These last few weeks we have been caught up in World Cup fever and I'm not even a big football fan!

Events like the World Cup bring the country together, united by football whether we are watching the matches at home, with friends or venturing into the pub to soak up the atmosphere.

Pubs and the hospitality industry are being given a much-needed boost from the World Cup . We have also coined new words and phrases such as “hydration break” - as somebody who needs to get better at drinking water I think I need to add hydration breaks to my daily life.

What's the betting that hydration break makes it on to the list of the words of 2026?

Being an England fan is stressful and involves sacrificing sleep with the 2am kick off for the Mexico match. I was happy to sleep through it, catch the highlights and be pleased with the result!

Many schools responded by re-playing the match on the Monday morning at a more civilised hour in the hope that the children could somehow avoid spoilers and watch it as if it was live - still soaking up the atmosphere.

For those staying up there are all sorts of hacks online on how to pull an all-nighter then try to be a human rather than a zombie the next day!

Away from the football, a guilty pleasure of mine is watching the reruns of old episodes of Top of the Pops on BBC4. Each week they show an episode from the early 2000’s, 1970s and 1980s.

I love the nostalgia, particularly with the 2000s episodes, many of which are presented by a very young-looking Jamie Theakston. Every so often these old TOTP throw up some real forgotten gems.

Recently I was watching Janice Long presenting a 1986 edition. One of the songs being performed was by Claire and Friends, a novelty one-hit wonder called “It’s Horrible Being in Love when you’re Eight and a Half”.

Claire and her friends were part of the St Winifred’s School Choir that brought us “There’s no one Quite Like Grandma” in 1980.

This song was designed as a follow up and is every bit as catchy, telling the story of the pains of young love.

Claire won a competition on the TV show Saturday Superstore to win a chance to record the song and perform it on shows like Top of the Pops.

It charted at 13 and Claire later released more music in her own right before training to become an Irish dancer and performing in productions of Riverdance.

I wonder how she feels watching her eight-year-old self on Top of the Pops? Happy memories if not a bit embarrassing?

Listen to my radio shows on Radio Woking, Sunday 9am–noon, Wednesday 7-9am. Life on The Edge every second Sunday at noon with Edge Disability Consultancy.

You can hear Emma and I on Surrey Hills Community Radio every second Monday at 9pm and Life on the Edge airs every first Monday at 10am.

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