Pretty in Pink

Last night I watched, with a surprising amount of enjoyment, the teen classic Pretty in Pink. I was a teenager when this film came out (1986) and it was huge - yet I never saw it (I'm not sure why). The soundtrack was great - New Order, The Smiths and the lovely "If you leave" by OMD at the end - and the cast strong.

It was everything you wanted your teenage years to be like - nice boys and dances and crazy clothes and first kisses. Really sweet. I said as much to my husband this morning over breakfast and I wondered if kids today ('kids today!') still enjoyed such comparative innocence, given what we're told by the media about the various horrors of the Internet. But as my husband reminded me, "It was hard at the time". And so it was! Looks like I was watching Pretty in Pink through rose-coloured glasses...! 

Real Winter

How I wanted this jumper in the winters of the early 80s, as worn by Princess Diana! 

Image from http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/

As is the case most winters, I have sinusitis. But this morning my doctor said to me, "But these are the winters we used to have - real winters." I thought this was an extremely good point. One of the things I remember most from my 1970s childhood is the very distinct seasons - long, hot summers made up of school holidays, waiting for Christmas, playing with your Christmas presents and scudding down the slip-and-slide in the backyard and long, cold winters punctuated by hot meat pies, open fires and warm homemade jumpers. So I've decided to make the most of the month and a half we have left of winter and enjoy it for the real, distinctly seasonal time it's proving to be this year!

And this ad reminds me so much of watching TV during winter in the early 80s...