My Icelandic saga – in several parts. Part one: Yoko

On my first night in Reykjavik, I was treated to a celestial smorgasbord. We’d popped over to a nearby island to see Yoko Ono turn on the Imagine Peace Tower – a fabulous light installation that’s lit every year to commemorate John Lennon’s birthday. I was mingling at the back of the Reykjavik Ladies’ Choir and trying not to fall: a. over the cliff and b. into a big hole that led to the electrical nerve centre under the marble peace statue. This being not the UK, there were no fences, no keep back signs and no big dayglo bruisers, smoking ‘tabs’ and looking like they’d rather be in the pub than protecting the public from electric shocks and drowning. No, this was casual; this was the Icelandic way. Anyway, the choir had just finished a some lovely tra-la-la peace and love ditty when all of a sudden, up popped Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. Yoko was wearing a jaunty peak cap while Sean had on a dwarfish top hat. Yoko read a little poem, someone shouted ‘I love you Yoko’ (not me) and then we all sang ‘Give peace a chance’ although, of course, no-one knew the words to the verses so we blah blah blahhed a bit and then Yoko flicked the switch and a column of bright white light came on stretching high up into the clouds. Then, out of the crowds I spied a hulking, Viking brute of a man. Yes, this was the Mayor of Reykjavik, a former comedic actor who I’d seen on BBC4 in a comedy about a petrol station. I waved but sadly, he didn’t see me as it was pitch black and I was wearing a balaclava. As we chugged back to the mainland, up in the sky, the Northern Lights came out to dazzle us. Oh how we ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ – yes, they do ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ in Icelandic too. The next day, I was hanging around the Civic Hall, as you do, when all of a sudden, who should pop up but the Mayor. This time, there was no getting away for him. I gushed, as per, and then we caressed and Friend A took a pic. Later on, the lady at the information desk said Kofi Annan was in town too – but sadly for me, had gone off for a geo-thermal soak at the Blue Lagoon.