Everybody's Working For the Weekend

I was going to do the usual Friday, end of week, light and frivolous 'working for the weekend' thing but was distracted and sort of got into an 80's diatribe:

Remember the 80s? Brilliant! I had the hair . . It was the only decade where my mad curls found their natural habitat, where I felt comfortable rising with bedhead that just needed a lttle 'zhoozh' and off we go. Others paid $50 for spiral perms. I'm not sure how to spell 'zhoozh' but I had it. Jeans or flares flowing tops, b-i-g belts and weird stuff in your hair. Masses of curls . . pert enough not to wear a bra and far too much eye makeup. I had a great job, great guy, great family . . happy times before the fall.

Yuppies were everywhere and remote control's weren't. Kylie loved Jason, Freddie was king. Glam Rock was born. Michael Jackson still had a nose and poor old John Bonham choked on his own spew. Band Aid was born and we heard the birth of the power ballad.
Phantom was at the Opera! Too poor to go out much we had big Barbecues and BYO. It was BC (before children) in the early years followed by a total boobfest as we delivered our progeny in succession - we were all young mothers and after work drinks with loads of the ankle biters around were par for the course. We had shoulder pads that would make a Samurai shrink like a violet and power dressing definitely on the Agenda.

Women began to be recognised as equals and our idea of video gaming was a Nintendo with PacMan or Donkey Kong. We all messed about with a Rubic's Cube and Harrison Ford was drop-dead gorgeous. Rainy days were spent playing Trivial Pursuit. Lucky kids received a Cabbage Patch Kid for their birthday and the boys all wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Microwaves got smaller and Walkman's were everywhere. Aerobics was the exercise of choice and I bought my first Compact Disc (ahem . . Playschool . . .) Beta and VHS were still arguing over who would rule. Brand names became vernacular and we all wanted Nikes and Raybans. The boys wanted thin leather ties and scrunched up their suit sleeves to look like the guys in Duran Duran. Cholesteral was discovered (boo hiss). MTV was cool and Australia hit the world stage with that lame ass movie Crocodile Dundee! The yanks pretended to boycott the Olympics then smashed the Russian Ice Hockey team to win the gold medal. In Oz the mullet was born . . .
Sky television invaded our rooftops with satellite dishes and Australia won the America's cup only to have the sponsor of the boat later jailed for fraud. The Cosby show ruled the roost, big breakthrough for American Blacks and East Enders depressed the brits. It was Speilberg's decade with Raiders, The Empire Strikes Back, ET and we all sulked along with the Breakfast Club. . .

I'm sure there was shit going Thatcherism gripped the UK and the Brits took on the Falklands. The poor old pope was shot but the Berlin Wall came down . . In Australia, a Trade Union President became Prime Monster and served for nearly the entire decade pre-empting the 'recession we had to have'.

Most exciting . . I had babies in 1984 and 1986. Family was strong and happy, everyone was alive and lively . . .It was a decade of music, madness, children, get-togethers, solidarity, happiness and abject sadness but . . boy did I have great hair!

OK it's music Friday and the pop charts of 1985 might have looked a little like this:

Wham!'Everything she wants'
Simple Minds 'Don't You Forget About Me'
Tears for Fears -'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'
Harold Faltermeyer - 'Axel F'
Sade 'Smooth Operator'
Madonna 'Crazy For You'
Murray Head 'One Night In Bangkok'
Billy Ocean 'Suddenly'
The Power Station -'Some Like It Hot
Howard Jones 'Things Can Only Get Better'

But because it's Friday, here's something truly 'gay' (a word of the nineties that has no correlation to sexuality . . )