fashionistas in da house (and I was there too...)

Hi All,

I apologize for my blog neglect over the past two weeks. It's been crazy busy. Was running the spoiltchild by meself (the company I work for is Spoiltchild Design in case some of you are wondering of which spoiltchild I speak...) and have started my Italian class and continued on with my yoga class.... but things seem to be quieting down now, work is back to normal and I'm awol from yoga tonight as all this hot/cold/sunny/rainy/windy/still weather seems to have given me a cold (what a surprise huh?)

Last weekend I went up to Carlingford again sans Tommy for a ladies weekend with Helen and her friends. Was a little nervous before hand about being thrown into a captive situation with a lot of strangers but Helen's friends were all very sweet. I met up with the lot of them on Saturday in Newry (land of shopping and a canal and not too much else) and wandered around the shops with them and then back to Helen's house for a take-out chinese and some cocktails (whiskey for me). It's funny being around a group of people who have been friends for years and years. It gave me the first inkling of what it must be a like to be a newbie around my group of frenz... the Belfast ladies all know eachother so well and have so much history that they can just dive into stories with no context or recall funny/awkward/fabulous/horrible moments in the past together. Telling stories that everyone already knows but want to hear anyway seems to be a universal trait...those stories that start with remember when....? At the same time, Helen and co. are also very different from me and come from a really different world which was interesting for me to witness. Catholicism and it's resulting social guidelines play a much bigger part in their lives than anything I've ever experienced. Things seem to be done more, "by the book," here. A much more conservative and structured ethos exists around dating...sleeping in the same bed with yer mate unless you're married is a fairly big no-no particularly under your parents roof (It is done regularly of course, but is on the DL). Virginity still matters even if only in theory. The wedding rituals abound...bended knee, engagement parties, hen parties, big weddings etc... Made it a bit awkward to explain my wedding situation. The, "let's see the rock conversation," or "how did he ask you," conversations just don't apply. Gender roles also seem to apply a bit more than I'm used to as well. Cuz Damn, these ladies look good. Helen is an absolute fashion wonderwoman and her friends were equally well put together...perfect make-up for breakfast, diesel jeans, pointed toe boots, higlighted hair, celebrity gab-mags, Mariah Carey. Girls are just well, more girls around here. I'm not sure where I fit in that equasion being one who likes make-up and clothes and certainly harbors a generous amount of feminine vanity but who generally just can't be arsed to make that much of an effort. It's easy to forget how much people's lifestyles really do vary when I'm home in the people's republic of Cambridge with my friends and our joined histories and memories. Like being a social anthropologist in a way...haha.

We went out to the "Disco," in Carlingford which Helen warned us beforehand was way more kitsch than cool. It was in the small hotel in Carlingford and kind of reminded me of a wedding reception venue in 1985...absolutely hilarious...farmer boys and dinky disco lights and old skool poppy-dance music..."another night, another dream but always you..." Was good fun really. Helen's friend Rita straightened my hair with these super expensive (and effective) hair straighteners (if you don't mind the smell of your own hair burning...haha) Was actually quite fun to have bone straight hair to toss around for the evening...even if I didn't have the pointy toes to match.

The next day was spent just chilling out, talking and eating potato bread and eggs and tidying the house. Had a nice chat with Helen about growing up in Belfast and friends and how all of these people I've been meeting fit together and the like. Was nice. Overall it was good to get out of the house and to be around other people...specially after my two weeks of enforced solitude.

Am off to drink tea and lie on the couch and otherwise nurse my sore throat and runny nose...mmmmm...