Carried away?

During my university days several of my good friends were invariably glued to the screen whenever 'Sex and the City' was on, but I was practically oblivious to the show's existence until years later, when I saw a few episodes on DVD and got so hooked I bought the entire collection. So while I wasn't exactly bursting with anticipation for the recently released movie, my curiosity was certainly piqued enough by the film's trailers to venture to the cinema last Friday. As luck would have it my friend Paula had 2 spare tickets for a charity viewing, meaning that our shallow pastime would be in the name of a good cause :-). A day beforehand I had read an interview with Sarah Jessica Parker, stating that "it was her job as executive producer to be aware of the marketing deals that financed Sex and the City, with brands from Apple to Manolo Blahnik to Absolut vodka integrated seamlessly". Well, call me oversensitive but I don't exactly think the integration was 'seamless'. In the opening half-hour you're bombarded by so much brand placement that you might as well be thumbing through the first 100 pages of 'Vogue' magazine! The continuous blatant displays of consumerism and opulence unsettled me in a way the tv series had never done, begging the question: had SATC changed, or had my value system shifted somewhat? Not to be a preacher here but do we really need to fuel people's irrational pre-occupation with material goods? And why does everyone in their version of New York seem fabulously and mysteriously rich? Anyway, despite these reservations I still enjoyed parts of the movie, particularly the scenes where Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte & Samantha hang out together. I certainly wish I could spend as much time with my best girlfriends, but that's made impossible by me living 20 000 km away and all. The last time my oldest friends and I were all even in the same country was 3 years ago, can you believe it?!

This is it, a photo of the five of us taken at the hen's night of my friend Griet in August 2005. Since then several of us have gotten married, some have built houses and had babies and others have lived in different parts of Japan. The remaining Japan-resident Liesbeth is having a wedding party in Belgium this August, and to my great disappointment and sadness I won't be able to attend :-(. I guess our long-awaited reunion will have to be postponed for a bit longer... In the mean time, cheers to you, ladies!