Miss Kolka

Looking up do you can see clearly the nose with the two holes, big cheeks and a half-open mouth. Its probably singing, happy to be in its mum's belly! Well, it's already decided that it gets its father's good character then. Brilliant 

We had our third and final compulsory scanning yesterday. At 32 weeks of pregnancy. This time we did it at the hospital where I will give birth which I have to say is much better equipped than the place we use to go to before. The Midwife that performed the scanning was lovely and really took the time to explain, in details what we were seeing. So we saw a healthy baby, weighting over 2 kilos moving around and even had a glimps at its face with its round cheeks and cute little nose (Well, not so little in fact so it might have inherited its mummy's nose after all!haha). As soon as Pan scans them in I'll publish some pictures here and here

It was mostly a positive visit - and it is just amazing to be able to see babylicious like that. However, the midwife also had to check the length of my cervix to see if all was remaining closed and safe. The Cervix has shortened since last time apparently (it was only 21 mm this time - down from 43 mm) which indicates that if Im not careful, I might go into labour a bit earlier than expected. But Since Dr. Cohen doesn't seem too worried and didnt prescribe any more bedrest than Im having now I think I should just take it easy and be happy that we have made it this far. Keep optimising (is that a word?) and the positive thinking. Not run around and apparently now Im also banned from cooking- after cleaning, washing up and shopping (that is from Pan and not by doctor's advice). 5 more weeks and the bun in the oven is ready so we will just have to be patient a little bit longer ("just a little bit longer"...missing those songs from Dirty Dancing).

Tiny little hickup, when looking over the file we got from the hospital yesterday, Pan noticed that a category had been filled out that should not have been.

Name: Courageux
bladibla but also
Sex: .

And there it was. Although we had been clear with the midwife that we did NOT want to know the sex and she told us to look away while she scanned in between the baby's legs (and I really really wanted to peek) I think she might have forgetten it when she wrote the chart.  A little letter - that in other circumstances would be so harmless and innocent, a letter that would not mean anything anywhere else - but a letter that stood there just behind "Sex:". I really hope it was just a mistake. Or that this letter means something completely different - in hospital terms this letter must mean " the parents do not want to know". It has to be. Or maybe not. And then, it means that we know the sex of the baby. But since we cannot know for sure, you'll have to wait until the birth to find out :)

*update* Pan is insisting the letter has nothing to do with the baby. Only time will tell...

Nobody blogs anymore. With Facebook, Myspace or all these site commonly and rightly referred to as "MYFACE" by my friend Finna there is much less interest in blogs in general. Its a shame. These Community websites reduce communication to witty one-liners or "poking" or other weird actions to all your "friends" (sometimes people you've only met once) but they dont have the depth of the blog. Of course you have political blogs such as the Huffington post and all these blogs connected to the online papers but still its not the same. Take my friend Douglas for example. The perfect blogger. Has interesting ideas and always something to say - well if he limits his blogs for the France 24 website Im sure he does alot of self-censorship - not saying all he means since its all "on the record". With a more personal blog he could let loose his thoughts and feelings, although he would always have to be a little bit careful, because even personal blogs can get you into trouble when you become a public person.

I often wonder how far to go in my entries. What to say and what to leave out... just because you never know who is reading what you write. Im not paranoid though. I know my boss at work for example would have very limited interest in my stories...as have many of my friends actually. Was at one point wondering if I should put a link on my Facebook page so all of my 316 "really really close friends" could come and have a look at it... but when you think about it - Why would you want people you dont know that well to know what you are thinking? That would be like putting a "status" (another magical facebook tool) saying " Miss or mister is depressed and does not want to get out of bed". Wouldn't that be weird? You only share when all is good, at least on the surface, so all of this is actually fake. And still I spend my days looking at pictures of old aquintances or collegues, their friends and families and imagining that their life is picture perfect. And they look like they are. Well, like mine actually - at least virtually!

But I would not want people to stop blogging all together- it is through all these random blogs that I see on mbl.is (the ultimate icelandic newssource) that I have gotten a feeling of the overall feeling of discontent and anger in the icelandic society. And when you are far away its often the only way of feeling connected. Blogs on the French newspaper Liberation have also been put higher and higher in the news hiarchy. And they often illustrate the right picture of the story. Blogs are the new eyes of the soul. I just wish more people I care about would blog so I could know more about what they are thinking.

P.s Please let me know if you have a blog so I can add it to my links... I just updated them, half of them were not active anymore and had not been for a while.

Lets hope they can work out their differences and that Obama will choose Senator Clinton for State Secretary. That would certainly appease Clinton supporters and Im sure she would do a great job. Funny how the media say it could be a big baggage for Obama to have the two Clintons always there in the background. Why? Its not because she is his wife that Bill Clinton has to oversee everything she does. Hasn't she done a good job BY HERSELF as New York Senator?  Have to say it sounds a little sexist - like women can not handle high power position on their own. She brings a good knowledge, toughness and experience to the job - and these should be the criterias considered, not who she is married to.

And Obama would, according to the New York Times "further unite and energize his party, make clear to the world that he is serious about diplomacy, and send a substantive political signal to women.".

What is there to think about?  

What has been going on these last few days is just incredible  - Its like Iceland is the little weird kid in the playground all the other kids like Britain, Holland, the EU and even the scandinavian cousins have decided to pick on, just to be mean.

As was all over the news a couple of months ago - Iceland ended up nationalizing its 3 major banks by force.Two of them got into financial troubles linked to the international economic crisis and the third one lost all its influence and trust in the financial world when the British government accused it of being in the same situation as the 2 others and created a local panic in the UK when they annonced that Iceland would not pay up to account owners (which turned out to be uncertain at that time). The chain of event is unclear - who knew what when and how it all started -  but it seems pretty clear that a few Icelanders were on top of the world for a few years, invested abroad and got their companies and banks into debts that far exceeded the country's GDP. What I dont understand is how Iceland's government and therefore its people would become responsible for all this debt if the banks ran into trouble, as they did.

SO what is now known as the "Icesave" matter is not helping the situation. Britain and Holland have demanded that if Iceland is to have a loan - any loan from the IMF, the EU or its scandinavian partners - it should primarly go into paying what they owe deposit savers in these local branches of the former Icelandic "private" bank (its good to have a little reminder). In clear this means that Iceland should borrow money - not to save the dire economic situation that is bankrupting 60-80% of the countrie's private sector - but to pay to people owning money in the branches in Britain or  in Holland. That means putting the whole country in debt for years, not even to create jobs or help with currency problems there (people can not change the almost worthless Icelandic krona that keeps devaluating, they get maximum 180 euros if they have a plane ticket to travel abroad and can not use their cards) but only to pay off a debt that was created by private businesses that had alot when all was good and now that things are bad have run away from their responsabilities.

Those who owned these banks and companies have not had to answer for any of this. One of the families still owns their pet football club West Ham and another family is looking to buy all of Iceland's media for peanuts. Why can't they sell their assets to pay off some of this debt? At the same time its of course the average joe that is loosing his job (unemployment could rise above 10% after christmas - always been under 1%), people see their savings disappear and many of those keeping their jobs will notice the payment of their loans increase at the same time as the value of their houses will decrease, everything else will double in price (since Iceland is very dependent on imports and since there is NO foreign currency available there is a question how many products will STILL be available in shops in a few weeks time).  So its all a very gloomy picture. People are predicting that due to unemployment many people will seek to further educate themselves while a third of the population has said it is considering moving away. Very sad indeed for my little country. At least I can be happy that mother Kolka works for the University - there is bound to be enough work there.. whether the salary will amount to anything is perhaps another matter.

Keep strong.

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