first dayshift, two to go and then three days off . Woke up this morning in the darkness and coldness reminding me what time of the year it is. Didn't have time to eat breakfast so I just mixed a protein shake and brew a cup of coffee and just scooped it in and took some skyr (Icelandic dairyproduct) to eat at work.
Just finished my skyr and second cup of coffee, and I am little pissed of about that hole Icesave fiasko. Looks like that the British and Dutch goverments want to profit of the misery of British and Dutch Icesave account owners and the Icelandic taxpayers who have to pay the bill after some Icelandic bankers/crooks.
Kinda hoping that it will be a slow day and I am thinking about leaving early from work.

Freaking Icesave

Morning NooniG: nice and sunny where I am. Finally developed the bad cold that my wife recently brought back from a trade fair in Germany, so I'm on Lemsip rather than tea or coffee this morning.



Hmmm. Speaking as a British tax payer who has so far funded your banking collapse to the tune of £6 billion / $10 billion, I kinda see that one a different way.

Turns out my pension fund lost stacks of money into your banks too, which will reduce what I and millions of others have to live on in the decades to come. Same with my local borough council and also some charities I support.

I have no control over any of that, but I'm paying for it anyhow.

We're all in this global f-up together. Let's not descend into international rivalry.

Cheers - C

Yea I know it is a f-up. I am not saying that the Icelandic goverment shouldn't pay the depts that it is responsible for, but we shouldn't have pay more than that. That is what most Icelanders are choking on about this Icesave deal is that we have to pay more than we owe.
I am thankful that the British goverment loaned the Icelandic goverment in the form of paying some of the Icesave funds.
As it turned out the three Icelandic major banks (Glitnir, Kaupþing and Landsbankinn) were build on sand and may have been doing some illegal things. On Icelandc news sites today (and also in Times) there is a talk about that the banks are under investigations for money laundering. The fact is that the Icelandic "got away" with this because the Icelandic and british goverments were sleeping on the guard.
And putting Iceland on terroist watch list was a lowblow. Putting Landsbankinn there I can understand and Kaupthing Sieger & Friedeland was on a grey area.
Many Icelanders also feel that Iceland has been somekind of punching bag for Gordon Brown Campaign machine, that we have a special role in coming election to make Gordy look like Big Strong and no bull$h#t kind of guy.

But I sincerely hope that there can be an agreement that suits all parties in the Icesave fiasko and both Icelandic and British goverments can start to work together to fix the economy.

Hi again NonniG: I do try and avoid this sort of stuff on the Forum; but so long as we can keep it friendly...

There's plenty to shout at Gordon Brown about, but actually not that.

Regulatory systems in ALL of our countries have failed, which is in part how we come to be in this mess. Nobody can hold their head up proudly on this.

In Britain and America in particular taxpayers are busy funding the most gigantic banking bailout in the history of the planet, and it is very hard for politicians to explain to them why. Forum user Big Jay can speak to that far better than me, but in short the answer is: because the alternative would be far, far worse.

However, in Britain and Holland taxpayers are also asking why the heck we are additionally paying to bail out Iceland, which isn't even in the EU? Again, the answer is because the alternative would be worse for us all. But that all became even more difficult to explain when the Icelandic government talked about defaulting on its huge debt.

That's what the strong arm tactics were about. We're never going to get back most of our money that was invested in Icelandic banks, and that's life. But we at least want our bailout money back, albeit far in the future.

I'm sure your government presents that to its suffering population as nasty bullying by foreign governments. Of course, all of our governments are talking to domestic populations who find it very hard to understand why this disaster is happening. Everyone is looking for someone to blame - but let's be a little more intelligent and not play that particular game.

Really, it's all about where we go from here.

Now then, NonniG: I'm a big fan of your country's ancient literature. I've got a miserable cold: I'm going back to bed to read Magnus Magnusson's translation of Graenlendinga Saga and Eirik's Saga about how your country discovered America 500 years before Columbus...

Cheers - C

I am sorry to bring this to this great fourm. But my morning glory post took a nasty turn when the morningcrankiness mixed with feelings of diappointment, shame and anger took the better of me. It is hard to read, listen or watch news here in Iceland with out feeling shamed or angry. Those Bankers/crooks have taken the good name of Iceland and dragged it through the dirt.
But after a good lunch at work (BBQ Chicken and chocolate pudding with wipped cream for desert) and reading a brilliant headline on a Icelandic news web site, my mood is better. The headline was "Gylfi Magnússon (Icelandic minister of Business and Banking): The Icelandic bankers are the worst one in the world." A new world record (per capital) from Iceland .



If you really want good Icelandic saga you should consiter Ólafur Halldórsson translation of Grænlendinga saga and foroyinga saga. He also recieved some rewards for translating Olaf saga Tryggvasonar Helga (The saga of the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason who converted the vikings to Christianity). Ólafur Halldórsson has recieved many rewards for his works and is still working freelance for Árnastofnun (where they keep the scripts) at age 89. But best of all he is my grandfather

is there an age restriction on this site it didnt say anything about it but there doesnt seem to be any one my age on here

HA! Hey, NonniG, you don't know it but you are talking to one guy in this Forum who is very interested to hear about that connection!

I have read your grandfather's work on Snorri Sturluson: precisely, Olaf's Saga! I'm immediately inspired to go find some more now! Too cool!

Please tell your grandfather that some far away guy on an internet guitar forum sends his friendly greetings.

Neither of us expected a thread on the Fender Forum to end up here, did we? High fives!

Cheers man - C

No age restriction either. I just read in another post that there is a member here born in 1995.

@ Ceri: I might be invited to my mum for dinner tonight and there is a good change my grandfather will be there. If so I'll mention it to him then.

Welcome back NonniG!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Welcome back!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Thanks Mike and Solid.

Hi again NonniG: I was all inspired by what you said yesterday. I read your grandfather's Olaf's Saga book several years ago in a library copy. Now I want to look at it again, so I just ordered it on Amazon (along with the Mark Knopfler book Randy was recommending to me).

Stuff to look forward to!

Cheers - C

Wow I didn't know that his works were avalable on Amazon. Neat thanks for telling me.

I found these ones:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url ... &x=12&y=19

The one at the top of the list is what I've ordered - so far.

Cheers - C

All of this talk about Iceland and no mention of the McDonalds closing?

No more Big Macs!



Oh, the humanity!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.