Miss Kolka

How important is it to have a talk with your mother when you´re pregnant?Very. Thats why mine flew over from the homecountry to spend a little weekend in Paris. While she was here, the economy of Iceland plummeted, banks went broke in Europe and Palin made more disastrous interviews with Katie Couric. But we didn´t care as the weather here was beautiful and we talked about babies. Very important indeed and reassuring.  I learned a few things, how immensely Pan is considered by my families, both on the French and Icelandic side, that my dad was ahead of his peers when I was born and was very involved in my upbringing and renewed my knowledge of crochet knitwork. Unfortunately I had to take it extra easy due to a few contractions felt the days before the arrival but that didn´t influence our fun. And we had alot time to talk. Good for the baby to hear some icelandic outside the womb. Plus now I have the lyrics to the icelandic lullabies of my childhood.  Or perhaps babylicious will prefer songs in French? Well, that´s something we wont know until early next year...

see pictures from the visit on Flickr

So according to a new scientific study there is a direct correlation between how your bedroom smells and the dreams you have. So if you smell Roses for example, your dreams should be nice and sweet. However, if you smell rotten eggs before going to sleep (what?!) then you are more likely to have bad dreams. I cant say I have bad dreams every night, but there is alot happening in my (not so) tiny little head. People appear in my dreams that I haven't seen for decades (yes Im getting THAT old) and Im not even thinking about. It can be quite confusing -especially to wake up suddenly in another world but then I get the kick that reminds me of who and where I am and that I should move slowly...

I thought my bad dreams (and Pan's) were due to us watching to many horrendous Special victim's Unit episodes... however, now we can continue to watch these useless shows about murders and kidnappings (very positive thinking) since I see very clearly that the solution to my problem is to send my panster to an evening bath more often...

or to leave flowers in the bedroom instead of the living room... ;)

I have been contemplating how obsessed France is with its media, or more exactly obsessed by the people in it. Beeing a journalist here has a total different meaning to what I imagine it has in other countries. At least from what I have been able to experience in Iceland and observe in England.

A french journalist is someone who is admired, whether he is liked or not. It is a job alot of people aspire to and not because they want to "tell the truth", be useful to society or to others but because they want to become famous. And indeed, it is a good career move, given you know the right people (its all about your address book), have the right name or parents and remember as many intellectual quotes as possible. Then you have a chance. And once you are in - you can be a top notch celebrity!

(Ok, to be fair, there might be a few who are interested in "spreading the word", "educate the masses" or simply have a job where they can travel around the world to meet interesting people. But I think they are very few (most journalists working inside a dark office)  and they also play the game of recognising big names and if they can, they would just love to become their new best friends. Which makes this business one of the most hypocritical worlds you can imagine, along with the world of politicians, and actually, these two often go together.)

How often do you see presenters and journalists being guests on other people's shows? Where they are stroked the right way and their egos blown out of proportion? All the time. It has become perfectly normal to invite the "star of the 20H" (the person presenting the evening news) to talk about his/her life and opinions they might have on almost anything. Like we care. Often these conversations (especially where there is more than one tv personality invited) go into some obscur corners of the tv/media/political/-or entertainement world and things are implied without a general explanaition to the viewer. Debates are often false debates since important information is omitted, like why, who and how. People in the media business (and political sphere) have all the pieces of (informal) information but no one is informing the public. Journalists are not writing for you, they're writing for their friends, since they are the only ones who have the missing piece of the puzzle. Its frustrating. I find French journalism frustrating and often disrespectful.

Wonder why I keep doing what I do... 

This week had been long awaited by Pan and I and now its over. With the second scanning showing all ten fingers and toes, a moving (and we like to believe happy) baby, and a doctor looking fast between its legs (hmmm I think I might have seen a big bump.. but since I was the only one.. it might have been hallucinations) we are reassured. Not that there was anything to worry about but still its good to get it out of the way.

The funny thing about expecting a baby is that everyone has pregnancy stories to share with you. Sometimes they´re nice, about cute babies that do what they´re told but often its about the hassle of birth (something I am not even close to want to think about), horror stories of a 59 year old having triplets or milk powder inducing kidney stones in infants (ok I will admit these two last ones are media stories..that is, from my new best friends :) thank god for CNN I watch everyday). But all in all people tend to be just lovely, saying Hello like the waiter downstairs (what´s up "la grosse" ? translate fatty), giving me their seat at the bank and friends stroking my stomach. Its weird the effect the pregnancy has, mostly on other people. Pan being the greatest, often asking  questions like "did that person bump into you???" in a crowded street or metro  - as if I would say " yes honey, it wasn´t on purpose but can you please punch her/him in the face".  Its nice to be protected

Also - clearly the most common question is to ask pregnant women what it is they are expecting. I have my answer all worked out: "Well, we are keeping it as a surprise but we are hoping for either a boy or a girl." In all fairness, people are just trying to be nice and strike a conversation.

Apart from that "rien a signaler" or RAS as we say in French, except that the lovely but slightly overweight midwife at the hospital is doing something with the balance there. At my last check the silly little thing showed that I had gained 10 kilos "Mademoiselle, here in France we try not to go over 10-12 kilos for the whole pregnancy". Aha.. well.. if it is anything like your calculations for the due date (only country that counts 41 week while others count 40, and then it seems that most French women have their babies 10 days before the due date!! hmm hmm.. ok but lets still say its 41 weeks.. just for the sake of it) then maybe you should rethink these measurements of yours.  Like my cousin said, icelandic babies and  women are big and strong so dont you worry about my kilos. Apparently its more the nordic gene, because according to our danish pregnancy book the baby should now weigh around 600 grams (it weighs 550) while the european numbers count around 350 grams (tiny little thing). So let me rephrase the answer to the ever so popular question:

"We are definately having a viking!"

Jeff Koons exposition draws protesters at Versailles

I told you there were protest in the air this autumn in Paris... didn't think it would be for silly things as well but there you have it. 
I think its beautiful!

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