The Five X: Get going

1. I won't get into the reasons I haven't kept up to my promise to self to write. Suffice to say my middle name used to be organised, now it's lazy.

2. I go back to work tomorrow after a year of Maternity leave. We are incredibly lucky that the law in the UK allows women this amount of time off work to settle their babies into the world outside the womb before deciding on returning to work. Some people need less time to get back into the workforce, others can afford less time. Others decide that working at an office job (because make no mistake raising a child is work in every sense) is no longer for them. In my case I thought I would be back in 9 months but when push came to shove I found myself unprepared to return so soon. And thankfully we were able to afford me this break. We spent the past two and a half months getting our son settled into daycare and getting through the worst of the bugs that merrrily roam those four walls. Now he is happy and we are happy and I am off to being a office drone.

3. I spent the last two weeks doing things I have not done in a while. Mainly lunching with friends, browsing bookstores, attempting to buy additions to my wardrobe and even watching a movie. I had lunch with my mentor a week ago at Busaba (still one of my favourite places - although they are spreading like a rash across London so let's see how long that lasts) and as we left saw the fab duo from Little Britain leave with us. Matt Lucas and David Walliams - Mat was thinner than he looks on TV and David way taller than he looks on the screen. They are incredibly funny and their show is a good insight into the prejudices and oddities of this country, made humourous. They smiled. We smiled back. It made my day.

4. I watched a movie. Let me repeat that in case you did not understand the significance. I WATCHED A MOVIE. Now, I am not a big movie fan in that I do not go and watch every movie that comes out on the big screen. Heck I usually miss most of the movies till they appear on DVD much later. But I have not watched a movie in the cinema in over 11 months. I watched Julie and Julia on a flight from India in November but it took 1 very cranky baby and 7 hours of stop/start to do so and therefore that does not count. So last week I went to the cinema to watch Sex and the City 2. I knew it would probably be rubbish (and it was) but I was thrilled to be watching anything on a big screen uninterrupted by much but the slurping of coke and the chomping of popcorn. The movie was like a bad tourism advert for Abu Dhabi and the story was basic and tired and very unrealistic (as movies are sometimes meant to be?). However, it was a visual feast of colour and fashion and just the mind-numbing thing I needed. The 4 women have aged and although they have incredible bodies it is their faces that show an age that no amount of make-up can hide. I got my £7.50 worth from just the experience so no complaints here.

5. In other news it is sports mania time what with the World Cup football, F1 Grand Prix and Queens and Wimbledon tennis in the next few weeks. So our TV screen is going to be stretched to its limit. I am watching only snatches of it as I try and move back from being lazy to being organised. I have lined-up a number of sociable things for us to do over the next few months including a short vacation, 1st birthday parties for us to attend (not host), and lunches with family and friends. Speaking of friends, one of my dearest friends, who makes London eminently more interesting, is being enticed back to India. I shall miss her terribly. Thank goodness for skype and e-mail and long distance lines and text. I shook my fists at the Universe for this injustice in life. The Universe took one look at me and magnanimously offered to keep our number of friends at a constant with another planning her return. Oh goody!