Recommendation for full-term pregnant women: Watch Mamma Mia!

Reasons to watch Mamma Mia (the movie) when you’re ready to pop & have a baby any moment:

• Being mentally transferred to beautiful, crystal-clear-water-and-white-sand Greek beaches
• …and so forgetting momentarily the basketball-sized bump you’re carrying, preventing you not only for any kind of holiday but also from simply- at this point- going to the local pool for a quick swim
• Singing along (hopefully, in your head) to all those cheesy Abba songs & imagining dancing with friends, through the night, to that same music, with no care in the world & a couple of lovely cocktails to help you along.
• Watching Meryl Streep sing ‘Slipping through my fingers’, about her daughter growing up & leaving her, & starting to cry imagining that the foetus in the tummy will soon- VERY SOON- become a real live baby, and then a real lively toddler, and then a real annoying adolescent, and and and… (Don’t ask, anything makes me tearful at this point, even an Abba song). The thing is, there’s nothing like pregnancy and having children to make you think hard about time passing, and the changes that involves.
• Watching- and hearing- Pierce Brosnan singing ‘When all is said and done’ and cringing at the sound of his voice at the same time as laughing hysterically by the sheer camp quality of it all. And at the same time- late pregnancy emotionality again- feeling inexplicably moved & tearful by the whole thing too!!
• Feeling completely nostalgic for long, lazy, delicious summer holidays in remote Greek islands- especially the tiny, non-touristy ones… (this shouldn’t be seen necessarily as a plus, now that I think of it)

Reasons NOT to watch Mamma mia when you’re ready to pop & have a baby any moment & to wait until your baby is about one year old:

• Walking out of the cinema & realizing, that yes, you really truly will have a baby any moment now, and so for now there are no crystal-clear blue seas, cocktail-drinking-and-dancing nights with friends well into the night, nor any carefree love affairs on remote Greek islands with an Abba soundtrack. Hopefully other pleasures lie ahead though…

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »