It’s been over three months since I updated this site, and I apologise to my (3) regular readers who I don’t know personally. The rest of you will have had an idea of what’s been going on in my life, and possible reasons for my apparent apathy towards this blog of mine. I have, in fact, started a number of posts that never reached completion, and had never entirely abandoned the site, but circumstance has got the better of me.

As an impeccable follower of the tenets of Recidivism, it is fitting that it has taken two months for me to make a New Year’s resolution, and (just so you are forewarned) I have absolutely no intention of keeping it. But for what it’s worth, and for however long it lasts, here it is: I must be more disciplined in making regular updates to my site.

And to kick that off, here is the digested past few months.

August – November 2005 – despite attempts to keep up her blog entries, Recidivist frequently recidivates, eventually falling into silence. During this time, she renames (nolonger)Drunk, Babyfather as she realises with a start of shock, and a surge of nausea, that Recidivist-lite has started its pre-natal life. Recidivist-lite is due on April 28th, and Recidivist spends these months feeling very very ill. Babyfather, undergoing treatment, looks after her admirably, and they both spend time looking for a new flat following the news that the house Recidivist shared with Blonde and Busy has received a rather good offer, of 50% above the price they paid for it just a year and a half ago. In the meantime Recidivist is also very busy in her new job setting up a department in a major financial institution, and with the combined stress of work, house-hunting and extreme nausea, feels her silence may be justified.

December 2005 – Recidivist decides not to rename Babyfather again, but just to start adopting whichever moniker is most suited to him at the time. For several days in December he becomes Drunk again. She goes on holiday to spend some time with her family in South Africa, and to attend a lesbian wedding, leaving him pissed in the pub, but returns a week later due to problems with the exchange on her house, and stresses with her family, which her now 4-and-a-half month fetus do not allow her to deal with calmly. On her return Drunk is (nolonger)Drunk and the two of them spend the next month packing and planning for the move.

January – February 2006 – Recidivist and Babyfather move to their new flat, which contains a large sitting room, and two small bedrooms at the back. After three visits to IKEA and a lot of money spent on tools, they complete the installation of their new kitchen. Much money has been saved doing it this way, but Recidivist has sacrificed her beautiful manicure in the process. Credit cards are hammered as kitchen appliances in stainless steel are purchased. Babyfather agrees with his treatment centre that he should go to a residential rehab, and departs the day after Valentine’s Day – two years after Recidivist first met him. Recidivist occupied herself by spending a lot of time tidying, catching up with friends nearby who are mindful of her solitary and gestational state, and going to work. She celebrates her 31st birthday, and decides that this would be a good day to bring her New Year’s resolutions into practice.

During the past few months, Recidivist has watched Bleak House, Lost, Shameless and Celebrity Big Brother on television. She has watched Brokeback Mountain at the movies, and the Wicker Man on DVD (bought a week before The Guardian gave out hundreds of thousands of free copies). She started reading Great Expectations, but didn’t finish it, but was more successful with re-reading Bandiet by Hugh Lewin, and Porterhouse Blue, by Tom Sharpe. She has also read many copies of Heat, Private Eye, and Pregnancy and Birth magazine.

She has found out that an ex, and friend (who accompanied her to Dungeness) has died in a cycling accident, and a close friend has undergone a double mastectomy, but is recovering and that the chemo she is undergoing now is hopefully merely precautionary. She has designed wedding invitations for her friends RawSausages and Genius, and celebrated in a state of sobriety with them on New Year’s Eve at the news that they, too, are doing their bit to stem the UK baby shortage crisis. She has planned, and dreamed, and worried.

Recidivist is looking forward, with trepidation, to the coming months.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 4:57 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.