As a young 18 years old living in the UK I voted against joining the European
Union. At the time of the EU vote I was concerned about wine lakes, butter mountains, grain
surpluses and foreigners dictating what should happen in the country of my
birth. Recently I was back in the UK when the Brexit vote took place and I must
admit that I’d have voted to remain in the EU. I’ve no idea what happened to the lakes
and mountains that resulted from the “crazy” agricultural policies of the EU
but there was no mention of surplus farming in any of the debates that I saw. I
also believe that the EU fishing quotas is helping to restore the stock of fish
around our shores and yet I still wonder why Spanish trawlers continue to fish
in British territorial waters.
However I can’t get too emotional about the Spanish because
I remember the UK had no issues harvesting cod from what the Icelandic
government considered their territorial waters. In 1973 the UK was so convinced
that it could fish inside the new 50 mile fishery limits declared by the Icelandic government that it sent some war
ships into the area in what we now call the “Cod War”. I’ve just looked up the naval strength of
the two parties involved, Iceland had 3 large patrol vessels, 2 small patrol
vessels and 1 armed whaler against the Royal Navy with 30 frigates, 1
destroyer, 11 RFA supply vessels and 5 defense tugs. I guess the UK government was fairly confident that if it came to a real fight the Royal Navy would be victorious with a 47 to 6 vessel advantage.
Having said that the so called minnows of the Icelandic soccer team just dispatched the mighty English team out of the 2016 European Cup. Iceland has a population of 323,002 to find the talent for their soccer team while England can select from a pool of just 53,010,000 million. Perhaps the Icelandic soccer team have proved once again that "size doesn't matter". Even though I'm an English supporter I admired the Icelandic teamwork and they enjoyed excellent support from their travelling countrymen. Like many other soccer tournaments before this I found myself relieved that England was out of the competition and I could start to enjoy watching the soccer without any emotional investment other than the "anybody but Germany" ideology.
A long time after the EU vote I spent 6 weeks in Iceland which is one of the
travel highlights of my career, one of the reasons being that it’s not a
popular destination and always generates interest in any conversation.
The project I worked on was at the government printers and
they had the most wonderful cafeteria with restaurant quality food. I mentioned
this to one of the managers I was working with and the next lunchtime I was
show to what we’d now call the chefs table where I enjoyed the personal
attention of the head chef and what a character he was. I’ve always gravitated
towards friendship with people that have the joy of life in their eyes and the
Icelandic chef was no exception, he’d spent time working in Scotland and had
plenty of stories about his experiences among the kilted Celts.
I’d never been much of a fish eater, I didn’t like messing
about with the skin and bones but my time at the chefs table changed my life
forever. The fish my new friend prepared was so delicious that I started to
wonder if all the chefs in the UK didn’t understand how to cook seafood. The
chef laughed when we talked about that and he said it’s no special secret, he
told me that they keep all the best fish in Iceland and send all the low
quality fish to England. I thought he was joking but then again the product on
my plate suggested that he might be serious.
I was quite sad to leave Iceland, I’d made some great
friends, seen some fantastic sights and had some fun experiences. The work had been challenging but also
successful and so I felt quite pleased with myself as I boarded the flight
home. I should mention that there was a huge shortage of men on the island and
from what I saw a surplus of ultra-attractive single blonde women, if I wasn’t
married even I might have been able to find love. I could have been a big fish
in a small pond so to speak.
The "international" standard hotel that I stayed in would rent out TV sets for your room, of course I didn't bother paying for this luxury but it was very interesting to learn that no television programs were broadcast on Thursdays, the Icelandic government decided that Thursday was family day. I guess that law doesn't continue today but perhaps if the UK had a day free of television our soccer team might be able to practice and eventually become worth the money they are paid!
On my last day at the Icelandic government printers the chef
gave me a package of frozen fish to take home, it was well wrapped and he
assured me that it wouldn’t leak if it started to defrost. Although my wife
wasn’t too impressed with my gift from Iceland she changed her mind after
cooking some of the fish for dinner, it just tasked better than any fish we had
available in our supermarkets. We had enough fish to be able to give some to a
friend and his family also thought that the fish was something special.
That's my reality,
Jobsonian
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