The Old-New show...

Looks can play a major part in how you see yourself which also feed into mental well being as we grow up.

This week I found an old school photograph which would of been when I was thirteen and a bit taken with just a hint of the then popular diffusion with a soft wide apertured background that's noticeable for the short bob girlish style hair and baby pink v neck sweater with tie which clearly showed how I saw thinks back then, uniform style but not rigidly stereotypical.

Back then in ATV land Tiswas ruled saturday morning children's tv.
 

Back then the gender divide was of almost Berlin Wall proportions not least in school so you might make your own arrangements for getting "in" with things the other sex alone officially were supposed to do be them sports, games you play or comics you'd rather read although because most of my sports were disability sports at least they were co-ed unlike most.

Even if you were lucky to acquire the comics or figure you wanted, chances are many may of gone by now so I was pleased to get this compilation of classic girls  annuals of the 1970's - the sort of thing some of us read - with stories we remember presented as annual.

Although this came out in 2014, I'd been looking for a copy for ages when I found a store with a copy in and got it.

Given the heavy rain of late, it's just the thing to cheer me up.

Spring clean 2024

 

After a few booting up issues were are here and apart from getting drenched and blown away as that tornado was but a few miles away what else has been gong on in these parts?

A couple of rather good but super expensive records arrived that game out a few years ago when my attention was rather more on compact discs that sounded absolutely amazing and one record that was very much a part of my growing up.

I have been at work doing a bit of a spring clean to this blog, not a rebranding as in the last few years not only have things been a bit difficult for me personally but also the direction of this blog has started to change and I also felt some topics had rather overstayed their welcome.

You do need some light and shade within a blog and I prefer more broader magazine format blogging that was a staple of the early years so I've tided things up a bit, removed teh odd typo and that.

Now for a milk shake!

Top shelf edition! (Very SFW!)

Been a bit busy this week tidying a few things up, sorting  somethings I don't really use but are in great shape for charity and dusting -atchoo! - the top shelf in my room.

 Well when doing that I found something I hadn't mentioned before on here that is I just loved Sesame Street for the characters and especially the message it put over in what could be  very selfish and commercial set of values found elsewhere. 

That was a plushie my parents bought me some years ago.

Other interesting things include in a totally unplanned conversation with the legendary Grump hearing him give acceptance to those of us who are adult littles who love dressing and "playing" or otherwise re-enacting more the age we feel whither it's a school based thing or more the life outside of you enjoy from that time.

That was pretty much what I had been up to this weekend at the Easter party, enjoying the Egg Hunt.

The only thing that matters is in being our authentic selves we deal with, to the best of our abilities, those most essential adult responsibilities we have.

 

A lecture for Lying

 

Inspired a smidgen around continuing stories that come under the heading of Current Affairs about the number of Grown Ups, often in responsible positions in our national and international lives who are forever being caught out having said one thing to had done something else or even denying in the House of Commons what there is verbatim notes or mobile phone footage of.

They often come over with that squirming um erm little boy look as if they're trying to tell Mummy that it wasn't really that until her next line shows actually she knows more about this that she previously let on and now she's caught you out big time.

They can be politicians of any and all complexions, people in commerce, law (the number professionally I've worked with whose thought usually was "how can I get out of that?" rather than accepting what they did was wrong), religion and anywhere where there's power and influence.

Perhaps some adult DO need a memorable reminder of why lying is wrong?

Easter happenings

It's the Wednesday before Good Friday and just what the heck is going on here?

Golly gosh Rory had gotten hold of my Egg  on Monday and wasn't for handing over so I fight him paw by paw to get it back. He can go get his own!

I prefer Thornton's chocolate to Cadbury's and this egg had nine individual chocolates with it too in separate box.

 
By Thursday this was the last egg remaining to nom having gotten my paws so sticky that in the past Mommy had to wipe them with a dishcloth otherwise I'd of  gotten caked in it and so would the door handles.

It's easy enough for me to get in trouble for leaving chocolate stains in the throw over covers on our furniture given everything goes flying when it's in my paws!

On Monday I listened to the final day of the top 200 songs as voted by Boom Radio listeners concluding what had been a good few days sat remembering some, the memories associated with them including songs I hadn't heard in ages.

The top song was A Whiter Shade of Pale performed by the Procol Harum from which the Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer the prog rock group were formed.

I grew up at an early age listening to the Hair soundtrack with words we never used at school!

Issues in dressing Little

Sometimes it seems I'm really outside the ideas of our little group when beyond replica school type attire it comes to dressing more as a younger girl which is really rather more where I feel from the inside.

It's almost as if everything we had been through in the seventies and eighties never mind the nineties just never happened as girls slacks and jeans are frowned up for not being "girlie" despite being for girls and probably more suited for some sorts of activities.

You really can't argue this top and shorts set is feminine - you'd never get a boy in them in a million years - and yet this and it's more grown up ladies floral shorts or culottes are frowned upon but if I was doing handstands isn't it a better idea 

There's really nothing wrong at all with dresses and I do like pastel colours for good measure but just what is so wrong with having a variety of outfits in your wardrobe and to wear when we're together depending on just how you feel?

Actual girls today do and the last thing I heard was they're still very much girls so just what is the problem???

Creating little headspace

I'm a little late starting this entry cos I've been Pawley over the last few days but I had noticed a few people talking about Headspace which I know I touched on in late February.
I think the first thing I will say is this space is very much as you, yourself make it and you do need bring something to being in it even if you may be fortunate to have either a Caregiver do things with you or you go to any number of littles activities where organizers do lay on activities because you're the one  'doing' them to getting into that sense of being more child-like.

Because anyone for a host of reasons isn't able  - and I do understand - to get out either as much as they like or at all due to lack or disabilities perhaps doesn't mean you are unable to  but you'll need to create them where you are.

The second thing is, to do this we need to remove as much 'groan up' mental background noise as we can, not just technology (sometimes  super intrusive) but also anything that distract us from playing in the way as kids we did.

If you can add a few touches like cute 'throws' (aka Covers) over furniture, I'd suggest bringing out the one thing you loved from your childhood first and putting it in your room unless you're fortunate to have a already set up play space.

It may be a favourite plushie, a teddy or doll you hugged, talked to and created adventures with. I can't speak for you but you may of played at being a Vet, a Nurse or an Astronaut with them but we're going back in time and buried away are just the memories you need to get back to where you were.

Some people like something a little less imagination centred but fun nonetheless such as watching a Disney movie or cartoon series that they find takes them back.

The other approach may appeal to those of us who like difficulties aside to do art to draw, colour or paint but allowing our 'inner child' to tell us and in way do the activity that relates to their interest and age range which is something personally I feel matters for your own well-being.

Some find littles role playing games and sites helpful in getting into that 'role' opening up your inner childs thoughts and expressing them with others.

The important thing here is you do create that space to go back, enjoying the experience.

Birthday thoughts

There was a birthday that was mentioned on the regular blog cos of course with everything around the  funeral last year couldn't happen, both for emotional reasons, people not being in the frame of mind to celebrate anything apart from there being literally no space for cards as the window and fireplace were taken up with bereavement cards.

There were a number of presents such as the latest Now Millennium set that builds on the original two cd per year series of 1998/9 but with a booklet inside that does talk about the year and the music which was a reason for getting cos in general I din't bother too much with "The Charts" then just buying cds by artists I liked.

Time has a habit of moving on and at this point details from then beyond Crazy Frog are starting to get a bit hazy with me so having a sample of hits and key facts helps to keep my recollection of that period better being before I started blogging as I only had the internet around 2004 for local government work based reasons makes sense not least with some of my memory issues.

The other thing was a few more records in a speciality so-called "audiophile" record re-issue series being issued to mark the 75th year of Atlantic Records part these days of the mighty Warner Records group where they are recut from either the original tapes or the next best thing if that couldn't be done to very high standards and at 45 rpm to give the music more space in the groove to move (and be heard).

That usually means what was a single record now becomes two, the weight per disc tends around 180 grams rather than under 120 in 80's and 70's and in high quality jackets with stiff card.

They were just great presents.

Checking up

 Yes we're almost into spring and a day off exiting the month so I'm looking at all the orders and pre-orders to check up on anything that hasn't come as I soon forget after just encountering the cycling proficiency mob at the local school going through that rite of pass perhaps you remember too.

Well I didn't- hell girl I was doing well to be standing upright for more than thirty odd seconds without losing my balance - but your BFF did with all that looking, signalling and that as they cycled into school and more while playing.

One thing I noticed hasn't arrived is a Brown skirt I ordered that really is more a school skirt not that brown tends to be that popular a choice these days - plaid seems to have crept in rather more.

After I'm sure the post has been as they do parcels of which I am expecting one I'll have to send a message as they bought postage and tracking but it doesn't appear to have entered the system (they scan items on) and a good ten days has elapsed.

While I want the item if it's lost, a refund would be appreciated.

Times past and present

I've a little time to kill today so I thought I'd work on this weeks entry tonight instead of leaving it until later and I'll start of by thanking those of who read and remarked on last weeks entry.

One recurring theme from the last seven days has been how you can be transported back in time by such things as rewatching tv shows or  hearing and  maybe discussing such things as music as you recall people, places and events from that period that link in with your childhood. 

There's a phenomenon people call the 'Earworm' that enables to you recall the sounds and tunes when they are heard again even if it may of been decades since you last heard them. 

It may even be one reason people listen to and collect recordings from the past apart from the joy listening to music can bring.

I had a number of those moments this week listening to Boom Radio hearing tracks I hadn't heard on radio for ages and going into a different world.

Then talking some more around the subject of schooldays and the notion of being a schoolgirl with a few people in a more personal way proved interesting for the similarities in what we get from it - being the child, the love of uniforms and structure, finding an inner peace and when we first realized we were different than our peers.

The observant will note its no coincidence the tops are just like mine cos this is the most comfortable in my own skin I can feel and these days it matters so so much.

A week back in time

A week different you might of said as things seemed, well, different to what you might of considered normal by the standards of the groan up world as you were plucked up and whisked off to another land.

 

A land where stuffies and dollies existed for you to carry around playing with them for hours, indeed you played for what seemed like ages.

You also baked things just like you did when you were younger and even helped out and took part in party that could of been out of your childhood.

All in a world where the "Naughty Step" was oh so real as you saw your friends sent to it and wondered how you this time escaped the same fate.

Life was simpler for several days and it seemed to suit me better.

Enid

Something that goes back a few years that seems apt.

What happens to unwanted or lost pushies?

That's a very good question to ask as it's really sad to think something that still has that ability to played with, loved and hugged is going wanting or even just binned.

Well, one answer to that arrived on Wednesday, when Mommy brought me Enid back from the Cheshire show, just up the road in Tatton as a thank you gift for being good and looking after everything while she was out..

Cleaned up, they are put up for adoption where you can be new proud owner and you get a certificate to prove it.

That way the plushie gets a new life and you get a new one to have fun with saving it from a sad end.

In the week that leads up to the anniversary of Mommy's death it seems appropriate to recall such moments and what they meant to you.

Are we still standing?

It really didn't matter how you got to be you, any background story you might of had and how far along that road you've travelled these years you changed and yet other bits of you remain.

And really that's a-okay as nature is really just the same when you think about it.

If something just isn't fitting in right you can change that but you certainly don't need to change everything or create a whole new persona.

Up and listening edition

We're here.

Just wakes up and fixes breakfast and school is back as people filed past my window this morning and I'm trying to ward off the many viruses about part from the usual things like taking tea out and sorting the recycling which here seems to be never ending with various over package items from Amazon.

It's also time where the bigger things from CatMas having been skimmed through tend to be looked at in more detail like any kits or stuff such as books of which I did read the one about the legendary Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter between the comics over the last week and a half given my reading issues.

Then there are things like records and cds with records usually requiring a quick clean first and that's where we are this week on the blog where we open the shrinkwrapping and start drifting back to the mid eighties and nineties with music I do know but somehow never all gathered in one package here.

I felt this double album was extremely well put together and sounded great on my stereo

Blown about

 

For some of us given the rather extreme weather we have been experiencing in the last few weeks and indeed is forecast for this weekend it's likely both your hands are going to busy trying to stay decent, avoiding blushes while out.

Perhaps that life hack of our Late Queen, of sowing weights in the hemline may help deal with such potential mishaps?

Conversations

It can be taxing I guess when you thought you'd seen off all the challenges of the past whither it was getting in Mom's good books or for that matter she thought you'd grown up so no longer required quite the handling you had when you were younger.

New potentially self absorbing interests though enter as others leave.

The honest answer with me would run something like this:

"Mom, sometimes I just don't seem to be able to stop myself although I know what you said the other day".

"Just saying you're disappointed with me and saying I can't go to the shopping mall on Saturday with my mates doesn't seem to work".

"It may seem odd, Mommy, but those spankings did help me then to turn around my attitudes and behaviour and yes I think although it'll hurt it'll help me remember not to disobey you."

"I'd like you to give me a spanking for this." "Shall I fetch the hairbrush for you?"

*based on actual incident in the past.

Does respect still exist in families?

I've been deliberating for a few days about where I was going to put this post but actually I think it belongs here rather than my more "littles" blog.

As most of you are aware I lost my mother a while back leaving Dad and Myself as surviving household members, other immediate siblings being in relationships apart from us.

Dad has some mobility problems coming through the impact of cancer on his kidneys making its way into breathing apart from sciatica and likes to visit Mom's grave where whilst cremated there lies a headstone a couple of miles away.

Unexpectedly my younger brothers wife rung following her much delayed operation for Carpal Tunnel and he spoke with her and in the course of which he asked if they, the next time they were going could take him to the grave.

They would have to past the turning to us to get to it from where they live and she agreed with dad saying should they want a quiet moment then he'd step away.

Come Sunday, they turn up and indeed they do take him but he only finds they elect to stay in the car while he goes down a pathway rather than all walking with them pausing near the adjacent church.

They also reject any and all attempts to open a conversation about where he'd been, how they find it, or even ask him how he was feeling afterwards.

It was as if they just wouldn't speak to him as his sons father and a fellow family member even on the face of it another fellow human being where many of us just would even to those we don't know well.

We have empathy and yet there was none showing, leaving him feeling he was being deliberately ignored.

He was very emotional upon his return to which I got the full blast of -and although I could use not being the sole dumping ground of his emotions you couldn't help wondering just what my brother and wife were really playing at treating him more like ghost.