Corners

How I loved this book when I was small. The How and Why Wonder Book of Our Earth. I stared at the pages of gemstones for hours and then dared myself to flick over to the terrifying pictures of volcanoes. I dreamed about the Centre of the Earth. I could have grown up to be a geologist. Or a vulcanologist. Or at least a jeweller. Oh well.

Imagine my delight then when I found a bag of "gemstone chips" at the $2 discount store this week. I can still stare at them for hours.

One of the things I love most about this time of year is Easter daisies.

We got a new couch in December. The old striped 70s beast finally had to go (actually it's currently sitting under the carport beneath a tarpaulin). Now I like the new couch. I do. It's comfortable (it's been great with my back) and it'll go with anything. Because it's biscuit coloured. In the shop, it looked different. Really it did. Richer in colour. The catalogue described it as 'royal fudge'. It's more like vanilla fudge, I reckon. But no matter. And as my DH said at the time, "Well, that couch'll do us for at least ten years." So I've injected some colour with these very cute Indian cotton cushions and a crocheted rug. Bit more cheerful. Bit less doctor's waiting room!

Food nostalgia

I am currently researching food in the 1960s, particularly in America, for a book that is being put together about Mad Men. I have been trawling the Internet for favoured recipes of the decade and what food was regarded as new and exotic. There are really some brilliantly informative sites out there if you want to go looking. Retro Food Recipes at www.retrofoodrecipes.com/ was especially good with such memory jogging favourites as avocados with prawns, prawn cocktail, brandy snaps, caramelised oranges, chicken kiev, chicken maryland, chicken & mushroom vol au vents, creme brulee and lemon souffle. Although I wasn't born in the 60s (just missed it), my parents were still serving these dishes at their dinner parties into the 70s. How I hated avocados! "You'll like them when you're a grown-up", my mother would tell me (she was right). Chicken & mushroom vol au vents were more in my line and my mother would make them with salmon too. And I still have the dish that my grandma always made her famed creme brulee in. It's not that any of this food was particularly brilliant - though it's hard to tell when viewed through the tastebuds of a five year-old - rather it's food nostalgia. Avocado with prawns takes me back to our kitchen circa 1976, watching my mother in her long, green 70s evening dress, putting the final touches to each dish before the guests arrived. The creme brulee transports me to all of us sitting around my grandparents' kitchen table circa 1978 at our weekly Sunday lunch. Of course, we realise now that a lot of the food of this era was often full of chemicals (think 'Tang'!) and cooked almost exclusively in butter (or dripping - ewww!). So we mostly eat differently now. But one bite of any of those dishes is like a trip in a time machine. It's not the food itself, but the memory.

What foods do you remember?

Rebels

Remember how everyone used to love James Dean? When I was growing up in the 80s, James Dean was a major crush. The jeans, the quiff, the rebellious thing. I don't think I even saw any of his films until the 90s. It was the look that was the thing, the look was enough to set the teenage pulse racing. But watching this clip from Rebel without a Cause just now, I was struck by how good an actor he actually was. This scene really drew me in. As a young person you tend to personify with JD's character - 'parents just don't understand!' - but watching it now (a little -ahem - older), you can also see that break between the idealism of youth and the loss (or tempering) of idealism that comes with age. But is it a loss of idealism? Or is it a growing wisdom and understanding of how the world works?