1989: You're lookin' good today

Happy New Year!

In the post-Christmas slump of January 1989 I knew that while I was having a whale of a time in my responsibility-free shop job and was enjoying my relatively new flatshare at the foot of Albert Bridge overlooking Battersea Park, something had to give eventually. This carefree life couldn't go on forever. And indeed, this was to be a year of change.

Music was changing and I'd not embraced the whole acid house thing. This Neneh Cherry hit was hangover from the end of '88 but was really getting into its stride now. It was incredibly new and fresh, and challenging in a good way. Was she British? Was she American? It was hard to tell. What's she like, anyway? The Eighties would be ending soon and my love affair with the charts would soon to come to an end more or less. It had sort of died off anyway. I was so busy living my life I'd barely bought a record or seen a TOTP for about eight months. At one time this would have been unthinkable. I'd also bought my last Smash Hits and Record Mirrors that summer. At 23, it seems I was finally moving on.

This song was soundtracking the post-New Year comedown, though it wasn't too much of a comedown. I couldn't really wait to get back to work. It was such enormous fun. But by March I'd be job hunting again and the situation I could happily have had frozen and lived in forever would soon come crashing down (see 1989: Am I Only Dreaming?).

Nothing lasts forever. But in hindsight that's a good thing. If I hadn't lost my job who knows what dead end thing I'd be doing for a minimum wage now? At least I made the most of those last three months. Make hay while the sun shines. Let that be our maxim for 2012.

PS Bored of the Olympics already though.