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| Skottustelpa, The Continuing Saga Welcome to Skottustelpa's page of fun and games. Skottustelpa is amazing, beautiful and incredibly talented. Everyone loves Skottustelpa. Go, Skottustelpa, go! |
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Friday, March 31, 2006 I got a present from the Queen yesterday. A Big Bad Mother mug. It reads Don't go LOCO have a nice mug of COCOA. The box it came in has photos of cleaning housewifes with afros. I love her. I spent the whole day with the Queen and lumonia stricken Lady of the Lakes. Thank you ladies for keeping me for a day. I'm going out of town tonight. We are going to lodge in at a hotel in Mon, like we did in January, eat good food, sleep well, take warm baths, dip in the pool, visit the sauna, see some telly. I'm back Sunday. Taking the hospital bag with in case I go into labor this weekend. And the plastic bag for the seat. posted by Skotta | 8:17 AM | Thursday, March 30, 2006 I saw Silver Hawk yesterday. Or at least a part of it. I rented this movie because it has one of my favorite actresses in it, Michelle Yeoh. Haven't seen her in the Geisha movie yet but I know she can act, I saw it in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  It was a trip. Very surrealistic and in many ways cool but the humor went straight over my head. It was funny to begin with (and in fact, I reccommend it as a cult movie to my closest circle) but soon it just became too weird. It just became too stupid. I gave up and had to stop it. I guess I am too European market to be able to sit through the whole thing. I could have seen the whole movie under different circumstances, for example with Hypnotoad or some other friends who understand the genre. Tired, and home alone, it just wasn't happening for me. A good example where this kind of a movie works for the Euro market (or me) is Kung Fu Hustle. Brilliant film. Maybe it's me. There are quite a few copies of Silver Hawk available at my local Block Buster, but only one Kung Fu Hustle. I was probably just in a weird place last night, because I watched through the whole Wendell Baker Story. That is a bad, bad film. Nothing funny about it at all. Maybe it was because in the back of my head was the fact that I had a weird feeling down below my belly, like where the PMS pains usually come. I have heard this is a sign of impending birth. Well, I am on my way to the airport to pick up the Queen. Much looked forward to, the Queens visit. I can't wait to give her a big hug with my big belly. And in her mothers car I am sitting on a plastic bag, in case my water breaks. posted by Skotta | 7:50 AM | Monday, March 27, 2006 I did write that the Danes were threatened by the fact that Icelanders are investing a lot in DK. Rumors have been that the Icelandic economy is going down, and this is, frankly, scaring the shit out of the Danes. Here is Bjarni Arnason's take on things (Icelandic bank's Glitnir) as he expressed himself in an interview on CNBC. The Icelanders have no worries. We have always had debt, we are experts in debt. We are never richer than when we owe money. Ask anyone. posted by Skotta | 11:38 AM | Decided not to take life so God damned seriously and bake a banana cake. And a link fro my Prinsupessa who always brightenes my day: Here is Sylvia Night, shining in the light, our representant at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Congratiulations, she has arrived, English version. Notice the gum. Icelands most famaous alter ego is never caught in public, on camera, or otherwise, without the gum. Sylvia Night might even beat Lordi from Finland. posted by Skotta | 11:26 AM | Why choices are important to me. I went out to eat last night with a Swede and a Dane. Being the one who has lived in a few different countries, upon the Swed's urging, I started comparing. I know I do that, and a part of me doesn't like it. It happens though, especially when people seem interested to hear my opinion, and it certanly happens on this page. Otherwise I try keeping my opinions to myself. One of the things I mentioned was my growing worry about the political situation in Denmark. Me and the Dane expressed hope that this would change, him saying that in spite of the angry tone in the debates he didn't think peoples mindset was changing any day soon. Kind of like they hadn't hit bottom with this thing yet. The whole discussion sprung from me saying I would have preferred my baby not having to choose between citizenships but keep both. The Swede told me he was half German, half Swede, but was born a year before the dual citizenship laws changed in Sweden. His German father changed his citizenship to a Swedish one to increase the likelyhood for his boy to escape the army. At the time, it was easier to skip serving in Sweden than it was in Germany. I told them the American base in Iceland was being closed. We don't have an army, but are on the list of nations supporting the war in Irak (as Michael Moore so brilliantly pointed out in his last film), and we are a NATO nation. Still, we are too small to be more than a laughing stock on the political scene so the Icelandic pass has so far not threatened any country (apart from scaring the shit out of the Danes with our current investment power, but that's another story). Sometimes it can be a very nice thing to travel on the Icelandic pass which is respected all over the world. I named as an example that if we had to travel to Egypt in the past couple of months we wouldn't have minded travelling on Icelandic passes while we would have opted not to travel at all on Danish passports. Something the Queen wrote not such a long time ago got me thinking about slow change and fast change in society. She wrote that she had a growing fear that the world was stepping backwards. See her post from March 21st here. She reminds us that in the 60's, Iran was one of the most liberal of the middle east and was known for its female empowerment. It made me think. I wonder if women in Iran had a bad hunch that this radical change was coming. I wonder if they did anything (here is me, being a bad historian). I also started thinking about Natzi Germany. People in Germany just went with the flow and I don't think anybody had imagined things would get so horrid. For many, once it was out of hand it was too late to move. I makes me wonder. History shows that a slow change can most certanly happen. I have this bad feeling that the Danes are not thinking, just going with the flow. The whole mess is uncomfortable and we don't like uncomfortable. We like "hygge", a bottle (or a case) of beer, sitting on a bench with a friend in front of our little colonial garden house. Sorry if you detect a bitter tone. I wonder if there is anything to be done to change things here in Denmark? My naivity has told me that things will be alright as long as we show up and vote. Well, people did that here and DF+V regime became a reality. Here's the guy responsible for the messy situation:  And here is the woman who got charged for breaking the weapon laws (she carried illegal pepper spray and threatened a woman with it) and has met many charges since for her racistic comments:  These two rule DK at the moment. They are the head of the two ruling parties in parlament. Under their regime, immigration laws have been imposed that criss cross all human rights ammendmants. The UN is ignored when they comment on the situation. It is a sad reality. On the positive, there are still people out there who are speaking up, saying stop the bullshit. One being this lady here (also a member of V)  and another one being this one (member of the Radical Lefties)  I opted for living in a society I belived being better at taking care of the ones who couldn't speak up for themselves (children, old people, disabled people, foreigners) than any other society I knew of. This just didn't turn out to be the case ... I am so grateful for the people speaking up, even though they are speaking up for themselves. I want to imagine they are also speaking up for me. And I am sad I can't support them. Here's why: I am in the fortunate situation in Denmark to be able to vote. I can vote in the local elections but not in the big ones. So I have a say over who runs my town, the local school my kid will go to, etc. Local politics. By voting I can try to influence how many politicians from my hood sit in Copenhagen city's council. This is bigger power than I'd have as a foreigner in most other countries. And this is one of the reasons I like Denmark. The problem is that I have no say whatsoever in who sits in parlament. This is because I don't have a Danish citizenship. Fair enough, that is generally how it is in other countries. I can live here but I don't have a say in how things are run. Still, the other Scandinavian countries allow dual citizenship! What are the Danes so afraid of? I can only vote in parlamental elections if I deny my Icelandic citizenship, same will my boy if he opts for that after he is 18 and has to choose. Choose where he wants to be citizen, even though he is half Danish and half Icelandic. Well, ces't la vie, citizenship and nationality are two different things. We are the lucky ones, we get to choose. There are plenty of foreigners in DK that don't have that choice. And God forbid we were given more choices, we might choose a liberal goverment! Choices, choices. The question here is, is it a choice when it is an ultimatum? I fool myself by saying that if things go to hell, I'll be one of the lucky ones that can move. Maybe it would be smart for AB to marry me so I could get permission to take him with ... I could invite him to move with me to Iceland, where he could get a dual citizenship and have a say in how the country he chooses to raise his child, is run. A permission, a choice, not available to Danes who live abroad. To get married, and to take their foreign husband or wife with them to DK to live. You see, the poor Danes have to marry the "right foreigners" "under the right circumstances" to be able to live with them in DK. Pure breeds here. I got lucky, I'm the right type of arian. Which means my boy is lucky because even though he has to choose (no half breed citizenship in Denmark, you have to choose) he is still the right type of arian for Denmark to approve of. You can all see just how bad it can get when you start mixing races. Let me give you an example: Pure breed  Pure breed  Half breed  Horrid, isn't it? A rose, is a rose, is a rose, said Gertrud Stein. We can all se that a dog, is a dog, isn't a dog. Better not forget that some breeds are simply better than others. I'll end this post with a plea to the citizens of Denmark, pure breeds and half breeds who have offered their citizenship to be able to vote in this country: Please keep the rest of us in mind when you vote next time. Because I know you people, as much as you like pure-breeding, you hate the idea of in-breeding. Choices are good, people, choices are good. Now don't get this in-bred chick started on that. posted by Skotta | 7:27 AM | I can't believe I almost slept through the night. Talking about exhaustion. I did wake up once and thought I was dying, but after the attending to my most urgent needs I fell asleep again. Slept until 6:50! I'm a bit confused with the time since we changed over to sommertime yesterday. I really never know what time it is. I have no plans for today but to rest and maybe go to a noon movie. Life is sweet, even when you are having a hard time breathing. posted by Skotta | 7:19 AM | Saturday, March 25, 2006 I'm old. I just discovered. I totally forgot that for tickets like to the Radiohead concert you sleep outside the store the night before they open. I didn't get them on the internet and AB drove past one of the record stores where you could buy tickets. He sent me an MMS of the line in the store and told me they were sending people away, telling them that the concert was sold out. I am a sad, sad, woman. Not that I have ever camped outside a store to get tickets to anything. And considering my current condition I would have probably opted for this time not being my first to try this type of camping. I still feel a bit stupid not to have realized. posted by Skotta | 10:49 AM | I woke up with this song in my head. I miss musicals. Here are some of my favorites.           And last but not least  Not on my list of favorites are gems like Les Miserables, Oklahoma, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and some that I am totally not impressed with like Mama Mia, Cats, Chess, Rent and Grease. Then there are of course such as A Chorus Line, Anie, Disney's musicals (oh, man, the Jungle Book!), and everything with Elvis, and Barbara Streisand. Like Yentl. For more listings here is Musical 101. Now don't get me started on good soundtracks. posted by Skotta | 9:18 AM | Good morning everyone! Saturday. Ain't that good? My house looks okay, my dishes are done, my cough is still there, the penicillin is kicking in ... Saturday is always good. It's truly weekend and it is not Sunday yet. You know you have a whole day to yourself, and another one tomorrow. Except me, of course, I've had a constant Saturday since September 1st. That's why I'm a happy camper and I reccommend the experience to anyone who can afford it. More tea. Sooth that throat. Lovely. Today I am going to assemble as much of the chest of drawers as possible. I need to get all this baby stuff out of the way. And I did get out yesterday. My genious friend is visiting from out of town, his sis and good friend were here too, and the Goddess of the Lakes drove us up to Louisiana museum where we got a quick peek at Baselitz. And of course some shopping at the museum store. Unfortunately the Brassai show was already over. I am not particularly fond of Baselitz work until after 2000. Until then his paintings were mostly muddy. There were some great paintings there from 2004 and I really liked those. Totally worth driving up to one of Mother Earth's most beautiful spots to take a peek. We drove straigth from Louisiana, which is probably my favorite museum in this world, to the movies. We saw Brokeback Mountain, the movie that needs no introduction. I really liked it. Kind of surprisingly, because I am not that into cowboys, gay or straight irrelevant. Go see it, if not for anything else then to see Jake Gyllenhaal's performance, who is otherwise most memorable as Donnie Darko (you remember, the lovely boy who befrended a 6 foot rabbit called Frank). Am contemplating wearing high heels for the rest of the day. Ces't la vie on a Saturday morning. posted by Skotta | 6:46 AM | Friday, March 24, 2006 Okay, not in bed yet. Have to wait until I have peed at least some of all that tea I drunk. My throat hurts like hell and because of the coughing, vertical is better than horisontal at the moment. I knew that going out last night was a luxury and that I'd have to take the concequenses. I am contemplating going out again today. It is 6:14 AM and I have been up for an hour, after being up every hour since I fell asleep. Getting up hourly to cough up mucus is just not ... not ... nice. Daylight is here. Otherwise the back yard has been lit up by the automatic electric lights that go on every time someone passes. For the past hour the light have been triggered by the cats. I guess that means that spring is on the way. The cats are out doing their little mating dance and crying. posted by Skotta | 6:13 AM | I have added yet another link to my side bar. This one I got from www.katrin.is and it is called The Known Universe. She writes that the blogger's name is Jamie and that he just sent her a book. Judging from his blog, it's probaby a good book. Judging from his blog, he has a cute girlfriend too. His writings make me homesick for New York, big time. I am adding the link so that most the countries I have lived in are covered. Now I just have to find a good German one written in English ... Yeah, sure. I don't know why, but I have a funny feeling that is not going to be an easy job. A Brit writing from Cologne? An American in Hamburg? Having a grand ol' time!? I loved living in Germany and maybe I would have blogged from there. In spite of my love for Germany I opted not to move there again. I came close to moving to Berlin when things looked bleak for me here in the beginning but I am happy it never happened. Berlin was too big for me. There is a different kind of a harshness to Germany than to New York. New York is brutal but somehow alive in a different way. My German friend Oliver once asked me: "Us Germans are very A-sexual, don't you think?" Another German women I once met was asked what word she would use to describe "German". Withouth thinking (if I recall correctly) she answered: "Effektivitet". So, effective A-sexual people. I don't know. Not the ones I got to know. We called them German, vs. being German German. The German Germans were the ones who could be described as having a candle up their arse. Those people, for example, worked in beurocraty of some sort, like at the immigration office. They wore costumes during carnival cerimonies, and went completely bananas and slept with anyone and everyone one week a year. They were otherwise stuck up and hard to get a genuine smile out of. I remember that while the German Germans went all out and disgusting during the carnival, the Germans left town. I didn't have any German German friends. I did know an Icelandic couple that was German German. That aquaintance didn't last. Likewise, I have no Icelandic friends here that have turned Danish. In Germany I mostly hung out with the foreigners. In New York we were all foreigners while all being local. In Denmark .... well ... I guess Denmark has Danish Danes and Danes. And that for the first time in my life I am not particularly fond of being a foreigner. Being a foreigner is a big part of my identity today and I love it. It used to be a big deal because being Icelandic abroad was the coolest thing ever. Now, when it is a big deal, it is because it is holding me back. Fortunately I am aware of the fact that feeling victimized is a state of mind which I don't have to visit. So I love living in Denmark. If I am to be totally honest, the best part about living in Denmark is how easy it is to leave the place. I am living on a continent more than I am living in a country. And I am definetly not stuck. No matter how broke I am, I still manage to travel. There is always a bus you can jump on that will drive you to another country. I know a lot of Danes. I have worked with a few Danish Danes. I avoid Icelandic Danes altogether. Scary breed. And with that I leave for bed after drinking a lot of decaf Chai. I am still sick as a dog. Didn't get to go to the movies yesterday, will go this evening instead. Don't buy the salmon at Sushitarian. It's not really that good. posted by Skotta | 5:22 AM | Wednesday, March 22, 2006 Okay, I woul love to be posting all the great links I am finding on Transbuddha but I think you should just go there yourself. This one did remind me that AB needs shoelaces. Then there was this motivational exercise video. Mariko Takahashi - Poodle Fitness on Transbuddha Not as funny as it is surreal. Or this!? What is this!? Chippendales on Ice? Brilliant. I'll tell you why I am surfing so much now. I have been sick as a dog since Thursday. My voice is hardly recognizable. In this state I went to the photographer yesterday and to the doc for my last scanning this morning. I could make those trips by staying put at all other hours since Thursday. I am trying to stay put today also but it is not really working really well. So I am having the computer babysit me. posted by Skotta | 2:50 PM | Anyone heard of the EPICA awards? Here's the winner. posted by Skotta | 2:12 PM | If you are really bored there is always entertainment in MSN gossip and entertainment colums. Like this one. posted by Skotta | 1:46 PM | Not quite sure what to do with this info:
Got this link from another Skotta's page. Yeah, I am not the only one out there. I actually have a feeling we are quite a few bloggers with this name. And this link I nicked of Dr. Gunni's page. It's Eurovision. In case anyone thought our Sylvia Nott was a piece of private humor then take a peak at the contribution from Finnland.  I am definetly not missing out on Eurovision this year. Nor am I missing out on the Radiohead concert here in Copenhagen.  Which means that Saturday at 10 am the ticket master website is going down. Anyone want me to buy tickets for them Saturday morning at 10 am? I am a huge Radiohead fan. I have all their CD's exept one but I have never seen them live. Their music kept me alive for years and through quite some big life changes in a few different continents. If I had a theme song it would probably be a Radiohead number (that and a few of Dolly Parton's). When I was moving from NY I had done quite a bit to try to get my hands on Amnesiac. The CD was to have it's US release the day after my move. The woman who loves me more than most made such an effort to get me Amnesiac before I left. That's love for you. I truly apreciated that she put in the effort and gave it a thought. We didn't get it though, no way getting near the album. And on a final note, in case anyone had forgotten that I have the best boyfriend in the world. I have the best boyfriend in the world. posted by Skotta | 11:51 AM | Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Know that feeling reading your blog that you have been repeating yourself? No? Well, if you heard about the amazing diaper bucket once too often I apologize. Me and AB just had the most fun photo session ever. I can't wait to get the photos because they are going to be so great. Unfortunately this site won't get to see them but I am going to be scanning them in to mail to closest friends and family. I will tell you this much: My huge belly is used as canvas! We got some great photos of AB drawing on my little boys first home. Nope, no nudes, just as I said. I pulled up my tee and the skirt down. There are more great series of the three of us playing, and I wish I could keep them all. We'll only get to pick four of them. I am so happy I decided to go with the photographers idea of waiting as long as possible with the photo session. The idea was totally boundary crossing for me because for the first months of my pregnancy I was so aware of my extra size that I didn't want to be photographed at all. Taking a photo of me as big as possible? Was she insane to suggest that? Going to the photographer was scary enough! I contemplated the idea and eventually decided to go for it. I am huge. Huge and beautiful. posted by Skotta | 8:01 PM |  4:32 AM My apartment looks like a bomb fell in it. We started on the "nursery" last night. We actually don't do nursery in that sense, we do a baby's room. Or in our case, the baby's closet. It is tiny. Just enough for a little bed and a little chest of drawers. Nothing fancy. Very European. No special bedding, no murals on the walls, no diaper changing station, no chair. Here's my favorite thing though:  Okay, ours doesn't look like that. It is more streamlined and designy. Not that I care. The key word here is odorless. To me, this is one of the most ingenious, hygenic thing ever invented. The least environmentally friendly, I am sorry to say. Since I am not the woman boiling her diapers like in the old days, but using Pampers or Libero, or whatever they all are called ... It is brilliant. You put the diaper in the top of the bucket where it gets sealed in a bag and then whops! it's down to another bag whith all the other sealed diapers. Very sad about the environment though. Very happy about my personal in-my-home odorless environment. You see, there are diapers, and then there are diapers. And you want to be taking out the garbage often when you have a kid. So there you met the main feature of my nursery. Oh well. It was exciting to get started last night. AB tried to fight me off and lost. He was assembling the chest of drawers from IKEA. The bed is sold out, won't be there for the next couple of weeks. We'll put the baby in one of the drawers if he comes early. Just kidding. The frustrating part was when it was suddenly midnight and we had to stop. It was when AB got to the part where about 30 nails had to be banged into the back of the chest of drawers. Nothing will happen further for the next couple of days so our home is upside down at the moment. AB is working his arse off these days to be able to take time off when the boy pops out. One exciting thing will happen tomorrow though! We are going to the photographer. We are having our family portrait taken. Very funny. We are having black and whites taken, no nudes. Nothing remotly erotic about my pregnancy. I just need this best period of my life so far to be documented. And did I mention I look awesome? posted by Skotta | 4:34 AM | Sunday, March 19, 2006 A short apology to my closest circle: Sorry guys that I haven't been taking the phone. My sis has been in town and between meeting her I have been sick as a dog. I am slowly recovering and will be at my usual spot Monday evening ... otherwise resting. In other news: Well, baby seems fine but my body is slowly not wanting to move anymore. That's fine, I'll just stay put ... The midwife looked AB straight in the eye and said in a serious voice: "You know, it can come any day from now on." I'd be so lucky. I'm only in week 37. They say 40 weeks +/- 2 weeks. So from next week on we are in the birth month. I am not waiting. I am just a bit less mobile because moving more than two steps at a time hurts like hell ... posted by Skotta | 10:29 PM | Friday, March 17, 2006 I added the link to http://www.shortcut.squarespace.com/ on the side bar. In case you didn't realize when reading my previous post about this link, it is a link that might interest globetrotters like myself. I haven't travelled in almost 7 months now. It feels like the longest winter of my life. One of the reasons I live in Denmark is that it is relatively cheap to fly to other places from here. At least I have Europe at my feet. Texas is a bit extreme from here and that is truly a shame. I can't wait to get moving again. I will be leaving this country no later than the 18th of June and I will be staying away until September. Mine will be a travelling boy. He'll get the first couple of months at home and then he is on the road with me. I have no intentions to stay put. I am already getting some raised eyebrows for that declaration. I am sure I won't be the worst parent in the world for that sake. I know plenty who do a shitty job in just one location. I am sure he'll learn to apreciate having parents who just can't get through winter without a weekend in Paris, a weekend in Rome, a week in New York, and then a couple of holidays in Iceland ... Say, would you give that up just because other people found it difficult to travel with a baby? Nope. If you could afford it, you'd take the kid with you too. posted by Skotta | 7:50 AM | Thursday, March 16, 2006 I am a bit slow. Got a link to this game a while back but didn't check it out until tonight. Thank you Petur Gibbons. If you read me then I have to tell you, I am still not getting the Gibbons.
I have two music videos to show you today. One is by Hafdis Huld, former singer in the Icelandic band Gus Gus. I have never been much of a fan of Gus Gus, in fact I have always thought they sucked. Aparently Hafdis Huld got kicked out of the band and is going solo now. Meet Hafdis Huld and Tomoko. It's a cute song and the video is adorable. Another video I nicked off Halli's page. Also a cute song and a really, really great video. It is taken from Datenstrudel which is a net-tv home-page with loads of cool stuff. Thank you Halli. posted by Skotta | 8:53 PM | I just saw two movies. One is called Gegen die Wand ( english title Head On)and the other one A Good Woman (based on the play by Oscar Wilde). I totally reccommend the German movie. It is a beautiful love story. It is a wee bit gory, but not much more than reality is. Hell, if you slash your wrists there is going to come blood out. As much as I loved the first one I got little out of the other one. Well, A Good Woman has really great beautiful costumes and good acting apart from the main roles (Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Umbers are boring as hell in this, everyone else has some color). Scarlett's lips are really too much for me by now, same is Helen Hunts monotonous voice in this movie. I loved Scarlett in Lost in Translation but it doesn't seem like she has done any real acting since. She is always the same. There was one good line in this movie which I am assuming comes from Wilde: Crying is the refuge of plain women. Pretty women go shopping. posted by Skotta | 2:03 PM | Tuesday, March 14, 2006 The morning paper reminded me of this link. It has become so popular they are making a book. Overheard in New York. Check it out, it's hilarious. Man, I miss NY. posted by Skotta | 6:09 PM | 5:30 am I have been up for over an hour reading the internet. Went through all my favorites and the MSN Gossip pages. I added a link (see side bar). It's this girl in London who, if she is right about being Swedish, I adore because she is witty and charming, and her spelling is at a level I envy. She also has some cool links, like this one called Short Cut where I found this interview with an Icelandic designer located in Milan. Meet Johanna Erla. Also, the Short Cut page is written by many, aparently foreigners. Amongst them is Maria Roff who's articles link to her web-site Iceland Eyes. I am putting a link to that site on my side bar too. It has beautiful photos from Iceland so check it out. posted by Skotta | 5:26 AM | Friday, March 10, 2006 One of my favorite chaps in history said: "Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you." According to Rob I am ready to leap to the next octave of my evolution. He hopes those words of Gandhi quoted above, will play a central role in shaping my destiny for the next eight years.  Wouldn't it be nice? Sweet man, Gandhi. Keep reading and I'll let you know how it's going. posted by Skotta | 9:24 PM | Thursday, March 09, 2006 Lotta Snickare and Liza Marklund are two Sweedish authors. They have just published a book on equal rights (between the sexes) called "There Is A Place In Hell For Women Who Don't Help Each Other". I have been so fortunate not to meet any of those women. Most women I know personally, and most of the men, have a place reserved in Heaven. All of them got their reservation for helping their fellow man, or woman. I can relate to the title though. Lovely title. The title actually stems from Madeleine Albright who has said that she would never have got so far in American politics if not for Hilary Clinton and her networking with other women. I am all for equal rights. To our great disappointment we discovered that if AB uses his legal right to a paternity leave we actually loose a lot of money. He gets half of what I get monthly. So even though he would love to take more official paternity leave he is giving his time to me (the law says we can share a certain amount of weeks). His paternity leave will be un-official. It's complicated. He also earns a lot more than I do, so in that sense, we'd be loosing even more if he took full leave as he has a right to. That is a shame. It would be lovely to bring the numbers up. AB is his own boss so he is in a very good position to negotiate ... and will take a lot of time off to hang out with me and the baby. All in all he will take at least 3 months off. Not bad. Not bad at all. posted by Skotta | 7:57 PM | Okay, finished reading The Bell Jar. Due to my positive nature I am assuming she got out of the asylum. Yesterday I went and saw an open rehersal at the Opera. I have to say that the house is beautiful and I loved being there. I have seen a documentary about the building of this house and this didn't spoil my experience in there. They were rehersing La Traviata. Ufortunately I had to leave early so I didn't see the last act. What I saw gave me and my friend who went with me, a desire to go see it again. It is a great performance, I really liked the soprano (even though I have this bad habit of comparing everyone with Callas so they always loose) and the music was beautiful. I got to hear all my favorite arias before I left so I got a lot out of it. Thank you, thank you, dear friend who invited me. Now, to the headlines: I missed this yesterday in the news (so, yes, it is yesterday's news). Denmark's most famous woman got spray-painted. The Little Mermaid did not only get sprayed, she also got a dildo stuck in her hand. The Police is handling the issue as a political sabotage. You see, it was Womens Rights Day yesterday. There were more news articles that tempted me to write some more, amongst them the one about the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop's report on sexual abuse charges against Dublin's catholic priests. The numbers were quite large although not that many cases actually went to court. 32 were tried and 8 found guilty. I can only imagine the tragic stories from the 350 Dublin children who originally came out and charged those 102 priests. In one way or another there is misery connected to the lives of those children. Strange how misery always seems to connect with the word Irish. Anyone ever read any Irish litterature? Even the humor is built on making fun of misery. Lovely people, the Irish. Mad funny, bloody miserable. Now we can all wait for the numbers from the rest of the land. In other news, USA has now published it's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, where among other countries China gets a bashing. This report has been published since 1977. As usually USA is not on the list. Guata-what? Abu-who? Not that I am excusing anyone else. Denmark gets a few comments, according to Politiken (Danish newspaper), amongst those threats and sabotage against muslims and jews. An example of sabotage is the ruining of grave stones. Some maniac has been going around and smashing up a few church yards. Although I can see that being a human rights violation, the act of breaking grave stones is hardly something the Danish government has imposed. Their crime there is that they haven't caught the guy. Neither is home violence approved of here but that is also on the list of things wrong in Denmark the US lists in their Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Politiken doesn't say if the US critisizes the Danish immigration laws that according to the UN are full of human rights violations. If I keep on like this I'll be joining Amnesty before I know it. 
posted by Skotta |
9:27 AM
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Okay, here's the reason for my blackness. I am reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. We are at the point where she is going in for electro shock treatment. Hormones or no hormones, I never ever read a good book without empathizing. Same with movies. The book or the script has to be exceptionally bad for me not to be able to get in there. This is worse with books because a movie leaves less for my imagination, bad acting can of course kill the whole thing. A bad script cannot be saved by anything. When I studied psyche and was taking my internship, I was told by one of my professors that empathy was like standing by a stream with one foot in it. He said that you could feel the strenght of the stream, it's temperature. If the stream was pulling you in, you'd go for a branch on a tree standing on the bank of the stream. Then he added, that I didn't have my foot in the stream. I was in the middle of the stream, up to the waist. He then added that if I continued this way I would have my burn out within 10 years of practicing. I learned. But when reading a good book, I still go in up to the waist. So now that the main character in the book is going for electro shock treatment I am totally on the edge of depression. "Is this healthy reading for your baby?" a friend asked me this morning. This is probably the reason why I have hardly read a book since my studies finished. I think I am permanently traumatized after reading "Treating the Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse". I think my next book will be Depak Chopra translated by Gunnar Dal. It has a nice, non-conforming picture of a tree on the cover. Looks like something brain sedative. posted by Skotta | 8:28 AM | Hey! How about some fun and games!? Enough with the blackness already. Lets look at a memo from HR on Transbuddha. And then there will be no more wanking on this page either. Sure. Of course there will be wanking, and it will affect your work. That's all we do on Blogger. Wank. posted by Skotta | 7:47 AM | Tuesday, March 07, 2006 Doctors in South Dakota can face up to 5 years in prison for performing abortion. Not kidding. South Dakota has passed a law banning all abortions except when the abort can save a womans life. No exceptions made in cases of rape or incest. Welcome to the dark ages. I once knew an American girl who was so afraid she couldn't get pregnant because she had 5 abortions already. I agree there has to be a middle way. Extremes are never good. I fear that South Dakota is back to bloody bathrooms. 
posted by Skotta |
4:09 PM
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Monday, March 06, 2006 I repeat, how sick and twisted can one get when defending one's cave? Very. I really can't say if anything good came out of this meeting. Right now I just feel really, really, tired. I might escape into one of my favorite movies. Knock on my door. My neighbour who was also at the meeting. She came down with freshly baked buns for me to eat. "They are good for the nerves" she said. I am moved as I am too tired to find something to eat. Bless her heart. This is one of the reasons this place is worth fighting for. We have the best neighbours. The buns smell nice. posted by Skotta | 7:27 PM | Only 4 hours to go. There will be a meeting at my house between my cave and the Evil Empire. This is how the story goes. A big brewery decides to make more money and opens an outdoor restaurant behind the building they're renting. The 16 tables are open for the summer season, from April/May to October. They make a lot of money on this as the brewery is a popular place with the suits that show up from other neighbourhoods to eat, drink, and be merry. The brewery owners realize that they are messing with the hood so they decide it's a good idea to get permission. They hire fat lawyers to help them bend the rules and conviniently go around the right permissions office and get their permission elsewhere. What then happens is that the noise from these 16 tables makes summer unbearable for the people living next to them. Like us. I just so happens that this outdoors dining area is right outside our bedroom window. And what is to become our baby's bedroom window. We cannot open any windows in our apartment throughout summer until after 11 pm, due to the noise from the restaurant. This can be a pain in the arse unless you don't mind having no air for a few months or you have an escape plan for the summer. We have actually discussed moving out of the apartment from April/May and this issue pushed us to start looking at real estate. We got the permissions office on the case. They see that the rules have been bent so they are on our side, while they can't really do shit. We make recordings of the noise. It measures 80 db and the limit is 40 db. The fat lawyers manage to get the recording ruled invalid so we have to make new ones. The new recordings were made during rainy days at the end of the season last summer. Not too many guests sitting outside then. They measured a lot lower but still above 45 db. They say it is not enough to hold in court. So, now there is a meeting between us and them. Everybody knows that it is only a question of time before we get a recording high enough to hold in court. The brewery wants to negotiate and come with some suggestions. The house really doesn't want to be bothered with this shit no more, just close the darned thing down already. Still, we have fear. We are so afraid that our summer is going to be hell because of this. That the noise of people, this noise that you can't turn down, is going to be in our heads for many months. That again we are going to be experiencing the guests stepping aside to take the phone, or to clear up arguments, or pee all their strong beer against the wall. All activities that brings them closer to our bedroom window. We agreed to this meeting on our terms. Our terms were that the meeting be held in our home or the owners home. The owner agreed to the meeting being held in our home and decided to send the head waiter to come talk to us. No game, we said. Either the owner shows up or we show up at his house. This is AB's doing. Good, strong, cave man he is. And what am I doing? I am using all the psychology manipulation tricks I can summon. If at any point, I want my darned, way to expensive education to pay off now. So I am having everyone take their shoes off when they come in. I am wearing the tightest, most patterned dress I have in my wardrobe, in case it wasn't clear enough that I am expecting and am as huge as an apartment building. And, yes, I am totally using my child in other ways to further emphasize my point of our case being about a home and a family. All the baby stuff will be in my living room where the meeting will be held. They'll be staring at cute little shoes and wolly jumpers, tiny little underwear, and diapers. Anything I can do to say in the sweetest way possble that if they go through with another season they are Evil People. How sick and twisted can one get when defending one's cave? Very. Better get back to the vacum cleaning. If nothing else good comes of this at least my apartment will be clean. posted by Skotta | 11:51 AM | Saturday, March 04, 2006 I am on my way out of town for the day. I am meeting up with the other prego ladies in the family. AB's family consist of two sisters and their 4 kids. All 4 kids were in no hurry to make their own families so the old ladies had almost given up on the family genes being passed on as there were no future generations in sight. All kids had their reasons to avoid the baby making adventure. The first one to go ahead with it was the one prejudicm could have decided being the least likely to be going for babies. She had a boy just about three years ago with her best friend and her girlfriend. Good thing prejudicm wasn't a deciding factor in this case. We sure would miss that boy if he wasn't around. The "kids" are all well over 30 now (actually two past 40) and surprise, surprise, all of a sudden there are 3 babies being born this year. We who are carrying the babies are all showing. This calls for a photo session. posted by Skotta | 12:43 PM | I am once again seeing the light of dawn. Up at 5 am and now it is getting close to 7. I have read all the latest interesting stuff on the internet. My nefiew Sveimhugi is right, the bugger with the internet is that it doesn't have enought pages. I do believe I've read them all. Can you believe that? Love reading, finished The Internet. Seeing one more dawn reminded me of my mother and her sisters who not only thank God for every day they live (or survived, depends on which one is telling) but also for each night. I guess this comes with age, being grateful for waking up each morning. I do believe my mother is grateful for every day my dad lives too. Her biggest fear in life is loosing him. My mother was 17 when her aunt pushed a cousin to take her out. My mother was, self-described, boring, unintelligent, and uninteresting. Not the words I would use to describe her, but I'll have to take her word for it as I didn't know her then. I guess she was shy and am pretty sure her self-esteem wasn't up to much. My dad, her cousin, did as he was told and took her to the movies. Christmas that year he danced with her and, again as she describes it, all of a sudden she noticed that he was holding her tighter than usually. They fell in love and their relationship was cursed. Her dad and his mom were siblings. Surely, this could not amount to any good and if any children came of this they would be disabled and brain damaged. The aunt, whom they had both been living with at the time, was devistated. She had fostered my father and generously taken my mother in so she could work in town. I can imagine that she not only felt the shame but also the responsibility. After all, the childless woman had been trusted with her siblings children and then this happens in her house! My parents' parents were actually pretty cool with it. My dad's dad later on divorced my dad's mom, and gathered the courage to marry his cousin whom he had secretly been in love with all his life. I don't know if they understood but in my mother's stories there were acts of great love and support from both her parents and my father's. I guess that their aunt eventually learned to live with it because they lived in the basement of her house for some time (my brother number three was born there). Her love for my father, her sisters son that she fostered, was boundless and he was spoiled rotten. As uninteresting my mother was, as interesting was he. He was full of life, active, social, intelligent ... everything she wasn't. At after some time he wanted out of the relationship. By that time they had been engaged for 3 years. My mother couldn't bear loosing him so she got pregnant. A method she used 5 more times over the next 16 years to keep him. It worked. He didn't leave her. I am the youngest of seven and I was the only accident. At one point I promised myself not to tread in their footsteps and have 40 years of misery to get 20 years of happiness. I am happy I didn't while I am grateful for witnessing those past 20 years or so of their relationship. They are the best role models anyone can have in life. What I love about my parents relationship is that after hitting bottom with it they were willing to learn and didn't give up. When I go to them for relationship advice they teach me willingness and tolerance, to be forgiving and loving. My dad teaches me serenity, my mother teaches me gratitude. Both teach me that it pays off to bite my tounge, that every argument chips a little out of the respect we have for each other. They remind me that taking the first step towards my partner after a disagreement does not make me a lesser person. Most importantly they have taught me that you cannot change anyone else but yourself, and hell, you cannot please them all, you can only do your best and that has to be good enough. He takes care of her the best he can and she takes care of him the best she can. They are very happy and in love. My favorite has always been that they were affectionate in front of me (and probably most others). They give each other warm smiles and big bear hugs. If they sit together on a sofa they lean up against each other and she puts her head on his shoulder. She strokes his chin and looks adoringly upto his face. He gives her a loving stroke over the back and a kiss. There is warmth in their affection. He will be 77 and she 74 this year so I guess their relationship has lasted 57 years. If you lasted that long and the result is "happy and in love" you must be doing something right. I am therefor going to keep following their relationship advice. I have to say though that I am glad my mother eventually had to stop having kids and had to learn new ways of keeping her relationship going. I am very fortunate that she is role modelling different methods today because although I am loving this pregnancy I don't think I could do seven. And now it is 8 am and time for my second nap. I am sorry but I am to tired to spell check. posted by Skotta | 6:41 AM | Thursday, March 02, 2006 I am shamelessly admitting to listening to Britney right this minute and loving it. I think it might be my next best Celebration of Life thing to do after dancing the "I don't have a spot on my brain dance" to Miriam Makeba singing Pata Pata. posted by Skotta | 6:23 PM | A little misunderstanding occured in Azerbaijan this week. They meant to burn the Danish flag but burnt the Swiss flag instead. This happened while the Swiss foreign minister was visiting. Hell, a read and white flag. Big difference, huh? It's tricky, so many flags, all the same colors. 
posted by Skotta |
7:54 AM
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I just want to point out to you all that at the age of 20, our Queen (seel link on side bar, click on it and read her reactions) has gotten published in The Indipendent. Centerfold. How cool is that? Not bad, not bad at all. I spent the day yesterday with at my homegirl's house. We talked from 1 pm to almost 11 pm, with ease. I believe the last sentence of the evening was: "You can't push people to abide rules you are not following yourself". As you can hear, great wisdom was uncovered that day. She makes killer buns. Freshly baked from the oven, with strawberry jam, cream, and a chocolate topping. Yum. What more. Oh yes. I seem to be offering on a house, still. We have a strong feeling that the real estate agent was bluffing when he said he had another buyer. At least when we said: "Fair game to you, good man, and good luck with it", he didn't hold more than a few hours and then called and asked us to make the offer official. We did and they have until Friday to give us an answer. I think I'll make myself and my sleeping man some pancakes now. posted by Skotta | 7:15 AM | Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Time to get the rye off the page. Here's to having fun and looking beautiful! We made an offer on the house and the real estate agent turned it down, very offended. We think he might be bluffing but we don't really care if he is or not. We are not making a higher offer as a starting bid and we are not anywhere near being willing to pay the full price he claims he can get for it. He called us later on yesterday and asked if he could get the offer in writing. Whatever that was about. So, me and AB are rich again. And what do the rich do? Go shopping! Yip. Nothing more boring than me being tired and sad about how I look. I was getting dangerously close to tired and sad point. No need to put AB through two months of tired and sad until the baby is born. I had decided in the beginning that I would buy myself something in February when I had gotten tired of my two pairs of maternity pants. I totally reccomend this. I look like a mountain and my pants have been washed so many times that they almost have holes in them. Besides, I am sick of them. On top of the whole look comes the fact that the pants that I thought I'd bought way too big are getting tight now. Baby boy keeps protesting when I am wearing them, sitting down is not an option. So, now I have two new outfits, a very cool dress, skirt and a big, striped t-shirt. This means that I will look great for the rest of my pregnancy (and have something to wear while I wash the dress I have been wearing on a daily basis since pants started making me nauseous). I also went shopping for clothes for the baby. He now has bunch of little gentleman clothes to wear when he visits his family in Iceland this summer. I went wild. "I'll have one of this, one of this, one of this, one of this ... and one of this and one of this. Oh, and one of those orange ones." Don't frown! The little man has no clothes! Has never had any in his life! Can't have him naked, can I? Shopping with me was the woman I was supposed to be entertaining to help her avoid a situation called Death By Cabin Fever. We had to take a walk to the pharmacy and since it was so bloody cold we might as well go indoors a few times on the way. My dear friend is now officially one of the grandmothers. And as such she will probably spoil my boy. She started yesterday. Actually, what she does best is spoiling his mother! She is the foxiest grandmother around. She kept getting phone calls from her toy-boys all evening. Very smily and happy about it. No wonder she looks great, she is being adored from all over the world these days. Hmm, or maybe it is the change in her diet ... If anything, she will teach my boy to treat his partner right. That is not a small thing and it is good he has a solid input there. Frankly though, when it comes to treating his future partner right, his parents will be the best role models. His dad, at least, knows how to treat a good woman. Man, it feels really good to say that and know it's true. Feel like going out for a chai tomorrow. Fuck the heartburn that follows. I look gooooood. posted by Skotta | 4:59 AM | |
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