Me, Myself and I

A Secret Place For Refuge

2008-01-22T04:04:00.000-08:00

The sound of the waves rolling in and breaking on the rocks is very soothing to hear. The warmth of this January afternoon is quite welcome, after all those grey days of rain. But that sound has a different voice to me. I know that it is a voice filled with sorrow and pain of loss. The lonely beach stands there dreaming of happy days gone by. The beach was not created to stand there alone and empty. It was made for the glorious summer days, when it is full of people, and children's happy shouts. It was made for the warm summer nights when people gather to enjoy a Bar-b-que, and exchange all the week's gossip. Just like me, the beach today is lonely. I am lonely too. I too am dreaming of the past, of those glorious days there at Sunset Bay.

Sunset Bay is a small bay on the outskirts of two villages, but it is quite a tiny village on its own. It is a long stretch of sea, with a small sandy beach, a larger rocky part, and further in is the cliffy part known as Sunset Rocks, which is a heaven for adventurous people who like to go diving for octopus. Then alongside this beach is the real heaven. Along the beach are more than a hundred boathouses. In winter, Sunset Bay is quite deserted, but come June, there is no better life anywhere than the one down there. All the families who own these boathouses go down there for the summer, and they don't leave before late September. Also in the midst of these boathouses, there are two bars that host most of the action during weekends. There is the bar called "Sunrise Bar". And then further in, one would find another bar, and if you look quite carefully, somewhere, you would surely find a sign hanging that reads "Summer Sun Bar". The on the limits of Sunset Bay. there is a restaurant which is called "Sunset Bay Bar & Restaurant".

There was a time when I didn't know about Sunset Bay. Of course, I knew that it existed, but I never really knew what went on down there. Because besides being a small seaside place for families, Sunset Bay was also the place where many young people hang out during the summer. My family did not own any boathouse there, and I didn't know anybody who did. But then one summer it had all changed. I met Alice, and Charlene, and of course after that followed all those glorious summers at Sunset Bay.

I was almost seventeen when I met Alice and Charlene, and we became best friends almost at once. Charlene's family had a boathouse at Sunset Bay, and that was how I got my first taste of what was to follow, when she invited me down for a Bar-b-que one summer evening. But the real things happened at the boathouse behind theirs. This boathouse, which we used to call The House, belonged to a man and his wife, but since they hardly ever went to Sunset Bay, they had passed it on to their son Jeremy. Jeremy was about eighteen years old, and so one can imagine the kind of people that gathered down there; young people from all over the bay, and friends like me from outer villages.

The "residential" friends that were always there made quite a number. There was of course Jeremy, Charlene, her cousin Denise, Denise's cousin Wendy, Alice, Alice's sister Oriana, Mark, his brother Alex, Alex best friend James, James' cousin Louis, Andy, his best friend Jack, Felix, Robert, Jo, Joel, Henry, Prue, and of course me. So you see there were quite a lot of us. Of course, before these there had been other people who had already moved on, and other friends always used to come along and share a month or two. But basically this was the group that was known as Jeremy's Party. We were all around the same age, and in general into the same things, so we really had wonderful times together.

For us, summer always started on the day that "Summer Sun Bar" opened again, and this was by early June, or if we got an early summer, by mid-May. Those days at Sunset Bay were so perfect, that I'm sure no such innocent days could ever come our way again. We always planned what we were going to do each day, and yet the unexpected always happened. There were a lot of things that never changed, like timing, and the beach, the wine and the cigarettes, the ice-cream van that always passed at the same hour, and of course our friendship. Everyday the same things happened, but yet everday was different from the one before. I can easily relate the details of what happened each day, but I'm sure that I can never describe the feelings and the emotions we all lived through then.

None of the people in this group worked, so our days started quite early, except of course on Saturday and Sunday - sometimes as early as five o'clock in the morning. None of us had a car except for Jack whose father had loaned him a wreck of a car, and James and Louis who came from quite a rich family. So we all used to get up early and catch the early morning bus to Sunset Bay. Some of the boys were lucky, and either had bikes, or got dropped off by their fathers on their way to work. We made our way to The House, and made a cup of coffee, and if we got lucky somebody would have remembered to bring some biscuits. Then as the sun would start warming up, we would do some chores around like cleaning the stove, or sweeping up the floor. On Mondays there was always the Bar-b-que set to clean up, and that always took some time. Sometimes a fish hawker would pass by, and we would buy some fish to cook for noon. Then we would always sit down and rest while smoking a cigarette, and funnily enough, throwing ash on the newly-swept floor. We never thought about it then, we just always did that. But of course, you don't notice these little things until after you don't do them anymore. Then at about ten we would all jump in the sea, and enjoyed the rest of the morning chasing each other and splashing around.

At around noon we would all go up to The House again, obviously as hungry as can be. If there was nothing to cook, we would make our way to "Sunset Bay Bar & Restaurant" to buy a burger with fries, and stop along the way at "Summer Sun Bar" to buy some ten bottles of cheap wine. Then cursing the sand that still clinged to us, we would sit down and eat and drink. Then during the afternoons we would lay back in the shade with a glass of wine, and take a short nap, or if we were feeling energetic, we would take another swim. Then the ice-cream van always used to pass at four, so we would all buy an ice-cream and sit down to enjoy it, followed by a cigarette.

By the time we finished, it would be a quarter to five, so we would get up and clean the floor again, and then run along the bay to catch the half-past five bus back home. As soon as we got home we would take off our swimming gear, and throw it in the machine, and then we would take a shower and put on some fresh clothes, and by half-past seven, or at the latest eight o'clock we would be on our way to Sunset Bay again.

The summer evenings were wonderful too in every way. We would all sit down in a circle, in front of The House, drinking wine, and smoking cigarettes, and we used to play games. Our favourite was of course Truth or Dare. But what I enjoyed most was those times when we sat in the dark, and talked by the small glow of the cigarettes' flames. We discussed everything down there. We used to talk of our dreams mostly. We all talked about finding a job, having money, of buying our dream car, and of course, of being in love one day. Little did we know back then, that it was all these dreams coming true that would change it all. When it got too late, we would all pack ourselves in Jack's and James's cars, and would leave for home again. Sometimes we would sleep over there too, cursing the mosquitos that were biting us, and pummeling Jeremy because he snored too much. Then the next morning always came, and we would do the same things all over again. It is a wonder how little we slept, about four hours only each day, and we spent the other twenty hours doing supposedly tiring things, and drinking wine, and yet we never felt tired, and were always ready to do new things.

Saturdays and Sundays were somewhat different. On Saturdays there was work to do back home, and on Sundays our folks expected us to have lunch with them. So we always left rather late for Sunset Bay, at around noon. Since the buses were infrequent, we used to walk it down, hitchhiking rides. We always got very lucky. Then as soon as we arrived we would all dive deep down in the sea, and spent the afternoons getting tan. On Saturdays, we used to go up to The House at around seven o'clock, take out the Bar-b-que set and start cooking. When food was ready, we would sit and eat it all, while drinking lots and lots of wine. The difference on Sundays was that at seven we would leave for home, to have a shower and change, and at nine o'clock we would all meet up at Sunset Bay, precisely at "Summer Sun Bar" for more wine and more laughs. Then at about eleven we would go and party in this disco club further down, called "The Grove". Oh sure, what glorious summers down there at Sunset Bay!

And then by late September summer would be over! We hated winters for the beach was deserted and the waves were high. Besides that, we hardly ever met during the week for most of us were still in school. It would be too cold for a Bar-b-que, except for one in December as a Christmas treat. "Summer Sun Bar" would close down for the winter, and so we would have nowhere to go. We would go out all weekend nights. But before going to "The Grove", on Fridays and Saturdays, we would all meet up in this bar called "Granny's Nook", for a drink of wine together, and sometimes a game of pool.

On Sunday afternoons then, we would buy a loaf of bread, and go down to The House in Sunset Bay, and make some coffee and some toast. And then we would relate all that had happened during the week. I remember, one time Joel got some paint and painted a beautiful sun on the door. This was a blazing summer sun, with a face on it, and the face was screaming, maybe because it was so happy. And then beneath it he wrote the legend: "Summer Illusion". We all loved that picture, and from then on, that picture became our coat of arms, the symbol that represented Jeremy's Party. That was the way we used to spend the long season of winter. And in the end, summer always came again by early June, and with it came the wonderful days spent at Sunset Bay.

How could I ever forget those days? I was always happy. There was nothing special about The House. It was a very small boathouse, with a bed in a cornet, and the mattress was always rather damp. There was an old rusty stove in another corner, and in the middle a small table, with three chairs that were badly in need of repair. There was only a very small window, and the door was so narrow, that it was almost impossible going in carrying in something slightly wider than myself, so it was always rather dark. And yet, it was the one place in the world, where I felt safe. There in that small, dark room, lit only by a 25 Watt bulb at night, I felt that no harm could ever come to me. There was power in that room, a kind of magical power that drove all evil away. Life was so filled with may things to do from morning till night, that there was no time to think of bad things. Nothing bad ever happened down there. We were always happy together. This was the one place in the world, that really felt like the centre of the universe. I know, the universe is vast, and there is no such thing as the centre of the universe - and yet it was indeed, the centre of our universe, just like in that Madonna song: our pride and joy, that no one in the world could dare destroy.

But all this has happened very long ago. It's all a fairy tale that starts with the words "Once upon a time there was a boathouse in a beautiful place called Sunset Bay..." All our dreams came true. We all found a job, and so we couldn't go down there as much as we would like to. We all got our dream car, and so discovered new places. And after that, we all fell in love, and things changed forever. "Granny's Nook", that bar we met in, in the winter has closed down, and so we never see each other in the winter. Denise and Jo got married to each other, and are raising a family now. We sometimes meet at "Summer Sun Bar", but the wine tastes bitter now, because its taste is full of memories of happier days. And since we all live different lives now, there is nothing to talk about except the past. And though we never say it, and we would never admit it, we know that our whole universe has been shattered. Now there is no more frying on a rusty stove, as there is no more sleeping out under the stars, or hitchhiking rides at noon, because those glorious days at Sunset Bay are over.

Whenever we meet, we try to talk about different things, but as always we are sure to bring up stories about the good old times, and compare how everyone behaved then with the way they behave now. Maybe it's good that we don't meet often, because as soon as we sit around that old table on which we had scratched our names and our dreams, and as soon as we start sipping the wine, and handing cigarettes around, we can all feel it in the air. It's a feeling so strong that we can almost touch it, and even see it walking around each and every one of us, whispering in our ears. We try to pretend it's not true, but it's that nostalgic, loving feeling that cannot be ignored, and the words just come out without control, and the more we drink, the more we remember. It's so sad, really, to be sitting there at our favourite place, listening to the sound of our favourite song, which was Fire in Bosnia, and wishing it would all go back to the way it was once, and yet we know that it is not possible because we have all changed. Things have changed. Even if we try to go back, we can't. Places have closed down, music has changed, people have moved on, and we too have lived things beyond that old dark room. So we just talk about it, and sit there and watch it all in our minds like a scene from an old movie, and we grow old ourselves, because the days of being forever young are well behind us now.

And that's what I'm thinking about as I sit here in the shade of The House this afternoon. I can not come here in the summer, because it's too depressing to see this once-wonderful place so deserted. It's like seeing a beautiful woman, who was everyone's dream, stripped of her clothing, and hanging her head in shame. But sometimes on a winter afternoon, when things get hard to take, I come here, and again I feel protected. I am a little child, terrified of the monster under the bed, and The House is the mother that embraces me, and I feel that all fear is gone. That's exactly the way I feel sitting here, with my eyes closed. I can feel it whispering in my ear, that everything is going to be okay. I can again hear the laughter from those far-off summers, and I remember all those friends, that always said that as long as we had each other, nothing could ever go wrong. I'm sure that in everyone's heart there is still the memory of those perfect days and nights. There is still the memory of that joy inside our hearts. We still see it all in our minds. And though maybe no one would admit it, no matter whom we shall meet, nobody can make us feel as sure of ourselves as the friends we had then. No other place could ever feel like home as much as The House. And I'm sure that whatever happens, no other days in our lives, would carry as much nostalgia and memories as those days and nights spent at Summer Bay.

20 Ways The Future Has Let Us Down

2008-01-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

Today I have come across this article on MSN, and the minute that I started reading it, I realised how many of these things I used to think would be available to us in the future. I even remember an English textbook we used to study from when I was seven, called 'The Pathway to English', that described quite an interesting amount of stuff that would happen in the future. Well, the future is here, and of all the things I remember in that book, the only prediction which came true was that someday you would be able to see the person that you are speaking with through long distance (internet and video phones made that possible). Other than that, we are still doing things the same way we were doing them in the past. I shall post this article here, because I think that the author has managed to capture most of those predictions which never came true. This article was published here: http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=7176637

20 ways the future let us down

Promises, promises; when I was young, the future was an exciting place, full of wonderful inventions, mind-boggling concepts and amazing occurrences.

The problem is that, as it stands, this future lark is all a bit, well, disappointing.

The way I eat, travel and exist all seem to somehow fall short of what was predicted in my formative years.

So we have picked out 20 things that never did quite make it to reality, from meal pills to flying cars and moon colonies.

A meal in a pill

Did any of us really expect to still be going through that whole laborious cooking process by now?

So many predictions of the future seemed to assume that food would be reduced down to pill form – containing all of the essential vitamins and amino acids – but in actual fact we not only still stick things in a particular hot cupboard for long periods of time before eating them, but actually spend hours of our lives watching programmes about it.

Living on the moon

Let’s be honest, if there was one thing that we all assumed humanity would have achieved by now it was establishing colonies on other planets or, at the absolute bare minimum, at least on our very own moon.

But no, the last human foot to touch the moon’s surface (if you disregard the popular rumours one way or the other) was Eugene Cernan back in 1972. They didn’t even have iPods back then…

'Free' energy

When the nuclear industry was created many thought that it contained within it the seeds of an energy source that would sustain humanity's increasing needs but for virtually nothing – with fission or cold fusion held up as ways in which mankind could realise the potential of energy trapped in everything rather than the rather ham-fisted and short sighted method of burning stuff.

Although we are increasingly aware of the dangers of the clumsy way in which we release energy from fossil fuels, we are also increasingly using it up as fast as we can. Will we leave it too late to find a genuinely ‘clean’ energy source?

Flying cars

If you had asked people 50 years ago what the cars of 2008 would be, it would be most unlikely they came up with the slightly sparklier but essentially completely similar transportation we have now.

It seemed to make perfect sense that flying through the air was far superior to roads, traffic jams and a distinct lack of space. It still does, although the reality is we are still (largely) trapped on four wheels honking our very 20th century horns and wondering if things will ever change.

Robot slaves

The robot slave, releasing humanity from their shackles of labour and making everything easier; or they would do if they existed.

Robotics is an area where we appear to finally be making a little progress, but it’s taken many more years than anyone thought likely to finally begin to make strides in an area we once thought would be bigger than the automotive industry.

Perhaps the years have shaped our expectations a little and we no longer expect a 50s style cubic housekeeping-bot…

Jetpacks

Flying cars are one thing – but we’ve seen working jet packs for decades without anyone actually managing to produce one that worked in the way we wanted.

Although James Bond and that bloke at the Olympics wowed audiences, what you didn’t see was the months of training, the need for a huge team of mechanics and the horrifying chance that if you move your legs wrong you’ll fire yourself directly into the ground.

Fold up screens

Although the likes of Amazon’s Kimble are promising a world of books and newspapers that you can take anywhere and at any time, what we really need is something that acts like paper but is actually a screen. Authors like Harry Harrison have been talking about this for years, but although there have been tantalising glimpses of what could be, we are still not getting the e-paper we wanted.

Living under the sea

Homer Simpson isn’t the only person to harbour a longing of an under-sea society but our exploration of the oceans is still in its infancy and the costs of actually having an under-sea society have, as yet, meant that mankind has not retreated back to the seas that its ancient progenitors crawled out of all those millennia ago.

Transporters

“Beam me up Scottie.” Let’s face it, for sheer laziness the transporter knocks all other forms of transportation into a cocked hat. Fed up of the British winter?

In 10 seconds you could find yourself on an idyllic beach without all that fuss of flying. The downside? You could pretty much guarantee that the whole population would leave at the weekends for sunnier climes which could make it hard to do your shopping.

We could pretend that the transport industry is deliberately keeping research on this one down – but the truth is it’s probably just not that feasible.

Embedded computers

Wouldn’t it be great if being lost was a thing of the past, where touch screens are unnecessary and mp3 players cannot be lost? This is a glimpse of a world where we have computers embedded in our head.

Streaming videos into our eyes, never letting us go without detailed knowledge of the where the public conveniences are and giving in depth medical readouts when we are hurt. Oh and you could play tetris in your head whenever someone was boring you.

Unfortunately, despite being a major theme in fiction, this seems unlikely for a generation or so. Bah!

Time Travel

I have to confess I was relatively sure as a kid that we would have nailed the whole time travel thing by now. I expected to have a small dinosaur as a pet, to have witnessed first hand the Roman Empire and uncovered just exactly WHO shot JFK.

But with the world’s greatest physicists continually rebuffing my hopes I’m beginning to think that this will never happen. Not least because I haven’t discovered a note from my future self telling me which side will win the World Cup in 2010.

World peace

I’m relatively sure that I expected there to be an end to all human war by this point.

Surely, I figured, the futility of conflict would have allowed the world to come to gether and work for a unified future. Nope. I blame the politicians…

Cloned people

When Dolly the sheep was finally produced I thought it would only be a matter of time before we were merrily cloning people for body bits a la Michael Marshall Smith’s ‘Spares’ or transferring ourselves into clone blanks like the Schwarzenegger film The 6th Day. However, none of these (admittedly dystopian) futures has been realised and even Jurassic Park remains the stuff of the silver screens.

Virtual worlds

Maybe we’re all just acting out a part in a computer game. Or maybe the promise of virtual reality worlds where we can partake in anything we want unbound by the laws of physics remains rooted in fiction at the present time. Although worlds and role play are becoming more accepted, we are still not close to creating a true virtual environment that people can move around in as they would in reality.

Instant knowledge

“I know kung fu”. Actually I don’t, because presently I have to go through the laborious task of actually training and learning things.

I was so sure that instant knowledge would come about that I spent my French classes at school cynically laughing at those battling through verbs, safe in the knowledge that it would all be easier in the future. Unfortunately, “je ne l'avais pas de la raison.”

Alien invasion

Be it being ruled by alien overlords or living peacefully alongside another sentient species, it seemed absolutely impossible that we could fail to find some kind of intelligent life by now. Despite sending off probes and the eager watchings of thousands of UFOlogists we are, so far, very much alone.

Space travel

Even without the moon colonies, if you had suggested that space travel was still, pretty much, as novel in the 21st century as it was 40 years ago, many would have laughed in your face.
But the sheer cost allied with many countries’ focus elsewhere means that the space race has become a marathon and not the sprint it used to be.

Universal Translator

I’d suggest that a good percentage of conflict stems from a lack of communication but despite the increasing power of the computer, we are still yet to have a translator that can cope with real time languages. In the meantime we are stuck with bad voiceovers and subtitles on films and the hilarious translators that pick up some of the slack online.

Zombie nation

Perhaps my visions of the future were all too affected by the films I watched, but with all the medical research going on I figured that something would have gone awry by now and we would be facing an increased threat from a zombie nation. Why would this be a good thing? The undead would at least have less of a carbon footprint…

Artificial intelligence

Last but not least, one of the major steps that we still haven’t taken is the creation of genuine artificial intelligence.

Although there are inevitably potential problems with having sentient machines, the prospect of having another intelligence that could help us with the problems of modern life is certainly enticing. Now those clever scientists just need to get on and sort it out…

Fatti Furbo - Marco Masini

2008-01-04T03:04:00.000-08:00

Bambino che sorridi e ti sorrido anch'io
fra queste mille strade della vita
fatti furbo e scegli la salita
che forse quella pi vicina a Dio
scrivile sull'acqua le tue poesie
parla con gli animali e con i fiori
e ruba al cielo tutti i suoi colori
ed arrossisci dopo le bugie
fatti furbo
affacciati prudente
come un filo d'erba
e ascolta il vento
cosa ti dira'
sicuro nella tua fragilita'
ingenuamente fatti furbo
dai sempre tutto
a chi non ti pu dare niente
e fai del cuore il tuo salvadanaio
se ti sfiora un soffio di infelicita'
fatti furbo e prendi questa vita come va

Quando avrai paura dell'oscurita'
prendi la luna e legala al cuscino
cresci ma resta sempre un po' bambino
e il mondo il tuo giocattolo sara'
fatti furbo e sogna l'impossibile
cerca un amore piccolo e gigante
L'amore quello piu' forte della morte
e' quando passer vicino a te

Fatti furbo
non fare come me che
ho preso un futto acerbo
gli ho dato un morso
e l'ho buttato via
e adesso ne ho un'enorme nostalgia
diventa grande e guarda gli occhi
di una ragazza che non apre mai la bocca
e tiene tutto dentro come te
e se un giorno verra' il giorno dell'addio
fatti furbo
e non lasciarla come ho fatto io...
e non lacsiarla come ho fatto io.

Someone I Used To Know

2007-12-28T05:18:00.000-08:00

There's a picture that I carry
One we made some time ago
When they ask who's in the picture with me
I say just someone I used to know
Just someone, I used to spend some time with
Just a flame, that's lost its glow

But I don't them of the nights I cried without you
I say just someone I used to know
Just someone, I used to run around with
Just a friend from long ago

I don't tell them, how lost I am without you
I say just someone I used to know
I say just someone I used to know

Gli Anni - 883

2007-12-21T05:27:00.000-08:00

Stessa storia, stesso posto, stesso bar

stessa gente che vien dentro consuma e poi va

non lo so che faccio quì

esco un pò

e vedo i fari delle auto che mi

guardano e sembrano chiedermi chi cerchiamo noi

Gli anni d’oro del grande Real

gli anni di Happy days e di Ralph Malph

gli anni delle immense compagnie

gli anni in motorino sempre in due

gli anni di che belli erano i film

gli anni dei Roy Rogers come jeans

gli anni di qualsiasi cosa fai

gli anni del "tranquillo, siam qui noi siamo qui noi"

Stessa storia, stesso posto, stesso bar

una coppia che conosco ci avrà la mia età

"come va?"

salutano

così io vedo le fedi alle dita di due

Che porco Guida! potrei essere io qualche anno fa

Gli anni d’oro del grande Real

gli anni di Happy days e di Ralph Malph

gli anni delle immense compagnie

gli anni in motorino sempre in due

gli anni di che belli erano i film

gli anni dei Roy Rogers come jeans

gli anni di qualsiasi cosa fai

gli anni del "tranquillo, siam qui noi"

"siamo qui noi"

Stessa storia, stesso posto, stesso bar

stan quasi chiudendo

poi me ne andrò a casa mia

solo lei

davanti a me

"cosa vuoi

il tempo passa per tutti lo sai

nessuno indietro lo riporterà neppure noi"

Gli anni d’oro del grande Real

gli anni di Happy days e di Ralph Malph

gli anni delle immense compagnie

gli anni in motorino sempre in due

gli anni di che belli erano i film

gli anni dei Roy Rogers come jeans

gli anni di qualsiasi cosa fai

gli anni del "tranquillo, siam qui noi."

"siamo qui noi."

"siamo qui noi"

Two Tickle.com Tests

2007-04-08T02:32:00.000-07:00

Right now, I don't have anything to do. I feel exhausted and drained-out after a day in Catania yesterday. But right now, I have all the shopping bags laid out on my bed, and I don't have the energy to unpack. So I'm going to go to Tickle.com, and do a couple of tests there, maybe it will help me relax a bit.

Test 1: What Turns you On?

Sex Appeal turns you on

Wining and dining are fine and good, but what you're really after is that spark, that vroom, that special something-something. You know what we're talking about: It's chemistry. For you, nothing can replace the moment when you both know you click — whether it was the instant your eyes met or the moment they walked through the door.From a tattoo to a tight shirt to a well-timed come-hither glance, sex appeal is what catches — and holds — your interest in a romantic partner. It's an attraction on a physical level, for sure, but it's also something deeper, something harder to define. And that je ne sais quoi may just be what keeps you turned on for the long haul. Ooh la la!

Test 2: Who's the man of your dreams?

Mystery and intrigue — it's not just for action-adventure movies. It's what you are looking for in life and love. From spontaneous weekend getaways to notes stuck in your jean pockets, you love being surprised and appreciate the extra thought and effort that goes into making it happen.That's why a secret agent could steal your heart — he's got what it takes to change the world, but he's not about to go around shouting about it. But don't worry, your secret's safe with us. Shhhh.

The Good Old Days

2006-10-18T02:38:00.000-07:00

What conversation we had last night, me and my friends! We talked a lot about the good old days, namely the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. How times change! When I see the kids today, I almost feel sorry for them, because they are never going to experience most of the things that we have been through when we were kids. For instance, today you hear kids talking about the latest computer technology, everyone brags about their favourite game on PlayStation, etc. You no longer see kids playing in the streets, like we used to do, on some home-made skate-board (which had not lasted longer than an hour). When we were kids, we didn't even know what a computer looked like, and today six-year olds can use it better than I do.

When I was ten, and had my Holy Confirmation, my godmother had given me the most popular gift at that time - a gold name on a chain, and a gold bracelet. Today, six-year old kids ask for a mobile phone for their First Communion. When I was a little girl, my mother was never worried because I spent the whole day out, and she had nowhere to contact me. And today, I am 27 years old, and before I leave home she always asks me whether I have taken my mobile phone with me, or not, in case something happens.

We were lucky to even have a telephone when I was a kid! When we had first applied for a telephone line, first the phone company had installed on of those large, rotary grey phones, but we had to wait for one year until we got a line. I remember me and my brother jumping on each other, and celebrating because now we had a working phone.

The cartoons of those times were real cartoons, not like the ones that you see today - everything in 3D and computer generated. I used to spend hours watching Jem and the Holograms, and dreaming that someday I would have a pair of earrings just like hers. At school, everyone talked about Kiss Me Licia - and more than half of the girls - me included - had a crush on Mirko. On Saturdays, me and my brother never missed one episode of Webster. I remember watching my favourite TV programs on an enormous black and white TV. I remember how excited me and my brother were when my parents had bought our first colour TV - which is still in perfect working condition today. I used to adore The Smurfs, and my mother had gotten me a set of small Toy Smurfs with the Go juices tops she had collected, and me and my brother used to spend hours playing with them.

I used to look at the teenagers in my village, and wished I could dress like them. But in the 80s I was still a little girl, and so normally I would be wearing something that my mother had picked out for me, together with a pair of red jelly shoes. How they used to irritate my feet! I can still remember everyone wearing Girl London and Boy London T-Shirts. It was of the utmost importance, though that every single thing was adorned with red, green, yellow or blue badges, those that we used to find in chewing gum packets, and on which were written the name of a famous 80s star, such as Madonna, Nik Kershaw or Paul Young. Sometimes, when I'm going through some old junk, I always manage to turn up one of these badges - I had so many of them. And then there were there the Stars. You would buy a small packet, in which there would be 6 small playing cards, all portraying 80s stars, and the packet also including 2 small chewing gums. It cost only 6c (approx. 14 euro cents). I had managed to collect two full sets of these playing cards. And then about three years ago, I got home from work, and my mother said, "Guess what I just threw away today?" What a foul mood I was in that day! If the refuse collector had not already passed, I would have definitely gone diving in the skip to retrieve them! And at school, if you wanted to be cool, and part of the in-crowd, you definitely had to have a Madonna or Wham! cover notebook, that we used to buy from the little store called Far Out. I had bought one of each, just to be sure (they only cost 10c each). And we used to write on them with those fat pens, that contained more than 10 scented colours, and that we used to buy for 75c from the stationery near the school.

You wanted to wear the latest fashion? Then you most certainly had to have a slap bracelet. These were like flexible rulers, that used to twist themselves around the wrist when slapped against it, forming a kind of bracelet. Everyone tried to do their best to purchase the most beautiful one. I had quite a few, and I know that somewhere in my junk drawer, there is still my most popular bracelet, that everyone wanted to trade with, and that I simply refused to part from. Up to a couple of years ago, it still had its slap. And then by time I turned 10, fluorescent clothes became fashionable, and I had received four of these tops for my birthday. It was very important that these were worn with a pair of same colour socks. At least I was safe in the dark! At that time, I also had a favourite outfit. These were a set consisting of a wide short skirt, and a white T-Shirt. The T-shirt had a fluorescent print of a dancing couple on it, and beneath it was written - again in fluorescent colours - the legend Lambada Danse. And the skirt consisted of the same print, but this time in black and white. I used to feel like I was walking the red carpet at an Awards ceremony, every time that I wore this outfit!

And then suddenly, the 80s were over, and the 90s started. Now I was growing up, so I tried to understand more. Things started to change. Even music changed. The New Kids On The Block were forgotten, as their place was taken by Take That, and so naturally I hated that band. (Yes, believe me, I really did hate them - back then Robbie Williams wasn't the sexiest man alive yet.) But this hatred had eventually turned in my favour, because at that time I was crazy about Brandon and Dylan from Beverly Hills 90210, and my penfriends loved Take That, and so we used to exchange posters by mail. I had a whole wall totally covered in 90210 posters, which I had stuck with superglue. (I can still hearing the echoes of my father's swearing when I had taken them off.)

Now I could follow fashion better. Every morning before school, I used to tie my hair up in a high pony-tail with a thick towel rubber band, and then I used to wrap around this a pair of pantyhose, and then I used to cover everything up with a bandanna. It was very important that my pony-tail would tower a good half-a-foot above my head. And then after that ordeal it was time for my bangs! I used to go through a large bottle of Wella hairspray in a week, to keep my bangs as high, and ruffled as much as I could. At school it wasn't important whether I had taken my books, or my lunch with me. What mattered were the comb, the mirror and the hairspray, so that between lessons, I could do more back-combing. And on special occassions! I used to spend a whole day at the hairdresser's, so that I could come out of the salon looking as if I had just spent a week in a hurricane, and did not comb afterwards. Sometimes I used to go through my hair with the crimper too, and it would look like a rough sea in January. And then I would wear a short pleated skirt, or one of those skirt-trousers things, and a shirt tied in a knot showing off my then-flat belly. One year, I had even hung as many plastic dummies as I could find, since they were in. And I have not yet mentioned the countless amounts of earrings that I used to buy, because the Head teacher was always confiscating them, since my ears were pierced all over.

Speaking of school, I remember that when we had to do a project, we used to spend weeks going through magazines, cutting the pictures, and drawing others. Then we used to write everything in our best handwriting, and the cover titles were always done in stencils. Then by the time I was 14, I had learnt typing, and so I had started to use the typewriter to type my projects. We used to spend hours researching encyclopedias, and library books to gather the information, because back then we had not even heard of the word Internet.

On weekends, we used to go out with little more than Lm5 in our pockets (a little less than 12 Euros), but we still managed to have fun. Sometimes we would become like, totally drunk with less than Lm2, because we would buy a bottle of the cheapest local wine, and two bottles of lemonade, and we would drink them while waiting for the bus. Every Friday and Sunday we used to go to Reeds Club, the most famous discotheque in the south of the island. That was most certainly the place-to-be in the 90s. On Saturdays, we used to go to Paceville. When we got there, first we would go to Best In Town, watching the Karoake, until it was time to go to Bamboo Bar, and then later we would go to Tremors or Mirage. And all of these in a span of four/four and a half hours, because we were just like Cinderellas, and had to leave with the midnight bus. I can remember how all hell had broken loose at home, when I first started getting home at 1.30am. And it's very difficult to forget those Sunday afternoons in winter, at the Yogis. We always managed to have fun, even though we never had much money.

And now everything is made with the highest technology - and everything is just recycled remains of an era gone by. It's the time of Reality Shows, where nothing is real anymore. It's no wonder that every time we look back, we always have to say The Words - Those were the days!