What do we miss?

Well it’s been a while since I did a new blog of any note, and absolute yonky donks since I did a ’lists’ blog, so with the recent published news about the top 25 things we miss in the current digital / technological age, I thought I’d get the quill and ink out again…

Entertainment

Making mixtapes

Yep I have to admit missing that. I still have approx.. 400 tapes that I made from around 1985 to 2009, all lovingly stored for when I own a cassette deck again, though I’ve digitised the rarities amongst them anyway!

I can’t deny that it’s infinitely easier to create now though, but it was definitely an art form to get the right mix on any tape, and I wore out many a double A battery in multiple Walkmans over the years

Carrying a portable CD player
Nowhere near as good as the cassette version. All hail the iPod.

Recording films and TV shows using VHS

Similar to cassette tapes I guess. I once had hundreds of VHS tapes with what my Grandad would call ‘Archive Material’. Again though, I digitised the rarities and ending up dumping the rest. The hours spent recording on them doesn’t bear thinking about…

Buying CDs / having a CD collection

I still buy the occasional CD to add to my 2000+ collection (yes,   really) – but probably no more than a couple a year. The collection looks stunning and I’d never bin them*

*unless they become disgraced, a la Harris, Glitter etc. All of those went straight into the bin without a second thought.

Photos

Put photos into albums / Having printed photos around the house

Still do this on occasion, but it’s a dead exercise really, which is probably a shame. Didn’t put them on the wall though, apart from a few I had of my children on the walls at work before it got banned!

Excitement of having photographs developed

No that was painful and a waste of time. You’d find half were over exposed (crap) and that you’d totally ballsed up what should have been a cherished memorable image.

Buying disposable cameras

Might have done this but it’s not missed

Writing

Handwritten letters / Hand-writing essays / School work

I Used to love properly writing letters, but I couldn’t do it now. I’m so out of practise, that writing just two lines in my daughter’s book diary for school almost gives me cramp.

Sending love letters

Sadly I don’t recall doing that much! I was more of an unrequited shy keep-it-to-myself type. Elsewise I put it into poetry.

Sending postcards

Don’t miss this at all. Didn’t like doing it at the time. Today’s equivalent it using an auto-reply / out of office eMail. Stone me if you can’t cope without my presence for a week or so, then I’m either way more cool than I ever realised, or you must be a bit needy!

Probably the latter.

Having pen friends
I had a French one called Boris in 1987. I hadn’t honed my French masculinity grammar skills yet so after about three exchanges, he actually had to ask me to clarify if I was male or female.

I met him on a school trip to France, and even then he was probably still a bit insure about my gender.

Misc

Playing traditional board games or cards

Still do a bit of this, but far less. Besides I get very impatient waiting for others to take their turn, so I’m not much fun to play with.

Owning an encyclopedia

I think we had annual versions of the Pears Cyclopedia, which is probably not the same.

Shopping

Going into the travel agents to research a holiday

Never did this

Visiting car boot sales to sell old stuff

I do this now more than I ever did!

Trying on pairs of shoes on the high street

Still do this every so often

Telephones

Remembering phone numbers off by heart

Now this, I was good at. I can still remember a few of my friends and families tels from the 80s. I don’t NEED to remember them, they just stay there, logged in my brain.

Nowadays I think I know about 4 in total.

Using directory enquiries

Can’t believe people ever did this after they started charging ludicrous amounts for the privilege

       

Ringing the speaking clock / Dialing 1471 to see who called while you were out

Is Talking Tim still alive? Used to call other premium rate numbers though.

For example the ‘Seagull Line’ for Albion news.

Not the premium rate line you were thinking of was it…!?

I think 1471 still works does it not?

Using public telephones

There are definitely less 10p coins around these days – probably because of the demise of the old telephone kiosks.

You could start family rows buy accidentally hanging up on someone who’s had to put coins in before the pips went. Try explaining that to your kids.

Using a telephone directory / Yellow Pages

These are teeny tiny now. Once upon a time, you could get hold of anyone’s number if you wanted to stalk them. And when this gradually eased back in the early 90s, panic started to set in before the internet made people over-contactable again

I Love Spreadsheets!

So since I met the current Mrs BerryLogs (she’ll love that) my life seems to have been driven by MS Excel spreadsheets for one reason or another. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not her fault at all – we just seem to have stumbled upon organising a shed load of events that require the sort of OCD structure we both revel in having in our lives.

I thought I was pretty well organised beforehand anyway, what with knowing exactly what weeks off I want from work for years and years in advance etc, but largely those plans were driven by my children anyway (a scenario most parents will surely recognise!)

But since meeting my wife, it’s fair to say that we’ve mastered event planning to such an intricate level, that OCD probably doesn’t even begin to do it justice.

The level of details and timings involved for the following events has meant no possible stone has been left unturned – what could possibly go wrong?

• Going on Holiday (various times)
• Having a Baby
• Buying a Car (twice)
• Parents 40^th wedding anniversary
• Hag Night (combined Stag & Hen nights)
• Our Wedding
• Moving House
• Shopping Lists
• Meal Planners
• Joint 40^th Birthday

You name it, there’s the likelihood that we could knock up a spreadsheet for it.

Some of these reasons sound simple enough, but it’s not always straightforward. The house sale alone fell through 6 times, and the hours spent restructuring the various budgets on that spreadsheet was mind numbing (though ultimately we somehow ended £2000 up on our original expected profit, so it wasn’t all bad!)

What it’s all done is given us such a good structure for any future projects though.

Our latest one is for our upcoming joint 40^th birthday party. Would a simple handwritten 'to do' list and invite suffice? Maybe for some, but we've actually got to the stage of some kind of warped enjoyment in pulling all the considerations together.

So, as an example, what do the project fields for this look like?

Ø       Venue

o        What’s the capacity?

o        What hours do they stay open to?

o        Car parking available?

o        House DJ etc?

Ø       Food (or not to food)

o        Self Supply?

o        Provided by venue?

§         Price Per head?

§         Flat rate?

Ø       Invites

o        Postal Addresses / Social Network invites / Hand Delivered

o        Friends / Family / Work ... or all?

Ø       Music playlist

o        Theme / Genre?

o        Tempo

o        Variety

I love that last one - sorting music playlists - as I could (and do) literally spend hours and days and weeks trying to perfect a playlist that suits. Of course it’s nigh on impossible to have a perfect playlist, as music tastes vary, and I’m partial to chucking in the odd random song here and there to indulge myself.

Some will say (and have said) that we've clearly got too much time on our hands. Frankly that’s making a simple issue sound complex. The truth is we've got so good at this event planning lark, we actually get it together in no time at all. It’s rapid, with the processes being the polar opposite of procrastinating.

OCD isn’t always a bad thing…

Do you remember the time?

So how is 2015 for you so far?

Enjoying your flying cars, Hoverboard,

Nike power lace ups and inside out jeans?

How about the Pepsi Perfect you had in the Café 80’s?

Not everything forecast in Back To The Future Part II  has come to pass (although the Nike Power Laces are on the way soon!), so whilst I’m taking February off, and replenishing my blogging juices for a proper bit of writing, I’m going to play my ‘get out’ card for this one!

I haven’t done a retro list for a while, so here are a few memory joggers for all you lovely 80’s and 90’s children!

So do you remember the time, when…

… you could watch MTV and you knew EVERY song they played?

...If Clarissa couldn't explain it all, then Sabrina might try instead 

… Comic Relief was genuinely the funniest night on TV all year?

… when Starbuck was male, and not female, and not a coffee house?

… you wouldn’t eat porridge oats, as you thought the Quaker dude was looking at you a bit funny?

… we were apparently 18 months behind the Neighbours storyline?

... virtually everyone liked Band Aid?

... Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were the best thing on the telly on a Saturday afternoon?

... barely four football matches were televised a month?

... we only had three channels on TV?

... it took half a day to set the VCR?

… you knew what a VCR was?

... Big Brother was a relation?

... kids played in the park?

... all we had were three Star Wars films?

… female celebrities had their original lips?

... The Beano and The Dandy gave away free gifts that glowed in the dark?

... the internet cost £2.50 per hour to surf at home?

…when surfing was something only west coast Americans did?

... Saturday morning TV was for children?

... flat screen TVs were only on Star Trek?

... when 3D was red and blue? Or you’d make your own out of those plastic sun visor hats?

... F1 was competitive between more than two drivers?

... a pound coin was a note?

… school glue was a fashion accessory?

… you knew what a Squarial was?

… a Polo packet cost 7p?

… you only had sausages wrapped in bacon at Christmas?

… ‘Wannabe’ was the only song on the radio all summer?

… Lime Green ruled 1996?

… Twitter was something the birds did?

… Celebrities were genuinely talented in their profession?

… hardly anybody’s parents were divorced?

… there was a pub in every village?

 

I’ll be Back To The Blogging in March!

 Belief.Love.Spirit

XxX

Those 'Child of the 80's' lists...

These babies must've been doing the rounds for years now.  Always worth a chuckle but I thought I'd give it a bit more context...

You know you're a child of the 80's when:

You remember when there was no breakfast TV and when TV shut down at midnight.

And Dad would open the window and turn the volume up so the neighbours could enjoy the National Anthem

There was nothing on TV in the middle of the day except for that test card girl with the clown and a blackboard.

Bless her heart she looked like a girl in my school moonlighting.

You can name at least half of the members of the elite Brat Pack.

They've never left the thoughts of this Man in Motion.

You remember when ATARI was a state of the art video game system.

I more recall the Commodore Vic 20 vs Commodore 64 vs ZX Spectrum 48k+ debate (the Speccy won)

You own any cassettes.

Of course...still have over 400. It's a collection dammit!

You remember dancing to Tiffany.

Yeah that was last week. I remember running just as fast as I can. Usually on the spot.

You were led to believe that in the year 2000 we'd all be living on the moon.

That is in fact what a bearded teacher told me in 1985. That all sadly changed in 1986.

You know who Max Headroom is. But did you ever find out if he was r-r-r-r-r-real?

Didn't get the joke in his name until years and years later when I had learnt how to drive.

You wore fluorescent, neon clothing.

Nope but my brother did.

You could breakdance, or wished you could.

Nope but my brother thought he could.

You Believed that 'By the power of Greyskull', you HAD the power.

I thought I would have power if I said it backwards. Evidently not. 

You remember David Hasselhoff when he wore clothes and talked to his car.

Here's some controversy...never liked Knight Rider. Never as good as the Dukes of Hazzard.

You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins or an ET lunchbox.

No no.. forget that. Who else genuinely remembers ET biscuits?

You know the profound meaning of Wax on, Wax off.

I know that every kid called Daniel suddenly had an extra name.

You remember that spiky flat-tops were the rave after Top Gun.

Never.Seen.It.Like.Ever.

You used to get into the family car by sliding through the open window Dukes of Hazzard style.

No but my son has tried it recently

You saw Ghostbusters 7 times.

No but I saw Ghost at least 3 times.

You ran around the playground saying: "We came, we saw, we kicked ass!"

More like I hid in the corner praying for dear life during British Bulldog

Saturday was Multi Coloured Swap Shop day.

That bloke still has a tidy beard.

You wore leg-warmers (or knew someone who did)

Hated them as the girls always lent them to more popular boys than me.

You know the theme tune and the names of all the actors and characters in Dynasty.

Mmm Emma Samms / Fallon...

You remember watching a house inhabited by a jester, a pantomime horse, and a woman who sneezed, and thinking that this was perfectly normal.

No that was just rubbish.

Ooh, you could crush a Grape!

My mum took us to see that 'live'...and future friends of mine got to go on stage with Stu Francis and one of the Nolans.

The first time you ever kissed someone was at a dance during "Crazy for You" by Madonna.

My first kiss as an under 18, there was no music present. As an adult though it was actually to "La Bamba" by Los Lobos. Dead romantic.

You remember Now compilations that had the pig on the front cover (and ones in single figures...)

Yeah what WAS the idea behind the pig?

You owned, or wanted a "Frankie says..." T-shirt.

No but my Dad did.

You have ever danced (or even worse cried) to Kylie & Jason.

It WAS a beautiful wedding. 

Parachuting Action man was your favourite toy.

You mean those 3 inch plastic soldiers attached to a bit of string and a carrier bag that you lobbed into the air surely?

You thought ABBA were cool, the first time round!

Damn right they were.

You wore mismatched finger-less gloves.

Hell yeah

You remember when Betamax was at the cutting edge of technology.

Blank Betamax=195 minutes

Blank VHS=180 minutes

We had both!

Vimto / Dandelion & Burdock featured in your diet.

Every Christmas with every other Corona staple.

Fingermouse

How on Earth has that slipped under the radar?

You fantasised about those girls from that Robert Palmer video.

Nope just Cheryl Baker.

Your best mate had a Sodastream at home and you were jealous.

Everyone had one apart from us.

The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to your children.

Basically this blog...!