The Reflex, Re Re Reflex.

So, there I was, Christmas week, leaving my new born baby in the very capable hands of my mother and sister to go to a Duran Duran concert in Dublin.

What the hell was I thinking?

He was 16 days old; I wasn’t even used to him being on the outside of me yet.

The tickets were a present from my family for my landmark birthday earlier in the year, which happened to coincide with the week I found out I was expecting the new born I was now feeling homesick for.  That was a big week.

Even though I didn’t expect it, I’ve turned out to be a bit of a clingy parent.  I thought I would skip out the door the first chance I got when I had my first baby, but instead I irritated my mother with phone calls every 20 minutes to see if baby was ok. 

I was a bit better this time, he is my third and I should be getting better at the job, but I still found it hard to leave.

I met up with hubby and we had a bite to eat.  Then we parked up the cars and took the tram to the concert venue in the city. 

I was still doing ok until I realised I had missed my older two children’s bed time.  Guilt washed over me and I had to concentrate really hard on not running out of the building in the pouring rain to get home and give my little ones their good night kisses and say our special things that we always say at bed time.

I got distracted by Twitter for a bit, which helped, especially as the tweets from the venue were being displayed on a giant screen in front of us.  I got quite a kick out of seeing my name up there.

Then the band came on and started with some new song I didn’t know.  I felt a bit deflated.

All was not lost though, they went into some oldies but goodies, Hungry Like the Wolf, Wild Boys etc., but then it happened, the moment that made me turn the corner and zap back in time – “na na na na …. na na na na ….  the reflex …. the reflex ….”. 

Suddenly it was the summer of 1982 and I was 11 years old in the back of my Dad’s car with my Walkman on, listening to the Reflex which I had recorded from the radio onto a bright yellow cassette which I brought everywhere. 

For those who aren’t in the know, in the olden days, we used to listen to the top 30 on the radio every Sunday afternoon and stand over it with our fingers on the record, play and pause buttons waiting for our favourite songs to come on and attempt to release the pause button at precisely the right time so you would only record the song and not the DJ’s voice.  I guess it was a type of downloading, not sure about its legality, but I had Duran Duran all over my yellow cassette thanks to it.

That was the 80’s, they were just great?  I loved every bat winged, blue mascaraed, kitten heeled and Duran Duran theme tuned moment of them.

So my night was a great success.  Duran Duran were flipping brilliant and I’m so glad we went.  Sorry to all the tweeting Duranies who couldn’t be there, but we have a bond now that cannot be broken.

Now, must go see if A-Ha are going on tour again anytime soon.

My little one did great too, he didn't even notice I had gone and abandoned him for a bit of Simon Le Bon.