As last year, I showed my support for the rescue organisations, as well as the inner boy who likes to blow things up, by buying lots of fireworks. Last year I bought a family box, only a couple of rockets, and only one cake. I decided that the family box contained too many bits and silly pieces, and although you got to light lots of things, I wanted to have cooler toys. I'd also decided last year that I would spend more money this year.

I did spend more, 18,000 kr this year, though as always I would have liked more. If I hadn't just spent a fair bit kegging a kegging system at home for my home brew, and if the weather forecast hadn't been so crap, I may still have bought more :)

So, as this year I'm writing _after_ I've blown them up, I can give feedback!

• Snorri Sturlsson, the small cake, was totally worth while, lots of loud silver flashes, whistling like banshees, excellent. The fuse failed to take, and I had pretty much given up on it, when at the very end I tore half the packaging open and lit an inner fuse.
• Hallgerður, the bigger cake was cool, much cooler than last year's. Silver loud rockets going up, streaming silver, then they would burst loudly in silver balls. I almost didn't notice the second explosions this year due to the extreme wind
• The coconut was meant to be pure noise, but wasn't really that much louder, I probably wouldn't buy it again.
• The big gold thing sure did leave a big gold tail rising, and nice big gold streamers on bursting, but I think the wind hurt it.

Blowing them up was lots of fun. Guido, Jessica and I had left Ute's after Áramótskaupið, (the year in review, by comedy skits) to get up to Hallgrímskirkja for the fireworks. We were running a touch late, and were just arriving when the bells started ringing, but new years is when we declare it :) Compared to Öskjuhlíð, up by the weather office and Perlan, there were a LOT more tourists, but it was still a really nice site. The wind was howling, and I'm sure it would have been even bigger and better with less wind.

Not long after I arrived I was met by a very excited american with a digicam, who thought this was all FUCKING AWESOME! and was I going to blow that up next?! and could he come watch?! Sure, so he followed me a bit while I lit things and admired them blowing up :) Always nice to have fans. There were some really nice firworks going off, and later we saw some people trying to aim rockets into the clock tower :)

The wind tore around in circles and gusts and blew smouldering pieces of burnt out cakes around, it was really quite a sight. The wind also knocked over someone's large rocket, which threatened to be a zone of death. Fortunately, after it rocketed sideways along the ground, it exploded on the kerb, rather than changing directions and zooming around randomly. It did make a nice explosion on the ground though :)

After that we strolled down the hill to a party near my place, and stayed there with good people and good music, included jelly shots, until late in the morning. An excellent new years.