Singing with Vladimir Milller

So..last Sunday on May 11th, I had a great experience of singing the Liturgy church service with one of the great professional Russian singers - Vladimir Miller, you can find all the info about him here.

He came to Iceland to sing with the Icelandic choir, he wanted to check out the service in our church, so I picked him up and we went to the service. I was hoping that there would be more people from our choir "Manasija" (Choir Manasjia) but unfortunately only one person showed up later during the service...

So, it was Vladimir and I singing, I was singing alto voice and he was singing basso profondo...it was fun, as he described it later to me :). I was a little bit nervous while singing but then it was a great experience for me as well. He was surprised to meet so many Russian people here and was happy to have a chance to participate in the Russian church service.

Russian Easter

So, this last Sunday as you know it..was a Russian Easter...
I did not go the the service since usually - it starts at 23.59 and goes on for 2-3 hours until 3 in the morning...Since we now have a little girl, so it is a good excuse to stay at home :)

But, I did manage to paint some eggs on Saturday and take them to the church for a special ceremony to make them holly...Though nobody wanted to eat the eggs afterwards except myself :)

Here is a picture that was taken by a reporter from a local newspaper...I am the second person from the right..

People at work all recongnized me and were happy to see me there I guess.

So..Easter season for us is over and the choir season is over for some time...we were lucky that we did not sing for the Easter service this year, there was another choir from Moscow...But we did sing for a Palm Sunday and it was very nice.

Jón Aron's Confirmation

So..here in Iceland, all the kids are baptized when they are babies...then comes the time, when they are 14 years old - then can choose to have a confirmation of their faith...Some kids do it, some don't and there is even an option to have some kind of confirmation but not a religious one...

Anyways, Raggi's son, Jón Aron, has turned 14 on April 7th and he wanted to have a confirmation. He had to take a special course at his local church for that...Raggi and Jón's Mom planned and organized the big celebration. Usually, the whole family, relatives and friends are invited...Mostly people give money instead of presents or open some saving account for the kid...Jón's party had about 90 guests...It was great...

There were some other kids that had confirmation that day - total 3 boys and 3 girls, so some images from the church:

I was not at the ceremony myself, so I can only guess how it goes...Here we can see Jón's parents on his sides - I guess the family participates as well...
It was a first summer day, some small church in the little town on the East...

And here is another photo - you can see the church and the priest (not sure how they call them at Lutheran churches...)

So.

Then, Last Sunday, we went to another confirmation (ferming - in Icelandic) to Jón's cousin. It was great too..but not a religious one...But we didn't go to the ceremony but enjoyed the great party and the food.

A ten-month old anniversary!

So..the day has arrived..our girl is 10 months old...Just only after 2 more months we will be celebrating a big 1-year old birthday...
This is how she looks when she is sleeping: very cute:



Then, when she is awake, she is looking pretty cute too...playing with the tape :)
She is taking that task very seriously...

Then, the most recent picture that was taken today - I tried to make her stand up but she was so involved in trying to get some cable out of the computer...

So, then finally she just sat down a little bit and I managed to take a better picture...But there is something wrong with the server at the moment so I cannot upload it..just be patient and I will set it later tonight I hope...

Weekend

So..last weekend we had a nice sunny weather...almost the Spring weather....

We have decided to go for a nice walk on our Icelandic beach in the city of Reykjavik - Nautholsvik. It was great....We walked, enjoyed the view of the waterfront and hoped for the warmer weather so we can go swimming there in the hot pot. There is a special hot pot, where people can swim a little. It is possible to find some info here for people who are interested.. I personally have not tried it yet, but plan to this coming summer with my young family.

On Sunday, we had a small celebration for Jon Aron, Raggi's son - his birthday is today, on Monday, April the 7th...So, everybody went to the movies and then I joined them at Pizza Hut while Tamara Lind was at her granny's.

So, it was a nice family relaxing weekend....

New Internet Obsession, girl's standing, 8th of March...

Well..
I have not been updating my blog lately since I got into a rather new social network for me, the FACEBOOK....yes, I have finally discovered it and am now spending a lot of time there...

First, I was just into the Russian social network - which is a complete copycat of Facebook, but the Russian version - Вконтакте (Vkontakte)....So, I joined in but was rather passive..Then I decided to try FACEBOOK...and let me tell you..it is much better than the Russian version....Well, as they say, the original is always much better....

So..of course, I am trying to compete and see how many friends I can get..but I am in the low profile...Some of my friends already hit the limit of 100 friends....!!! So. there is always room for improvement...

Some other great news...
Our girl has started to stand up...She is using everything which can be used to support herself while standing up..And from that position she can sit herself down..it is so cute and so great...I am proud of her!

We have got a new nanny, she takes care of our girl for the first half of the day...A Russian woman (well, actually, she is from Moldova) of a grandmother's age, but looks like maybe she is 60...But she is very good and our girl seems to enjoy her company...So, we are very lucky to find that nanny and lucky that our girl likes her as well....

So...Easter is coming...but first, as always - the International Woman's Day...The 8th of March...

So...Happy Holidays and a great beginning of a SPRING!!!!!

Just another Sunday

Just another day in Iceland wonderland....

Here in Iceland, if people have nothing to talk about, they usually talk about weather...
So, I have really nothing to say today but did feel like I should update and write something, so I will write about the weather and then maybe my thoughts will form in my head for writing something more fun....

Lately we have had some real winter weather....it was cold, -12 C..... But now it warmed up a little bit...But they promise lots of snow again starting next week...So, lots of snow means that when I go out of the house to my car and drive to work, I first has to clean the car, defreeze the windows and be cold...Ahhh...so tired of it at this point and not looking forward to snow.....

But, it is February already and then March - the Easter holidays...yeah..and then close to summer....So....I hope that since the winter is snowy and cold, then summer will be dry and hot :)