Skagafjörður.com, a local site, about life in the Skagafjörður region, North Iceland, where Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson grew up and worked at the gas station for more than ten years before being elected to Alþingi five years ago, published the following interview with Gunnar:
Name: Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson
Born: 1968 (I thought for a long time that I was from the '68 generation)
Occupation/education: Hot dog salesman and politician.
Car(s): Toyota Hilux 1992 and my wife drives the fantastic Citroen C5,
a technical wonder.
Horsepower: The Toyota has too few.
What’s next: Fulfilling promises and taking trip to (the salmon river) Langá.
How are you?: Good as always, can’t stand whining.
Good in school?: OK I think, but social engagements took up a lot of my time.
What is most memorable from your confirmation day: The hair perm. I can’t understand
how my mother could do it to me. I have used hair gel since.
What did you want to be as when you grew up?: Progressive Party guy and look…
What scares you the most?: Pills, they’re all fake.
The first record you bought (or the best one)?: Definitely something by
Geira (local musician) or Queen.
What song would you sing in karaoke?: Have only sung one song, Elvis’ ‘Love Me Tender,’ and received a great applause from the groupies. Most of them were over 70.
The television programs you hardly miss (excluding the news)?:
Liverpool (football club) and Kastljós (news magazine)
Best movie?: I can laugh endlessly at A Fish Called Wanda and the Monty
Python movies are super.
Bruce Willis or George Clooney/Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow?: Not a
good cocktail, would have chosen John Cleese or Robin Williams and Jamie
Lee Curtis and Reneé Zellweger.
What do you put in the shopping trolley that is not on the list?:
Some sweets… for my boys.
What do you have for breakfast?: Herbalife or nothing. Most often not hungry until noon.
Favorite proverb?: Let the gas station assistant pump the gasoline pump. Björn Björnsson told me this one after my campaign speech.
Favorite cartoon character?: Garfield, he has no worries.
Your kitchen wonders?: Few wonders there, try to be home at dinnertime and not be in the way in the kitchen.
Your favorite book?: Álftagerðisbræður (about singing brothers and farmers
from Skagafjörður). The first and only book by my friend Björn. His next book
must be about the Dalton brothers. It is the same type of work.
If you could jump on board a plane and could choose the destination you
would go to…?: To the sun in Benidorm (mass-tourism resort in Spain) with my family.
We have the best of times there.
What do you like the least about your character?: Punctuality. I try to be on
time. When it fails, I get annoyed.
What in other people do you like the least?: Lack of integrity and lack of
punctuality, cannot stand it.
The English football, which team and why?: I got a Liverpool t-shirt
when I was young and it was Björn’s favorite team. It is in the
blood, like the party.
What sportsman/referee do you like the most?: Eyjólfur (Sverrisson,
footballer from Skagafjörður). He could have been the best in every sport.
Daily DV once wrote that as a referee my father and Rafn Hjaltalín were
the most biased referees in the country.
The (song) ‘Heim í Búðardal’ or ‘Diskó Friskó?’: Diskó Friskó. The team members of
Barlómar, (a basketball team of people from Skagafjörður living in Reykjavík) sung that song with former Eurovision-contestant Helga Möller in Hótel Ísland. She did not ask for our company.
The most important person of the 20th century, in your opinion?: No single
person but Bill Shankly was fantastic.
If going alone to a deserted island, what three things would you bring
with you?: A fishing rod, my Liverpool shirt and my bed. I own a fantastic
bed.
Best in the world?: My family.
Páll Stefánsson - ps@icelandreview.com