The shift part 2 (Vol.6, 1984)

We continue straight on with the reading in this, our part 2 of The Shift. Mum reads out a Christmas card from Doriane, and we talk about how we first learn about romantic relationships: from those we see around us. We manage to get some contemporary 'boy talk' in (as always) and then it's back to January 1984 to continue with the reading. Mum has noted in her diary that the name of the mainframe computer she was working on at St Kilda Road was The Reality and it's all just a bit too 2001/HAL9000 for me. Mum takes off down to Inverloch with granddad and her siblings and cousins and has a nice time, a break away from the early sneaking suspicions and unhappinesses about P. Poor mum, and she even writes a poem for him!!! Mum start work at Campion Books doing school 'sells' and seems to enjoy it, she goes to see Pirates of Penzance as well as the Dusk to Dawn cinema -- high and low culture is always the best type of mix. LIz is reading mum's 'novel' and mum is sitting by anxiously waiting for feedback. She's playing Pretenders and Divinyls and writes that she feels she's floundering and can't work out her direction. Sounds familiar!!! She's in a 'horrendous blue funk' that she says she's trying to write her way out of. Love is a Battlefied, both Pat Benatar and mum agree. There's a big 'talky talky' which mum tries to make sound light in her diary, and which she is also trying to keep upbeat and 'fine' about but we all know how those 3AM chat sessions go with boys. They say everythind is FINE but we know in every cell of our bodies that IT'S NOT. I get my rant on saying that I just don't think we're meant to marry them lol. We finish with a note about the current Soviet political sitch, that Yuri Andropov has died, and in mum's diary she wonders what this will mean for world peace. We end the reading -- and the volume!!! -- by saying we will be doing this podcast for another 15 years likely, and that as AI gets better and better I'll need to be on AI-mother watch, to make sure I DON'T use it to somehow build a mother replacement for later on, so I can continue talking to her forever. There's something deeply wrong about that, I agree. Enjoy! (Next reading we start Volume 7 woo hoo.) 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!