1983 - 84 A Little Bit of Politics

This is going to be a difficult one to write. I was heavily politicised by now and taking viewpoints on all sorts of things. I probably started reading the Grauniad in 1983. 


1983 - pound coins appeared on 21 April 1983 and notes were gone in 1984. an event marked in my memory because the year before while delivering newspapers a pound note had blown out of my hand after i took payment. This led to me suffering a certain amount of stress as my pay was only a few quid! what if it kept happening? Leastways, it never happpened agaon, and Harry Tull never took it out of my wages either!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/21/newsid_2527000/2527559.stm played a big part in my life - fund rasiers - awarenss rasiers, debates, pathetic labour leadership who wouldn;t support the strike.
style council, red wedge, billy bragg - MORE ON THIS TO COME


the Zola budd bollocks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/20/newsid_2525000/2525197.stm <- 20th September 1984 - we were on holiday? - Italy? - or is this the wrong bombing - i think it may be the wrong one


In the summer the gang headed up to Swindon way, driven by a parent I think, probably Andy's parents,though we were 17 by now, I'm not sure any of us managed to get a car sorted out this early.


Andy was a massive Dr Who fan and I liked sci fi - so I agreed to join him and Bill on a trip to the first ever Dr Who convention in swindon (apparently) called the Leisure Hive after somehting to do with Dr Who, apparently. 


Really I was only interested in getting away from home, drinking, and meeting girls - and i managed to do all three. Though I'd like to emphasise, I only actually met girls. 


also, a bizarre coincidence was meeting a girl I'd previously met in Italy while on holiday with my parents. Her family were part of the same group as us, staying in our hotel, going on coach tours, etc. 


Can't quite work out whether i went to Italy in 83 or 84. More likely 83 as it was the momentous occasion of my first ever hang-over thanks to my Dad buying me lots of beer in a father-son drinking fest in the local bar. 
I did most of the talking, ordering beer etc, as the people of Lake Garda mostly spoke german as a 2nd language and I'd been doing German at school, and still knew enough to get by. 


The LH convention guests were John Levene, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, among others. 
There were three more LHs and i went to them all - 1985 prior to starting at thames, 1986 and 1987.