What were you doing in 1996?

[NW3Lady]

I went from my 3rd to my 4th year of secondary school. We started having ‘Careers’ lessons which felt quite serious and scary. Which GCSE options to take was a major focus and topic of conversation, which seems so silly and inconsequential now. I’m not sure I can even remember what I plumped for in the end.

The Spice Girls were bloomin’ everywhere, there was no escaping them. Friends and ER were the shows to watch. We got internet for the first time - dial-up which took ages to connect and then hogged the phone line so that there were constant battles over it.

How about you?

I was doing a Masters, living in London and working in a hotel.

I was born in 96

Got married. Bad decision.

Listening to the Longpigs, halfway through GCSEs, starting to venture ‘out out’, meeting boys and playing in countless musical engagements. 1996 was a good year.

Getting married ( just had 29th anniversary)and buying first home.We shared our first mobile phone! 😂

Probably listening to spice girls and making up dance routines with my bf.🫣 I was 9/10 so thats my excuse 😅

pregnant or aiming to get pregnant with dd, already had ds and was working part time
did not get internet until 2005
got a mobile in 1999 when ds started school

Year abroad, uni. I missed out on a lot of things: Friends, the rise of The Spice Girls, Jarvis Cocker’s moon at The Brits, but I learned a lot of Spanish.

Up to my ears in parenting small children, renovating a house, commuting to London for work, and being unhappily married. No idea how I had the stamina.

Actually phone was 1999.

It was a good summer. It was policy at my workplace to start maternity leave 7 weeks before the due date. I spent it in the garden and the midwife commented on my tan during labour.
We celebrated our 10 year anniversary when the baby was a month old.

Getting a divorce and working as a lecturer in FE

Working freelance in Germany. Living in a lovely 1 bed flat with underground parking. Got my first mobile 'phone. Generally having a great time and going to the gym 3 times a week.

Lower 6th

spent the summer in France on an exchange and started my 1st Saturday job in the September

I also got married in 1996 ... still together. We had been living together for about 4 years beforehand.

This was the best year for me. In the space of four months, I got my dream job, bought my first flat and met my husband. Everything just fell into place in that one short period and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as carefree since!

I was at university in Scotland, working part time in the uni kitchens to save a bit of money.

I was in the womb

In Year 2 at Uni. Best days of my life! Wish I could go back to that time.

Midway through a degree. Spent summer holidays abroad digging, life was good!

I ‘missed’ a lot of British culture in the 90s as I spent 15 years either backpacking or in Australia. This struck me at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony; I didn’t get the soap opera bit towards the end at all.

Adapting to post uni life (graduated in ‘95). I did a degree in a science subject because school careers advisors said there would be jobs. I struggled to get one. With hindsight lack of life experience, poor interview technique and not knowing how to network as first person in the family to go to uni. Jumped around jobs for a bit in Bristol and London. The music scene was amazing and it should have been a happy time but I felt like I was waiting for life to start.

Split up with my first husband (I was only 26) and moved to a different city. Lived in a shared house with two other girls from work and had such a great time just working by day and partying by night. Brit Pop was huge but I was more into house and techno. Happy days!

Having the best time of my life on my Uni year abroad in France. Mainly hanging out with the English/Italian and Spanish students though…!