FAR10.2: I DID IT!

Allow me to blow my own euphonium: I did it! I took a photo every day of the past year. They said I’d never manage it (well, they didn’t, but Lisa did think I’d given up after Day 4). But no, the photo you see here is photo 365 – there were, of course, 366 days in the past year, but on one fateful day in June, my phone deleted the photo I’d taken (see here) – but I did take a photo every day!

Some of the photos are quite cool, some are incredibly boring, but then again, some days are like that too. It hasn’t always been easy – some days I’d know exactly what I wanted to take a photo of, other times I’d panic at 11.50pm and take a photo of a cup. But although not all of the photos are exhilarating, I remember taking every single one, and I can associate a memory with each.

And it’s kinda cool (for me), looking back over the past year: the highs and lows, the funny times, the boring or stressful times, the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met and the thoughts I’ve thunked.

So what now?

Well, I’m going to carry on, for at least one more year. I have a feeling the next 365 days will be quite an adventure, and this is a decent way of documenting it.

If you haven’t had a look, check it out.

Thanks for reading :)

FAR10.1: Language...

FAR9.1: Making My Own Entertainment

So this week, a lot of the regular things at the Salvation Army were cancelled for various reasons, and people were very busy, etc. so it meant that I had to make my own entertainment... And make my own entertainment I did!

(Obviously I got a lot of work done too – an awful lot of work done actually – but you need to unwind a little, don’t you?)

1. I went cultural. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a particular fan of exhibitions and museums, etc. I’d much rather just walk around a place to experience it. But according to my guidebook to the Faroe Islands, no trip to Tórshavn is complete without a trip to the Faroese National Museum... Well, I had nothing to do, so I checked it out!

While a lot of the exhibits didn’t interest me, I thought a couple of things were very cool. Check out one of the early Faroese flags (pictured next to the actual Faroese flag):

How great is that? I don’t know why they had to change it... (although it may not have done much for the Faroese standing in the wider world).

I also saw the national treasure of the Faroe Islands. Now I’d heard a lot about the Kirkjubøur pew ends (Kirkjubøarstólarnir), and had been wanting to see them. Carved in the Middle Ages, they were taken to the National Museum in Denmark, but returned to the Faroe Islands in 2002.I don't know how many of them there are, but they surround you on all sides as you walk into the room, and they all have different designs. They’re beautiful, and the Faroese are very rightly proud of them. (You can’t say you don’t learn stuff from mitchenstein...).What else did I do?

2. I went walking. I did a LOT of walking. Like Forest Gump, only walking. (It's a pretty nice place to stroll). 3. I wrote a short story about Elmo and the National Roller Skating Team of the Faroe Islands.

4. I did this:I’d have loved to have seen my mum’s face when she saw this!

FAR8.1: Travelling South...

I’ve been told that you can’t say you’ve been to the Faroe Islands unless you’ve been to Suðuroy, the South Island. So although I’d been here for a month and a half, I still couldn’t say I’d been to the Faroe Islands – until this weekend.

So when the opportunity arose to go to Suðuroy with a couple of officers from the Salvation Army, I jumped at the chance. And I had a fantastic time – the scenery was stunning, the people were so friendly (I ate a LOT of cake) and it was great to see some more of the country.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was the journey. It takes two and a half hours (usually it takes just two hours from Tórshavn, but the ferry is currently in Denmark being serviced, so we were using an older ferry, St. Ola) and I’d heard the scenery was great. I have a bit of a thing about islands, and I loved travelling through the fog, seeing islands I’d heard of, but never seen, suddenly appear from the mist – it must be the romantic in me!

So I made a little video of some of the trip – it’s a little different to the other videos, and I don’t know whether it’ll be particularly interesting for people that aren’t my mum (and most of you aren’t), but I quite like it...

But before you look at it, here’s a map of the Faroes (complete with spelling mistakes) so you can get your bearings:

As I said, we were using an older ferry, which had evidently come in from Estonia. Now my Estonian phrasebook was not one of the things I had expected to need in the Faroes (stupid, I know), so I was a bit concerned to see signs like this, which are clearly very important (check out the number of exclamation marks!), and not have a clue: But then I realised that you just read out the Estonian words and it sounds like English anyway...St. Ola: A highlight was a visit to the other Salvation Army corps (church) on the islands, located in the village (or, as far as the Faroes are concerned, metropolis) of Vágur (pop. 1,400):Somehow I got roped into singing a song in the meeting – and for the very first time, I accompanied myself on the piano, singing ‘He Leadeth Me’. I was so nervous, because I’m not that confident on the piano, but it seemed to go OK...

So thank you to everyone who made the weekend great :)

FAR7.1: Kavi!*

I may be getting on in years, but I still get excited by snow (here’s some more proof). I woke up Tuesday morning to find that quite a few inches of snow had arrived overnight (it had been falling so hard that I’d actually thought it had been raining all night – something which isn’t too unusual here...). And it was proper snow! Like when you were a kid and you’d go outside and you didn’t know where the pavement finished and where the road started, until you fell into it. Well, that’s what used to happen to me. And what happened to me on no less than five occasions yesterday...

(What was even stranger was that the schools stayed open... And you know what? If the Faroese had trains, I reckon they’d have even been running... Don’t they know how dangerous snow is?!).

Anyway, I’d just got (‘got’, not ‘gotten’) used to the fact that Tórshavn was so picturesque, and stopped taking photos every 5 minutes – and then the place went and got a whole lot picturesquer!

So here’s a couple of shots. This is an old Faroese house, complete with grass roof – and I don’t remember the last time I saw icicles like this...
The old town: A view from Tórshavn Cathedral (the Cathedral is tiny – it’s not even the biggest church in Tórshavn – but it has a certain something!):The town hall: But then it had all gone. And all we were left with was a giant skating rink...*The Faroese word for ‘snow’, in case you hadn’t guessed. Or didn’t know already.

FAR6.2: Birthdays