ABBA
I first saw ABBA when they won the Eurovision song contest, there was something about the melodies and words which caught my attention and over the years, they have illustrated certain phases of my life. Certain songs envoke emotions which I never expected. My favourite song is Mamma Mia just for it’s exuberance and tunefulness and Eagles cos I dream I can spread my wings. Sad songs can also be a huge influence and certainly ‘’Slipping through my fingers’’ leaves me in a mess of tears and panic because I will never experience the feeling of being a mother and mostly I can deal with that but when this song comes back, the emotions flood back in and I am a wreck.
Naturally curly hair,
As a child I always had a short back and sides haircut and was unfortunate enough to have no air until I was one year old. Then I had a mass of blond ringlets which appeared to disappear once I hit school. For years I craved long, curly hair and I would make my mum put my hair into pin curls on Sunday nights so it would be curly on Monday for school. The pain and discomfort of sleeping on thick pins was worth it for the curls I had. Over the years I managed to grow my hair down to my waist but then by the time I got the age of 24 I needed a change. So I went to my mum’s hairdresser for a new do. ‘’You’ve got curly hair’’ she told me as she poofed and puffed. ‘’Sure’’ I thought as she had my head upside down and was diffusing the mass of locks over my face. Imagine my surprise when I sat up and in front of me was a young woman with Pre-Raphaelite ringlets.............................shocked was not the word. My mum cried, not because of the curls but because I’d cut it all off. And most surreal of all, my workmates didn’t even recognise me. I love having curly hair, people ask where I got my perm cos it’s so perfect, what a joke it’s genetic!!!!!! I have to use certain products to keep it in good nick but it’s worth it for the curl I craved as a child, and the agonising nights of pin curls in my hair.
Austen, Jane, see also The Cobb, Lyme Regis,
I have loved the classic authors since I was at school and Jane Austen is a firm favourite with her feisty heroines and passionate male characters. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth courting around each other undecided on how to make the first move because of their pride and prejudice, Emma with her notion that she has the knack of making a good match for her friends and Fanny in Mansfield Park treated by her adoptive family like dirt and little realising the beautiful woman she has become and her centrality to their stability. However for me the key character is Anne from Persuasion. She reminds me of me. Thwarted by love, unable to express her true feelings for fear of rejection and worse still insulted by her own family in front of her paramour. Once she and her Captain come together in Bath all bets are off and the will they wont they begins. There is also the Link to the Cobb in Lyme Regis my favourite place.
