Monday, 27 July 2009

No Time Like The Present

Ha! Bet you thought I'd had the baby, right?!
Fooled you! I'm still here. And baby is still right here. I.e. on the inside.
FH actually peers into the waiting cot every morning and quips "Oh - still not here then?"
I think it's supposed to be a little joke :-)

I promised I wouldn't write about the "event that shall not be named" any more but... well... I lied.

Just to add that it seems that this whole birth date mix-up may in fact be a cultural quiproquo...
Ah yes, even after 9 years in France, apparently I am too British, too literal, in my interpretation of a doctor's infamous words: "You will definitely give birth next week".

I have asked a few people "in the know", and - shock, horror - apparently the phrase "next week" is not to be taken literally in French! It is not a reference to time but merely a figure of speech. In other words, definitely next week ACTUALLY means "at some point in the not-too-distant future"!
Well, well.

I radically adjusted my notions of time years ago, soon after I came to live in France. For example, I quickly learned that, if you are invited to someone's house at, say, 8 p.m., this actually means 8.30 p.m. at the earliest. To arrive at 8 on the dot would be weird (and you'd probably find your hosts gardening, or showering or maybe not even there at all), and to arrive at 5 to 8 or earlier would be downright rude.

But I must have let my guard down.
I checked this interesting new time theory with FH and he confirmed: yes, "next week" does not really mean "within the next 7 days".

So now you know.
I still have things to learn about being French...
And luckily, I seem to have a lot more time to learn them than I counted on...

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