Last year I talked about black humor and the impact of the
   common market on the European economy and
Threw clever little cocktail parties in our discerningly
   eclectic living room
With the Spanish rug and the hand-carved Chinese chest
  and the lucite chairs and
Was occasionally hungered after by highly placed men in
   communications, but
This year we have a nice baby
And pablum drying on our Spanish rug,
And I talk about nursing versus sterilization
While the men in communications
Hunger elsewhere.

Excerpt from 'Nice Baby' by Judith Viorst, from her poetry collection 'It's Hard to be Hip Over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life'  (1968)


A couple of years ago, I was in London for work and treated myself to a weekend of solo wandering afterwards. I bought this slim volume of poetry from Persephone Books and devoured it as I sat on the sunny steps of St. Paul's, waiting for evensong.

I can't say I've experienced much hungering from men in communications, but sitting in the sunshine and reading for pleasure, uninterrupted, was very nice indeed. Not quite as nice as my baby, on balance, but still.

In related news, this week my maternity leave ended and I waltzed back into the office like I owned the place. There were only two differences between this badass Peggy Olson gif and my first day back:

1. The dark circles under my eyes were due not to a heady mixture of vermouth and rollerskates, but rather to a teething, insane, sleep-hating ten-month-old; and

2. Instead of a Japanese painting of an octopus pleasuring a woman, I carried a mug proclaiming myself to be the World's Okayest Mum.

But other than that, it was basically exactly the same.



Images: 1. Vagaries of Fashion shot by Miles Aldridge for Vogue Italia, September 2007 2. Badass Peggy Olson via Esquire. What are people watching now that Mad Men is over? I feel slightly bereft. But that might be because I'm just missing my nice baby.