Miss Kolka

May I introduce you to the "ferlíki"!



I've Finally got internet at home! Its like seeing again. I
definately agree with the articles I've read recently about more and
more people being hooked on the net and using it like a drug. Wish I
wasn't one of them...

I haven't been able to move since I found out how to connect like a big girl so this is just a quick entry to say
that finally, finally I put some pictures of my flat on Flickr
(note: its before moving in so now its like a proper "boudoir" of
course).

Have to go downstairs to the neighbourhood's pub (mind you the
word "pub" doesn't really apply here since it more like a rustic french
restaurant) that serves one of the most delicious "fondant au chocolat"
I have ever tasted in Paris. And believe me, they have been many...mmmmm

Dont have all the time in the world - tomorrow is my first "real" day at
France 24, except that we don't really see the images, we don't really
use the control room and that I don't really have an assistant, but
hey, I'll make the most out of it. What have we been doing until now?
That is a good question...

Isn't that an obvious match?
Albert Einstein versus Marilyn Monroe.

It depends what's up for grabs of course and how you define the winner. If we were competing in sexyness, a clear winner would probably be miss Monroe, although it might be debatable - depends if you're into beards or not. Einstein could explain a complicated world matter, on radiation or probabilities and maybe calculate the root of 5684. I'm not sure he would be very liklely to be chosen "mister popular" in high school or that his voice could become one of the most known in history. 
If the prize is champagne, glitz and a night in Val Kilmer's bed (since John F. Kennedy might not be available) then my guess would be that Monroe would do everything in her power to solve even the most complicated maths' problem. For a Nobel Prize in Glamour, Einstein might get stylish and forget all the world's problems, just for an hour... and perhaps get a bit tipsy, since its for a good cause.

But the problem here is that A. Einstein is merely known by his surname (as many important men in world's history are) and we just love to call Marilyn just by her (fake) christian name, something that has even become a habit in the coming up of the french elections by the way (N. Sarkozy vs Segolene R.)

Why is is simpler to call women by their first names? Are they simpler human beings? Or does it just feel more homely?

You might be asking yourself why am I bothered by the comparison between Marilyn and Albert. Well... In every workspace you have men and women toilets seperated right. Well... how do you think the toilets are labelled for men and women in FRANCE 24?

Lucky guess.

This could have been such a typical monday. After having smashed my
head to the wall all day - trying to tell tv journalists that yes we
are doing a newsbulletin, but no we dont have any computers and well
its not really being recorded, I could have gone home to cry crocodile
tears into my bathtub. Except that its not really my tub and that I
live in a suitcase at my dad's for the time being. So I decided that
perhaps it was time to go on to live my own life and dropped by the
flat in the "15eme" instead.

Was glad to see that the elevator
was working this time - beacause running up 7th floors in an old
parisian building is not really for ladies - not those wearing
stilletos at least (which I do of course every single day). When I
walked into the appartement I noticed the clean white walls at once and
hoped the blue colour in the bedroom wouldn't be too..well blue. It
turned out to be a very calming sea blue that could rock any baby to
sleep (since that is something I will be doing quite alot). The
furniture was being assembled by the owner and her man and the wooden
ikea style wasn't as bad as I had imagined.. it wouldn't have been my
first choice if I had had all the money in the world, but still not
bad.



It wasn't until I had admired my own image a bit too long in the real size
mirror in the hall, and after that in the huge glass one in the
bathroom thinking "hmmm should I get a mirror on my bedroom ceiling
perhaps so the first thing I see will definately be me" that I noticed
the "thing". That awful thing was just lying there- pretending it was
happy to see me. In its freakish kindof way. The most awful couch I
have ever seen. Very orange and very brown. and very badtaste. But Ok,
in a flat where a thousand things can go wrong, one ugly couch is not
much to deal with - I'll just change the covers and pretend I never had
this vision. Can't guarantee it won't spark some nightmares once and a
while... but at least I will have my own flat!! Signed the papers,
payed 3 months rent and got the keys. For the first time I will be
living on my own, where I can pee with the door open at all times and
put my name in sparkly pink letters on the letterbox. I could even
plaster all the walls with cute baby animals if I wanted to - but don't
worry...I wont. Not all of them. A little boudoir for the little miss Kolka in the 15eme
arrondissement - just waiting to be taken over.

That's what I call a bloody good monday...

Its great to have a job. Even if it means that you have to wake up early every morning.
Well I dont wake up that early actually these days but I better make the best out of it now because it will change soon enough. I haven't got the planning for my shifts yet but we are supposed to start working at the station in "realtime" the 23th of october. (which doesn't mean I'm not working actually, I even have long meetings almost every night - which is fun, don't get me wrong) 

Since I am on the english team, as we like to call it - I will probably work in one of these 3 possible shifts when we start the essay period:

From 1.am to 9 am in the morning
        7 am to 4 p.m in the afternoon or
        4.pm to midnight.

That means I get to work two hours before I am supposed to be on air to prepare around 12 editions per day. That seams reasonable to me. It looks alot better than it did in the beginning when we were told that since we weren't enough producers, the english ones would have to do both channels, the one in french and the one in english at the same time in the middle of the night! Or that we will be 8 hours straight on air, which is just impossible. Come on people, lets not kid ourselves. If we want to be performant we can't afford having burned out producers after just one month. Its going to be hard enough to do 3 jobs instead of one... (producer, script, editor) without adding extra burden on top. Thankfully we'll have assistants to follow our every moove.

Anyway, I am glad to see that the team in general is rather enthousiastic about the whole project. The journalists arrived around 2 weeks ago, haven't met half of them since they are around 150 but they seem to have very interesting backgrounds. Plus there are some cute ones ;) hehe ("Hey girl, that's not very professional, remember you will have to have some authority over these young chaps") That's right, I can't afford loosing my cool for a pretty face. but its not because you walk in to the store and have a look around that it means that you will buy anything. Hope the "family" will protect me from the beautiful masses...hehe (but Kamilla, you'll never know.. I'll be sure to send you an email with the dirty details)

The family here being the 10 producers I have learned to live with this past month. I make it sound awful when actually its been really great. They are all so nice and its weird how you can get close to people being with them all day every day. And when we don't see each other (the groupe was divided this last week) I actually miss them. Miss the Belgian that talks the perfect queens english or the new-yorker that has this wonderful way of "humbleness" in every sentence. Without forgetting the gorgeous little beautyqueen coming back from asia with her bright make-up and high heels. We've had to impose certain things as well - and its been great to see how strong the group is and how everyone stands together. This togetherness is going to be important when we will launch the two channels- since we have to work very closely together to insure that we will have exactly the same programs, at the same time on both channels. Something that seems still a bit hard to concieve, especially for live newsbroadcast.

But with a team like that, everything seems possible.  

• What's beneath the Iceberg? | 30-07-2008
• Im back! | 29-07-2008
• Það er komin 17. júní | 17-06-2008
• In memoriam | 09-06-2008
• Noh Það er bara svona! | 22-05-2008
• Remember 5 fruits and vegetebles per day! | 21-05-2008
• How much is enough? | 09-05-2008
• Where is Iceland's money coming from? | 06-05-2008
• There's no way out | 19-04-2008
• Sendi it back to China | 07-04-2008
• Poisson d'avril | 01-04-2008
• Wish I was | 30-03-2008
• lesser of two evils | 27-03-2008
• in my head | 25-03-2008
• Where are all the drugs going? | 11-03-2008