Archive for the ‘Jan 86’ Category:
Friday 31st January 1986
Oh dear. Winter must have been really dragging. My first comment for this day is 'Dead boring.' Good grief, it's an oft spouted piece of nonsense, but if I had known then what I know now, there is no way that I owuld have been making such ridiculous statements. Trouble is, kids today are exactly the same, "I'm bored" they whine. I guess I'm only saying what my Mum and Dad would have said to me when I tell them to sling their hook and find something interesting to do. "You could always tidy that pigsty you call a bedroom..."
In German we received some test marks back - I scored 26 1/2 and 27 out of 30, ooh smarty pants eh? All other lessons I noted were boring. That word again. Pah!
It rained a lot today - so much so that a proposed football practice session for tomorrow (Saturday 1st February) was called off. The pitch was too muddy. Not a good idea quoth I.
Thursday 30th January 1986
After a day at school the snow was all gone. How unfair is that?! Honestly, the gods of meteorology did not smile kindly upon us this day.
I noted that Liverpool would play Queens Park Rangers in the Milk Cup semi-finals after QPR had beaten Chelsea the previous evening. I was most disgusted that the next instalment of BlackAdder II would have to wait until next week because of Crimewatch. How dare they?
Wednesday 29th January 1986
More snow today. Those who lived in the more inaccesible places from which people sent their children to our school were packed off home early. The rest of us who lived along a main road stayed until the proper end of school.
Tuesday 28th January 1986
I don't know what the government's school inspectors must have thought, but we had this morning off school thanks to a strike by the NUT. It was a great boon to me personally, as we missed a double dose of Chemistry, and believe me to not be stuck in the lab with the horror who taught us was no hardship. Part of my issue was that we were a mixed group, some of us doing Chemistry on its own and others of us doing either Physics or Biology as well. The woman who taught us was a Biology teacher by training and inclination so her Chemistry was targeted towards the organic side of things. As someone who was also doing Physics, I would have liked her to have been a little more even handed.
Anyway, I went in to school for games just before lunch. It was, I noted, a waste of time. Bloody boring, or should that have been muddy boring...? Boom-tish! I'll get me coat. But the weather was OK so it couldn't have been all bad.
Monday 27th January 1986
Apparently, we had school inspectors in today. They were very good, just sitting in the corner - no trouble at all. And we only had one in the one lesson, French. School was quiet without Friday's nuisance maker who must have been off sick. Now the character concerned isn't somebody with whom I had an awful lot to do, but he must have really got under my skin at this time.
In the draw for the next roud of the FA Cup (when it were on't radio and they fished the balls ot of that velvet bag, not the terrible mechanical fish bowl that they insist on using nowadays), Liverpool were drawn away with York City. Not the easy draw that on paper it looked.
Sunday 26th January 1986
Today was I reported, a nice day. Now, in the days before Sky and exclusive contracts to cover football competitions, the FA Cup was shared between ITV and BBC. Some might call it a cosy monopoly, but football was treated as football, as a sport. Sky's coverage had brought in many innovations, some of them beneficial, but has also introduced a level of hype which is quite preposterous. And they have Richard Keys, who should have stuck to the sofa that he was inhabiting in 1980's television land. Don't get me started on the nonsense that Andy Gray spouts.
Anyway, at 2.30pm, on ITV that afternoon, Liverpool travelled to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea in FACUP4 as Sky might have put it, with goals from Ian Rush and Mark Lawrenson seeing off the Londoners' challenge.
Before the big match, I collected £96 on my paper round, and I also managed to find the time to do some home taping. I illegally copied a school friend's tape of The Alarm's Strength album. Naughty naughty.
Saturday 25th January 1986
Ah, the weekend. What fun. I went to town, closed my Barclays account, bought a Fine Young Cannibals single (Suspicious Minds) and an Alarm 12" single - I think it must have been Spirit of '76. The Alarm were a band that I liked a lot. I remember later at 6th form I had a folder that I covered with a homemade Alarm logo. It was fab! Anyway, the 12" was more like an old style EP - a sixties thing I guess. It had the title track plus live versions of Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke, Knocking On Heaven's Door, Deeside and the fabulous 68 Guns
Later on we played football again, versus our opponents from the previous Saturday. Last Saturday's result proved to be a fluke, as this time we lost by even more, 6-3. I was, ahem, 'pissed off with it.'
£3.00
Friday 24th January 1986
It snowed today but it didn't stick. Looking back now no snow = no worries, the world can continue as normal. Back then, no snow = we still have to go to school. Boo hoo, no fun. But hey, here's one for ya, GET OVER IT! Bloody school kids.
School today was enlivened by the antics of two girls in Chemistry. '****** and ****** [were] in a stupid mood.' And one of the male members of the class drew my wrath - as I remember he was always attempting to ingratiate himself with this particular pair, so as they became more entertaining, he became more annoying. Probably a kind of envy on my part...
Thursday 23rd January 1986
Today was boring (again!). My friend brought back my Level 42 tape that I had lent to him. I think it was World Machine, featuring such smash hits as Something About You and Leaving Me Now. There was quite a thriving trade of music swapping between us. As non-earning individuals we had no other choice, a tape or an LP must have cost at least a fiver. I earned about 6 quid a week from my paper round. Go figure...
We had a grammar test in German - easy? And the bus was late again. 'It's beginning to be a habit!'
Anything that had happened during the day however, was made alright by Thursday evening's televisual offering. Blackadder II was on again, must've been the third episode. As discussed previously, this was marvelous stuff. Simply the best.
Wednesday 22nd January 1986
Today started with rain, but it did get better. We were given a lot of Physics homework, but fortunately, not much else. I reported that the bus was late - at which end of the day I make no comment. I do make comment on an altercation that I had on the bus with someone. Apparently, I 'almost kicked [him] in the head but I stopped(?)'. Indeed. Testosterone fuelled nonsense on the school bus.
