Sister Sister...

 Curled up on the sofa on a grey, drizzly Sunday afternoon, I've got my head in another book. This time it's Caitlin Moran's, How To Be A Woman, and every few pages I'm giggling away to myself, tears of laughter streaming down my face as I relate to yet another one of her childhood stories. The one that springs to mind is when she's explaining to her younger sister what it's like to start your periods, while they play with their Sindy dolls, using the sanitary towels as Sindy mattresses!

I remember my sister Laura and I having similar moments - where our Barbies would, for some reason, have American accents and all be in a relationship with the one Ken doll that we owned, who, evidently, fathered two sets of quintets, while they all lived happily ever after in the Barbie mansion.

And, while little sisters can be a great nuisance, and older siblings can be bossy and frustrating, the bond between sisters is a strong one. One of my favourite memories has to be the following...

Together, the Treacy sisters watched Blue Peter eagerly as the presenters demonstrated how to create a Barbie salon out of empty cereal boxes. We decided that we definitely needed a Barbie salon for our plastic doll's make believe lives and got to work straight away. However, the 1980s children's presenters neglected to inform us that we shouldn't actually cut off poor Jasmine, Pocahontas and roller skating Barbie's hair off! Even their fringes! We came up with a genius plan to hide the synthetic locks in a shoe box under Laura's bed - but, it soon back fired when mum discovered our secret stash of hair cuttings and demanded to know why we had disfigured our treasured toys. At the time of discovery, our hairdresser was round our house, and she lined up the dolls on our kitchen worktop, and while she held back the giggles and not wanting to crush our first attempts at being creative, she told us that she could see what look we were trying to go for, and that we'd mastered the asymmetric bob! Needless to say, that the fringeless, shaggy, bed head look didn't go down too well with Ken, and it wasn't long until the Barbie mansion made it's way into the loft.

We both have a bank of memories filled with laughter, tears and togetherness - and while, they might not be as cool as your best friends, as witty as your work colleagues or as funny as your boyfriend - you won't find anyone more reliable than a sister.