Live the Pooh way

Don't Look Back in Anger.

Some people say never look back. I say, do look back but follow the wise words of Oasis.

Don't look back in anger.

There is a massive difference between the two. It's ok to look back, now and again. It can be soothing, like a comfort blanket. Even though sad things happened, they are past tense and you don't have the fear of the unknown  because it is all known.
Your past made you you. Some people may not wish to look back at all. The today and tomorrow are more for them. At the moment, revisiting the past and reliving events is really helping me.

It's lovely remembering people and places from my youth and having 'remember when' conversations with people who I've shared different parts of my life with. It is about having stories and funny anecdotes, not about the material things.

I find I'm being reminded of things and people by a smell or a saying. Perfume is a massive memory booster.

I loved buying perfume back in the 90s. There were so many interesting bottles to keep after! I loved Vivienne Westwood and Anna Sui, probably because you always got a free bag!

My fave perfume for going out and dancing was Angel. I've worn it for the last few years and it has brought back some fab memories!

The other perfume that brings back lovely memories is the perfume my mum wore when I was little, Coco Chanel Number 5.

I used to love watching my mum getting ready for a Dinner and Dance, back in the 80s. Mainly ones held at Keresforth Hall and Brooklands. I'd help her tong her hair and pick out a dress with her. I loved those curlers she'd let me put back when they had cooled.

I'd look through all her jewellery as she was getting ready, trying on different necklaces and bracelets. I longed to be a grown up lady, wearing high heels and a floaty dress.
Roses are my favourite flower and they are so nostalgic. Yellow ones are the most fragrant. I love reminiscing about being outdoors in the summer holidays. One of the things we did was making bottles of perfume with the rose petals.

We loved making daisy chains and blowing the clock dandelions.
He loves me ... He loves me not...

I love the idea of always looking on the bright side. Probably something that comes easier as a child! I definitely see a hundred wishes!

Music brings back so many memories too. It really is a fab time machine to zoom back down the decades.

I do this next bit all the time, especially with fab 80s and 90s tunes.
'Walking on Sunshine' takes me straight back to the dance floor when I had enough energy to dance all night!
When I hear Ace of Bace and Robin S, I'm straight back in Magaluf, aged 18. Brilliant memories!

The songs bring back so many amazing memories, not just of a time and place but of the friends and family you shared them with. The songs also remind you of the person you were back then. I was watching Glastonbury the other night, feeling tired, when The Cure came on and before I knew it, I was up dancing. I might have been in my front room but in my head, I was back at The Whispers Student Night, docker clad with pint in hand.
'It's Friday I'm in love.'

So many songs bring back amazing memories of birthdays, parties, holidays and nights out. Too many to write on here! Music is so magical in that it automatically transports you back. I lpve listening to The Beatles and The Stones as I'm back with my parents in the home I grew up in, singing along to each song, memorizing every word. I love hearing snippets of 'Agga Do' and other daft party songs that take me back to carefree family parties, just as 'Superman' takes me back to our Junior school discos. Such exciting evenings, eating Space Invader crisps from the tuck shop in between dancing!

There are way too many fantastic songs from the 80s to list them all but I love to hear them on the radio, especially Debbie Gibson. I'm back with my cut off jeans, pumps, denim shirt and scarf in my hair singing 'Out of the Blue' into my hair brush.

My friends and I always danced in our rooms to songs and one of our faves was Whitney's 'I wanna dance with somebody'. We made some right dance routines!

When I looked on Pinterest for Madonna, I found this poster advertising the Who's that Girl?' tour in 1987. Now that brought back some great memories of my first ever live concert at Roundhay Park, Leeds.

It was funny the other night, reminiscing with a friend and Wham came up. Before we knew it, we were both singing the 'Young Guns (Go for it)' song. Our daughters were just looking at us dumbfounded! We then went straight onto Club Tropicana, drinks are free!

I realised I'd been singing quite a few wrong lyrics over the years, just learning it rote from my cassette. It was a B side track! My friend jokingly questioned why I hadn't learnt the words when song words were printed in Smash Hits every week! Loved reading Smash Hits from cover to cover!

I remember spending hours and hours cutting out song words and factfiles for my many pinboards in my room! When I think back, I can see a black and white photo of Madonna and the lyrics to Belinda Carlisle's 'Circle in the Sand' cut outs!

Oh my goodness, my 80s, then 90s bedroom walls! I preferred my 80s: bright yellow and green walls filled posters, even the doors! Most posters were from Smash Hits and Just Seventeen. You could see the staple holes in the double page spreads. I also had the poster posters that were rolled up when you bought them, my fave being my Top Gun poster. And even a few from Athena! Yes, I had THAT one!

Remember postcards? I loved sending and receiving those and I had loads on my door. I still do send postcards now. Although, by the time you write them and get stamps, you've come home! I'm an old fashioned soul though and cling on to these lovely, old traditions. I loved writing letters, most of my friends did! We had pen pals we got through school and I had one in Germany and another in Sheffield. I loved using stationary packs that were Christmas and birthday prezzies, especially my Bramley Hedge and my Victoria Plum ones, with little pictures on the paper and the envelopes! This brought back memories from Pinterest!

I am old fashioned and I do try to hold on to the past and old fashioned things. I'm not very good at moving with the times, just ask my fellow teachers about my response to my beloved blackboard leaving my room and the new Smartboard taking its place. I'm still deferring getting a kindle because I love the feel of paper! I'm a pen and paper, book loving kind of person.

I look back fondly on my school days, especially Infant and Junior but then, they were the days where we just went out and played Rounders if it was sunny and we'd worked all day. Or filed into the Hall for an extra sing song to Waltzing Matilda, Lily the Pink and my fave, A Mouse lived in a windmill. Such a creative, spontaneous time to be educated. Those rose tinted glasses are back on! I'd love to go back to my school days, perhaps just for a week or two!

Playing out too! This photo of two childhood friends brought back so many amazing memories of all the kids on the street playing out till all hours, carefree and enjoying life as it was, absolutely living in the moment. Those long summer holidays that stretched out in front of you. Happy days of adventuring and exploring on your bikes, down by the pond and in the meadows.

We had this new, modern mindfulness sorted back when we were kids in the 80s, just as our parents did in the 50s and 60s. We are constantly told now to 'live in the moment' and to appreciate the here and now, which is great, but hard when you are trying to analyse how you are living. Have I lived enough in the moment today? Perhaps we need an app on our phone to tell us? Or a fitbit with an extra button to configurate how many moments were appreciated properly? Well, back then, we just enjoyed it. Overanalysing, for me, came much later and I definitely made up for it! Growing up, we lived pretty much day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and squeezed every minute out of every minute! My friends, family and I, we didn't realise just what amazing memories we were making. Memories that make us smile when we revisit them.

I made colourful scrapbooks as a child of places I'd visited, I have hundreds of photos in many photo albums that I love to look at. I love looking at my parents' old, sepia photos with aunts, uncles and grandparents in the 50s, 60s fashions that I'd love to have worn. It's great hearing the stories that go with the photos too!

But the best memories of people and places are in your heart. They never leave you. They are tucked away, waiting to be brought back out.

Just like that 8 year old, listening to Danny the Champion of the World being read to them by their favourite teacher. That 8 year old is still there. Along with the 11 year old doing handstands and cartwheels on the school field. As is the 15 year old dashing out to go sledging and laughing as they sped down the hill, or the 18 year old excitedly drinking their first official pint of cider.