Summer term at St Helen’s and St Katherine’s, a month so good we recorded it twice! Fellow Hel Kat and boarder Elizabeth “Poggy” Allison compares her memories of school life with Penny’s - less drinking martini, punting and ice-skating; a lot more eating toast, going to chapel and being chaperoned.

We find out what Radiohead’s Thom Yorke got up to before he was famous and Penny does some accidental oversharing with the Abingdon School boys.

Follow me on Instagram @diary_of_a_diva_podcast and @divaliciouspenny, Facebook @diaryofadivapodcast. Original music by @finnpearson_

April's guest of the Pod, Jason helps Penny unpack the relative merits of a pair of tight pants and a billowing white shirt; the Mr. Darcy myth, Penny auditions for yet another musical and we find out why Rangers was SO much better than Girl Guides; it wasn’t the uniform. And in one month Penny, ever the chameleon, channels most of the Spice Girls; lurching from pastel jumpsuits (Baby), to full Goth attire (Scary), intensive Lacrosse training (Sporty), Badminton Horse Trials (posh). Jason remains ginger.

Follow me on Instagram @diary_of_a_diva_podcast and @divaliciouspenny, Facebook @diaryofadivapodcast. Original music by Finn Pearson. 

March is packed with competitions; music, lacrosse, even walking is about winning. The St Helen's netball team have reached the National Finals but Penny’s ankle is still dodgy after falling down the stairs drunk on New Year's Eve. Will this stand in their way of national domination? Rehearsals have begun for ‘Trial by Jury’; Penny is appalled to find that her costume shows too much decolletage and decides that she pop wants to be a pop singer NOT an opera singer! Recorded in the dressing room at His Majesty’s theatre, Perth, with fellow Cosi Fan Tutte cast members, soprano Prudence Sanders and mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Tymms.

Follow me on Instagram @diary_of_a_diva_podcast, Facebook @diaryofadivapodcast. Original music by Finn Pearson. 

February is all about sharing...sharing private letters, other people’s boyfriends, body parts and we shudder to think how many viruses. Penny, often too unwell to go to school nevertheless indulges in various activities, sledging, trampolining, ice-skating and an unfortunate night at the bowling alley. Singing lessons are going well and Penny lands a role in the Abingdon School musical, but which part? Recorded with fellow diva Fiona Campbell on Rottnest Island after a bit too much rosé.

The excesses of New Year’s Eve have left Penny with swollen tonsils, a swollen ankle and a life-long horror of Vermouth. Spiky hair, Bagpuss and Ouija Boards are in; microwave cakes and boys called Ian are out. Penny and this month's guest, baritone Robert Hofmann, discuss their various encounters with European prostitutes. 

Instagram @diary_of_a_diva_podcast, Facebook @diaryofadivapodcast for more content and photos from the era! Original music by Finn Pearson.

December brings a new selection of activities; ranging from carol singing, delivering Christmas Cards around the village and making nativity scenes to laughing at boys, painting her nails black and hanging with the cool kids. The year ends with a school ski trip and the intoxicating combination of vodka, vermouth and vomit, completing Penny's transition from adorable child to revolting teenager. Still mid-pandemic, Penny’s final guest for 1984 is her son Finn, whose opinion of both his Mother and his Grandmother have now been shattered. 

The cool November weather doesn't stop Penny's hot passion for boys called Dan but it does render Tracy, the Victorian Evening's soloist, unwell and Penny prepares to step in! Will this be her big break? Read in a sweaty room in South Fremantle during Covid-19 lock-down with her own teenage girls who would literally not want to be ANYWHERE else (hum hum!). 

Studded belts, fingerless gloves, batwing sleeved jumpers are all the rage as Penny turns 14 and is finally winning at boys as well as netball. PGL Danny is out, disco Dan is in and a new life of sex, drugs and rock and roll (well...snogging, beer and Andrew Lloyd-Webber!) unfolds. Production values reach a new low as Penny and guest Tommaso Pollio try to record the podcast at a 'social distance' on a beach in Geraldton; wind, waves, flies and killer seagulls all get in on the act. Made on Friday 13th 2020, the day everything got cancelled.

Penny, her brother Chris, and a couple of friends head off parent free on a PGL multi-activity holiday in Wales. Some of the more exciting activities, however, are not advertised in the brochure! Back home Penny receives an unexpected early birthday present in the mail and there is conclusive evidence that the 80s was not a good time to be a goldfish... Read whilst cruising on the Coral Sea with fellow DivaLicious Diva and boarding school escapee Fiona Cooper Smyth.

Fellow diary writer and 'podcat' Cathy Cooksey puts an Aussie slant on August 1984, when the LA Olympics were in full swing and being 'on the spectrum' had an entirely different meaning. As another month of endless holidays and irritating activities commences, surfing, folk dancing, donkey racing to name but a few, Cathy (and quite possibly many other listeners!) longs for a day when Penny slumps miserably in front of the telly filled with teenage angst. Will her dream come true? If it does Cathy will be mintoxicated!