17 Again

Welcome! Welcome! I hope you had a good time at Laura's. When I got a chance to join in the 17 Again Blog Train, I just couldn't resist. I've been thinking about being 17 ever since I started blogging; because it's probably the last time I really wrote anything for fun. And I was writing - everything the school magazine could offer me, scraps of ideas on dog eared bits of paper, funny poems for friends' birthday cards, bad teenage poetry. The lot. The week after I turned 17 I left my little country town for a 3 week exchange trip to the US; and as I was boarding the bus, a reporter arrived from the local paper. He was very young, very new to the job, and very, very keen to impress. We started talking; and I asked him lots of journalism-related questions which he answered with all the in depth knowledge a week on the job had to offer. We talked some more. And a bit more. And he asked me to look him up when I got back. When he'd have 3 more weeks to tell me about. I didn't, of course. I was 17. What can I say? You move on. You know how it is. I still see him around, though. Actually, that's not quite true. Really, I see him on TV. Almost any night something important is happening in the news. I've watched him in a flak jacket in Basra; and in the finest suit money can buy, reporting from outside the White House. He's done very, very well. Because it turns out he was a real journalist after all.

But I'm kind of slipping off the subject a bit. I need to go back again. And oh! how I enjoy a little look back. I loved being 17 and I'd happily slip back there for a while if I could. It wouldn't be the same, of course. Not now that I've tasted the future. What I really mean, I think, is that I'd like to take another look simply because I know my family would be waiting for me when I returned. I think they know this. I hope they do.

So, this is what I looked like when I was 17. Oh, you want to know what year we're in? If I must, then. Let's go back to 1983 and see what my world was filled with then:

• My hair colour is: completely my own
• My hair style: has a mind of its own
• My favourite brand of make-up: "make-up? I don't think so young lady"
• My fashionable item is: lots of bright, plastic jewellery
• I drive a: Opel Kadett
• On a Saturday I go: into town to hang round the record shop
• Mon-Fri I go: to the Study Room. Unless I get thrown out for talking.
• My favourite place to go out is: The Club Royal
• My favourite subject at school is: History
• When I grow up I want to be: In Charge
• My favourite drink is: Instant Nescafe
• My favourite food is: Vesta pack beef curry
• My favourite band is Aztec Camera
• My favourite tv is: Black Adder The First and Blockbusters (I'll have a P please Bob)
• I wish I could visit: Pompeii
• My favourite sport: Me? You're having a laugh.
• I recently saw: Risky Business. 4 times.
• I am reading Cal by Bernard MacLaverty
• In the news: the final Delorean cars rolling off the production line
• My best friends are: inside doing their homework. I'll do mine in the morning before assembly.
• One thing I want to do but can't: Rule The World

I think that just about covers it. If you've had enough of the 80's, grab your ticket. I'm sending you back to 1976 now as you stop off at Beverley's. Me? I'll be there in a minute. I don't think I'm ready to leave the 80's just yet. See you in a bit.

Today I'm Loving..Spending time with the same friend I loved spending time with in 1983. It doesn't get much better than that, really. Does it? See you on Wednesday Dr.K!

Oh, one final thing: A couple of would -be Edinburgh Rock makers have asked me for imperial/metric measures: 1lb or 450g or 2 cups sugar. 3/8 pint or 200ml or 3/4 cup water. Enjoy!