There is something disconcerting about the onset of autumn. It's a beautiful time of year, with trees turning from green to gold to red and sunsets becoming more spectacular, but the transition from summer always manages to catch me unawares.
This is, clearly, nonsensical. It's not as if we don't know the new season is coming; unlike a piano falling onto a cartoon character's head, it doesn't appear out of nowhere and knock us flat. Yet one hint of autumnal conditions and we Brits (not that I am, fully, having Austrian blood in my veins) do our favourite thing of all by talking about the weather. Obsessively.
I suppose it has been bizarre lately. It was so hot on Sunday that there were girls in bikinis on the beach. Yes, bikinis, in October. And today, we have a northeasterly wind blasting the city with a bite so sharp it feels like it could crumble one's skeleton. Which is why, having ventured out for the newspaper this morning, I then decided that staying in for the morning while the temperature struggled to raise itself a bit was entirely justified, not least with The Bump to think about.
Truth to tell, The Bump is not yet noticeable. Four months into my pregnancy and everything looks flat as a pancake. Except, needless to say, to me. Whenever I pass a mirror I glance sideways and am convinced that there is, at last, a visible swell of the belly. But as my darling husband points out, there simply isn't.
All of which means I can still wear whatever I please without recourse to looser, larger mid-maternity wear, or at least I could were it not suddenly so cold beyond the cosy apartment. This, I admit, is a relief, for whilst I have no first-time-birth fears of the pains of childbirth, I dread the weeks when I have to swathe myself in clothing so large and floaty it would prove highly effective attached to the mast of a yacht.
But The Bump is being kind and not manifesting itself. Five months still to go however, and my health visitor chirpily declared last week, 'Oh, I'm sure you'll balloon in the belly soon!' Which sent me scurrying for chocolate, on the basis that if she's going to say such things and cause me to seek comfort food then I may as well not worry about how I'll look when The Bump eventually expands...
This is, clearly, nonsensical. It's not as if we don't know the new season is coming; unlike a piano falling onto a cartoon character's head, it doesn't appear out of nowhere and knock us flat. Yet one hint of autumnal conditions and we Brits (not that I am, fully, having Austrian blood in my veins) do our favourite thing of all by talking about the weather. Obsessively.
I suppose it has been bizarre lately. It was so hot on Sunday that there were girls in bikinis on the beach. Yes, bikinis, in October. And today, we have a northeasterly wind blasting the city with a bite so sharp it feels like it could crumble one's skeleton. Which is why, having ventured out for the newspaper this morning, I then decided that staying in for the morning while the temperature struggled to raise itself a bit was entirely justified, not least with The Bump to think about.
Truth to tell, The Bump is not yet noticeable. Four months into my pregnancy and everything looks flat as a pancake. Except, needless to say, to me. Whenever I pass a mirror I glance sideways and am convinced that there is, at last, a visible swell of the belly. But as my darling husband points out, there simply isn't.
All of which means I can still wear whatever I please without recourse to looser, larger mid-maternity wear, or at least I could were it not suddenly so cold beyond the cosy apartment. This, I admit, is a relief, for whilst I have no first-time-birth fears of the pains of childbirth, I dread the weeks when I have to swathe myself in clothing so large and floaty it would prove highly effective attached to the mast of a yacht.
But The Bump is being kind and not manifesting itself. Five months still to go however, and my health visitor chirpily declared last week, 'Oh, I'm sure you'll balloon in the belly soon!' Which sent me scurrying for chocolate, on the basis that if she's going to say such things and cause me to seek comfort food then I may as well not worry about how I'll look when The Bump eventually expands...
RSS Feed