This was a date to which I had really been looking forward. In the morning, we played football at school. In the way of these things, the sides were uneven. 5 vs 7.  Also in the way of things, it didn't occur to us to make them even, and play 6 vs 6.  Whichever way we had a great time, you always do as a kid.  It's one of the rules of looking back!  20/20 vision and rose tinted spectacles.  The 1980's were our good ole days!

But what of the evening's entertainment? Oh yes, a fine day cavorting around a football pitch was capped off with a trip to the pictures (single screen!).  And what did we see? Nothing but the best... Back To The Future. As I noted, it was "magic. [A] brill film." It's one of those films that 20 odd years later I can watch over and over again.  You simply never tire of Marty and Doc Brown's antics. You're never quite sure that the DeLorean is going to get up to the correct speed at the exact moment that the lightning strike hits the clock tower... But of course it always does!

I noted that [Shrewsbury] Town beat Barnsley 3-0 and that I went to bed at 9.30, Dog-Tired.

After seeing in the New Year, my bed was found at ten minutes to one. I can't remember if I had a drink or not, it's possible I suppose.  I slept in until 10 o'clock and then played Football Manager on my Commodore 64 (C64).  Now let's be clear here, if Shirley Crabtree was The (Big) Daddy of the wrestling ring, then the C64 was The Daddy of gaming computers in the 1980's.

Football Manager was addictive stuff, I remember.  You started with your team in the fourth division (renamed division 2 nowadays!?) and you then had to pick your team to best advantage in order to move up the divisions.  Graphics were rudimentary (but they looked fantastic back then, or did they?) and the game had the uncanny knack of actually making time accelerate.

Later on, in the evening I guess, I watched Rocky II.  I can't remember anything much about the film, but my diary comment, "Wot a con!?" is unequivocal yet seems to leave the door ajar for a reassessment as necessary. I'm sure that my brother was highly enamoured with it!