What were you doing in 1999?

[NW3Lady]

I was in the middle of my A-levels and had a Nokia phone with Snake on it. That plus Minesweeper were responsible for a lot of procrastination that year.

There was no Facebook yet (thank the Lord!) but reality TV had started to become a thing. There was lots of talk about ‘The Millenium Bug’ and the potential chaos it could cause. I think I was probably more concerned about mocks.

How about you?

I had just finished my fist year of college and was about to turn 17. I was absolutely living my best life with my school friends. We’d go to the cinema all the time, go shopping, to shows and would catch the train to the beach. I was doing a lot of sport and worked part time in a restaurant. I was really really busy and loved it. Definitely one of my happiest eras.

It was a challenging year - we'd just had DD and our toddler DS's behaviour had been getting progressively worse (later referred to child psychology). On top of that, he'd been diagnosed with a heart condition and was waiting for surgery. Our parents were quite hands off, we had no outside help, and we were exhausted. Not sure how we got through it really.

I left employment in the February to work freelance from home, so I looked after my three small DC full time as well, youngest started school in the September, eldest was diagnosed with cancer in the October. I was 36. My carefree days ended with the 20th century!

I was in my first year at university, working hard and having a lot of fun. I was glad to have escaped my parents and I met my best friends and partner in that first year. It was the year that really changed things for me and was the start of my life being happy.

Getting married and then giving birth to my son.

One of the absolute best years of my life. I was only thinking about it this morning. I was 17/18, had wonderful friends, occasionally a boyfriend, loved school, had a weekend job that I enjoyed, pub on Fridays, and Millennium eve was an amazing night.

Also my first year at Uni and the start of life being happy for me too - I was so glad to escape my home town and everyone who knew me from school. The friends I met then are still my best friends now.

I was 20 and having a great time travelling in America and enjoying my life.
started nurse training in 2000.

I think I'm a similar age to you, OP. I was doing my A Levels. I had a very basic phone that I used to get 50 minutes free on every day and would talk to my boyfriend on every night. I'd then spend the rest of the night on MSN Messenger talking to my friends. I'm 43 now, that seems so long ago...

First proper job, planning my incredibly small wedding. No responsibilities, minimum savings, rented flat, good times.

Replaying Prince's 1999 from back in the 80's when the year seemed so so far away as a teenager!!

About to turn 30, had my own home which was a snip at £35,000. Great job on good money so could afford a nice car, holidays, friends. Felt a huge sense of optimism about the future, loved the fashion and music. The superwaif look was over, thank God. Being someone who had hips, thanks to Jennifer Lopez, they actually became a thing.
Went on holiday with my parents for the first time as an adult to Lake Garda - fabulous.
It was one of the best years of my life.

I was 6 and living my best life

Pregnant with DS , listening to Chris Tarrant blethering X number of days till the Millennium
I am shouting at the radio Shut Up Chris , I have to give birth before then, not thinking about the Millennium

(Yes I do realise 99.99% of the population weren't concerned about my imminent event )

Chilling in one of my mums ovaries

Having my last baby at 41. My easiest pregnancy, I had no morning sickness, no hospitalisation for hypertension

Had just finished my undergrad degree and lost my virginity. Had been having odd tension with a male friend, then after a party we realised what that had been about and I finally felt ready to go for it, so we did!

Raising 3 teenage siblings and caring for my mum, running the house, juggling bills and making sure everyone was clean, fed & watered and housework & homework was done. Working shifts in a call centre during the week, an admin worker in the evenings, a curtain shop on Saturdays and a bar job in the weekend evenings and Sunday afternoons, and still having the energy to go out with my mates after a bar shift on Fridays and Saturday nights. Coming home with my best friend and having sausage & bacon sandwiches at 3am. Able to walk for miles in ridiculously high shoes, and to be outside without feeling the need for a coat. Applying for the job I’m still in now and spending any spare time I had with a man who would go on to cause no end of trouble.

Oh, and living in hope that the y2k bug that we were all being warned about would somehow crash the banking system and my credit card bill would vanish.

I have absolutely no idea where I got that level of energy from!

Running our very busy business, worrying about what the 'Y2K' would do to all of our computer systems. Backing everything up (not knowing if it would help?!), printing stuff off. It was a stressful year, but on the eve we laughed & partied 'like it was 1999'. Went to the beach to watch the sunrise!!

Having the best holiday in Sliema, Malta.
looking after my dad who had cancer.
Doing up the house ready for putting it on the market.
Working in a call centre for a water company (the emergency side, not customer accounts) and being part of the team that worked millennium night.

I turned 11 and felt very grown up

I was trying to work out what would come next after 1999, friends and I couldn't count across the thousands it turned out 😆 we got totally fixated on it being the year 19-100 next and totally confused when we heard our grown ups taking about the year two thousand.

Since then I successfully went on to do a maths degree 🤭

leaving uni, relocating from my small town after graduating and wondering what the 2000’s would be called (simpler times!)

I wasn't even a figment in my parents imagination.