Asten

Being born in 1992 means I got the full 90s childhood experience. I remember VHS tapes stacked by the TV, Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal, and hearing the Spice Girls everywhere you went. It means growing up before social media was even a thought — when your world was your family, your… Read more

Everyone remembers their very first mobile — it felt like a rite of passage. I got mine when I was 10: a Nokia 3210 with a pink case (obviously 😌). The screen was tiny, the camera didn’t even exist yet, and the highlight was playing endless games of Snake 🤣. Still, I thought it was… Read more

Sometimes I wonder how we even managed without a smartphone glued to our hands… but then I remember, that was just normal life. Back then, my phone was a chunky little flip, and the coolest thing it could do was let me download a polyphonic ringtone for £3. Texting meant using T9 predictive text —… Read more

Daisy vs. Pop Hazards 🎈 A cautionary tale in squeaky rubber and betrayal There are many enemies in life: taxes, slow Wi-Fi, people who clap when the plane lands. But none strike fear into the human soul quite like balloons. Yes, balloons. Those squeaky, rubbery, so-called party decorations that lurk in corners, waiting to explode… Read more

Filed under: Nostalgia · Pop Forever This morning, a car rolled past blasting a-ha. Inside my flat? Cheesy pop revival on repeat. Together, we accidentally created Ipswich’s first unofficial retro radio station. 📻 And honestly? That’s the thing about music: it doesn’t expire. It doesn’t matter if it came out in 1985, 2000, or last… Read more

Listen babes, let me tell you something: Mario Kart is NOT just a fun little game. Oh no. It’s a psychological warfare simulator disguised as family entertainment. And nowhere is that more obvious than on Rainbow Road. First of all — WHO signed off on this track? NASA? The Illuminati? You need astronaut training just… Read more

Before smartphones, we had Tamagotchis — tiny pixel pets that ran our entire schedules. One minute they’re happy, the next they’ve beeped through double maths because you forgot to clean up their… pixel business. We fed them, played games, paused them (sometimes), and panicked when the battery icon flashed. The heartbreak of a little gravestone… Read more

Were you even living in the late 90s/00s if your pencil case wasn’t bursting with gel pens? Metallic ones, glitter ones, scented ones (that somehow smelt like chemicals but we loved them anyway) — they were the ultimate status symbol of the classroom. Did they actually write properly? Rarely. Did they smudge all over your… Read more

If American teen movies taught us anything, it’s that prom was supposed to be the most magical night of our lives. Limos, tiaras, confetti cannons — the works. One slow dance and suddenly you’re living your own High School Musical finale. But here’s the thing: I never had a prom when I left school. At… Read more