Wild boars

After a late night supper, my parents and I were heading home when we saw wildboars on our street!

The first wildboar i saw was rummaging trough a garbage bin of one of the houses. He was licking from an Ayam Brand can.

When we drove further up the road, we saw FIVE more wildboars!! It looked like someone has been feeding them daily. Four years ago when the major landslide happened nearby, I only saw two wildboars roaming the street. But now, there are six of them!!! They are not even afraid of humans or cars....

City wildboars ;)

News

More macro loveliness from the heart of Reykjavik, this time of a flower medley in my parent's front yard ~.~

While cruising the interwebs today I ran across a link from the Bookworm Bookshop in Beijing highlighting the City of Reykjavik's first Reading Festival in October 2012, Sleipnir and the Joy of Reading. Reykjavik is a UNESCO City of Literature, which will be no surprise to my more literary readers (góðan daginn, Professor Batty!)

In other news, I promised to keep us all informed about the winner of the competition for the redesign of Ingólfstorg. They are the ASK architectural firm, and here is their winning design. Even though some people are righteously furious over everything that smacks of change, anything is better than the bad chi feng shui state of things in that downtown square. The city of Rvk has made a recent valiant attempt to draw more summertime life there, but when I drove past yesterday evening there were exactly 8 well-known town drunks (who usually hang out at Austurvellir) taking advantage of the new lounge chairs, two bikers, and lone skater petulantly sliding a measly wooden box. I'm beginning to think ancient Indian burial ground for that particular plot of land...

So though I try my best not to sleb gawk, ok, ok, yes Tom and Katie came into Valentína's ice cream store on the last official day of their pre-divorce papers marriage.  And as it seems that the final photo of them holding hands EVER displays the very same double vanilla latte that Katie politely ordered from Kristjána (the cute girl in the headband in the back row of this photo) while bodyguards waited outside and Tom flashed her his winning grin, I thought I'd go ahead and mention it.

Speaking of visitors, I mentioned cruise ships in the last post. The following photos are from June 18th, when four huge luxury liners docked here and spewed forth 10,000 curious humans which, combined with fold arriving by air, meant the highest number of visitors Iceland has ever had in one day.

One of the ships was the Costa Pacifica, sister ship to the ill-fated Costa Concordia (this last link is to a very compelling article in Vanity Fair about her last night afloat.)

These pics are however of the German AIDAmar, a 252-meter long Sphinx-class cruise ship with 1096 cabins and adorned with a smile, unlike her pensive residents in these shots, who I'm sure were just unwinding from a long day of Golden Circling and postcard buying and such. It seems that tourism is booming here on the Lava Rock, and with more arrivals and departures from Keflavik International than ever, as well as the increase in cruise liners, it seems things won't be settling back into any kind of "isolated republic in the North Atlantic" any time soon.

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Road blocks

The time of the year where festivities are starting. Certain people need to save up extra cash.

For the next three months, remember:
- no driving while texting
- no speeding while driving
- no cellphones while driving

Because....

There are just too many cops lurking around now in search of their preys..

Everyday I use the DUKE highway, there is a speed trap, usually around 12pm or so.

Bukit Kiara stretch famous for hidden blue collared men near bushes.

At night: Bukit Bintang, Imbi... KL

I swear I have never seen so many cars being stopped along roads until the past two weeks. Maybe Because I driving more??

Be lawful on the road this month for the sake of your $$$ ;)

Waze app is so helpful *hint*

Junk

I had a very complex and most assuredly fascinating post forming in my newly latte'd brain, complete with photos and links of wonderful stuff, but managed to fully boggle myself and ended up going with simplicity: one shot of a reclamation center down by where the cruise ships dock and where you can get the ferry to Viðey to go see Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace memorial to John Lennon, among other things. This is also the exact location of the second potentially very toxic fire (most probably arson) last year (video here) that brought up once again the issue of having this kind of industry so close to residential neighborhoods. Though I agree that it should be moved, or at least that arsonists should stop setting old tires on fire, I love the colors and the overall retro feel of this scene. And as faithful readers know, I seem to have a thing for the typically not-so-pretty here in our little city. 

Ok, so I was honestly only going to post one short sentence, but since I'm holding a link fest here, I'll add this to the bunch: The Reykjavík Municipal Plan for 2001-2024. Read and enjoy!

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out.

Buy 1 free 1, San Francisco Coffee

Round 2 of San Francisco's coffee. This time round it was called Extreme Buzz. Must request for less sugar if not it will be so so so sweet!

Stuff to think about

I just took a Drypers Baby quiz for fun and I am a 'Guardian Angel'.
TRY THE QUIZ HERE!
No, i am NOT having a baby yet!

Of late, Groupon has been pretty useful as it makes fine dining affordable and some expensive things you wish you had affordable. The discounts are always simply irresistible that it has the ability to make someone become a shopaholic. Everyone should have a Groupon account.It isn't about being cheap. It is about making the best of opportunities :) LINK TO GROUPON

On another note, I have started paying for my own insurance. I have listened to talks about buying and selling insurance. Given I always had a background in science only makes insurance terms very confusing. I know at 21 years old, we have to have our own individual insurance coverage. No more having parents as dependents. The question is... which insurance to buy? Which company? AIA? Great Eastern? Ing?

Welcome to adulthood!

I just saw this Adidas Ad about winning RM15000 worth of vouchers... Of late, almost everything needs us to have a facebook account.

Lastly, I wish for a new camera for my coming birthday!! Sony just came out with a new camera - LINK..... yummm Temptation.. Carrefoure in Midvalley has been revamped. So, we have to walk through the electronic gadgets before reaching the food section. Reminds me of the concept in USA. It really does psychological makes a person have the urge to buy a camera or laptop or ipad... Marketing tricks!

San Francisco Coffee, Bangsar South

Buy one, free one promo