Look what I found in my loft... fantastic 80s albums!

Hi

I've been sorting through the endless boxes of stuff stored in my loft over the past few days and I found my beloved 80s albums!

Wham 'Fantastic'! I absolutely loved wham and this album is very precious to me because it was a present from my grandmother. Shirlie Kemp has a beautiful blog which is well worth reading - I love her style. This album is my favourite.

A-Ha were another band I loved. 

Next is the Housemartins. I loved this band and went on to love The Beautiful South too.

I love Madonna's music, but only the older stuff - my ipod is full of it!

Scritti Politti weren't one of my original favourites, but I did love their music and still do.

No one could understand me liking Bronski Beat, but I went on to love The Communards. I saw them at the Oxford Apollo in 1987.

These are just a small snippet of my singles collection:

*Tina Turner*

*Band Aid*

*Bananarama*

*Thompson Twins* (reminds me of babysitting)

*Whitney Houston*

*Tears for Fears* (my friend bought me this for my 14th birthday)

*Frankie Goes to Hollywood*

*A-HA* (I played this song over and over again!)

*Wham*

The first single I ever owned was by Dollar 'Shooting Star' - sadly I have no idea what happened to my copy. It was a birthday present when I was about 6 or 7.

The first single that I bought with my own money was Nick Heyward 'Blue Hat for a Blue Day' I can actually remember going to buy this in High Wycombe.

The first album I owned is pictured above; Wham 'Fantastic'

The first album I bought myself was the a-ha one.

Sadly I don't have a record player :-(

So I store my records in the loft and look at them every now and then. They hold positive memories for me. Music has been and always will be very important to me.

What was your first single or album

Thanks for reading!

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Baking for the freezer, decluttering the loft and baby Daisy.

Hi

Just lately I've been doing a bit of baking. The problem is that everything seems to get eaten too quickly and then I have nothing left for the family pack-ups. So now I try to batch bake and put some bits aside to freeze. This has worked quite well and I've found that fruit cake freezes really well (I hate fruit cake!)

Today I have been really busy sorting out our loft, so it was handy being able to get a fruit cake out of the freezer for the others as I haven't had time to bake. I have found some really interesting things from my childhood - I am a dreadful hoarder! However, I have recently been inspired by reading other people's blogs to declutter properly. I obviously can't throw away items from my childhood because I have kept them this many years (I'm 41), but I have reduced the amount of birthday cards etc. I have been keeping them since I was 17 in 1988!!! Sadly there have been a lot of bad people in my life and I have felt so good to rid myself of them completely by throwing away those cards. These are people who only pretended to love and care about me and my family and now I have erased as much as I can. It may sound strange that I have thrown away my 18th birthday cards at this late stage, but the family I had then turned out to be pure evil (a strong word but a necessary description) and don't deserve to take up space in my loft or my memories, I still have numerous cards from my children and my husband, but that's about it. The loft sorting continues tomorrow...

On a happier note - my lovely daughter is having a baby and 2 days ago I felt her kick!!! We could see little flickers and feel tiny little kicks. She only weighs 2lb 10oz at the moment and has been predicted to weigh 5lb at most at birth. There have been many health problems along the way for Alice and the baby, but she is still growing and can stay cosy in her mummy's tummy for a while longer. Alice is being monitored every week by the hospital now and having growth scans fortnightly to check the weight gain and blood flow through the cord. We don't expect her to go full-term, but every week we get to is a bonus for the baby to be born healthy. I have bought some premature clothes ready and tiny little nappies for her. I'm so excited, it's just what my family needs, some happy news!

I had a bit of a 'use-up' from the freezer for tonight's tea:

Fish Pie

I took 3 portions of cod in butter,

(bought for Alice but she threw up one and now won't touch them again!)

and put them in a shallow oven dish.

Next I made up a packet of parsley sauce (approved food)

and poured over the fish (adding a little milk).

I sprinkled on some frozen peas and then

I boiled and mashed a large pan of potatoes and spread over the fish.

I made a pretty pattern with a fork and put it in the oven for 45 mins (180 oC)

I served it with carrots and broccoli.

(Alice had a chicken breast instead!)

My husband said it was really nice which I wasn't expecting because I was just using stuff up before it went out of date. I have a huge struggle trying to get my children to eat fish. No time to make pudding today, but this is what we had the other day:

A strawberry victoria sponge cake with fresh cream!!!

Thank you for reading and please follow me ;-)

Mandy xxx