‘I’m turning into my mother!’ Gaby Roslin reflects on her family history
Radio and TV presenter Gaby Roslin can’t help noticing she’s picking up a few familiar habits
At what age do we turn into our mothers? It’s a question I found myself pondering the other day as I put on my dressing gown after an early evening bath. My late mum used to do the same, and Dad would see her in her dressing gown and say, ‘But it’s only 9pm, Jackie,’ to which Mum would simply reply, ‘And?’ Well, now I seem to be doing the same. And the odd thing is, when I was young, I used to hate dressing gowns all together. I thought they were the most awful, frumpy things. Then, as a student, my fantasy was to have a large fluffy one like they wear in the movies. Nowadays, I have a white, oversized Marks & Spencer towelling one that I love, but it really doesn’t make me look like I’m in the movies at all. It has two huge pockets and a big wide collar that gets stained weekly by my use of fake tan.
But, just like Mum, I do love an early evening bath and I never take my phone in there so I can’t be disturbed. Of course, in the past, you didn’t even have to think about taking a phone into the bathroom, as the cords didn’t stretch. And that got me thinking – when did we go cordless? I looked it up and found the first cordless phone didn’t go on sale until April 1983. That’s the same year that saw the release of Flashdance, Yentl and Trading Places. And the biggest TV shows were Don’t Wait Up, starring a very young Nigel Havers, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Blackadder. And on 17 January, Breakfast TV launched on BBC One followed by TV-AM on 1 February on ITV. (Breakfast telly has played a huge part in my life and I’ve loved every moment.)
And while reminiscing through Google, I found another surprising fact, that bananas first went on sale in the UK in April 1633. Yes, really! So I thought I’d share my favourite banana pancake recipe from Melissa Hemsley’s Eat Happy cookbook. It’s gluten free and uses 2 ripe bananas, 100g quinoa flakes, 180ml milk (I use coconut), 1 egg, 11/2tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix all the ingredients together, and then cook. I like mine piled high with blueberries. Delicious! I know everyone went banana bread bonkers during the first lockdown, but me. I don’t bake. I even told the fabulous Nadiya Hussain that I didn’t bake and she said I had to start. Maybe I’ll try it this month and let you know how I get on.
And so to finish where I started, I realise I’ve also now adopted my mum’s habit of using hoods instead of umbrellas. My mum would always wear a coat with a hood and I thought it was so embarrassing (aren’t we always embarrassed by our parents?). But now I find a hood a much easier way to keep my hair in place, and the other day, I even caught myself saying to my daughter. ‘Put your hood up, don’t get wet, did you hear me?’ just as my mum used to say to me. You see, I really am turning into her. I reckon it happens to us all in the end.
Have a wonderfully happy month, smile if you can, and please don’t forget to email me at the address above. I do love to hear your stories, too.
‘Just like my mum, I do love an early evening bath’