My Mum's Bad Diaries: Recent Episodes
Jenny Ackland and Lily Ackland
You're invited to eavesdrop as a mother reads out her teenage diaries to her daughter. Funny, candid and outrageous, this weekly podcast is both living memoir and an investigation into what makes (and breaks) a woman. No scripts, no prep; just 40-year-old gold being unearthed. Even Jenny doesn't know what's going to come up as she lays bare her inner world to Lily. Their motto is 'we go there', so what could possibly go wrong?
We're straight into the reading and it's a short ep this time around! Sorry but we were pressed for time and needed to just get it DONE.
Mum has her waitressing gig at the Palais and then goes shopping at Swan St, Richmond. She's developing photos for her folio, so I'm glad she hasn't just ditched that idea (after the robbery I'd understand!)
Mum talks about gran's 'yummy dinners' and we talk about meal anxiety these days, and mum tells me she and Mario are going to make their own sausages soon. He got the skins and she has the mincing equipment. Just need to do it!
One diary entry has 'a very interesting and NOVEL day' and mum then proceeds to relate how she lost her (new) camera. She doesn't write it in the diary but is 100% sure she put it on top of the car and drove off... There's more nachos + margs and sleeping with boys (I mean sleeping in the same bed, and how hard she finds it with another body in the bed).
We talk about the importance of giving and receiving cards (is it a dying artform, like leaving notes for people?), then it's on to hymens. A No Nonsense mention then a bit of trouble in paradise with some emotions coming up between mum and P.
And finally after a late night seeing the Allniters in Armadale, mum goes home and 'eats the legs off [granddad's] lobster' and watches the end of a Bronte doco.
What a life was had back in 1983!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Is it possible to spend a whole 20 mins chatting about MESS? We say yes, absolutely. We open up by talking about the problem of 'stuff' and our ongoing inability to find specific 'stuff' in the mess. I'm on the melatonin hunt (a big jar of gummies has gone missing) because I'm off to Europe and need them for the plane! I also can't find half of my travel stuff. Mum suggests it might be in one of my top cupboards at home: I'm happy to report yes it was!
And this episode, I find out we have 10,000 downloads which is pretty exciting, despite me always wanting to rationalise that they aren't full episode listens, but anyway...
We start the reading and mum is at Inverloch with friends, and getting used to having a man's body in her vicinity. There's a 7-11 hunt for, specifically, noddles and/or Mac'n'Cheese. A trip to Richmond Family Planning Clinic -- for thrush meds and the pill -- and a 3-bedroom house in Glen Iris for $45 a week. Crazy talk.
Slowly things are progressing with pain and blood. So medieval. Mum develops a cold, she waiting for a cheque for $100, still reading Agatha Christie, and that's the episode. This is part 1 of the reading. Enjoy!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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And we're back, straight into the reading with part 2 to Wunderbar.
Mum is seeing a lot of Patrick; there's kebabs, hot dogs, Maccas and Pizza Hut, and we remark on how our girl eating (and going to Golden Bowl) goes out the window when there's a boy on the scene.
In this episode mum manages to lock her keys in the car TWICE and gets them out herself with a coathanger. Did you know it can get pushed in between the rubber around the door and the window and then down inside to the door knob? It can! Or rather it could, maybe not these days.
It's Halloween and in addition to getting a free bottle of champagne' at Taco Bills (mum's latest food obsession) there's a thrush alert. There's also the return of the thick hymen talk... sorry, we seem to be back in Season 1 territory.
There's the Melbourne Cup and 11 bottles of 'champagne' in the Botanic Gardens, in the sun. Mum is confused by the sitch with Patrick, it's less than 3 weeks and he's saying 'I bleep you'. She's full of self doubts and wondering what love it, ah that eternal question. She can't sleep properly when with him -- the breathing -- but she keeps on with her life; working at the Palais (St Kevin's Valedictory Ball, a Tattooists Ball in the Stardust Room), and she's reading Patrick recos: still on the Jim Morrison bio, and then moves on to... yep, you guessed it: The Beatles.
And then there are all these notes in the back of mum's diary: notes from Patrick and they make me cry. They are sweet and romantic and they make me sad. When did we stop writing love notes to each other, it's a tragic loss.
Finally, mum hasn't seen or heard from P for two days and she's yearning, ah it's love! There's no feeling like it.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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This is Part 1 of a mega recording sesh.
First we have an old person catch up (all things health including mum's knee and her new laser acupuncture appointments) and then it's into the reading. We're back to aerobics and something called 'lurex' in terms of exercise wear. Fom the internet: 'Lurex® is the registered trademark name for a type of yarn or woven fabric that incorporates metallic fibers. It is typically made by vaporizing a layer of metal (like aluminum, silver, or gold) onto synthetic plastic films, which are then cut into ultra-thin threads.' Well that sounds scary.
Mum's reading throug a VUAC book (listing the uni courses, we think it stands for Victorian University (we get that bit right and then go off piste), it's Admissions Committee, not whatever we say. She wants to apply for a few courses including photography and journalism. Not letting a little thing like the theft of her Canon keeping her down for long!
Along with all that she's still working at Leader and keeping irregular hours. She buys the Superlash mascara. Patrick rings and she writes 'he was a cutie'. WOAH.
There's more nachos (naturellement, mon ami), then a visit to Patrick's place and in the notes here: 'Music sting' haha. They're leaving notes for each other all over the place it seems, including on cars. I tell mum about the 'fixing spray' trick in dating but it seems like 1983 mum doesn't need my tips: there's the delivery of a single red rose and a card saying TIME IS FREE. A first date, to Apocalypse Now (such a boy movie, I try not to chortle) and the reading of a book 'Patrick lent me' : a Jim Morrison bio.
What fascinates me is the almost immediate integration of family and friends. Like there's no waiting for months, no real 'dating' as we think of it now. Just lots of kebabs and beer takeaways and driving around. But it's cute!
Listen in a fortnight for Part 2 where it gets really interesting! It's romantic! I cry!
ENJOY.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!
We start recording while I'm out back sunning myself and mum is in studio, she understands how I like to multitask. We talk about health stuff then Summer House, and then it's onto the reading! October 1983 and mum is still picking up SCV folders and driving them around, is reading a Jackie Collins novel while being a little nervous about sleeping in the house by herself, after the robberies. She's sleeping with her 'trusty Stay-sharp knife', a classic '80s product it sounds like. Watching All The Rivers Run on tv, keeping the ongoing irregular hours, writing about Richard Gere in her diary: this is the day-to-day life of my mum.
There's the new job too at the Palais in St Kilda. The ESSO annual ball (good tippers); the KFC annual ball (shit tippers) and then a long section of writing where mum ponders what she wants to mean to the world. There's a new plan: to live in Hollywood for a few months (thanks Jackie Collins!) and then a literary dinner at the Palais.
Finally a day in mid-October that she describes as 'exciting, traumatic, hectic and fun'. A dinner with granddad that goes awry and involves an argument and tears, a party in Kew where mum loses her purse and 'meets a boy' (PATRICK!). Driving around Melbourne in the rain picking up Liz from a party, dropping her at Ashburton and then running into granddad, driving him home to Camberwell and then back to the party, all with Patrick along for the ride! Mum finds her purse! They go to Patrick's for 'coffee' and it really is coffee, they don't even kiss.
Then the next day mum is feeling sick and thinking about Jay and I wonder how much of an impression Patrick even made???
Listen in to hear how things go. We have entered the Patrick era.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We're straight out of the gate into the reading, back in September 1983, as this is part 2 of our mega-recording sesh.
Mum has a sore throat and is feeling 'rotten' so no Golden Bowl, is doped up on Sudafed and something called 'Disprin' but thinking about her photography folio for RMIT and raking in the cashola from Leader: $160 in folding this week!
Her nights are spent watching shows like 'I want to be a nun' and wondering whether granddad is, he's out late and sometimes doesn't home! And the Melbourne Show is on, and mum takes herself off with her camera to take pics for the folio, but ends up only taking ONE. She thinks now, from her 2026 viewpoint, that she was probably lacking in confidence, but then granddad gives her her money. Is this the $800 he owed her? The diary does not say.
Mum manages to get a job at the Palais -- she turns up thinking it's an interview but he tells her to get changed and start on the floor. She does drinks waitressing and gets $4 in tips and then promptly loses $2.
We talk about Buffy as a name and can't think what proper name it's a diminutive for, but we googled since recording: ELIZABETH.
During this episode mum goes to see Sydney ska band Allniters twice (once at somewhere called the 'Prozzie Hill' and the other at The Prince Of Wales, I know that place!! And there a 'cute guy' asks mum to a party in Fitzroy but she doesn't go, there's that lack of confidence again.
Hawthorn beats Essendon in the Grand Final, mum goes to Inflation and the America's Cup start is postponed. There are vol-au-vents for lunch (!!!) and 1 x oysters kilpatrick and 1 x spaghetti marinara, not all together.
Cat Sid gets sick and mum makes a note to buy 'Yardley black eyeliner (soft)'. We talk about the history of eyeliner in some detail, from the ancient Egyptian times to Amy Winehouse, mum tells me about a show called Return to Eden, we discuss our questionable work ethic, and then Australia wins the America's Cup and mum's work (Leader) bring out the champers at 11AM. Wild.
The F-Plan diet appears again, and mum is really happy to tape the end of a song on the radio. Then the house is broken into, and mum's camera is stolen. Two days later the house is broken into again and while mum deals with CIB cops, Sid is diagnosed with cat flu. Must have been all the outdoor prowling he was doing.
Poor Sid! Poor mum! Dramatic times!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we talk about food, diets and bodies
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We start with a position of the planets catch up because this is an astrology podcast now. But mum isn't the only one pre-occupied with the stellium in Aries, at Coachella Madonna was as well! We acknowledge the energy has shifted, it's a bit chaotic and a bit disorganised but better all round than a couple of months ago. This is good news for all who feel it.
Before the diary reading, we talk about what it means to decide to be a person who 'does stuff' because if we want to get shit done we just have to do it. We catch up on my latest mini-break and journalling my feelings versus recording just 'what happened'. We talk abotu Clavicular and agree he's not okay.
Oh and mum finished East of Eden in about a week, and we have no major TV updates (this was recorded just before the big scandal broke on Summer House).
Onto the reading and we're back to 1983, and mum's recording the answering machine message for grandad's business. She has a script and everything and we get to hear what it was, with a 2026 rendition!
Mum meets ANOTHER photographer who offers to help her with her folio and I suspect the universe is just throwing photographers at her, that's two in a month. But instead of working on her folio which is due soon, mum goes to Inverloch with a friend where a man strips off nude in the pub and they miss out on winning the raffle lobster (it's won by the fish and chip man). Mum's obsessing about the film Breathless (with Richard Gere) and having lots of SNACK ATTACKS which involves driving up to the shops to get ice creams.
There's Allniters at the 'Prozzie Hill' pub in Kew, more aerobics at the Golden Bowl and taking her sister to careers night.
This is part 1 of a longer recording, part 2 in about a fortnight.
Enjoy!
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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!
Apologies to Margot, we call her 'nipples' during this side chat.
Martha Sitwell is our new icon. ex eife of a baronet (who she cheerfully says rests at the bottom of the aristrocratic hieracrchy), Lady Martha Sitwell is fabulous. She lives in a rental with large sections of peeling paint (just needs a 'lick of paint') and shares her home with a magpie called Hecate -- she shares her martinis with her as well.
We are obsessed and this is ladies of london. You're welcome.
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It's September 1983 and mum is counting coin, that's 1c and 2c pieces!
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Our intro, we range across some TV catch-ups including a quick Southern Hospitality chat and Summer House (this is PRE SCANDAL!) We talking failing men, so what's new, dating, the idea of say less (and do less) and even touch on phrenology.
Then it's onto the reading. Back in 1983 Mum writes in her diary that she's a bit depressed, she gets her period and hasn't been to Golden Bowl in a while. She's still reading The Hite Report, and leaving the window open for Sid to get back into the house at night. Mum talks about wanting to laugh more and we acknowledge how easy it is to lose the silliness and playfulness of younger years, and how men are good for experiencing this. Yes, you read it correctly. Men are good! They don't sit around talking about their feelings all the time.
Jay from skiing pops up in mum's dreams, and probably because she's reading back through her diaries, to the time a few months ago when she was up at the snow. And in addition to boy yearning, she has money problems. Granddad hasn't paid her - he owes her $800! - and she's drinking lemon squash at the pub and borrowing from friends (to go out to dinner... mmm...) And then there's a 'big fight with dad' at 1.45am one morning. Light on details as usual!
Mum runs out of petrol in Box Hill, on the way to Leader, and leaves the Beetle there and catches a taxi to work, probably using a CabCharge docket. When she rescues the car the nice RACV man loans her $3 worth of petrol.
She has chops and dried biscuits for dinner and watches Barefoot in the Park, and goes to RMIT open day for the photography course she wants to do next year. With an intake of only 28 students it will be competitive, but she is determined! Go mum!
America's Cup is on, and then there's a late dinner with granddad in Lygon Street, after 1.30am which is mad, as well as continuing work cycles of typing one invoice per fortnight and having to get his saline for his contacts.
THEN there is a cultural moment where mum has Mexican food for the first time, at Taco Bills. We think this is the first time she's ever had nachos. She finds it amazing.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Strap yourselves in because we get our scathe on in this side chat which is possibly our longest! We wonder if Emerald is okay. We talk about how this is a scrapbook of a film, a Pinterest board if you will. To start with we cover the plot and characterisation, we talk about the character of Isabella, sexy Joseph, the villainising of Nelly (and of course she's a Lady, she's the daughter of a lord). We talk costumes and even get onto sumptuary laws. Hamnet gets a mention but most of our time is spent on Wuthering Heights, sorry 'Wuthering Heights'. Enjoy.
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And we're out of the gate with a quick acknowledgement that we're both feeling better than we did 2 weeks ago, mum is reducing her coffee, it's an ongoing odyssey for some reason, and then we move on to the graveyard of boys and their birth charts. Never give a girl your birth date and year let alone your birth time and place. It's on you! I'm hoping for a second burst of summer and am exploring some therapies - reiki, massage and therapy therapy! My challenge is how to learn to be settled in one place, I think there are some shifts! We have a quick Summer House recap because we can't help ourselves (our girl Ciara! Westling! (quite a cool name), and this leads onto a chat about standards, and the eternal conversation about women and men.
Then it's onto the diary reading and back to 1983, Golden Bowl aerobics, videos at Camberwell and shopping at Ojay! I notice that mum's doing a lot of driving as per usual, and she has vol-au-vents again as well (we did too, the night before this recording, as evidenced on our insta account). There's lunch at Berlitz Cafe in 'town' (does not turn up in a google search), dinner at Cafe Sport in Lygon Street (doesn't come up with google search either).
Mum does some SCV work and types an invoice and puts $10 deposit on a dress at Ojay, and goes to see Breathless with Richard Gere (famous blink actor, and we're reminded of Ryan in The OC, another eye actor). She loves Breathless, she loves Richard Gere.
Of course there's a No Nonsense gig and I ask mum were there ever any new songs, she says maybe sometimes but people liked the old ones they could dance to. Then she's out to Eltham with granddad to a house built by ex-prisoners where she drinks 'beanshooty tea' and negotiates the purchase of a bohemian lampshade. I'm confounded by how mum can be so sangfroid about these interactions... she thinks it's her Gemini moon.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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A catch up of all of our shows: Love Story (CBK and John John, which seems to go awry Episode 6), Summer House (sending love to Ciara), Love is Blind (and our learning a new term along with everyone else: hobosexual), Southern Charm and Craig's dirty edit, our VPR rewatch (we're up to Scandoval now) and RHOBH and our take on newbies Amanda Frances and Rachel Zoe.
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!
Content note: murder talk
How do Virgos rate in the serial killer stats? Pretty high. One slide we saw had Sagg at 4, Virgo at 10, Gemini at 9 and Pisces at 7. You can read more about such stats here:
https://www.zodiacsign.com/article/most-common-zodiac-signs-of-serial-killers/
And yes, even though in this side chat mum says Cancer didn't feature in that particular slide in the above link Cancers are high in the numbers.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!
Hello and welcome to MMBD, season 5! We have a lot for you both today (episode 1) and coming up next week (side chats plural! There's my theory about Virgos and serial killers plus a mega TV catch up).
But first, a content warning for this ep: we talk about weight, we also talk about astrology as is our tendency. You've been warned.
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We start off as usual with a catch up -- my new flat and how hard it is to choose paint (the best pink is Taubman's Cristabel btw, save yourself some swatches and samples: https://www.taubmans.com.au/paint-colours/pinks-and-reds/cristabel-F8E8E3) and we also touch on mum's knee, her tarot obsession and how exhausted we both feel. Also, did you know Cancers are mentioned in the Epstein files more than 1200 times (mum is quite smug that Sagg is only mentioned 4 times). We touch on Paris Fashion Week, Max the 10-yo and Matières Fécales which mum calls Satanic but then a day after recording actually said she'd read that it was a critique of all things modern and extreme.
Then it's on to the diary reading and we're back in 1983, and one day mum's reading Princess Daisy (chick lit) and the next They Used Dark Forces (her favourite Satanist novels). She's planning a school reunion with friends and also manages to meet Gerry, a 'professional fashion photographer' and they 'exhange business cards' which is lol. The photographer says he did the Aquasun ad (we can't find it online) and also shot Isabella Cowan which we did find (see Vogue Australia June 1980 and she also has an insta! She married Peter McNamara the tennis guy).
There's a sleazy bet involving Gerry and mum, he tells her she has nice hair, but mum's suss and just focuses on going to Golden Bowl and Karl of Switzerland to get her hair 'tipped'. There's a party in Prahran with a 'Sid Vicious' cutie Ben, the typing of a single invoice and delivery of it to Leader in Blackburn.
Granddad pitches another bookshop idea this time with a different girlfriend running it with mum and a plan to go to New Guinea????
Mum sees Flashdance twice -- she tells me it's about a girl who's a welder by day and dancer by night -- and goes to posh drinks at the Hilton Hotel. There's more No Nonsense including a drunk night in Glenroy. One more spaghetti marinara for the tally and we get sidetracked by a great business idea: an '80s-themed aerobics/cocktail/movie night hotspot. Seed investors: GET IN TOUCH1
Finally, an emotional dinner with granddad who cries over a poem written for him, and mum tells me the other times he cried: over football and an obscure town in France which Australian soldiers 'saved' in one of the wars.
Oh and here's a recipe for a Fluffy Duck cocktail:
30ml Advocaat
30ml white rum
15ml Cointreau
30ml cream
Shaken with ice, topped with lemonade.
(Not made with Creme de Menthe, not green. 25-50% accuracy!!)
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!
It's the last episode for Season 4!
Join us for a quick Christmas debrief as we catch up on December 2025.
Merry Christmas to everyone and a happy and safe New Year. We hope 2026 will be a really fabulous year for you!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!
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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'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 mention
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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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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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.
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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!
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening
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we learn what reply guys are. do you know any?
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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.
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Content note: more talk about food and diets
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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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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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 Lily
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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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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*Content note: mention of hard drug use; violence
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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!!!
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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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.
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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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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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.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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This is part 1 of this recording session, with part 2 (Episode 6) to follow in a fortnight.
We start our chat with a catch up on Life: but I start out by saying how good mum is at Garage Band, and she tells me how she fixed the family kettle back in Ashburton years ago, one of the old ceramic Hecla electric kettles. (In the ep we don't know the name but we Googled since!) I also hear about a yacht problem-solving time at Lakes Entrance, and we mention the Bennington College podcast, which we're listening to on our morning walks. Mum catches you up on her latest horse fall and a CT scan. Also a pocket knife story from when she was about 10.
Alma has had a lion cut and it was traumatic for everyone, and we talk about Severance and the finish of the season (in fact we get testy with each other as we totally disagree about it. SPOILER warnings obvs, and you can hear that little argument in the SIDE CHAT). Put it this way: I was burned by LOST.
In the reading, mum has a drug talk with granny and Paddy (or probably they talk to her, because she is coming home at all hours and going to parties where people are doing heroin... fair that granny might be worried!)
She's also hanging out with people who steal cigarettes from the Prince of Wales, so there's that as well. Seeing more bands, at the Chevron, still on apartment hunt, and I do feel sorry for my aunty as mum was climbing into her top bunk sometimes at six in the morning, when the poor bottom bunk girl had school!
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Enormous warning about SPOILERS. But if you've seen the second season of SEVERANCE, listen in and see whether you agree with Mum or me, as we disagree on several points!
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Content note carries over from the first part, which was Ep 3 (food, weight, eating, diets etc)
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Welcome to the second part of the diary reading, where Mum continues on with her 1983 life. She cooks a roast, she likes Rod, she goes to another party, in Lygon Street. Getting into punk: there's bands called Justifiable Hatred, Depression. You get the idea. She goes to Smear's house in Caulfield and Spike's house too, and we wonder whether these are private school boys just going through their own punk phases, PROBABLY! And to top all that off, there's Rat's 21st party to look forward to.
And with plans to go to Sydney at the end of April, it's just all happening.
Woo hoo.
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!
What can we say. We hate watched some episodes. Those of you who know us know we don't love the Meghan.
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Content warning: LOTS of food and body and weight talk. Also a lot of jacket talk.
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Mercury is in retrograde and we're grumpy, but we make it work!! I talk bone brother and village soup recipes while back in 1983, mum is obsessed with getting rid of the matted bits in her hair ('dreadlocks' she calls them. Sure.)
She's thinking about Simon a lot. There a day of car trouble. We talk '80s cheque and banking conventions as well as the virtues of a leopard skin dressing gown. Oh and there's a $1 deposit on a 'fab Strummer* jacket' at another op. shop.
Lots of looking for flats and there's one in Kew that has caught mum's heart, while she also tries to do computers, which means reading a BASIC programming book and going to a night course.
Fun times in 1983!
- Joe Strummer from the Clash
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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While MAFS was one of grandad's shows, we'd never watched it until recently! Here's our chat about it, after pounding through most of the episodes within a week.
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Content note: food talk, exercise talk, weight talk
Apologies the sound quality is NOT GREAT... back to our normal crystal-clear audio next episode!
It's 1983, still Feb and we both Mum and Bret Easton Ellis are seeing the Psychedelic Furs. (I don't know who they are of course!)
We continue straight on with the reading. The letter from Simon has come and Mum show the influence of his writing style in her diary entries, with lots of 'n's and dropped g's... it's embarrassing but totally understandable.
Expecting to be doing some driving if Simon comes down for a weekend, Mum fills the car with petrol and then YES Simon rings at 5.45pm, asking for to be picked up at 7.15pm. They go to the Ballroom and see the Psychedelic Furs upstairs (and in a cross-time, international parallel; we're listening to the Bennington College podcast and Bret Easton Ellis also talks about seeing the Psychedelic Furs in 1983. Wow!)
There's books (Dick Francis, The Dice Man); films (The Clash's Rude Boy, Emily with Koo Stark -- Mum has to explain what all these words mean) and a new obsession in the form of John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols Band, Public Image Limited and a particular song (Flowers of Romance???)
And then to finish up, Mum's in bed with the biscuit jar while also trying to glow up with lots of jogging up at the park. There's a fabulous 'leopard skin dressing gown -- double breasted.' There's also the federal election where Bob Hawke gets in AND of course (you thought we forgot?!): NO NONSENSE.
Current shows mentioned WITH SPOILERS: Severance, White Lotus, Southern Charm, Love is Blind and Inception the film.
And we think people who are dating men should have a look at Daddy Academy:
He's on Instagram but you can also find him on TikTok.
See you next time!
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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!
Content note: diets, food and weight.
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It's the first episode of season 4 and this one is all about noodles, breakfast of champions for the young back in 1983.
It's February 1983, mum is staying with girlfriends down at Queenscliff and the big fires are happening. Gran is ringing worried but all mum seems to care about is reading a new book Tom, being interested in a photography course, the F-Plan Diet and the No Nonsense merch: yoyos!
Mum's also waiting for a letter from Simon from Bristol, who's gone tobacco picking, and then one arrives!
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As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We continue our Boxing Day bed-chat with an up-to-date missive from Haworth, epicentre of Bronte Country. We talk about our visit to the Parsonage Museum, the church where Patrick Bronte was the minister. We also talk about our walk on the moors, up to Top Withens, the setting for the house Wuthering Heights in the book.
We're now on hiatus until March next year. Join us then for Season 4!!
We're in the UK. lying in bed on Boxing Day after a big lunch yesterday, lots of British Bake Off, and -- believe it or not -- church and needle point.
How very Bronte of us.
We are in fact in Haworth, village of the Bronte sisters, but in this part 1 we catch you up on our travels since early November.
Simon is gone and Mum’s trying not to write about him in her diary!
So she plays guitar and goes to see bands, and of course watches TV – The Partridge Family, Gidget, Young Doctors and Rock Around the World, and Carson’s Law.
We have the vivid summer memory of picking up the school books from Campion and we also have ‘yet another dinner stuffed at the Dragon Phoenix’ with Grandad/Roger.
We become confused by ‘mewing’ and all-round Gen Alpha terms before getting back to the ‘80s and Mum’s burgeoning dreadlocks – you read that right, she wants hair like Nina Hagen and Ari Up. Oh and we hear about Mum’s idea for a novel which is pretty cringe – there’s ‘Anna’ and ‘Miguel’ and a kidnapping Count on the horizon!
Links for mentions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Partridge_Family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidget_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Doctors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson%27s_Law
T.I.S.M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TISM
https://www.languagetransfer.org/
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This is part 3, and we’re straight into the reading (continuing on from last episode).
It's a short episode 22, and Mum is in a shit with Granddad though it’s unclear what about. She tries to drive to Black Rock beach and can’t find Black Rock beach!
Then heading back home ,there’s the wall of dust, yes! Melbourne’s historical dust storm that turned the streets black with the dirt blown from the Mallee. Hottest Melbourne day ever: 42.3 degrees.
And while there’s always exact attention paid to the date at the beginning of each diary entry, things are light on the detail front when it comes to filling all of us in about an argument with Roger. As Mum writes: ‘Haven’t heard from dad, time will tell.’
But back to Simon: it’s six days until Valentine’s Day and Mum is hopeful. Plus she finds $5 on the dance floor at a No Nonsense gig at the Village Green: worthy of celebration!
Lily: Aren’t you bored of seeing No Nonsense?
But I am amazed at 1983 prices: a glass of red wine at Leo’s in St Kilda: 70 cents! More bands, more NN, Corpse Grinders, Allniters and even UB40, from the UK.
And wrapping up with a trip to Queenscliff with girlfriends.
All the good '80s fun-times!!!!!
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**We learn a lot about stone in this episode!
This is part 1 of a mega recording push, with part 2 to publish on 19 December and part 3, well we'll publish that on the same day as part 2. Why not, it's the festive season.**
Lily has the imam and his wife coming to afternoon tea and her linen pants are ruined because of stone dust after visit to the stone men. Yes it’s an update on Lily’s life in south of Turkey where she’s living with her father, and we also have Jenny’s current fixation on a couple of Australian celebrities…
We talk about boundaries in relationships and how important they are, and how nobody talks about them (or we’re only just starting to now). And a couple of questions: Have we lost the art of short term flings, or love affairs? Will Andrew Garfield and Chicken Shop Date girl, Amelia Dimoldenberg, get it together?
As well, there’s a slightly disappointing Adam Ant reveal... grand plans and all that.
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Content note: mention of sexual assault
It’s still January 1983 and we wonder: skin diving – is it a thing?
We continue straight on with part 2 of the reading, continuing from last episode.
There’s more about the Sydney trip and it seems it might be off due to parental opposition, but then just as quickly, it’s back on again. And there’s a struggle to cook eggs for Simon from Bristol, and then Jenny… drives Simon home. Again.
Shortly after, down at Inverloch, she starts reading The Story of O, Pauline Reage and then there’s the first mention of roll-your-own cigarettes. Jenny manages to lock the keys in the car twice and also manages to get picked up on Middle Park Beach by two German tourists, Wolfgang and Michael.
Meanwhile Simon is away picking tobacco in rural Victoria. And of course there’s another mohair cardigan on lay-buy.
It’s just all happening.
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This is part 1 of this recording, with part 2 publishing in a fortnight.
We start off with a Lily travelogue update including a Britboy update, also a Jenny riding – and falling – update
And then we’re back in January 1983. Jenny is trying to tidy her room, she plans to drive to Sydney in the VW Beetle with her friends and her mum is opposing the idea. Finally also there’s some Simon from Bristol action but Jenny is wary. She organises to defer uni and then goes on a date.
Talk about a happening Jan!
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In this segment from our 8JUN record, Lily tells us a bit more about britboy. Does he see her as a pocket girlfriend, or is it her who sees him as a pocket bf? These are only some of the questions Jenny has... Listen in for the lowdown. (Apologies for being so late with this, we had to wait a bit... had it hidden on patreon but NO ONE LISTENED.)
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** Content note: a bit of weight talk
It's another side chat and it's all TV... we talk Kardashians, ozempic, the crab theory, and choosing unsuitable people. There's a BritBoy update along with more relationship insights. The big question is, though: how many times can Jenny say 'cinque terre'???
**Link you probably won't be interested in but here they are anyway:
Indy Clinton on tiktok**
https://www.tiktok.com/@indyclinton?lang=en
Kardashians
5 seasons on Disney
Millions of earlier seasons on HAYU
the crab theory
there's the 'crab mentality' as described in this blog post
and then there's what Lily was talking about, the idea that given long enough evolutionarily, we will all develop into crustaceans. you can read about that delightful and very non-nightmarish idea here.
* Content note: mention of suicide
We’re back to diaries and it’s late December 1982… Jenny has a new-found ambition to be a ‘successful musician’ (because she learned some chords), and to get a job in London. She hates ‘everyone’ because they don’t ‘take her seriously’. Ah, to be 19 and totally delulu.
She goes to the Ballroom, for the ‘Punk Revival’ night; sees bands Genocide, Depression and The Boot Boys. Jenny tells Lily about finding a No Nonsense page on Facebook, run by Richard, lead singer.
There’s a beach party at Middle Park, she’s reading Lolita (‘very interesting’) and there’s a discussion about the idea of ‘ethical reading’, with a lengthy Nabokov tangent. We talk sculpture, and Bellini, and then it’s back to the Ballroom and Simon from Bristol is on the scene. A Christmas party at Jenny’s cousins, then Inflation for a boog.
Simon from Bristol (let’s call him SFB) gives Jenny and Dee a guitar lesson in true 1980s flirt-fashion; they learn the Clash’s White Riot which is basically two chords. Jenny mentions wanting to buy some new records: Derek and Clive’s Ad Nauseum, and the Damned’s New Rose. She recommends looking up the video on youtube: ‘it’s good!’
Then we have one of J’s origin moments: when the guy tries to push her in the pool but she doesn’t let him: she pushes him in! Haha, it’s SFB!
Then it’s NYE ’82 with a Hawaiian-themed night at the Aberdeen Hotel, with No Nonsense playing, and Off Beats. J ‘beats’ Dickie’s girlfriend to the midnight kiss. Then it’s off to Tony the sax player’s sister’s place in Rathdowne Street for a party. The night is long, with Jenny and Dee walking up the hill home in Ashburton at 7.30am. See, even the mothers can rage!
We have some links if you're interested:
Article when googled: ‘Would Lolita be published now, what was the reception?’
https://lithub.com/how-would-the-publishing-world-respond-to-lolita-today/
Giovanni Bellini, Italian sculptor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Bellini
Depression (punk band)
https://beat.com.au/depression/
Genocide (maybe) (another punk band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Hopkinson
Local identity Debbie Dinosaur who let Jenny and Dee dress up in her vintage '60s mod clothes one night:
https://2017.mpavilion.org/collaborator/debbie-nettleingham/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/3rrr/30498329763
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Follow Jenny at @jenny_ackland
Click to head to our website to read more about My Mum’s Bad Diaries
Content note: mention of EDs and weightWe catch up with Lily’s reading, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, SPOILERS obvs but it was published yonks ago, unbanned also yonks ago, so we don’t feel responsible for any spoiling.
Other cultural touchstones mentioned:
Twilight – books and films
Harry Potter
The Smart-less Podcast and their interview with Kristen Stewart
The Jill’s pony books by Ruby Ferguson
Mortal Instruments series
Vampire Academy
True Blood
Dead Until Dark, the Charlene Harris series of books that True Blood based on
Buffy
And then there's:
How Stephenie Meyer was the first to deal with teen themes of love and romance
American Sweethearts, Victoria as a tragic character
Southern Charm and the Lewis Ice Bag and mallet
We also talk about:
Parents who kiss their children on the lips a la the Beckhams, children and boundaries with body autonomy, why the world is obsessed with blondes and thinness?
An abrupt ending where Lily struggles to get out of her building and Jenny is left asking if she can hear… Bueller? Bueller?
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Follow Jenny at @jenny_ackland
Click to head to our website to read more about My Mum’s Bad Diaries
In this catch up, Lily dials in from Ortigia, Sicily to talk about having deliberate alone time, needing to find the balance between being with people and being on her own in a mindful way. There's also 2nd thoughts about going to London for the Henley Regatta and to see Britboy, along with lots of insights and learning. We talk about the perils of a long-distance thing (not even a r'elationship'), the feeling of being in limbo, and the art of detachment. The concept of 'leaving quietly'.
Do we need to have as many boundaries with ourselves as we do with others?
What would 25 dates in the shortest amount of time be like?
Why do we do this to ourselves?
We consider all the big questions here at MMBD.
Accounts that might be interesting to you:
The Daddy Academy
Sasha.withlove
TikTok tarots:
Danielle Ingenito
ALI's Tarot
Secret Tarot
Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
Follow Jenny at @jenny_ackland
Click to head to our website to read more about My Mum’s Bad Diaries
In this recent recording from last week, we chat about Lily's housesitting for 10 days in the wonderful English countryside. Horses fish birds vegies flowers summer heat and a feral cat, as well as a gorgeous Tudor house. Tudor, not 'Tudor-style'.
Lily also visits a historical house nearby, rambles the country lanes and picks blackberries from the bushes.
All very Thomas Hardy.
Warning: there is a seriously tortuous discussion towards the end about some kind of cowboy novel that we just can't think of. Listen at your own peril. It's quite Kafkian and probably very annoying.
Content note: fat talk, food talk, beauty talk
In this episode, Lily learns what it means to have a bad fringe.
Starting off, we have a Lily update and catch up where she’s at in the world, her filler/scar/fringe updates (see fringe pics on insta) and then move onto the diary reading from 5 December 1982.
Jenny’s life, she says, is ‘reading, writing, listening to music and going out’… pretty typical for most almost-nineteen year olds. She doesn’t really want a job in a shop or restaurant; she wants to ‘be creative’. Also, she is entering the guitar phase and in this episode purchases not one but two electric guitars. There’s more CB eyeballs, the continuing rise of ambition, going to the tennis (it is the Australian Open, despite Jenny thinking it wasn’t), cutting ‘little spikes’ in the top of her hair. The Volkswagon Beetle ‘needs a new valve’ and is going to get panel-beaten by a mechanic named Bruno.
On the live music front, Jenny sees Hugo Race in Plays with Marionettes at the Seaview Ballroom, calling Hugo ‘incredible’ and ‘a genius’. (Small segue here: Hugo Race also played with Nick Cave, and with Nick Barker who was Dee’s sister’s boyfriend at one stage! Hugo also had a small role in Dogs in Space, and a friend of Jenny’s from drama at college also had a small role. Connections!)
But back to the diaries. Jenny is annoyed by the gender stereotypes she identifies around her (though she doesn’t have that language to describe it). She goes to see the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, sees Class of 1984 and buys the first electric guitar from ‘Shower Peter’ from the CB. A few days later, she buys some combat boots and a second guitar from ‘Anglesea Harry’. She’s reading Christiane F, still going to the Spaghetti Tree, spending $10 at the newsagents and drinking a whole bottle of claret on her own. Oh and there’s Midnight Oil at the Astor Theatre, a new t-shirt design, playing tennis on the road, going to the Aberdeen Hotel to see her fave boys No Nonsense, her dad Roger being kicked-out from where he’s living, reading Lord Edgware Dies (Ag. Christie) AND meeting Simon from Bristol at a party. Interesting.
Extra links:
Hugo Race piece in Overland, 2014
https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-216/feature-hugo-race/
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Content note: racially insensitive language, body and weight talk, food talk
And we're straight into reading: it’s 28 November 1982
J is working at St Kilda Road, on the general ledger
J and L still don’t know what a general ledger is so here’s a link from the people who know at Xero:
https://www.xero.com/au/glossary/general-ledger/
There’s more CB radio talk than there is accounting talk, thankfully. Jenny chats with a whole list of young men (YMs) on the rig, and has another eyeball in the local park, with Jeff (not a train guy). And younger sister Liz is talking to Brett on the radio too. There’s some parallel showering with Peter who sounds like a massive spunk, and also some talk with John, Tony Wombat One, Monique, Paul and train man George.
Monique and her boyfriend come over to the house, and Jenny gets tracked down by spunk Peter in his white panel van (or maybe Monique’s boyfriend gave him the address??).
Jenny is reading Orwell’s 1984, going to the tennis at Kooyong, getting a sunburned face and watching the last Nightmoves for 1982. She manages to finally do the Leunig t-shirt and goes to the party in Box Hill where she sees the Bad Bros and chats with Vincent, the Zap courier who she quite likes. There’s ‘another anarchist poem’ and Lily tells Jenny that she’s like ‘every 20 year old boy I’ve always hated’ because of her propensity to talk about Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
Jenny has thoughts around sex: ‘what’s the point?’ and tips into an existential angst spiral, and revisits her desire to ‘be special’ and ‘be famous’.
In non-1982 chat, we talk about the Nickolodeon doco Quiet on Set, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and Vanderpump Rules.
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It’s 24 November 1982 and there were all types of spaghetti restaurants: Tree, Theatre and Graffiti!
We go to the Seaview Ballroom in St Kilda, to see Allniters, INXS, Soldiers of Fortune and No Nonsense.
We have more sunburn, more disillusionment with uni, more thinking and more existential angst. There’s a bad poem: Do Something, a party upcoming in Box Hill and an English guy at The Ballroom tells Jenny she looks like Janice Joplin. Jenny isn’t sure this is a flattering comparison, but Lily says she’s had a few people tell her she looks like JOHN TRAVOLTA and then Jenny says that when she met Lily’s dad he used the name John and said that people said HE looked like JT as well!
Jenny earns $18 at Roger’s work and buys two Juke magazines. She does three Johnny Rotten sketches, we hear more about the Osborne computer and the acoustic coupler. Meanwhile in Turkey, Lily saves a drowning beetle and we reminisce about the AA Milne poem Forgiven, about Alexander the beetle.
We hear about Jenny putting off looking for a part-time job, and stunningly she writes: ‘I find things of the past losing value eg Adam’ !!!
But nevertheless, life goes on. At the Central Club Richmond, to see more bands, developing a ripe smoker’s cough and getting told by a skinhead to ‘cheer up. Life’s not that bad!’ Reading Indecent Obsession (Colleen McCullough), seeing New Order (‘boring’) and The Saints (‘less so but not fab’) for $8 at the Ballroom, seeing the Bad Bros at the gig, along with stepsister who tells Jenny about Roger being kicked out. ‘At least three other women involved’ doesn’t sound very good.
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** Content warning: brief mention of self harm/cutting
This is part 1 of this recording session; next episode publishes in two weeks
Have you ever wondered what a 6-hour Whatsapp chat must be like? Join us for a taster!
In this episode, Jenny learns more about Lily’s beauty treatments in the South of Turkey, and you're along for the ride. Nails! Hair! Face fillers!
We catch up with Lily's movements since we last recorded, and about how she also reverts to ‘child role’ when in a domestic space with her father. She’s made an emergency flight to Antalya, then to where her father lives in Kas to drop off her winter stuff, extra suitcases and pack for European summer.
Then it’s some chat about J’s wedding anniversary, and then MORE chat about suitcases, packing, the 4:4:2:1 method which Lily avows she would never use (more like 12:12 or something like that!) Lily’s dad Ali called her a ‘fashion girl’ and Jenny says she’s been a fashion girl since she was four!
Then we get deep and Jenny talks about how important it is to say the thing, rather than keep the peace, suppress or self-censor. Especially as women we have to practise saying the thing, and the sooner we can learn to do so, the better for us.
Lily takes Jenny into the laundry (and Jenny sees one of her delicates bags – she did give Lily permission to take it but only realised the other day that Lily left behind one with a broken zip…)
We end the chat just about to read. Part 2 next time.
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We jump right into the reading as this is essentially part 2 of the last episode where we used up all the time just chatting as we are wont to do
We hear more about the CB radio and Jenny’s addiction to it (there's a 'big fight' with brother Jim because he won’t let her use ‘the rig’. Lily laughs about Jenny using the term ‘the rig’ and rightly so because it’s very 1970s CQ CQ Rubber Ducky trucker talk. But the thing is, Jenny is chatting to Brian and George, local station masters and then in this episode, even organises an ‘eyeball’ (face-to-face meeting) at the Camberwell Hotel. But before that, she goes to a gig at The Sentimental Bloke in Bulleen because her new fave ska band No Nonsense are playing (it’s only incidental that Jenny and Dee stay for the headline act: INXS.)
They stand right up the front at the stage, which is only about hip high. No Nonsense are great as usual, and then INXS also good, the highlight being Jenny salvaging a guitar pick (asking a bouncer to get it for her) and Michael Hutchence grabbing Dee’s hat off her head and wearing it for a song (not mentioned in the reading; but has come back from the memory storage facility since recording this episode!) Jenny reads about getting an empty Carlton Draught beer can that Michael drank from at the Uni Beach Ball and sticking it up in the corner of her bedroom as a trophy, where she could look at it (and the guitar pick) from the top bunk.
After the gig, Jenny and Dee sit outside and start chatting to a guy (‘really good friends of No Nonsense’ ‘went on the tour with them and Strange Tenants to Sydney’) and he gives them the lead singer’s phone number!
And there's more: dreams (with teeth falling out); and she still doesn’t have the Hobby Tex paint. Jenny recounts her delulu efforts at being a copy writer, and we talk about whether delusion is necessary for anything creative to get done, and also how you can lose the juice by talking about something too much.
And now, the eyeball with the train men George and Brian. ‘Brian is funny’ and it seems Jenny might like him, but then she and Dee burn off to The Venetian Room ($5 admission) in the VW Beetle to see No Nonsense who are doing their second gig of the night after supporting INXS (again) at Bombay Rock. ‘We are gradually establishing ourselves with the people surrounding the group.’ Lily asks Jenny why she didn’t become a groupie and Jenny says probably because she was still a virgin.
We also hear the first mention of smoking: ‘I’m smoking too much. Ten last night and ten tonight.’ As well as more about t-shirt designs (a really big ‘NO’ and a really small ‘Nonsense’ underneath…)
Jenny’s still re-reading The Wolf and the Dove; she goes to a cast party for Godspell and deems it ‘boring’; then heads out to dinner with the family to Spaghetti Graffiti and ‘sulked most of the night’.
There you have it. More gigs. More t-shirt ideas. More crushes. More wonderful goings on, from November 1982. Enjoy!
Links:
Sid Vicious singing My Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyb_alTkMQ
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Apologies for Lily's sound quality here
This episode we’re dealing with the tyranny of distance, struggling to find time to record. The solution? Split the episode in two which means in this ep you get quite a bit of chat, with a Lily Paris update and then some TV talk.
We hear about the perils of a matte black kitchen, what happened to Lily’s head in Thailand, and something about homesickness (short lived!) How meeting people while travelling is almost the best part, and a consideration of Paris v London.
Then it’s onto the Beverly Hills Housewives recent season’s 3-part reunion, as well as Baby Reindeer, and a bit more on the Bravo-verse with mentions of VPR and Winter House. If you don’t know, you maybe don’t wanna.
Spoilers obvs.
Finishing with how NOT to open a bottle of bubbles with a sabre, and the associated risks of being a ‘yes’ person.
We finish just as we get to the reading, sozzles. But we never said we’d be consistent or reliable. We just need to keep getting the episodes OUT.
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We’re off and running, following on from the previous episode with no intro! And it’s doubly exciting because it’s the beginning of Volume 4! In this episode we cover a lot of ground, in the readings and in the in between bits (IBBs, aka the chat). Jenny skips most of the dreams, Lily says ‘great’. It’s ten days until exams but Jenny’s got other things on her mind: how to pin the tuxedo pants, how to acquire more t-shirts, how to have someone famous love her and how to open a shop (t-shirts naturally!) Oh, and she also wants to get ‘Luigi Vercotti’ sunglasses. A quick Google reveals who that is – a Monty Python character. There’s a long list of what she’d like to put ON the t-shirts as well as a long list under ‘please don’t sue us’ at the end of the episode, including short men, activists, Barnaby Joyce, Kanye, anyone who wears Kanye’s sock-pods, George Orwell people (again!), any literary prizes, the Bronte estate, the Jane Austen society and ‘scarf women’.
And in case you think Jenny from nice-girl Ashburton can’t effect an east-end Cockney accent in her diary entries, think again! ‘F***ing ‘orrible it was’ and ‘wot will I do wiv meself?’ Meanwhile, Lily adds ‘radio announcer’ to her delulu list of jobs she thinks she could do (remember actor? F1 driver??) We talk about humour and how sometimes it’s the only thing the powerless have to subvert authority, and we get scathing about B Joyce and how women are never treated so gently when they fall from public grace (Jenny does feel a little sorry for him, if it’s a substance issue). We chat about Gaza – finally, we go there – and Jenny says she thinks she might be self-sabotaging re the exams. If she doesn’t try then that can be the excuse for failing, some sound logic there!
We decide our brand is ‘we don’t know anything but we can Google in real time’ and also usher in the CB radio era, where Jenny talks to Peter, Fred from Mildura who may or may not be very short, and finish up on Taylor Swift getting the Kelce ick in real time, and indulge in some light conspiracy theories. Enjoy!
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Yes, you read the above correctly, we are moving onto volume 4 BUT in this 50+ minute episode we literally only manage less than ten seconds actually reading the diary. The rest will be in episode 5, sorry about that Chief!
So what you will actually hear in this ep is stuff like:
Lily's struggles to dye her hair; my struggles with ancestry.com; how Lily will be a Mac (Apple) girl forever because of Air Drop; the approach of Lily's 10-year school reunion; a bit of Jenny's grey hair history; the Turkish hatred of a draft; how Jenny finished WIFEDOM and more of our thoughts; Lily's Jane Austen binge (her fave is Persuasion, but she also thinks Mr Knightley in Emma 'is such a vibe'. We cover TV (One Day) and film (May-December) and start reading the diary at 53:29 and there's no time left!
Correction: not Erdogan's wife with the sky-high heels that the Queen was bemused by, but the former President Abdullah Gul's wife.
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We're approaching the end of 1st year uni and ALSO the end of Volume 3!! With around 30 volumes to go we aren’t in danger of running out of material any time soon.
In this episode Lily shows her ‘scathe’ for Johnny Rotten’s somewhat naïve, 1980s punk philosophy while Jenny’s feeling sorry for a character on ‘80s soap Sons and Daughters. Jenny’s also determined to lay a good foundation for the skin cancer that will rear its ugly head in a few decades time (don’t worry chaps; nothing too serious!)
‘I want to learn tap dancing’ is the latest thing on Jenny’s mind, along with thin thigh exercises and her very important end-of-year history essays and upcoming exams. The other thing is the designs for ‘big t-shirts’ and Sweaty Weather, which she goes to see AGAIN. She’s looking for a housekeeper/nanny job and applies for one in Sarth Yarrah, is thinking about a perm – spoiler it doesn’t happen. She buys a ‘Camberwell Bowling Hat’, 4 pairs of white socks, one ‘fab’ pair of men’s striped PJs and a pair of men’s braces at an op shop and reckons she’s getting a ‘bit browner’. She also gets her dad’s dinner suit and plans to pin the pants into jodhpurs.
There’s also: Amityville Horror, The ‘Mattress’ Circle, Swing Time w/ Fred and Ginger (hence the tap-dancing dream), the Chieftains (Irish band along with a Sinead O’Connor cameo), Madness, Le Joke, Strange Tenants, Altamount, a ska night at The Astor Theatre, the first time seeing No Nonsense (ska band), studying all night for the psych exam (ran out of time, did we Jenny?), seeing Jubilee for the FIFTH TIME (along with Emmanuel, lol, must’ve been the dodgy downstairs ‘art’ cinema again). There’s also Mick Jagger in Performance (‘weird’) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (‘even weirder but good’.)
We hope you enjoy episode 3, which definitely serves the tanning, the music, the films and a little bit of study. And the end of Vol 3!
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Welcome to the episode with perhaps the most 'cross strings on the FBI wall' yet.
Lily and I warm up by talking about the records I’ve recently purchased (as listed in the diaries: Secret Policeman’s Other Ball and Complete Madness) and then get-off topic pretty quickly and onto the recent rival royal appearances of William and Harry: both appearing with top celebs and both in an airspace context (Harry first with John Travolta at the ‘Flying Legends’ awards and then William a week or so later with Tom Cruise at the Air Ambulance helicopter event. We then get onto Catherine’s planned abdominal surgery and wonder whether the RF is falling apart, what with Charles’s health issues as well.
I finish writing my politics essay, go and see ska band Strange Tenants, and go to see a musical at St Martin’s Theatre: Sweaty Weather. I write that ‘it was everything I expected it to be’ and Lily calls me ‘such a theatre girly’ which is funny because I’m really not now.
We delve into the Sweaty Weather program, which is helpfully tucked into the diary, and find some familiar names: Julien (remember: he wore ‘ a sort of kilt’ in earlier readings) has a surname, so we madly google him and find out more! He was a rapper in the late ‘80s and – something I didn’t know at the time – in that ‘rap’ band performed with someone named Gumpy, who I knew when I was younger. Ah, Melbourne is really just a big town. Also in the program is one Alannah Hill, listed as an actor and so we look at her facebook page and find her Wisteria Hysteria Chalet in Daylesford! I have a couple of Alannah stories I share as well. And SW was written and directed by Hugo Race, who was in a band called Plays With Marionettes and now seems to be Alannah’s partner?? Oh such a tangled web of deliciousness.
There’s a pee break and bread dough coil folding, possibly in the same location at the same time. We talk about Lily’s political plans and how she’ll lead the revolution, and get back onto royals, particularly how rooted Monaco is, then onto some Kardashian business. Back to the diaries and I see Quadrophenia at the Valhalla in Richmond and struggle to describe the ‘Mod’ fashion/music/cultural movement to Lily. The episode ends with me studying for exams (it’s October), getting ‘The Cold’ again – whatever that means, and talking about a new book: The Sex Pistols File. Clearly not taking the studies seriously.
Links: Mighty Big Crime ft. Gumpy and Tricky J (aka Julien, the boy who wore a sort of kilt): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GqLL6hi_Ss
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We're back for the 2024 season! But Lily is out of the country, so we will be moving on the fly to bring you the ba-goodness of My Mum's. Nothing will stop us, not oceans and not time zones.
I'm doing the socials, so you'll miss Lily's fine wit but nevertheless, we are here to stay and will keep pumping out our content, even if things look a little different as we go forward.
In this episode we spend a lot of time talking and not reading from the 1982 diary - you know how it goes. We talk about the weird time of January, how Lily's travel plans changed quite a bit, and how she 'loves a long goodbye'. We talk about relationships, and how hers with Seth has sadly come to an end, but they're still friends!
We continue sorting through The Garage, and found Lily's Barbies, Bratzes and all of her Hello Kitty accessoires, but not yet her Barbie horses and stable and Polly Pocket car... I confess I don't remember a Barbie horse or stable. Maybe it's a childhood wish that didn't convert to reality.
In the diary reading, I mention reading Mommie Dearest (infamous book written by daughter of abusive Hollywood star Joan Crawford); I talk about the Davis Cup and how John McEnroe doesn't seem himself; there's another food oath; and Dean Lukin of weightlifting and tuna fishing fame pops up as well.
Finally, we get into Kanye and Bianca because who wouldn't under those sartorial circumstances???
Thanks for listening
-- Jenny
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I find out…
This episode I give a Very Important Health Update (I can’t eat starch or sugar for the next little bit which sucks!), we discuss our thoughts on film Leave the World Behind and the TikTok conspiracies surrounding the movie. We also chat about Wifedom, the amazing book that I’m reading, and read about 1982 Mum still slogging away at her English essay, continuing to listen to 3PBS, and the development of a new crush! Which she writes in the diary in the most cryptic way!
Mum also goes to see Void again (she’s hooked on that weirdness), rocks up at a house for a supposed party with 20 others only to have the door opened by the parents: a ‘posh lady’ and a ‘man in a playboy bunny robe’. She’s also back at Inflation where there’s an eclectic crowd of men in ‘business suits’, one guy in a ‘white tux’ with red ‘leg warmers’, and continues her own obsession with punk safety pins. She contemplates the furniture she’d like to take when she moves out of home, including her top bunk – unsure how that works – and we chat about the difference in bed sizes in the ‘80s to now.
This is also our last episode in season 2! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! We’ll be back in 2024
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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We talk about the new Netflix film 'Leave the World Behind'.
Spoilers -- obviously!
(Double spoiler: we didn't like it)
I find out… whose jacket Mum burnt a hole in!
We chat about Mum’s birthday weekend we just had up at the Yarra Valley, the horse ride we went on up there and Chateau Yering which was just full of character!
We also chat about the benefits of the cold shower in the morning (I’m a convert) and how my self-care routine has become a literal full time job.
We read about Mum listening to a punk segment on 3PBS, reading Clockwork Orange (can you guess a theme here) and pinning punk ‘beady-pins’ onto her t-shirt. We also read about Mum deciding to defer Uni next year, but still needing to pass all her subjects. She watches Taming of the Shrew – ‘so romantic’ – and begins her journey into avant-garde performance art by seeing VOID and KITSCH which were ‘fabulous!!!’ We talk about the bullshit that can go in the art world and what we think ‘good’ art is – yes we know it’s subjective.
We read about Princess Grace dying in a car crash, Mum visiting a cool and trendy apartment in Fitzroy, ‘hitting Inflation’ where she ‘accidentally’ burns a hole in Molly Meldrum’s jacket with her cigarette, as well as the long awaited Beach Ball where both Strange Tenants and INXS play.
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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**Content warning: we chew peanuts VERY loudly
And we have a new, shorter intro which we will record each week. Gets you to the chat and the diary-reading more quickly!**
I find out that Mum once contemplated taking up smoking a pipe…
We read out an email response that Mum received from Nell Campbell (Crabs in Jubilee) after contacting her earlier in the year and fangirling HARD. We chat about my 2024 travel plans, Jamie Oliver being in Melb- I seriously can’t believe I didn’t run into him- how I was a ‘Kodak’ child and had my brief 15 mins of fame and how one of Mum’s high school friends recently commented on one of our posts saying she actually met Adam at a party! We will hunt down the details and let you know once we have them!
We also chat about our never-ending battle with clearing out the garage, all the fun and nostalgic things we’ve found down there, and my and Jackie’s plans for each other’s funerals.
We finish reading Mum’s John and Betty story and hear about Mum picking up Grandad’s cigar box, going halves with Liz on a Police book, going to Inverloch with Sarah and her boyfriend and drinking a lot of ‘scotch and dries’ and having fun silly late nights. Mum’s on Uni break and dreading going back, she dreams of her childhood crush, goes to a Uni Beach Ball, meets a guy called Julian who looks like Roger Taylor from Duran Duran wearing leather pants and a ‘sort of kilt’ and who is ‘very very cute!’
We wrap up the episode chatting about how reading these diaries highlights how growth and change isn’t linear and how all the big and important stuff which makes us who we are is interspersed with lots of smaller things- the ‘in-between bits’ that just make up a life, with growing up definitely being a two steps forward one step back process at times. We also talk about how ‘relatable’ is a dirty word in the writing world and I have some, let’s just say, strong opinions on the state of fiction today. (Read more about relatability' in fiction -- https://lithub.com/why-i-struggle-to-relate-to-relatability/ )
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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Mum is home from her three month jaunt around Europe which included lots of cowbells – big and small – Paris, which seemed cheap after Switzerland, – ‘ it bankrupted us’ – and a Latin class with a Benedictine monk.
I, on the other hand, unexpectedly quit my job, moved back home and have spent the last couple of months looking after the (three!) cats while trying to figure out a business idea that’ll make me millions as I travel, and am trying my hardest not to think too hard about the fact that I’m right back to where I was at the start of 2020.
This episode, we chat about Robert de Niro having a baby at 80+, the never ending effort to tidy the house, how we have to get onto all the stuff in the garage, draped meats and how we loved the Beckham’s doco and are excited to watch the Robbie Williams doco.
We read about Mum putting olive oil in her hair, sleeping in a lot, painting, and typing her diary entries out on the typewriter because its more ‘professional’. Mum also goes to see Mad Max II which has the most hilarious character – the ‘dumb mechanic’ – and then sees it again at the drive in. We read ‘The Continuing Saga of the John and Betty Clan’ which is Mum’s observations of their neighbours, Mum goes to see INXS live at the Armadale, is deep into her Rolling Stones obsession, questions what she wants to do next year if not Uni, and once again manages to eat an astounding amount of liquorices – 10!
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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This is a special bonus ep, a SIDE RANT that ended up being more than an hour.
We talk:
- power bills
- politics
- the anger of the current generation against the older
- why Mum 'fell off the Marie Kondo train'
- going to see Barbie - spoiler, we did not like
- how much we hate emails
- wrong takes on Little Women
- the idea of writers building on other author's novels, eg March and Wide Sargasso Sea
- the cult of Anne of Green Gables
- would we ever do PhDs?
- the girls' trip to Airlie Beach
- 7 types of rest
- China limiting phone time for teenagers and do we need a benevolent dictator?
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Content note – we mention child killing and suicide
It’s pre-Barbie and we’re feeling good! Syncing to August 1982.
More psych studies, more Lygon St, some winter sun. More dreams, of course. ‘80s procrastination, dyeing of hair, another bedspread, more bands, more pubs. There’s an all-nighter to write the history essay, buying a book to learn guitar (what happened to the drums??) and it’s the final episode of Brideshead Revisited. There’s On Golden Pond and New York, New York, wanting to put olive oil in hair and finally: it’s the last episode until November.
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** Hey, it's Jenny here. Lily is off on a boat up north so I'm doing the ep description.
This is one of our famous* side chats, which is basically an excision out of the loose, baggy body of the longer recording. Sometimes our episodes are wildly discursive and this was one of them.
Lily starts by saying how much she's loving THE FEAR OF FLYING by Erica Jong, a book I recommended a number of years ago. She remarks on how the larger themes don't tend to change over time, because humans don't change.
She says the main character of FOF is not particularly likeable, but that often when we consider a character unsympathetic, we're reacting to the things we see in them that we dislike about ourselves.
We talk a bit about how in a long-term relationship it's hard to feel like an individual (we touch on this in the other side chat) and Lily asks: How do you retain your sense of self and individuality when everything about how we do relationships is to erode and remove that?
We touch on the (gendered?) fantasy of having a partner where the physical and mental attraction is total and balanced. And Lily has an epiphany about the 'myth of female inadequacy' -- which we've been socialised to believe in, all of us. Jong proposes it's because of the fallibility of the male phallus, the robustness and resilience of the female vagina, and we go CLICK!
I say that FOF is maybe a female answer to Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint (FOF published 1973, Portnoy's in 1969). I stumble around about Roth, wondering whether he's been cancelled (he is dead now), but some Googling reminded me what I was thinking of was that a biographer of his was cancelled, and that Roth himself suffered attacks on his reputation from the very beginning, with Jewish leaders calling him 'self-hating' and anti-Semitic, even with the release of his very first book, when he was 26 years old.
And talking about Portnoy's reminds me of John Irving's book The Water-Method Man, which is a hilarious and brilliant novel, from his early oeuvre. (CORRECTION: In the side chat I say Irving's main character's urologist describes his urethra as a 'long and narrow road' and thinking now I'm sure it's 'long and winding road'.)
We spin away from private parts back to Jong, and how the novel is set back in a time where 'genuinely, who you are is who you married and who you birthed' (for women, that is). 'You didn't have to be a person, you could just fill that role but now we're deconstructed into so many roles, there's so much expectation now on working out what it means to be a woman.'
Then we get into more general literary pronouncements. Are old books better? Do we need to be reading books from the past, they do seem... better. Have contemporary writers lost the ability to write to the 'greater themes' or is it about commercial realities and change and shift?
L: Literature came about -- if we think of storytelling -- as a way to say something about those wider concepts using character and story and plot and I think that's really changed.
I think I agree with her. Is there now pressure on writers to be entertaining? To avoid the bleak? The larger questions which may be dark? Which are dark? Is the growth of genre squeezing 'literary-literature' so it has to become a kind of genre to compete?
We talk about the recent listing of Stephen Sondheim's Turtle Bay townhouse in Manhattan, then get side-tracked into Olsen twins, Jonas Brothers, which is probably a good place to end.
Links:
- scandal around Philip Roth biographer in 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/17/cancelled-philip-roth-biography-blake-bailey-skyhorse-publishing
** Hey, it's Jenny here. Lily is off on a boat up north so I'm doing the ep description.
This is one of our famous* side chats, which is basically an excision out of the loose, baggy body of the longer recording. Sometimes our episodes are wildly discursive and this was one of them.
This one starts with us talking TV -- if you're anything like us, it's a common topic when we chat. I've been revisiting CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and watching S10 and 11 (on Binge). Then, I recommend Lily checks out PLATONIC (Apple+) with Rose Byrne and Seth Rogan.
Lily suggests why don't we have our platonic relationships up front and in priority no. 1 position, and then romantic ones down the list, on the side. I propose a Woody-Mia living arrangement. Lily says people of her gen are questioning more and more what it means to be in long-term relationships, and how that can mean less individual choice. Why should it? Why not define your own best way?
Lily: The older I get, the more I realise everyone's just out there, chaotically "doing stuff" and "seeing what sticks".
We consider the concept of 'being ready for a child' and that it's an impossible state to achieve. There'll never be a 'perfect time'. Sometimes, you just have to jump. Also, we talk briefly about how some people don't love their children, that it's not automatic, and we discuss men and fatherhood in that context.
We touch on gender roles within the family structure, the concept of childhood as a 'thing' that hasn't always been in people's minds, that the history of parenting shows it was a role quite different a hundred years ago than it is today.
Lily acknowledges there's more responsibility on parents these days than ever before.
And finally, I declare myself a member of Generation+ (ie those drop-down age selections on digital forms. Claiming a decade rather than a specific age.)
- in our own imaginations
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I find out that Mum once ate 17 liquorice sticks in a day...
IN ONE DAY! The mind boggles
We start this episode with a long chat about what we’re reading (I’m reading Fear of Flying by Erica Jong and it’s soooo good!!) and classics vs contemporary lit, and the growth of genre in modern publishing. (It was so long we made it a side chat which we’ll upload next Thursday.)
We touch on the Hollywood writers' strike being led by The Nanny, the move from traditional forms of TV to streaming, and the WHAM! Netflix doco
We read about Mum staying home, listening to cassettes and watching Charlie’s Angels and amiably arguing with Paddy about music- he'd seen Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues live. Mum plays more netball, is constantly ‘escaping uni to to go Lygon St,’ hasn’t had chocolate for a whole month but has eaten 17 liquorice sticks in a day! Mum makes $15 babysitting and has lots of dreams including there being a ‘feud between young people and old people,’ (of course Mum sided with the old people because the young were ‘annoying’ her), and another dream where her cousin dies, which we interpret as maybe being the death of the child within?? We’re not professionals.
We chat about the lust for adventure, how if Seth lived hundreds of years ago, he would’ve been to war by now. We discuss the bad bros stuff a bit more, I also find out what the Trading Post was (tell them they’re dreaming!) and we read about Mum seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time, as well as Grandad apologising for ‘blowing up’ at Mum over ‘quarto paper’ - and if anyone also has a dad who doesn’t apologise, you know how big this is!
We end with a great sentiment from 18-year-old sad girl Mum, ‘at least I’M ALIVE’ and ‘live life’!!!
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out that Mum used to want to learn the drums...??
This time, we read about Mum going up to her Aunt’s place in Woodend, where she goes riding, the lambs are dropping and there’s a bonfire of dead sheep. Mum mucks around on the CB radio and writes an emotional letter to a friend.
We chat about how our expectations of entertainment have changed over time, fandom now vs 40 years ago, the difference between how Mum and I journal- I do it to emotionally unpack life and Mum often seems to avoid the emotional things- and how through this podcast process, there are four layers of self-reflection for Mum. Oh, and how we need to stop saying ‘interesting’ so much when recording!
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out that Mum unknowingly attended Prosh* judging in 1982...
This episode we have even more tech problems (it’s totally me, during the ep I realise I'm not plugging in my mic/headphones properly!!) and seagulls squawking outside my window (very distracting!! And I don’t live anywhere near the ocean) as we read about Mum buying her first Sex Pistols album for $4.99, going to see Lady Chatterley's Lover, seeing Dan the psych guy and missing more Uni.
We read Mum's ballad which is deeply inspired by The Wolf and the Dove, and Twa Corbies, and Mum sets up the tape recorder to catch Liz sleep talking. We hear aboutmore dreams which feature John McEnroe losing the men’s finals at Wimbledon- before he actually played, and lost, so a bit psychic!!!
We chat about why dads (or at least ours) tended to overpromise as we read about Grandad ‘thinking about buying a house around Richmond/Collingwood/Fitzroy’ (never happens), and wonder if our dreams foreshadow our future life in any way? And do the themes of our life change over time?
We also realise we’ve been recording this podcast for almost two years. Mum asks if we’re bored and I say that it does feel like we’ve been doing it foreverrrrrr- but it’s all in the pursuit of creating living history!
*Prosh: a university event where you’re in teams and have to complete various tasks/events over a week. The final event is Scav a 24-hour scavenger hunt where there is a list of hundreds of items from the most mundane to the most whacky which you have to collect and bring to judging on the last day. I completed Prosh about 40 years later and attended judging held at the EXACT same place as Mum was!
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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Content warning: we mention dead bodies, child sexual abuse, eating and diets
I find out about when Mum saw a dead body...
This episode we dive in despite our continual tech difficulties of the Mac spinning beach ball. We manage to get the show on the road and read about Mums extensive dreams, driving everywhere because she now has her licence and is the chauffeur to all her friends, Mum’s extensive reading list of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Garfield... and most importantly getting a haircut that that absolutely does not work!
We read the wonderful Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and marvel at the parallels between 18-year-old Mum and a middle-aged man and Mum being taken to see dead bodies at Melbourne Uni and my school art foetus project
So settle in and press play and let yourself indulge in 60 cents worth of chocolate! - you’ll get it when you listen
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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In this side chat, Jenny and Lily talk about:
- the niche era
- less is more
- productivity v conception of ideas
- people as content
- creativity
- kid influencers
I find out what the hell ska is...
This episode we have more Mick Jagger dreams, in which Mum introduces him as ‘Michael’(they’re on a first name basis), goes to see Strange Tenants – her first ska band at The Aberdeen in North Fitzroy – and finally manages to find those goddamn Kafka books!
We then read about Mum’s recurring dream from childhood of being the plump fairy from The Flintstones, getting ready for her driving test which is in 16 days (!), finding out that Jubilee is available on VHS, still slogging away to finish Light in August. Then there’s the perfect chenille bedspread jacket for only $28, getting paid $9 for babysitting AND we read all about Cold Chisel playing at the Queen’s College Ball and Sue and Keith getting up on stage with Jimmy Barnes to sing Choir Girl with him. Meanwhile, Mum’s at home watching Don’s Party and writing a poem called ‘Far Out Pink Salmon Trout’!
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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Content note: weight and diet talk; also brief mention of self harm and sexual assault
I find out how many years old Mum was the first time she boiled an egg...
EIGHTEEN! Wild, I've been a master of the boiled egg for over a decade now
This episode we read about Mum reading The Bourne Identity for the first time, starting the Weight Watchers diet with lots of cottage cheese and Ryvitas, writing an essay on Kafka for Uni and none of the books being in the library because guess what? Every first-year lit student will write an essay on Kafka
We then read about Mum considering changing to Law which we discuss in length and decide she’d probs not have been a successful lawyer and might’ve ended up being somewhere around or worse than Dennis Denuto from The Castle. Mum posts a letter to Adam (no more info about what) and has lots of dreams where she’s meeting famous people and shaking their hands – very professional!
Mum has her second driving lesson, and though it's not in the diary Mum shares how the instructor acted inappropriately and we talk about how even if it seems people don’t know what they’re doing when they make you uncomfortable, they do, so trust your gut! We also talk about my ‘hot girl parking’ and find some diagrams from the diary outlining exactly how to parallel park, Mum then drives down to Inverloch in ‘Wuthering Heights’ weather dealing with the ‘problematic’ gear box in the Passat and canoe on the roof
Mum also has a bit of a retrospective epiphany where she realises that there’s a good chance that the source of her angst was that that she was an 18-year-old who needed to be creating or making something, but wasn’t, and didn’t know it yet! So, for anyone out there feeling the angst of life and not sure why, maybe try creating and see if it helps 😊
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbadidiaries.com
We discuss:
- relationships
- Succession podcast Firecrotch and Normcore
- volunteering; Jenny wants to do 'service lite'
- Red Cross blood donations
- libraries
- the big destroyer of relationships (according to J's therapist: convention and routine)
I find out about Mum’s first doobie...
This episode we chat about the potential of me and Seth maybe moving in together, bad boys, the changing tattoo culture, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying- a hard read! and online real estate scams.
We then read all about Mum going down to her aunt's farm and riding motorbikes, horses and driving the car, playing netball and winning a game and then losing the next to a team of 14-year-olds, more spaghetti marinara, a dream about a party where everyone’s ‘bent’ (I learn what ‘bent’ means), a never-ending history essay, Mum getting annoyed at Gran for maybe ‘getting cold feet’ with Paddy, another viewing of Jubilee with ‘Adam as superb as ever,’ watching Rude Boy the film with The Clash and Mum experimenting with weed for the first time where she gets an ‘immediate buzz’
And MORE IMPORTANTLY we read about how Mum has 505 pictures of Adam, 505!!! This obsession isn’t going anywhere anytime soon...
As always, press play for part therapy, part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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We chat about last weeks' episode, about some issues and challenges and how we're going to proceed with recording
Content note: there is mention of sexual assault (r*pe) as well as food and dieting talk
I find out that in the 80s you really had to just sit by the phone waiting for a guy to ring...
We start this episode off by unpacking how we felt recording Episode 8 last week. Mum explains how she felt so exposed and vulnerable and how she worries that reading her diary out to me will make me see her differently... that I'll see her as a loser.
I reassure her that my concept of her has been formed by all the amazing parenting moments from my childhood to now and that words on a page won’t change that, but I understand her misgivings. All the way through this project I've been very clear that it’s not worth it if Mum isn’t comfortable.
So, we discuss a new process moving forward. Mum is going to skim ahead to prepare herself and if there are sections, she feels won’t add value to the episode we won’t read them out verbatim but she’ll summarise and we’ll still discuss so don’t worry nothing will be missed.
But onto the fun things! We read about Mum being sick with laryngitis, her long and VERY detailed dreams- at times featuring Duran Duran, other times Mums is transformed into a Victorian boy on a farm .
But most importantly we have the Psychology Wine and Cheese night!!!
Contact is made with Hot Psych Guy as he works the door of the mixer and there is some very titillating banter over the change he gives Mum- did you know that we used to have $1 and $2 notes??
We also chat about the lack of answering machines in the 80s (hence having to wait by the phone), the time in second year Uni when I had a brief folly of wanting to change from my Arts degree into Medicine despite barely knowing my times tables and never taking a Chem subject, John Cleese and the new Fawlty Towers reboot- which led to a discussion on cancel culture, Mum going to something called the War Ball, Mum buying a tunic just like Chrissy Amphlett and Mum valiantly plodding on with reading The Castle: ‘I seem to be getting nowhere...’
As always, press play for therapy part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out that the Adam Ant obsession has only been going for one year...
Seriously how this that possible?! But it's true, this episode marks the one-year anniversary of Mum discovering Adam in April of 1981
And it’s with a heavy heart that we learn the news that Adam and the Ants have officially split- Mum surprisingly doesn’t take it too badly as now Adam can ‘focus on his own thing’ - we hear about her picking up a couple of mohair cardigans, seeing Psycho ‘not bad,’ and reading Kafka for the first time ‘it's weird’.
We read about Hot Psych guy who’s now become ‘Happy Guy’ because he always seems happy, a psych wine and cheese networking night on the horizon, someone pushing a dummy filled with sheep’s brains off a building for April Fool’s and Mum’s plans to join: photographic club, jewellery-making club, pottery club and ski club.
We also read about some harder stuff, as Mum deals with feeling let down by friends, feeling left out and feeling down on herself. This was a difficult episode to record and has sparked some interesting conversations between us about the power of words to pull you back to the past and how jarring it is to be reading out these things, not even necessarily to the public but to your daughter and by doing it being really vulnerable in a way we haven’t encountered on the podcast before.
But despite some emotions towards the end of the episode we read some very touching words from Grandad which showed his faith in Mum developing into an amazing person- and I couldn’t agree more
Come down to Motley Bauhaus for a Bad Diaries Salon #NOTES on Thursday 18 May, in Carlton, tickets below
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=1046688&
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Content note: negative self-talk, weight, body talk
I find out what ‘hair that moves’ is...
We start this episode with a Very Important Announcement: I've cut all my hair off! All gone! It feels weird but I’m loving this new aerodynamic style. This sparks a convo about Bette Midler and Beaches and ‘hair that moves’ and we then chat about the upcoming Coronation and how we’re annoyed that we’re both away and can’t watch it together and about Mum going to Bendigo’s Writers Festival to host a Bad Diary Salon (very exciting everyone should check them out: BAD DIARIES SALON webpage)
We then have something we haven’t had in a while, a Thrushdate! So, tune in to hear all about my vaginal ecosystem as we read about Mum FINALLY finding her pixie boots, listening to a ‘walkman stereo’ for the first time, old school tram conductors, Mum’s Uni subjects, including of course hot psych guy who’s now graduated to being just ‘him’, and a ringing in her ears post a Pretenders concert which went on for days and I’m convinced was the start of her tinnitus
Oh, and we also had a surprise guest this episode in the form of a giant huntsman spider so please ignore my panic around the two min mark
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I find out that INXS played O-Week at Melbourne University...
We start off discussing current world politics and my obsession with the Parisian riots and their storming of a Louis Vuitton shop -- the modern-day Bastille! We then have our usual AI check in and Mum declares she’s ‘tapping out!’ from the AI rat race .
So much happens this episode as we read about Mum’s O-Week experiences where she gets stuck in a lift after joining a tour of the Baillieu Library only for the tour guide to heroically try and give the tour of the library ‘orally’ while there's free hot dogs, free screenings of Rocky Horror 2 and $2 concerts featuring not one, not two but ALL of Paul Kelly and the Dots, The Divinyls and INXS! Oh to be in 1982!
But most importantly Mum begins the age-old past-time of spunk spotting in her tutes: enter Psych Spunk/Hot Psych Guy!!
Part therapy part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out that Pretenders tickets used to cost only $20…
This episode we chat (again) about AI (our new fave topic of obsession) and discuss the merits of Bing vs ChatGPT—seriously this has turned into a tech podcast.
So maybe skip the whole start and begin listening when it gets good as we read about Gran being out raging with Paddy until 2am and Mum detailing the ins and outs of Adam’s new song ‘Ant Rap’ which Mum says is ‘really good’ but also is concerned about the band's ‘direction’ so decides to write to the Ants manager Don Murfet—just in case he wants to know her opinion!
On a more serious note, we read about Mum feeling ‘blah’ and being preoccupied with developing her identity which includes lots of op shop visits to find something different.
Oh and the hunt for the perfect pixie boot is still on!
Part therapy part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out that Mum met Mel Gibson in a nightclub...!?
We start this episode with a correction after my best friend Jackie reminded me that I had in fact met a sailor...HER (though I will say that I was thinking more along the lines of navy sailor not Mediterranean sail-yachts sailor)
During recording, Mum brought out a prop - a bag of Jubes - which we immediately start chewing on (apologies for the sound quality) as we chat about Mum settling back into life in Melbourne, spunk spotting at the Hilton Hotel pool, doing aerobics at the Golden Bowl. She also finds out she got into Melbourne University Bachelor of Arts and is about to go for L permits!
But all that isn’t even the half of it, I'm about to get actual real life business cards at work - so Patrick Bateman of me! And then we read all about how Mum and Dee met Mel Gibson at a nightclub, what an episode!
Part therapy part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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I find out what acoustic couplers are...
Mum is back in Melbourne and is still on the hunt for THE BOOTS, can’t find them and so naturally comforts herself by buying another leather belt from Ishka
We chat about Ben Ean Moselle and how bad wine culture used to be in the ‘80s, Mum’s spaghetti marinara obsession and actually find the piece of paper Mum tallied them on! We discuss what Mum was reading the summer of 1982: Mayor of Casterbridge, Donald Duck comic and The Palladin (pick the one that doesn’t fit), read about Mum’s babysitting experience from hell and how Mum went to a pub with Grandad at Barwon Heads and they see ‘Big Brarse Band’ which Grandad first saw 28 years earlier when he was 16!
Oh, and most importantly we talk about Mum’s plans to get tickets to the Devo Through Being Cool Tour and Duran Duran too, of course!
Results??
Part therapy part entertainment, oversharing guaranteed...
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Content note: again this episode has some insensitive language around race.
I find out that Mum doesn’t know how to spell quiche...
It’s 1982 and we’re still in Hong Kong as Mum waits for her Year 12 results to drop. She goes to Ocean Marine Park in Aberdeen and has a buffet lunch for HK$50 which is approx. AUD$7.50 so not bad at all, does LOTS of cheap shopping, haggles like a pro, buys a pink feather fan, goes dancing at Thingummy’s Disco and finally makes the journey over into the People’s Republic of China.
We chat AI and the future, my luddite desire to have an old-fashioned home phone, the merits of jubes and Mum’s discomfort at her experience of being a minority for the first time. Some random bloke called Brett arrives to stay (we looked him up he may or may not be a surgeon now, please confirm Brett), Mum gets her ears pierced and still doesn’t find THE BOOTS.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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*** Content note: there's a bit of language around race in the Hong Kong episodes. Times have changed (which is GOOD) but we think it's important to keep the entries true to history and then it's an opportunity to unpack and discuss.
I find out what a Lowrey organ is…
And more importantly I find out all about mum’s trip to Hong Kong!
We set off at a cracking pace in the first episode of Season 2 as we dive into 1982- we’ve got rugby boys, sailors and a life sized cut out of John McEnroe, oh my!
Mum visits some high society lady, goes for lots of coffee and cake at Furama’s hotel and explores the monastery at Lantau Island. We also chat about what my '80s fashion would be (definitely Madonna-esque), Mum announces her plans to add multiple Adam Ant band t-shirts to her wardrobe and we fill you in on what the hell we’ve been up to for the last 6 months!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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I find out what it’s like to record an episode with three generations of Ackland women!
We’re back in fine form as we tackle the important questions surrounding Christmas, like the superiority of the cold Christmas lunch, when did the Myer Christmas windows first become a thing, and how to handle answering the question all parents dread: is Father Christmas real?
Guest starring Granny, this is a unique look into our family dynamic as we reminisce on one of the most nostalgic and family focused times ever: Christmas!
We also realise in the process that we’ve somehow managed to misplace a family heirloom… so if anyone knows where our Christmas punch bowl is please get in touch
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Have a great summer, whether you celebrate Chrissy or not, and we'll see you next year for Season 2. We'll keep you posted on launch date X
Content note: thrush-date (we know you missed it!), and medical stuff is discussed. As usual, we encourage you to talk to a doctor about anything that might be bothering you.
I find out what a travellers cheque really is…
It’s Christmas time in 1981! And the last episode of Season One!
We read about going to the canoe race at Albert Park Lake, legs ‘a la lobster’ which means very sunburned legs, mum goes to Leo’s Spaghetti Bar, gran’s worried about mum’s trip to China cause the ‘white slave trade’ (oh some very retro fears), we find out about how mum wants to be ‘journaliste terrifique’ and to be on the front page of The Age, we have Christmas day and mum prepares to leave on her trip to Hong Kong by getting travellers cheques (seriously what are they??) and getting her typhoid/cholera vax, and can’t wait to get her new Canon AE-1 Program at duty free, it has auto shutter speed and aperture!
We chat about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, women having it all, how chequebooks are really redundant now, how in 10 years Melbourne traffic will be like LA, the 80s Newcombe moustache and the current 70s porn 'stache, and past family feuds.
We leave mum on Christmas night just before midnight, she’s packed and ready for grandad to pick her up in the morning. So tune in to season 2 coming 2023 to hear all about the Hong Kong trip and mum’s 1982 adventures!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
We'll be back in 2023!
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I find out that mum knew ‘Bretty’ growing up!
This episode really has it all! We’re coming to the end of 1981 and we read about how mum’s going to china, how she manages to eat a whole lobster, how she was at a party and it started pouring with rain and none of the boys had shown up, how on a drinks run Peter Rowsthorn picks up a bunch of hitch hikers (oh the 80s) in big straw hats with weird names like Frog! How these interlopers continue on with them to mum’s friend’s party, how mum became a human coat rack and how mum ended up kissing a frog
Listen to find out if he turned in a prince
We chat about the rise of the use of the word ‘hot,’ where it might have come from and how language changes and how the guys that are available to you in high school are never the ones you want, oh and we demonstrate our stalking skill and try find someone from mum’s past online (not for the first time, remember the dentist?)
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: This was recorded before the horrific imagery from Ukraine came out over the last week. We often take a light-hearted tone to many of the things we discuss because we believe while we aren't making fun of things, often laughing about things can push back against power and trauma. We laugh at ourselves and it helps us feel better. We laugh at the world and it helps us feel better. We know we aren't the only ones who do this.
We realise, though, that our chat about these topics might be upsetting to some listeners.
Oh, and fuck you Putin.
I find out that teenagers have always been angsty about what to do with their lives and that despite being 25 I’ve still got the angst…
Mum is turning 18!! She’s an ADULT, ready to go out into the world and have adventures that fill volumes and volumes of journals which eventually become this podcast!
We read all about the birthday celebrations, the various gifts mum got, an article in The Age that annoyed mum so much she wrote a letter to them and sent it in, speech night at school and how mum wants to keep touch with all her school friends, keep listening to see how that goes…
We chat about the evolution of café and coffee culture (seriously can’t throw a stone in Melbourne without hitting a barista), how we as a society always look towards the future, how it’s funny it is to look back at what people thought our future would be, how in the 80s they were like yep definitely flying cars by the year 2010
Oh and not to mention mum’s existential moment where she ‘listened to some Beatles and thought about my future’
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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In this side chat, we talk about how some things never change, ie teenagers and young adults not knowing what to do with their lives. In December 1981, Mum was thinking about it and here I am all these years later, doing the same!
I find out about Buck’s Fizz…
This episode mum’s doing her final exams and was given the riveting English expression question of ‘write about a body of water you know well’… English examiners getting creative since 1981!
We read about mum feeling left behind by a friend, her plans to ring Adam Ant (how??), Buck’s Fizz on Countdown which was ‘absolutely embarrassing’ and how mum has started a novel… ‘there’s pirates.’ We chat about the new Beatles doco and their obsession with toast, how we now want a toast caddy like they had, how we’ve gone from a 16-hour work day to an 8-hour one so surely the natural progression is towards a 4-hour day, how I’d like to have my proposal in Versailles (not asking too much I don’t think!), how I’m addicted to the midriff and lastly you all get a fly-date of the big blow flies that are still finding their way into my room, how thrilling!
Oh and let’s not forget our discussion on the Satanic Panic, how very 80s of us!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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As a special episode, we offer this SIDE CHAT ahead of the Episode 23 (coming Monday).
We start by talking about Lily and her excessive sweating problem (the opposite of Prince Andrew apparently, but maybe he had hyperhidrosis and was treated and so now he can't sweat?? wtf knows...) and swing into a number of other topics. We laugh about it but it's a confounding issue. As always, we want to say we aren't medical professionals, just two gals crapping on about stuff.
We talk:
- GPs
- electric water therapy
- dermatologists
- sleight of hand 'healers' overseas AKA 'John of God' you can read about him here and also here (that second link has a content warning about rape)
- cortisol
- diagnosis and physicians
- specialists
- Wim Hof
- endocrinologists
- how medical case studies were often men
Not so much cringe or giggles in this one but plenty of 'real-life shit'.
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I find out about the acid bath…
God what do we not cover this episode??
We chat about everything from cows in the bell-tower, mum's last day of school which was ‘the best last day EVER,’ generational trauma in the western world, how Australian claret is ‘heavy as fuck’ and read about how mum felt that she could write 10,000 novels a day if she could just tape her thoughts, the fam going down to the Inverloch beach house, an ad in Eric Idle's The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book that mum found particularly fascinating, not to mention mum's spaghetti marinara tally!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we discuss medical stuff towards the end, and medications/treatments. We aren't doctors -- obviously -- so please get your own medical advice from a GP. But we like to include bits and pieces from our own lives that might help others (chronic thrush sufferers particularly!)
‘I find out that finishing school is bittersweet for everyone…’
It’s October 1981 and it’s almost the last day of school, mum has her final end of year dinner and like all of us, is sad to be leaving her friends but raring to get out there into the big wide world. We chat about Squid Game, how mum was obsessed with Japanese challenge tv when living there (spoilers!) and how I’m so mad at the creators of Game of Thrones for the last season that I claim ‘if I could throw rotten fruit, like tomatoes at anyone, you know like how they used to do it to people in the stocks it would be at those people…’ I swear I’m fine.
Oh and for those of you who have been wondering, you get the scoop on everything that happened with a certain Swedish man…
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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In this short side chat we talk about:
-
Korean show Squid Game (Netflix)
-
Stephen King's The Running Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(King_novel)
-
Japanese TV game shows, a few egs here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-QSlmrV2JA
https://uproxx.com/viral/japanese-game-show-chinko-machine-ball-slapper/
In this side chat, we find out that when Lily wants a chicken salad, she really just wants her chicken salad!
We talk commitment and obligation, and what does saying 'I love you' really mean? People confuse being kind and empathetic with giving another person what they want, and mix being selfish with being unkind. But we believe being selfish is just taking care of yourself - it's not being mean to rude to others.
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Jenny explains why she put a picture of Lily's boyfriend... in the freezer
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Westgate Bridge is renamed 'Westraithwaite' Bridge after rioting 'tradies' (aka alt-right actors) take over the bridge and sing Daryl Braithwaite's Horses. Jenny tries to make a funny animal-themed connection between the song, Ivermectin and whether the guys snorting drugs outside someone's window were taking Ketamine, but it falls flat. And she mispronounces Ivermectin into the bargain.
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Content note: there's a bit of royal family ranting in this bonus side chat. We call it a rant. And we are royalists, you've been warned!
We cover a bit in this rant: Edward and Wallis, mention the Lady Colin Campbell book on the Queen Mother, Diana's narcissism, how MM's social media changed in the lead up to meeting Harry (before it was all Suits-style clothes, then it was suddenly all African bead bracelets, baseball caps, jeans and flats. And Diana's perfume... Interesting).
Here's the link to their engagement video. She didn't know who he was. Didn't Google him. Only wanted to know 'but is he kind??'
Here's the link to the 'bit' with Melissa McCarthy, to launch MM's 40 x 40 mentoring project. It didn't happen... but McCarthy did get in a dig about YACHT PARTIES (three times actually!)
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Content note: in this episode we talk about food, eating, weight and self esteem. We mention bulimia and anorexia. We also mention ethnic stereotypes.
I find out that mum’s been sleuthing since she was a teenager…
It’s the 9th of October 1981 and a pair of jeans go missing from the school cloakroom. We read mum’s suspicions and she makes one of her trademark resolutions to ‘not snack between meals’ until New Year’s Day 1982. So like two months away. Mum goes to a party and ‘celebrates’ the three-month anniversary of seeing Adam in Jubilee.
We chat about body perception and joke about how I’m the Turkish village lady and how mum’s from stolid Scottish Highland stock and discuss the mystery of my raspberries going missing out of the freezer.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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We're taking a break this week (we've gone fishing!) (Not really!) But we bring you two fabulous side chats. This one is in the description. Do you think it's ok for a little light tampering with your partner's aesthetic? Is there anyone -- any gender -- who is 100% about their partner's look? Let us know! You can find us if you try hard enough, so send us a message.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Side chat 2 for this week (because we have gone fishing!)
(Or rather 'fishing'.)
(Disclosure: no fish are actually involved!)
The world is going to shit (war/pandemic/Kanye being seen out and about with a Kim doppelgänger) -- like what is next?? So leave the now and join us for some frivolous yet kinda dark chat about how popularity works, how socially mobile people can be (and can't be) and how girls are used as 'currency' by boys at a private boys' school in Melbourne as 'tickets' to parties. Let's face it, if it happens here, it happens EVERYWHERE.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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I find out that I could just condense everything we chat about each episode into a list…
- Noel Fielding and short fringes
- Sex Education, and how Ruby tampers with Otis’s look
- Patrick – Mum’s first boyfriend (on the way in a couple of years)
- People trying to control their partner’s ‘look’ or aesthetic (Look out for our Side Chat next week!)
- Double denim, Jenny and Ali
- Bomber jackets are not jackets
- The side part – so ageing
- Australians and casual wear
- ‘Horse’ hair – hair issues
- How popularity works at school, starts young
- Also, Jenny dreams for the first time of Adam
Oh and we read some of the diary too! (And there is of course some Adam content as well.)
We read about mum going to see Gallipoli at the cinema, being in the dreaded position of stuck between two friends in a fight, Sally Rooney and what she should have written for her third novel, oh and how my grandad dated someone who maybe was in a Nazi concentration camp??
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Listen as Jenny and Lily ramble about their understanding of the metaverse. This was recorded in 2021. They know a (little) bit more now.
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I find out how Adam Ant grinds his hips…
THIS IS IT MY FRIENDS, this is THE episode where mum goes to the Adam Ant concert!
We read how ‘Adam danced perfectly,’ and how he was ‘grinding and swivelling at the exact moments.’
You can imagine the tizz.
We chat about personal brands, how you have to just WAS (Wait And See) it in life, the Britney conservatorship, how we went clubbing as a family in 2021 and how Hillsong has bought Festival Hall.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
I find out that this is actually just an Adam Ant fan girl podcast…
Join us this episode as we hurtle back to 13th of September 1981 (and we recorded this episode on 7th of September 2021, spooky??) as we read in SO MUCH detail about mum’s love for Adam Ant, how he was on this one episode of Countdown, how his new album was coming out, how he was having a concert in Melbourne, how he was then on an episode of 60 Minutes, how in this one interview he had this tiny little plaits around his head that were just oh so gorgeous!
Seriously if you’re at your Adam capacity then this episode isn’t for you. The single mindedness was so great that even I — renowned rambler and derailer of conversations — struggled to get us off topic. However, we did manage to touch on the important and necessary points of how people back in the 80s HIRED VHS players (technology has come so far), how what people perceive as ‘stomping’ is actually walking with intention, and how my birthday is coming up on the weekend and how it drove me a little mad not knowing what was planned for it.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: in this side chat we talk about offensive racial stereotypes
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I find out about Mum’s biggest critic…
It’s the 22nd of August 1981 and 17-year-old mum is vowing to smile more… cause that will fix everything.
We chat about the concept of ‘resting bitch face’ or as we’d prefer to call it ‘resting face’ because let’s be honest, everyone has it.
In true style I make some bold statements saying that I wish I could make all men blind for a week because I’m tired of being perceived, and we read more of mum’s resolutions to pull up her socks to study hard.
We talk about how this podcast is the only way I’d feel comfortable reading mum’s journals, as it’s consensual. And for ONCE I know a word that mum doesn’t know and doesn’t think is a real word, but it is and I am vindicated!
To finish off, mum reads a critical and yet glowing fan letter from Robin P. Robin if you’re out there please get in touch, I want to hear more of your delightfully succinct corrections!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
**Content note: In this episode there's some negative body talk
I find out about my grandad’s fake wedding…
This episode's choc-a-block as we forget this isn’t a book club podcast and give our analysis on Wuthering Heights, chat about mother vs father betrayal, how men are often the first ones to say ‘I love you’, how sex can change relationships. Mum reads about being 17 and MORTIFIED as the male doctor tells her she has a thick hymen; we bicker about the difference between interrupting and commenting (the real life mother-daughter dynamic at play) and wonder if people will actually like this podcast, oh and not to mention my grandad’s fake wedding!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note; we talk about sex and there’s also some fatphobic language
**We also apologise for Lily’s bad sound quality SORRY!!!!!
I find out that this Adam Ant obsession isn’t ending any time soon…
It’s July 1981 and Ant-mania is thick in the air as mum is heading to her first ever sighting of the man himself, of course he’s going to pull her up on stage Courtney Cox style, right?
We read about mum meeting Pubic Hair Bear, more of mum’s Adam fantasies and how she was listening to Devo’s Whip It on repeat.
We chat about how stomping is really ‘walking with intention,’ how I reckon I could’ve dated Heath Ledger before he was famous and I unfortunately find out what a browneye is.
Oh and you get a little snippet of real life when my lovely boyfriend comes to my window to surprise me with flowers at the end of the episode!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Click to head to our show notes: https://www.mymumsbaddiaries.com/episodes
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Click to head to our show notes: https://www.mymumsbaddiaries.com/episodes
Follow us on Instagram too! https://www.instagram.com/mumsbaddiaries/
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The Bride Stripped Bare was published by Anonymous in 2003
Nikki Gemmell - The Age talks about the experience of having this novel published under 'Anonymous' and then the fall-out when it was revealed she was the author
https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-author-stripped-bare-20030628-gdvy9p.html
Correction: in the chat Jenny calls it a memoir, but it was a novel (heavily autobiographical. An early version of autofiction?) That blending of real and fiction we now call autofiction or creative non fiction
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**Content note: we talk about eating, dieting and exercise, self esteem, and sexual predation
***I find out about mum’s long list of crushes..
Tune to hear about my unexplained infestation of blow flies that seem to just appear and I seriously I can’t figure out where they’re coming from??
As usual I digress. This episode we further explore mum’s longing for a boyfriend and chat about our complicated relationships with our respective fathers (a connection me thinks??). We also chat about how teenage friendships can often be practice for romantic relationships and how Teddy Bear biscuits are simply not how they used to be!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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**Content note: we talk about suicide
I find out about mum getting high on tiger balm…
Episode 12 sees us in April 1981 as mum finally jots down her escapades on a school trip to Noumea the previous year. We read about how lax the trip teachers were, allowing the girls to just roam the Noumean streets unattended to ‘practise their French’ aka meet the local boys; how they had to scold some naughty boys who threw fire crackers at them — ‘we will tell your mother!’ — and how they went on a breakfast date with a man they met at the local market.
We also chat about the song I want at my funeral (Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings), my morbid childhood preoccupation with death (don’t worry I grew out of it) and mum’s continued obsession with the bible (don’t worry she grows out of it).
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Notes for this side chat
On Wuthering Heights, Lily calls it ‘a study in unhappiness’ and ‘obsession without desire’
Did Emily Bronte have any relationship?
Research:
Dorothy Porter – Australian poet and writer – said Somerset Maugham speculated Emily Bronte had a disastrous love at boarding school and ‘fed off it for the rest of her life’
Irish Times said of Emily: ‘no, never married, seemed not to have had any romantic attachments’
Correction: Charlotte Bronte did marry: the church’s assistant curate Arthur Bell Nicholls
Jenny question: was Heathcliff a character based on Bramwell?
Heathcliff, according to the New York Times, was based on Welsh Brunty, Patrick Bronte’s adoptive grandfather. (Patrick Brunty/Bronte was Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Bramwell’s father)
Elizabeth Gaskell – arguably the foremost authority on the Brontes, said ‘Bramwell was model for Heathcliff, Rochester and Huntingdon’ (The Conversation)
Correction: Jenny says she thinks some people think Heathcliff exhumed Catherine's body and had sex with her, but she Googled and could find no references to this. She will keep trying because she's sure she ‘saw it somewhere’...
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**Content note: we only talk a little bit about Wuthering heights in this full episode. Head to our Side Chat for more Wuthers!
I find out about how mum put my boyfriend in the freezer…
This episode we bring you mum’s falcon obsession, me struggling to figure out how to book in my covid vaxx (it really shouldn’t be this hard!), mum’s phlegm problem and how she thinks she came up with the ‘just do it’ tagline before Nike in 1988.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we talk a lot about the British Royal Family, you have been warned!
We discuss Oprah’s show made with Prince Harry, The Me You Can’t See, Apple TV
Official trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWevopoBmAE
We talk about Harry's appearance with James Corden, being down to earth and funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oxlCKMlpZw
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**Content note: lots of body talk (the vagina specifically) and period talk
I find out that I’ll never be over my height complex…
It’s Friday night, 30th of January, 1981, precisely 10:10pm and mum gets WILD and changes things up switching from a blue biro to a black one. We read about how dinner at a Spanish restaurant cost mum less than $10 (thanks inflation) and how grandad wildly overpromised mum a euro trip — guess what, it didn’t happen.
We chat about my stumpy village-girl legs, how I was born in the 98th percentile for length (I used to be tall I swear!) and how I’m using the Roman Empire to justify my bad wfh habits.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we touch on suicide and self harm in passingFollow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
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In this side chat we mention Cal Newport's book Deep Work
https://blog.doist.com/deep-work/
We also mention the palliative care nurse reports about the regrets of the dying, and how no one ever says they wish they worked more or harder:
Here's a list:
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying
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Content note: we talk a lot about body parts and sex
I find out that that we’re actually doing a thrushcast…
This episode, we somehow manage to utter the words ‘little vagina deer, just out to pasture, frolicking.’ No kidding, listen on to figure out how.
We read about mum considering a career in a big computing firm, mum’s existentialism, and a deep desire to travel (which dw that comes later in the diaries!) and chat about thrush dick vs uti dick, ‘unintelligent’ vulva design and how I reckon I could be a formula one driver
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: animal violenceFollow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
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**Content note: we discuss violence in film, sexual violence in film, exploitation in Hollywood, rape, fantasies, sex
We also talk about:**
- Quentin Tarantino and the Inglourious Basterds scene where it’s his hands strangling Diane Kruger (also has done to Uma Thurman as well!) https://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/quentin-tarantino-chokes-uma-thurman-diane-kruger-kill-bill-inglourious-basterds-1201925510/
- Tarantino pressured Thurman to do stunt driving https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/02/uma-thurman-crash-footage-kill-bill-instagram
- Last Tango in Paris – sexual assault, butter rape scene https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/26/story-behind-filmmaker-bernardo-bertoluccis-last-public-controversy/ Brando was 48 and Schneider was 19
- Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier
https://www.mtv.com/news/1724571/nymphomaniac-sex-scenes/
https://theconversation.com/von-triers-nymphomaniac-and-the-oddity-of-real-sex-on-screen-23592 - Shia La Boeuf – sexual abuse accusations
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/arts/music/fka-twigs-shia-labeouf-abuse.html
Correction:
It was real sex in Nymphomaniac, but not the actors performing it, it was body doubles/porn actors
Resources:
1800 Respect National Helpline; 1800 737 732
Women’s Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Lifeline (24-hour Crisis Line): 131 114
Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277
CASA House @ The Royal Women’s Hospital: 1800 806 292
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Content note: we discuss abusive relationships; violence and sexual violence in film
I find out that it’s maybe not normal for your partner to be able to smell you??
It’s January 1981 and mum is 17, going to go see The Models at the Hotel Pacific in Lorne and having a very ‘authentic’ dinner of spaghetti bolognese at the Arabian themed restaurant, The Arab. What a time to be alive!
This episode, we delve into pheromones, the culture of showering and its relation to class, and mum’s continual habit of coming to the rescue of anyone in distress — mostly ducks.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we mention rape in passingFollow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
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**Content note: in this episode we talk about sexually coercive behaviour/sexual harassment
I learn that everyone has trauma…not least our parents
This one’s a pretty heavy episode, but a good one as we read about some bad boys mum experienced when she was younger. It’s hard to hear your parent talk about their hurt but I’m so proud of mum sharing with me and that we were able to call it for what it was and give some clarity and support that she maybe didn’t get from the adults when she was young.
Oh and as always we check in on all my ~hormones~ and where I’m at in my cycle, because you know you just gotta.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
Resources:
https://www.1800respect.org.au
https://www.teachusconsent.com
https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/list-support-services
https://newyorkpathways.com/sexually-acting-out-as-response-to-childhood-trauma/
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I find out about a gnome called Wilfred…
This episode we start volume 2 of mum’s bad diaries, only 39 years to go. We discuss how we both don’t trust people who randomly change their names (why you trying to run from yourself?), the rise of homelessness in older women and mum going to see Flying High at the cinema.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Content note: we discuss weight, appearance and diet (resources below)
Today I find out that my grandad had a fake marriage...
This episode we unpack the 7th of January, 1981, and we start off with some light bickering as it becomes clear I completely misunderstood the differences of the Pill and mini pill. Mum is exasperated to say the least. I'm the daughter of a sex ed teacher for god sakes?!
We read about mum going to see You Can't Stop the Music starring the Village People and how people seriously, truly, naively had no inkling they were gay. Or Elton John for that matter.
We chat about the different beauty/skincare products of the 1980s (people were literally washing their faces with soap) and the rise of the beauty/skincare industry. We ponder the currency beauty can give you and the real world benefits of being attractive in a society that often seems to value attractiveness more than anything else.
Oh and we really put the too much in TMI as I share the gory details of my current thrush situation, give you a run down on my history with UTIs and talk about how my boyfriend wants to get a vasectomy!
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
Resources:
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Self-Esteem
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/self-esteem
https://headspace.org.au/blog/how-to-boost-self-esteem/
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**Content note: we talk appearance, cosmetic surgery, ageing, negative self-talk and self-image (resources below)
I find out about the time a random guy grimaced at mum when she smiled at him…(rude!)
It’s another blazing hot day as mum and the fam are still camping at Wangaratta. Facing another cold summer in 2021/22 due to the La Nina winds I can't tell you how JEALOUS I am of their glorious consistent hot summers in back in the 80s... thanks for the climate change lol.
We read about Ned the echidna, chat about Harry, Megan, Archie and the Waffle Maker (if you know you know), plastic surgery and the Friends reunion, and mull over the relationship between privilege and self-esteem.
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
Resources:
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Self-Esteem
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/self-esteem
https://headspace.org.au/blog/how-to-boost-self-esteem/
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
**Content note: we discuss negative self talk, and other people's appearances
Mum’s more scared about doing this podcast than I realised…
Throwback to 28, December 1980 when the summer heat was high and Joe Dolce was on the radio, incessantly. We read about camping at Wangaratta, chat about The Great Wall of Vagina and learn about how both me and mum have complexes about our noses, it must be genetic!
We also delve into the anxieties surrounding doing a podcast like this, what our family and friends will think, and who could potentially come of the woodwork…
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
**Content note: we mention sexual abuse and violence, in passing (resources below)
I find out mum's not as good a student as I always thought...
Join us in October 1980 as we change the format a little and mum reads her bad diaries to me. It's definitely a different experience having her share them in her voice, it feels more natural and less like I'm sneaking into her room to read her diaries!
We read about the mechanical bull at The Sentimental Bloke and chat about period anxiety and encounter some low-key racial profiling which just highlights how much attitudes have changed (thankfully!).
As always, listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
Resources:
1800 Respect National Helpline; 1800 737 732
Women’s Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Lifeline (24-hour Crisis Line): 131 114
Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277
CASA House @ The Royal Women’s Hospital: 1800 806 292
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
Granddad tells mum someone's dead when they aren't...
We're diving headfirst into 11 July 1980 as I read out the first few entries of my mum’s diary to her.
We discuss this project that we’re taking on together, mum is nervous of course, having your teenage diaries read out for anyone to hear is one of the most revealing, vulnerable and excruciating things out there don’t you think?
So press play to hear us chat on about mum’s brief bible fanaticism, her economics class talk meltdown, and how the milk-bar man’s son was there when Gough Whitlam was sacked.
Listen to experience: cringe, giggles and some real-life shit.
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Click to head to our show notes at: mymumsbaddiaries.com
In this teaser episode, meet mother and daughter Jenny and Lily who will take you on the ride that is My Mum's Bad Diaries. We start in 1980 as Lily reads out Jenny's 40-year old teen diaries. Buckle up for the rollercoaster! (From ep 2 onwards, Jenny takes over the reading.)
Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries
Click to head to our show notes: mumsbaddiaries.com