Betty IV

I made a stupid mistake today. 

I phoned Grandad to say thanks for the money he had sent me. That's not the mistake, however. The mistake was dialling the wrong number without realising it. I was just one digit out, but that's no consolation.

A lady answered the phone. You haven't been with us for over a year now, so I wasn't expecting that. Then I felt elated: I thought it was you on the other end of the line.

But it wasn't.

I'm reading a good book at the moment by Orhan Pamuk called My Name is Red. There's a nice quote in it:: After some tragedy, we all feel the same way: In one last desperate hope, and without caring how comic and foolish we appear, we pray that everything might continue as it always has.

And it's so true. A small part of me has always hoped you'll come home, just like when I was waiting for you to suddenly start speaking while I stood by your side at the funeral parlour. 

I guess for a moment I saw a glimpse of this hope realised, then saw it fade away. 

I put the phone down and cried.

What have the 80s ever done for us?

They were tacky. They gave us mullets and the New Romantics. They virtually gave up on good taste. 

They were the 80s and kitsch was the norm!

I've sometimes been ridiculed for my love of this very cheesy decade. But here are a few things many of us can be grateful to the 80s for, and not just me. I must warn you it gets pretty random!

Do They Know It's Christmas Time? - Band Aid

We all remember the video. Phil Collins, Sting, Bono, Duran Duran, George Michael, the ever-colourful Boy George and several other 80s icons rounded up in the studio together by Sir Bob Geldof. 

Sir Bob and friends didn't just give us a timeless Christmas classic. They raised a great deal of awareness about the poverty in Africa and did much good with this well-written song, not to mention the Live Aid concert.

It was a decade in which, rather than complain about the state of the world from his armchair, one man decided to act and try to make it a better place.  

Michael J. Fox

Yes, he of Back to the Future and Teen Wolf fame, the latter making me feel better about quite hairy for my young years at the time! Good old Marty McFly who travelled backwards in time in one of the coolest cars ever to be created, whizzed about on a skateboard and riffed Johnny B.Goode at the school dance. 

This 80s heart-throb has made it into my list not so much because of the movies, good as they were, but because of his illness. Struck down by Parkinson's disease, he has created a foundation to try to research cures for the disease.

His story is a reminder to us all how cruel life can sometimes be. We should never forget it.

Appetite for Destruction by Guns 'N' Roses

In the 70s, it was the Sex Pistols whom everybody feared. Then came the late 80s and the 'Most Dangerous Band in the World'. In a decade riddled with synth, bad makeup and mullets - that said, I love it still! - came one of the most timeless rock albums ever: Appetite for Destruction!

They proved that the 80s were still capable of good music, even if all fashion sense had gone out of the window.'Paradise City' - what an anthem, and 'Sweet Child o' Mine' - what a guitar solo with its 1 000 million notes per second!

Even now I still listen to this album, hoping that heavy metal will see the light and once again be about virtuous playing and finely crafted songs, rather than about angst and lousy childhoods. I'll probably never see that day, but I can dream about if nothing else!

Space Raiders

I admit I've never liked these crisps. I did, however, like the price. At just 10p a packet, Space Raiders were the epitome of the cheap snack, that food could be affordable.

Not only that, in my adult years this concept would immediately help me identify (potential) shoplifters when working in customer service, who would ask 'Have you got any 10 pence crisps?'. If they asked that, you'd immediately suspect that if that's all they had on them, and that's all they'd come for, they had no need to be walking around the shop for 10 minutes after you'd already said no!

Thatcherism
Oooooooo controversial. 

Not because I think it's a good thing, however. Remember that saying, 'There's nothing like the sight of the battlefield after the battle to inspire a love of peace and a hatred of war' or something along those lines? Well, unfortunately, we had to experience Thatcherism just so we'd know how bad life under the Conservatives would actually be come future elections: expect rioting on the streets, iron fist-style government, tax cuts and major cuts in the public sector.

Sadly, we came full circle in the last general election, but, once they were finally out, at least we kept the Tories out for over 10 years before letting them back in. 

These are just a few of the things I think the 80s deserve a little gratitude for. They showed us some of the things that could be achieved; showed us some of the things that couldn't; and some of the things that simply shouldn't be tried!

What are you grateful to the 80s for? Or is there a decade you think we should owe particular thanks to? I'd be interested to hear.

We'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids...

Gotta say I'm a little - as in massively - disappointed with the England squad. We've been knocked out on those pesky penalties yet again!

I do feel sorry for the players, really I do, but only to an extent. It's not easy to bear the nation's hopes on your shoulders - unless you're Andrea Pirlo, it seems - and, having missed in a previous (penalty) shootout, I applaud Steven Gerrard's courage to still step up and smash it in the net.

But the squad and the media's attitude has really gotten my dander up! I'm fed up of hearing how 'we have to draw the positives from this'. Clearly, they're not: if they were, we'd be going further in international competitions.

And oh can the pundits please stop banging on about we need a little bit of luck in these tournaments. Maybe we do, but how long did we think we were going to wing it for? Having a good strong team wins tournaments, not just having a bit of luck.

When they rattled on how about well we defended against Italy last night, they irked me. I'm not big on match tactics, but the object of the game still is to score more goals than the other team, right? Defending well, as far as I'm aware, doesn't take you through to the next stage, whereas, as I understood it, scoring goals does.

Number one gripe: if Gary Lineker is to be believed - and considering the team's track record, he can't be far wrong - it's only under Roy Hodgson that England have been practising penalties, their argument being that they can't recreate the conditions in practice. Fair enough, they can't, but surely - surely! - they should at least be trying. It's tantamount to going out based on nothing but sheer laziness.

Look at Pirlo. With that cheeky little chip he looked as if he took penalties for fun. I admit that kind of composure is superhuman, but we've also seen it from the Portuguese in the past. 

Mediterranean countries seem to know how to take penalties. What are they doing that we aren't?

Let's not put it down to all that good weather. Maybe instead of going the extra mile, they're going that extra 11 yards.