movies, waiting, reading, waiting, eating, waiting

Movies seen now include:

Law Abiding Citizen

P.S. I Love You

Saving Sarah Cain

Enchanted

Books I am currently reading:

The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale

Starting Over - Tony Parsons

A Swamp Full Of Dollars - Michael Peel

I blame late pregnancy for my sudden inability to concentrate on one book - reading three concurrently is very unlike me (and something I abhor in others!). I feel most ashamed not to have finished Michael's book yet, as he's a good friend, and the book has been shortlisted for the Guardian first book award. Awards happen on 2nd December, and while everyone suggests 'it's a fiction year', he's done amazingly well to be the only non-fiction entry to even make the shortlist. And what I have read so far is truly excellent.

Despite me giving up 'Heat' once I discovered we were having a girl, James has kindly stockpiled some copies to keep me going during labour and any hospital waiting around that happens. After that, it's back to cold turkey.

Speaking of turkey, we're still planning to have Christmas dinner at our house, crazy as it might seem with a newborn. Yesterday, we bought an enormous (8 kilo) ham, and James is in the kitchen right now pouring all sorts of exciting goodness into a bucket to marinate/cure/brine it until it finally gets cooked in a few weeks. Including salt peter, which we got under the counter from a source who made us promise not to mix it with the thing that turns it into gunpowder (or the baby might come early after all). I can't wait for Christmas. I know we're going to be tired, but it will be our first family Christmas, and I have embarrassing santa outfits for both the baby and the cat - watch this space for a Christmas Day photo. I reckon we'll have about 5 minutes to take it in before mutiny sets in (from the cat) or vomiting occurs (baby).

Baby is technically due tomorrow, but I am extremely doubtful that she'll turn up then. Or even in the next week. In fact, I'm sort of at the stage where I'm not sure there will even BE a baby. It's like I've been pregnant for so long that I've accepted it as my lot in life... I'm not sure I really believe in a non-pregnant existence with an actual baby :)

So, this week I have plans to have coffee with the NCT-ers, go to the Thea Gilmore show on Thursday, and then maybe to Zoe and William's tea party for Nahum in Oxford on Saturday. We'll see how it all pans out... If things get really late, I comfort myself that there is an Orla Kiely sample sale on in Brick Lane on the 10th December. If baby is not here by then, I will go and buy a bag to cheer myself up. I hope she's not too long after that! I always thought it sucked for people who had their birthdays in the school holidays, and of course the closer it gets to Christmas, the more you have the 'one present for both' scenario to contend with :( My Granny's birthday is December 11th, and I guess it would be cool if they shared a birthday. After that, I'm all out of fun, and will just sit and home drinking raspberry tea and eating curry.