I'd like to teach the world to sing...

OMG, it's the 70s! That's what I thought as I rushed into an art studio. Late for an assignment because our road is still closed and we'd been over to Westonbirt arboretum in the morning, and generally run out of time.

I needn't have worried. The class was totally disorganised to begin with, but we all got to grips with subject (drawing me!) in the end. There'll be more work, too.

And the clothes? They were part of a fashion session from the morning's class. So polyester, so nightie-like, and yes, I remember them all! There was once a dress pattern that my mother was going to make up for my elder sister, TML, in blues and greens, because she was blonde. ( I was more honey blonde, so had to wear browns and yellows, in my mother's colour system). Anyway, we moved house, and the dress wasn't made, and eventually Tanya grew too tall for the fabric length, so it was made up for me. It was a pale blue pinafore, maxi length, with sticky-outy capped sleeves, and a blouse in blue, green and white sprigged fabric. I wore it at a drinks party and handed out cheese footballs and vol au vents. (This was the first time I'd seen vol au vents). I'd like to think that I looked like an angel, but I was already eleven, so the angel years had flown on by...

I admit I felt fairly sick when I saw those dresses. They were too Karen Carpenter and Lena Zavaroni- ish, and they both died of eating disorders. The early 70s were not a happy time for the family I grew up in, for all sorts of reasons, but the drinks party stands out as a slightly happier memory, and of course no one ever got ill just by putting on a dress!