Apart from comfort eating, there’s also comfort cinema…

I’m sure I’m not the only one: whenever I feel slightly down or moody or premenstrual or whatever, I sit down with my Sex & the City DVD shoebox/box-set, choose a couple of episodes & indulge. The experience always has the same effect as eating a large slice of chocolate cake or apple pie or some other decadent dessert. Comfort eating / comfort viewing at its best, only in this case less calorific & thus less filled with guilt.

Watching the Sex & the City movie last weekend was a similar experience, only better, because I shared it with two close friends. It was a weekend filled with cooking, eating, late (VERY late) night discussions… and of course watching the movie, the tickets for which we had booked ages ago.

The movie itself is as you would expect. Or, to be more precise: as those who are already fans of Sex & the City would expect. Those who aren’t fans (mainly- but not only- men) probably won’t like it. It’s light, feathery, funny, at times emotionally intense, ultra-glamorous & filled with amazing clothes & shoes that had us gaping for 2 and a half hours. So you either go for that kind of thing, or you don’t- you know in which category you place yourself.

I won’t go into any details concerning the plot- I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone who’s planning to see it soon. I also won’t let myself think of this movie in ’serious’, review-like terms. It’s not that kind of movie. Not that it cannot be judged in terms of its script, or acting, or whatever. Of course it can. It’s just that for me the experience meant something very different. It was part of this wonderful, indulgent, rare weekend with my close friends, a weekend made even more special (and a bit bittersweet) by the fact that I’m expecting my first child in about a month, and so this was certainly the last time that it was just us.

I’m sure there’ll be other weekends, other chocolate-fudge cakes (we made a really great one, will post about it soon), other movies… but at that point things will be very different on my part, as I’ll be a mother, and I’m sure this will make for an inevitable shift in my relationship with my friends. Hopefully a positive shift, but still… There’s something sad about it as well.

So this is the way I’ll remember the Sex & the City movie. Thanks to Carrie, Samantha, Miranda & Charlotte for keeping us such good company throughout the years, and many special thanks to my wonderful friends T. & N. for 3 days that I’ll definitely remember always. What a great ending to my non-parent life, I see it as a gift, so thank you so much for giving me this gift.