The hunting ground (VOL.6, 1983)

This is part 2, carrying on from episode 14 which published last week.Welcome back! We are straight out of the gate, talking about a talk show called Donohue, and also about granddad and Passout Bronwyn, poor Bronwyn. We have pictures from that exact night (mum thinks) you can see on insta please don't sue us. We talk about how a Minister for Astrology woudl be a reasonable thing government initiative and the changes it would create for workplace culture. We like the sound of it!Meanwhile in 1983 Doraine is back on the scene, mum's going to see the Allniters and No Nonsense for a change, and she's disillusioned about relationships without even having had one - she's just observing everyone around her. But to keep herself occupied she's thinking about getting her hair 'tipped' and putting polish on her nails at 4am cause that's what you do when you only have to do little bits of work now and then. She goes skiing at Buller (see insta for pics of that trip) and there's a little Jay angst, maybe triggered by being back in the snow country. She gets described as reggae/punk at a party (and is quite pleased it seems), drinks coffee at Toppolinos and now is reading Princess Daisy, a bit of a change from Christiane F.We finish the episode by again commenting on how interesting it is that diaries as a form of record and expression, that whatever the function or intention, we edit as we go. Mum says there are details she hasn't put in that she clearly remembers (like the penis on stage during Equus) and likewise there are things that are in the diaries that she just does not remember at all. We think that's ... interesting.This is the second last episode for the year. We're hoping to have a Christmas special for you in the lead up to Chrissy Day.+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!

We are on to Volume 6!!! But as we discuss in the intro, it really does seem to be taking a while to get through the months.We start out with an early catch up about our Vanderpump Rules rewatch -- and because we don't want to force anyone to listen to our goings on about reality TV we made it a side chat. We talk about being in the burrow, being out of sorts and on edge and blame the planets. Mum talks about her 2025 obsessions: the Brontes, hacking and the more recent one: Tarot. My obsession with Dramione continues but did have a bit of a pause there for a while.Onto the reading, it's July 1983 and mum finally buys her photographic darkroom equipment, sets it up in the laundry then goes to dinner at Lygon St. We talk about grandad's pool of women and how mum manages to get a sunburned face in JULY. But she's happy with her darkroom and printing 'lots' of pictures including one of Sid the cat > check our instagram to see that!In the diary there's a new plan to go to New Zealand to work and ski, and outside the diary in 2025 we talk the new Frankenstein film, neither of us loved it (apart from the aesthetics) don't come at us!!!Mum's still reading Christiane F 'the drug book', the beetle runs out of petrol, mum goes to the office and 'does some typing', and is still sleeping in and still staying up late. She goes to see a play, Equus, at Monash Uni and there's a man naked on stage. She sees Apocalypse Now for the first time and loves it, and the episode ends with her dropping someone from Sydney off at the Aquarius Budget Motel in Carlise Street, St Kilda.This is part 1 of the reading session. Part 2 will follow next week.+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: we only talk about reality TV in this, specifically Vanderpump Rules, but some other shows get a mentionWe'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

We start off and mum is out of sorts, blaming the cold snap as well as Fast 800. She is also considering a bath which is a HUGE step after her breaking her knee. We discuss the strategies around getting her in, but more importantly getting her out.The diary reading begins with mum and my uncle stranded in Mt Beauty after the VW bug KON breaks down on the mountain. Mum is thinking about Jay, her cold hot tub crush. Back in Melbourne there's a lot of shopping, mum gets a cold AND her period, and there's dinner at Le Secouf again with the ex fake wife.There's Lygon St, a couple of cops who break into a car to move it (because it's boxed mum's car in where she parked in a laneway) there's the Espy and a young Irish guy telling mum he loves her, upon sighting her.We talk stalking these days v the old days, how many ships in the night there were back in the '80s, and mum makes a list of why she might expect to hear from Jay.Mum and I wonder whether guys pine the way we do, and we talk about how women can obsess, how it just doesn't seem like a fair playing field. And then a list of reasons why Jay may NOT get in touch.Mum's really in her video era: there's many trips to the video library and many watchings and rewatching of films, a sign of early binge tendencies. A new age!Mum says she's starting a photography course on 1 August but then there's a plan to go to Auckland and work there for a few months. Also a plan for a bookshop in Melbourne. All over the shop.A day's skiing at Mt Buller and bent stocks -- remember to lift them up when the chairlift approaches the ground again kids!!Locked out of the car in the carpark and two nice guys in a panel van next door give Mum and E some hot milo. Mum says they were very kind but neither of us mention the risks of taking a drink from strangers, apparently not a thing to even think about back in the '80s???And we finish the reading with finishing Volume 5. I won't say we're racing through but we are getting them done, slowly.Happy listening and next ep we're on to Vol 6.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!

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!