1989 - Abroad thoughts from home

Hirohito he goes, here's Sky TV
PW to FW, SA
Exxon Valdez oil, blood, Tbilisi
Hillsborough crush, bye Ayatollah K
Tiananmen Square, Solidarity
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nintendo, Menendez
East German demo's, porous Hungary
Honecker goes, the Wall falls and the Czechs
The Bulgars and Romanians win their chess
Games against Big Brother, Brazil, Chile
Elections, Batman, Remains of the Day
Bye Robin Day, hello Paxman, distress
Of Rita in Blackpool (Alan Bradley)
I pass job interview, waste time away

1988 - Lovely Longsight

Perestroika in the USSR
The House rejects Ron Reagan's Contra funds
Death to the IRA in Gibraltar
And to Brit officers at Belfast's hands
Piper Alpha huge oil rig explosions
This year's Olympics got a lot of Seoul
The deadly Iran-Iraq war now ends
Slovaks and Estonians act like the Poles
Demanding freedom, Palestinian calls
For same, Armenian earthquake, from the air
A plane falls on Lockerbie, while Salman's
Fat words cause fatwahs, George Bush wins the polls
Dukakis screws up, acid houses, we're
In Longsight, Pearl's born, I'm a house-husband

1987 - More time on Maggie's Farm

Reagan held to blame for Contra scandal
Zeebrugge ferry sinks, Iraq's gas bombs
Thatcher wins for a third time at the poll
The world population is 5 billion
Docklands Light Railway, Hess dead in prison
Hurricane in England, Black Monday hits
King's Cross fire, IRA Enniskillen
Intifada, Palestinian conflict
Lethal Weapons and Full Metal Jackets
Spycatcher and Commitments (Roddy Doyle)
Mike's Bad, George has Faith, there's Roses n' Guns
Mike Tyson, Steve Davis, Nelson Piquet
I graduate and we live in Lichfield
A while, then Mancs again, now she's pregnant

1986 - State of non-independence

Space Shuttle Challenger a ball of fire
Mir space station, Single European Act
Marcos exiled, Aquino is admired
Olaf Palme of Sweden shot in back
Kurt Waldheim's war crimes means he gets some flak
Berlin disco bomb, US bombs Libya
In revenge. Chernobyl ruins Pripyat
Raining death on Europe. In Mexico
The Hand of God turns cheat into winner
London Stock Exchange Big Bang, they're freer
To do what they want. Ollie North's hand smacked
For Iran-Contra. From America
I return, marry, get cats, move flats here
Watch Neighbours, see The Smiths, study Yank facts

1985 - I'm so excited with the USA

IRA bombs RUC in Newry
Chile earthquake, a million left homeless
Beirut car bomb, AIDS blood tests come to be
Gorbachev is chief of the Soviets
And with Ronnie in Geneva he meets
Bradford football fire, Heysel disaster
Schengen ends border checks, some EU states
Rainbow Warrior, hole in the ozone layer
Live Aid by top bands, Back to the Future
Nintendo's Super Mario, look through the
Windows from Microsoft. I'm engaged as
I fly off to Long Island for a year
At New York State Uni, Old Westbury
Drinking, smoking, snogging... and some studies

1984 - Marvin, the dead can dance

The Apple Mac lives and Andropov dies
The year-long British coal strike starts, Scargill
Against Thatcher. Old Tommy Cooper dies
'Just like that...' and Yvonne Fletcher is killed
Indian troops storm the Sikhs' Golden Temple
Amritsar, and Indira Gandhi's killed
In revenge. The LA Olympics held
Reagan jokes about bombing Russia, old
Cold war humour. The Nicaraguan polls
Show the Sandinistas have won the prize
Thousands killed by chemicals in Bhopal
The bombing of Thatcher's Brighton hotel
Reagan beats Mondale, Ethiopia dies
And American Studies going well

1983 - Bloody student

Belt up, by law, and Reagan starts 'Star Wars'
Stern publishes 'The Hitler Diaries'
Start of the long Sri Lankan civil war
Landslide election win by the Tories
My first vote (wasted on the SDP!!)
Filipino Aquino, he no more
Thirty-eight prisoners escape from The Maze
Kinnock Labour leader, Cruise missiles scare
The Greenham women, and the US are
Grenada invaders. Muddy Waters
Karen Carpenter, Dennis Wilson, these
Die, Nobel Prize for Pole, Lech Walesa
And William Golding. Hacienda doors
Open, and Manchester University's