In light of the fact that later this year, we will be sharing our teeny tiny house with a baby, we are rearranging our bedroom and the spare room/office/wardrobe. To this end, we've purchased two low level chest of drawers to act as bedside tables and storage all-in-one. This means we can transfer clothes from the spare room/office/wardrobe into our room and thus create space for a cotbed. Genius.
Honestly, I didn't stop to think about how exactly we would fit all the accessories required for such a small addition in our home. Stuff like a play mat and bouncy chair, which all mothers I know have told me are a necessity. When we finally decided to have a family, nobody told me that our car would be too old for ISOFIX car seats or that a baby shouldn't be in a car seat for more than two hours. That puts paid to Devonshire weekends to visit the in-laws then...
Luckily, I do have lots of people (mothers mainly) on hand for advice - some wanted, some definitely unwanted. My cousin is studying to be a doula and has had two children in the last few years. The offer of books and maternity clothes has been greatly received. Plus, as our mothers are sisters and unrelentingly similar (read bossy and domineering - I do love them both dearly though) - she has been through everything I am/will be experiencing with regards to 'helpful' advice and a complete disregard (and disdain) for any modern thoughts and theories on child rearing.
Anyway, aside from wishing the weeks away so that I can meet our baby, I have been doing quite a lot of reading - thanks to recently joining a book group (the newest group to be run by the independent bookstore in Abingdon, the wonderful Mostly Books) in a bid to expand my reading horizons and steer me away from light-hearted and entertaining romantic comedies. Not that I want to become a literary snob, that will never be me. However, as all my television watching consists of American programmes such as 24, Desperate Housewives and even 90210 (yes, I haven't been a teenager for over a decade but I do quite enjoy the ridiculous characters and frivolous plot lines), I feel I should step it up with my reading and I'm very glad I have.
I quite liked the first book we read, 'The Girl with Glass Feet' by Ali Shaw. The second book I didn't like at all - 'Brooklyn' by Colm Toibin. I couldn't relate to the very repressed main character and her seemingly total lack of feelings for anything. The third book I didn't read as I was going to be away for that particular meeting and the fourth book, 'Silk' by Alessandro Barico, I absolutely loved. Beautifully sparse and yet moving. I felt a real affinity with the Japanese concubine, even though you never learn her name and she never speaks. I would recommend this book to everyone - if you don't like it, then you've only wasted about an hour and a half of your life (it's a very slim book - more of a novella really).
I do also have Slash's autobiography on my 'waiting to read' bookshelf - I've been putting it off as it's rather large, but I think I might have to start tackling it soon having watched one of the 'I'm in a Rock Band' programmes the other day. It made me think about how boring the rock scene is these days - all recovering alcoholics and married fathers of two studiously learning a second language on the tour bus. Oh for the antics of Tommy Lee and Ozzy Osbourne!
These days, we seem to only have young starlets and It girls to live vicariously through. Going out knickerless in very short skirts or having (rather tame) sex tapes 'leaked' rather pales in comparison to driving Bentleys into swimming pools or deliberately setting fire to hotel room doors using hairspray and a lighter. Bring back proper old fashioned, decadent hell raising, I say. Well, at least until my unborn child reaches those perilous and easily influenced teenage years anyway.
