Tag: Julie Roberts

Julie – 12th January 1988

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

I got your picture on my wall
I think maybe I should give you a call
I haven’t seen you for a year or two
I don’t know if I’d even recognise you
I know you just took me for a fool
But now we’re older and out of school
You’re someone I’d really like to see
I wonder if you’d even recognise me

5th Nov 2021 – It’s 1983/1984 – On my school bus was a girl called Annabel Frost and one day whilst looking out of my second-floor classroom I could see Annabel in her classroom on the ground floor in the building opposite. She was talking with this cute girl and I got their attention and from that point on I would regularly blow kisses out of the window whenever I would see her there. I found out her name – Julie Roberts but was somehow too shy to even have the courage to talk with her, let alone take it any further. The attached picture is a barely snuck shot in the playground one day. The days when no one wanted their picture taken!

Sometime in the following year (1985) Julie happened to be visiting Annabel in her village, which was one of our gang’s rotation of regular haunts and we got to hang out a bit in our wider circle of friends. I tried to lead her off, not for any nefarious activity but more to just talk alone and we did that in the local church doorway. I so desperately wanted to kiss her but was too shy to approach and also recognised the awkward position that that might put her in.

Anyway, she was quite interested in the fact that I had pierced my own nose twice and wanted hers pierced too. I told her I would do it and we arranged for her to come to my house in the days following. Oh my god! Julie Roberts would be alone with me in my bedroom! Better hide the stinky socks.

Again, I was so damn nervous and I couldn’t for the life of me understand if she was here just to get her nose pierced, how much she liked me or wanted to fumble around. I felt like I was acting like a gentleman by not initiating anything and leaving it for her to decide if there would be any making out.

Things were also frustrated a little by the fact that I spent part of the time with my tobacco-stained finger stuck up her nose and making her cry when trying to shove a sharp needle through. The needle wasn’t sharp enough, I wasn’t brave enough. She left in the end, both of us disappointed, one way or another.

And that was the last time I saw her! In 1988, her picture inspired this poem and, as I’m sure we all have similar pictures, left me wondering what might have been.

*The Week That Was – 19th March 1984

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Record of the week: Flux of Pink Indians – The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks

19th March 1984
Decided I didn’t fancy going to school. So stayed home. Had kip. Poked around with moped. Wrote letter to Zoe – to send tomorrow with Bloodstains etc. Now I’m waiting for something decent to happen. Saw Julie on the bus. Mum wouldn’t let me out. So started writing a sort of book called ‘Collected Notes of an Imbecile’ including anything and everything.

20th March 1984
Might as well go to school. R.E. – did nothing. Boring YTS film. Maths – shit. Biz – ok. Lunch – can’t remember. P.E. – played football – good laugh. Went over to Rupert’s – gave Burd a lift. Did some taping. Went down club. Had a game of pool. Saw Amanda. Came back. Watched a decent film – Red Sun – Charles Bronson. Went to sleep.

21st March 1984
H.E. – wrote four songs for PCH. Physics – more PCH and peeing about. Lunch – played football. R.E. – nothing. English – ok. Biz – ok. Maths – shit. Bus – had a laugh with Beki. Came home. Got bored. Went out on ‘ped. Saw Jasp, Burt, Scott. Came back. Found out Zoe had rung. She’s coming down to Bournemouth April 7th. Rung her. She was out so she’ll have to ring me back. Typed up PCH. Packed letter to Zoe. Minder is pretty good. Got to prepare H.E. now. Did so.

22nd March 1984
Got seen smoking by Houldey. Art – Hough wasn’t here so did fuck all. P.E. – had an ace game of football. Jane still wants to go out with me. Is that good or bad? Social Studies – ok, didn’t do much. Nick and Chesh got caught smoking – which was quite funny. Went to H.E. to do preparation for exam. Finished early and went for a fag with Nick and Stece. Got Annabel to go out with Burt for a laugh. Went down to Gaunts, ran into a tree while setting (illegible). Saw two people doing strange things in their car. Came back. Watched something. Went to sleep.

23rd March 1984
Bought in rest of H.E. Assembly – boring. Did H.E. exam, everything went ok. Nick’s didn’t go too well. Went for a fag beginning of lesson 4. Langridge could smell it when I went into Maths and I think he might check-up. Lunch – checked exam dates. H.E. – went to tidy things up. Went for another fag lesson 6. Went on to Art. Did nothing as Hough wasn’t here again. Biz – ok. Physics – Hayward was in a good mood and was taking the piss out of us for a change. Liz is going to France for two weeks. Went to chippie. Went up to Houldey’s with Muz and Burt. Had a laugh. Dandy gives me the horn. Got back and had a wank. Watched Cheers. Went to sleep.

24th March 1984
Went to Houlday’s, thought I’d see Dandy but didn’t. Went to match with Mr Playing Howdy (?) – was a good match. We won 4-1. I scored with a head. Fell straight into mud, started pissing it down. Freezing. Came back home. Went to Poole. Bought Flux LP. Put deposit on DK live LP. Met Simon etc. Baldie’s lost his wallet but found it again. Went home on bus. Rich and (?) were on. Flux LP is pretty weird though I’ll probably get used to it. Watched telly rest of the time. Couldn’t stay awake for film though mum watched ice skating til 4.30am.

25th March 1984
Woke up 1 o’clock. Took dog for walk. Watching Milk Cup final Liverpool – Everton 0-0. Zoe rang – she’s not coming on the 7th but for the first week in Easter instead. Not a lot happening. Not feeling very tired so put on 4-Skins LP and did art til 12.20.

*The Week That Was – 5th March 1984

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Record of the week: Confessions of Sin – Loose (live)

5th March 1984
Physics – ok. Maths – shit. Social Studies – ok. Someone put my bag in a bin so I left it there. H.E. – ok. Got letter from Black Flag’s drummer Bill Stevenson. They’ve got a new LP – My War, released March 1st so should be here soon. They’re coming over early June – right when my fucking exams are. Fuckin’ typical. Practised at Simon’s – fuckin’ ace laugh. Especially Balderson’s Boots. Hill Street Blues – fucking funny.

6th March 1984
Found my bag. R.E. – ok. P.S.C.E. – shit. Maths – shit. Wellman wanted to see me – Mrs Bell said ‘well done’ – fuckin’ bitch. English – good. P.E. – had a fuckin’ laugh pissing around in basketball. Getting good friends with Julie again. Maybe taking her to Brownsea on Saturday before gig. (?) not open yet. Went to Muz’s – making fireworks with Jasp. Had a laugh with some on wall (?)

7th March 1984
H.E. – did fuck all. Got hamster cage for Damien – he ate 7 other mice on Monday. Should get him tomorrow. Physics – ok. Didn’t do a lot at lunchtime. R.E. – has film on addiction. English – ok. B.Studies – shit. Maths – fuckin’ shit, got more revision books today. Went to Muz’s, Burt came round. We went up to the common. Blew some aerosols up. Burt shit himself. Went back to Shirl’s who gave us some (?) and a burger. Went to Muz’s, played a bit on his computer. Came back.

8th March 1984
Met Damien. Art – bit of a laugh. P.E. – badminton, fuckin’ knackered. Pissed off for some reason. Talked to Julie. Social Studies – not too bad. Went for a fag with Mandy. Business Studies – won part of a lottery to use an electric typewriter. English – reading. Took Damien home on bus. Chris gave me a lift from bus. Put Damien in cage. He’s not very sociable. When I picked him up he pissed all over me. Not a lot happening tonight. Doing some art and even revision. Rang Paul and Andy who seem to hate each other now.

9th March 1984
Julie isn’t coming tomorrow – but next Saturday. Bit pissed off. English – ok. Got Aischrolateria tape. People liked it. H.E. – boring. Maths – shit. Art – Mini brought in his moped to draw. Business Studies – pissed around on electric typewriter. Physics – ok. Saw some Saw some common (?) punk on the tube. Went to Muz’s. Chris came down. Me, Muz and Burt went up to Houldey’s and had a crack-up. Listening to Aischrolateria now – for a laugh.

10th March 1984
Played football against Bournemouth who were acting like a bunch of pricks – we still lost 5-3. Met Simon in Wimborne. Went to Ratty’s. Went to Poole. Watched Simon have his hair cut. Went to Record Fair. Bought Skids/SGC/Fall singles. Ratty took them back for me. Got bus to Bournemouth. Went up to gig. Had a chat with everyone. COS weren’t playing which pissed me off a bit. Atrox played instead. Then Breakout. Then COS turned up too – we had a fuckin’ great time. Loose for 10 minutes – ace. Idiom Tribe went on – real heroes. Aheads went on to catch everyone. I went back then so missed Self Abuse. I should see them on Monday though.

11th March 1984
Finally stirred at 10.40. Feeling a bit pissed off but looking forward to tomorrow. Went to Muz’s, saw Conway on the way. Muz wasn’t in so went to the BMX track in the woods. Started hailing it so went to Shirl’s – who wasn’t in. Left some tapes for him to tape. Went home. Remembered I had to collect bag from Houldey’s so did so. Saw Dandy – lovely. Came back. Watched It’ll Be Alright On The Night. Had a bath. Had a chat with Mother. The fuckin’ money situation is in a terrible state. Damien bit me today.

The Week That Was – 11th February 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Highest Entry – Tragedy – Bee Gees (7)

11th Nov 2021 – I think I hated this song at the time and I’m not sure about it now either. I can hear their high pitched voices screaming the title. I probably wouldn’t turn off the radio if it started playing but would be anticipating its end. I read positive things about earlier Bee Gees work and downloaded some to check out a couple of years ago. I don’t think I’ve heard it yet though (maybe one track on a Chiang Rai Alternative Hour podcast…)

11th February 1979
WO
FONZ Great!
School tomorrow
BLURP

11th Nov 2021 – That Sunday feeling. Sunday was bath day. I still have dreams in that bathroom. It’s weird now to imagine only bathing once a week! At some point, I tried to make bath time more interesting by getting undressed whilst balancing on the edge of the bath, walking back and forth. For every rotation, I would take off an item of clothing and being visible naked in the window gave me an odd thrill. The window overlooked a field so I don’t think anyone ever saw me or would’ve even noticed my weird game. I have distinct memories of the smells around the bathroom too. Some kind of soft floral perfume, Gardenia, perhaps. Gardenia was a favourite smell in 1998, that defined a period in my life, and probably was a reminder of this time in the late 70s.

12th February 1979
Boring day but
Monty Python’s Flying Circus will change that

13th February 1979
Went to rugger club for the first time

11th Nov 2021 – I was a sporting wannabe for sure. I did very well at most sports and as I was bigger than a lot of other kids teachers wanted me to try out for everything. I never enjoyed rugby though. I thought I was a tough nut, but I really wasn’t. I enjoyed the competition but rugby got too brutal for my skinny frame. I also didn’t know all the rules and one time Sean McDonnell took great advantage of this when I was preparing to run up to kick a try conversion. I had mistimed my run and turned around to start again. I didn’t know that there was no second chance with this and Sean ran and stole the ball for a try at the other end as I stood perplexed and whinging!

14th February 1979 (St Valentine)
Nothing much happened today so I’m not going to say anything!
Didn’t get any did I! Heyy!

11th Nov 2021 – Was I ugly? I didn’t know really. I thought of myself as well-liked by others but I think I was already starting to break out from the norm. Kids generally tolerate each other at this age (11-13) but apparently, I didn’t endear myself to anyone.

15th February 1979
1. Blondie (1) (3)
2. Abba (2) (1)
3. 3 Degrees (3) (2)
4. Leif Garrett (7) (-)
Fred

11th Nov 2021 – Fred was my mum’s boss. My mum was a machine knitter for hire and he ran some sort of clothing business selling guernseys. My mum was busy night and day doing this with two machines set up in our rooms, wool stored in every spare nook and cranny. A quick search found this site and this piece of information which tickles me – “The sweater of choice for fishermen, servicemen and criminals.”

16th February 1979
Half term
Matthew came down today
Had x-rays of my feet
Top: Liverpool

11th Nov 2021 – Matthew lived in a big house about half a mile away and I was a little envious and shy of his family at first. Along with the big house, they also had a classic Mercedes Benz (probably just a normal Benz at the time but I would consider a classic now) and a tennis court at the bottom of their garden. They felt to me to be a different class, well-spoken, well dressed and well behaved. At first, Matthew came to my house, where I was more comfortable, and we designed and discussed the big castles that we would live in when we grew up.

Sometime in the early oughts, Matthew sent me a message via Friends Reunited, a website where you could add your name to your school and the year you finished and reconnect with your old schoolmates. I had never really kept up with anyone, even immediately after leaving school but put my name down, perhaps in the hope of reconnecting with Julie Roberts, Leslie English or Tina Park, all of whom I had had crushes on!

Anyway, Matthew sent me a brief catch-up email asking how I was. I was in a funny place at the time which I will eventually document and simply replied along the lines of “I’m great! I got just my dick pierced!” I don’t think that this would have been entirely out of character from how he might’ve remembered me but I never heard from him again.

17th February 1979
1
Ipswich P-P Bristol Rovers or Charlton (FA Cup 5th Round)
Top: Liverpool