' "It must be all the hair" ' (Vol.5, 1983)

And we're straight into the reading with no preamble, as this is part 2 following on from the previous session.It's the skiing episode, where mum goes to hire gear, eats avocado seafood, spaghetti marinara and TWO oysters Kilpatrick, not all at once but YUMMY. The Wimbledon finals are on, and mum is reading a book that it seems can only be mentioned in capitals: BEYOND THE DAWN. Up on the slopes there's an Austrian ski instructor who is predictably handsome and named Alouise, $17 lift tickets (ah '80s prices!!) and a boy called Jay who mum insists on sitting in a cold spa with at least once. There's some flirting -- we think -- who can be sure with the level of detail that's brought to us in the diaries, and we chat about crushing on strangers and how men don't really understand or need signs... they just act if they want to, mostly. Time to leave and there's car trouble with the VW and how to do a hill start. We talk more generally about how it is to go back and re-read diaries -- I never have and my number of volumes number in the 50s. Finally, we wonder how things will look next March, and where I'll be. I do have a wildcard up my sleeve!+As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.  Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listeningWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

we learn what reply guys are. do you know any?We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

In this episode mum goes to Inverloch with friends, is reading the Day of the Jackal, and has cigarettes for breakfast.We start our intro by saying where we are (granny's place in Elsternwick. mum and her siblings have been sorting through things, a big and sad job), and when we are: Tuesday 14 October. Apparently one of the most powerful days in 1000 years for changing your life. I'd like a little more notice though. I am unprepared.Mum is sick and thinks it's because she ate a whole bag of licorice allsorts. Maybe her immune system didn't cope with the sugar influx. Then it's on with the reading. It's June 1983, and I learn that Australia had Norgen Vaaz ice cream, a riff on and rip off of Haagen Dazs ice cream. Who knew! Not me! We talk about the similarities between the Trading Post and Facebook Marketplace, and how going back to school feels years after you've left. Mum's reading a book called Total Fitness and is getting a bit spooked in the new big house in Camberwell. John McEnroe is still causing trouble at Wimbledon and Mum is watching a lot of films (the era of the video library has arrived!) -- Caligula, Jaws, The Sting and The Education of the Baronness -- one of granddad's. Then mum steps on some glass in the kitchen and has to go get it taken out at a medical clinic. There's a nice meal at the family French restaurant (Le Surcouf? Le Secouf? sp??) with the NZ fake ex wife and her daughter, and a ski trip is in the planning.As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listeningWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

We talk about how we both think that kids should just eat the food the parents are eating, that they shouldn't have separate meals, and then also talk about tween LilyWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

Content note: more talk about food and diets+In this episode we find ourselves back in June 1983, and Mum is back from Sydney. The big news is she's moving into a house in nice Camberwell with Granddad (and not into the lounge room of a drug flat in St Kilda!) But before the reading we have a duck update from the Elwood canals, the lowdown on what Mum's working on for her fourth novel and I manage to out myself as a writer as well.o onto the diary reading. Mum's packing for the move, she's sleeping in her fingerless gloves -- she tells her diary, as if that's soooo cool -- and eating midnight pizza and souvlaki at Twins, a Lygon St institution that's no longer there. Granddad is dating someone called Gloria and Mum has no memory of this person. She's too busy looking at the Trading Post for photographic equipment, driving Liz to dancing class, and working out which colour doona cover to get: BLACK, and which colour to paint her bookcase: ALSO BLACK which is all VERY PUNK of her.She gives up smoking for a whole 4 days, is reading broadly from The Faraway Tree to The Day of the Jackal (literally) and notes that she's read 59 books so far in 1983. She moves into Camberwell and there's a five x 7-11 hunt for macaroni and cheese. After that, the first meal mentioned is Chinese at Louie's in Camberwell, the second meal mentioned is mashed potato and home and then the third meal mentioned is back at Ashburton. Things are tough when you move out for the first time at 19!!Mum notes that Dallas is very dramatic, and -- get this -- a highlight of the reading is the delivery of a colour TV and VCR which means video libraries are not far away! There are downsides to living with Granddad, and one is having to 'get nails' for his bedroom window (whatever that means) but the perks are having dinner with him at Cafe Sport in Carlton, where Mum has something called an avocado vinaigrette and she has to explain what this is to me. Then there's a trip to Inverloch where lots of port is consumed and Mum is happy that she has lots of books to read. All is well in her world even though 2025 Mum is concerned by her drinking back then.+As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listeningWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

We're back after a long hiatus so thanks for waiting for us! In this episode we have a few complaints (podcasting platform Riverside; the NGV's current exhibition of the impressionists out of Boston. We found it hard to be impressed by the impressionists get it?) but we also have a reading from May 1983 for you. Mum heads to Sydney - FINALLY. KON the VW beetle has been fixed and is in good nick (apparently, there are a few hiccups on the road including the 'G' light goes on. What does that mean, Mum and her friends wonder).They have a great time in Sydney, staying in King's Cross, drinking lots of beer (and an incredibly expensive martini for $4.60. Mum doesn't like it but which 19 -year-old does like a martini??) Also she sees Simon, but we don't get a lot of info about it (surprise surprise). There's a WILD night in Wodonga on the way up which sees 9 people packed into the beetle, as well as less than 3 hours sleep for mummy.An extended treatise on I Dream of Jeannie, the taping of records, and A NEW KITTEN. Mum makes a lot of assumptions that Gran will be on board with this - no wonder she was very strict with me about animals.And if you're wondering about the title of this episode, mum finds herself quite happily third wheeling her friend Sarah's romance with Phil from Allniters... the three of them even go to the revolving restaurant in Sydney for dinner!Meanwhile granddad is ringing mum to say he's got a house she can move in to - bye Sandi! - and granny is actually sending a postcard to the motel in the Cross. Typical granny!And then it's back to Melbourne and the reality of finishing the computer course, packing to move out and looking after an 8-week old kitten called Sid.+As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listeningWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

*** Content note: mention of hard drug use; violence+Part 2, following on from episode 7.It's early May 1983 as Mum reads on from her diary. She wakes from another late night with a wrecked throat (not remarkable) and mentions that she's using a 'Safeway Bag' as a handbag (which needs some unpacking lol see what I did there). She goes to see SCUM at the Ballroom, and talks about the girl who has a $20,000 'contract out on her'. Words like 'scrag' are used, and there's a fight outside the Ballroom. Between two girls. I talk about how I've never seen a fight in my life - at school there was one time when two boys were going to fight but a teacher walked by and nothing happened and the guys looked relieved haha.Then we're back at the 'Punt Road squat' - to me this feels so squalid and punk. Mum notes in her diary her three favourite actresses: Meryl Steep, Katherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. Meanwhile she's smoking and reading at work and - oh- types two invoices!Then it's off for a date with this mystery Rod from Yarrawonga. Wait til you hear how they 'met'.Mum's still doing the computer course, still checking real estate. She falls out of bed head first - remember she's on the top bunk.There's Irene's psychedelic party to get ready for, and reading Dennis Wheatley's The Satanist, and ongoing planning for Sydney in 18 days!!! +As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening.We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

What is Dramione, you may ask? If you don't know - and it's reasonable that you don't - it's a mix of Draco (Malfoy) and Hermione (Granger) from Harry Potter. And Dramione is specifically a genre of fan fiction that has proliferated online and which we talk about in this side chat. +Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

Here we are with Episode 7, part 1 of a 2-part recording on a Friday in early May. Yes we're a bit behind but will be catching up soon! We know how important it is for people to be hearing our current-day news close to real time. The 1983 readings? Well, they are timeless. But these days when we record we seem to go for hours and so have to split the gold! As well, I'm all over the place (Seattle-London-Antalya) while Mum is actually bed bound. We're not up to that yet in the podcast. But yes, another horse fall but this time so uncanny and ridiculous; did not match the injury! She's fine but we'll talk about that at a later time.)To the episode!We talk about a new passion of ours: line dancing. We talk about eating Nepalese food in Brunswick. We talk about how triggered I used to get during the Lion King Mufasa death scene and we'd have to ffwd.Then it's onto a SIDE CHAT about Dramione - Harry Potter fan fiction, or more precisely Draco-Hermione fanfic. We've taken it out of the main episode so you don't have to suffer through it if you're not into it. (We stand for consent even if the fanfic often doesn't.)Into the diary reading, it's 1983: mum's talking about restarting something called Image Fix Fanzines with her new friend Sandy (Mum's had a look online, can't find anything about it). There's a gig at the Aberdeen Hotel in Fitzroy to take some photos of (guess who) No Nonsense. She's still house-hunting with Sandy, and Dee might also move in. There's a mysterious call from 'Rod' in Yarrawonga and for a minute we think it's skinhead Rod (spoiler: it's not), and there's a fight with my uncle that results in spilled apple cider, whatever that means. Was there shoving? We don't know.Mum banks a $500 cheque - woo hoo and we talk about how cheques worked. She tapes the punk show on PBS, plans the Sydney trip with her friends, and talks about the 'new space-age phones with press button dialling' at work.We marvel at how technology has changed since the '80s.+As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

In 1983, Victorian pubs didn't have pint glasses, it was just a glass or a pot. Who knew? Not me.This is part 2 of the previous recording, where Mum just carries on reading her diary from 1983. It's her first Friday at home for more than 3 months and I'm kinda impressed. Though her reading is funny: she toggles between Sex Pistols books and Jill's pony series. Cute.Simon seems to have vanished off the face of the earth and we think mum maybe sent another letter, and she worries in the diary that she's 'scared him off'. But not to worry, there a Triple Ska night at the Ballrooms, and a 'fight' between Skins and Mods versus Yobs at the Scene Club. And if that wasn't enough: No Nonsense are going on Hey Hey It's Saturday, a show with an ostrich puppet that mum insists wasn't for children. I don't get it.+As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!