I’m turning 40 soon. Or rather, my 40th year is ending. The beau and I had an interesting discussion about milestone birthdays the other day. He reckons 50 is more important than 40. I disagree. 40 is halfway through a decent life span. It’s also the boundary to middle age.

To mark the occasion, and for the heck of it, I’m having a party. An 80s costume party. I had some pretty grand ideas involving hiring a hall, but decided to keep it at home, with family and just the closer circles of friends (or else we’ll run out of room).

For my costume, I decided on Susan from the film Desperately Seeking Susan. Not only was Madonna a big 80s celeb, but an icon of the fashion and music of the time. And I desperately wanted to dress like her, but if I had I’d have been grounded. Of course, nobody would twitch an eyelid these days.

So I gathered together lots of jewellery, lace gloves and camisole, and scored big time at the op shop findin a very, very 80s pair of pleated front, high waisted, tapered-to-the-ankle black pants. The jacket, however was the hard part.

I could not find anything resembling it in op shops, so eventually I dug up an old bolero jacket (with obligatory 80s shoulder pads) from the back of the wardrobe, some material, felt, gold crochet yarn and paint, and a black permanent marker and started embellishing.

The front is okay, so long as my hair covers the top of the collar.

But I’m pretty chuffed at how the back came out. The black marker worked okay on the felt but not the gold material. But for a costume, it’ll do fine.

Finally, I had my hair dyed streaky blonde. First time I’ve had my hair coloured since I was sixteen. And you know what? I kinda like it!