Tag Archives: 1980s

A woolly drink and a woolly case of mistaken identity (Rousse)

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Dreamaticus

I made a ‘lovely’ hot drink for TPR. The ingredients comprised hot water, coffee granules, raw sugar, a twist of mustard embroidery silk, and two balls of rusty brown wool. Later, I thought that I had found the lost green … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, ball, brown, coffee, colleague, drink, embroidery, green, jumper, Marks and Spencer, mustard, seam, silk, sugar, TPR, wool | Leave a comment

Traitors, faithfuls, and the University of Birmingham Ballroom Dancing Society (Rousse)

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Dreamaticus

Playing a traitor was not as easy as it looked, especially when the other two insisted on tailing me as I wandered around the building. We spent so much time apart from the others that when I asked a prominent … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, ballroom, Birmingham, dancing, faithful, faithfuls, society, traitor, Traitors, university | Leave a comment

Scruffy cellar dwellers (Rousse)

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Dreamaticus

I dropped a line of muddy footprints along the pale blue carpet when I came into the house from the garden. I really should have taken off my wellingtons at the back door. Now I would have to waste time … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, basement, boots, carpet, cellar, cupboard, dweller, flat, footprint, garden, hall, hoover, mud, scruffy, tape, VHS, video, wellington | Leave a comment

Hollywood hands (Rousse)

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Dreamaticus

JS and I met out old university friend JG on a grassy bank. Dressed in a huge 1980s style fawn jacket over jeans, there was something rather strange about his demeanour. We learnt that he had suffered a stroke that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, cuff, hand, hands, Hollywood, plastic, sleeve, stroke | Leave a comment

Wonders of the Walkman (Rousse)

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Dreamaticus

I reminded myself of the wonders of the Walkman when I borrowed a white one to relive the excitement of my first encounter with personal audio technology in the early 1980s – notably the weight of the device and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, audio, C90, hiss, personal, Walkman, weight, white | Leave a comment

Greta Garbo Oxford shame (Rousse)

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Dreamaticus

PS and I had a vital message for the mistress of the Oxford college. Unfortunately, we did not manage to pass it on before the auditorium started to fill with students. The topic of the lecture was a 1930s film … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, attic, Birmingham, college, film, Greta Garbo, Northfield, Oxford | Leave a comment

A clown, killer whales, and curvy bronzed buttocks (Rousse)

Posted on September 22, 2018 by Dreamaticus

Thirty years on I rediscovered the dark-haired Italian man with whom I had been friendly in France in the 1980s. Now working as a professional clown, he lived on the French riviera in a small apartment that offered wonderful views of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, apartment, attire, black, bronzed, buttock, clown, denim, dress, fashion, France, French, g-string, Italian, killer, lecture, man, mediterranean, nylon, playful, riviera, Royal Society of Edinburgh, shorts, splash, theatre, view, water, whale | Leave a comment

1980s fashion fail (Rousse)

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I travelled back in time to Queen Margaret College Edinburgh in the late 1980s. Here I found pasted to the walls of reception dozens of amateur black and white posters inviting students to join the Christian Union. Then I spotted … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980, 1980s, badge, band, bottle, Christian Union, Edinburgh, fail, fashion, green, hairy, jumper, poster, Queen Margaret College, unknown | Leave a comment

Bare legs and no knickers in a spanking new library (Rousse)

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Dreamaticus

The reason for baring my legs under a short winter dress, I explained, was that I had mislaid my tights. My companions were unaware, however, that I was also wandering around knickerless. I knew the location of my underwear – … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, bare, bathroom, book, building, campus, clothes, companion, dress, Edgbaston, furniture, House of Fraser, issue, IVF, knickers, leg, legs, library, loan, lobby, mislaid, naked, nursery, pants, road, slip, spanking, student, suite, tights, treatment, undergraduate, underwear, wife, winter | Leave a comment

Incidental divorce lawyer advice (Rousse)

Posted on June 10, 2018 by Dreamaticus

My parents, sisters and I travelled in our pyjamas to Dryburgh Abbey for my father’s last hurrah. On the way back home we stopped off in Corbridge. Here we called in on my grandmother’s house (which had not been knocked … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, abbey, advice, bedroom, bedspread, brown, chest of drawers, childhood, Corbridge, divorce, door, dressing table, dryburgh, father, friend, furniture, grandmother, grandparent, incidental, lawyer, lock, media, old people's home, Orange, parent, Redmires, sister, The fighting temeraire, Turner, wardrobe | Leave a comment