"What a fool I'd been to have laid so low for so long"

I paid the phone bill.
Now I am basking in the warm glow of blogging & blog-reading from my own living room.
Not having to wait till all the managements types have gone home, not being constantly dragged away by the frankly astounding array of alarms, whistles & bells that permeate by laboratory existence (Honestly, last night if the waste water system was a person it would've been lying in a pool of it's own blood & I would've been looking forward to a high profile murder trial at the old Bailey). Being able to smoke myself into oblivion whilst typing away. Nice.

I found some new blogs last night, which is never a bad thing. I'm still checking them out but for now I must link to the paragon of taste that is Swiss Toni. Whilst looking at another good blog I found myself reading of this fella's musical preferences from 1992. Now forgive me lord but they were pretty awful.
This got me thinking about 1992 in general. Musically it was a shocking year. I'm not sure I can think of a worse 12 months tune-wise. Upon inspection of my preferences from that year I came up with this top ten; (I really couldn't stretch to 20). I have since found some better music from this year but this is pretty much what I would've come up with on Jan 1 1993.

10) Born of frustration - James
9) Disappointed - Electronic
8) Faith healer - Recoil
7) Happiness in slavery - Nine inch nails
6) Be my downfall - Del amitri
5) Laid so low - Tears for fears
4) Ebeneezer Goode - The Shamen
3) Godhead - Nitzer ebb
2) Abba-esque EP - Erasure
1) Just like a man - Del Amitri

Funny how things change over the years. Of those 10 "Born of frustration" would probably be my No.1 now, though I still rate "Just like a man" as a belter.

In terms of my life 1992 was an odd year.
It started off with Monochrome Baby & I going through the motions of our very dull relationship, till we gave up about April time. Around July I left Crapsville to move in with some friends in Bedworth near Coventry. On September 1st fate played a very unexpected hand...

I'd agreed to go on a trek with Funny Dance to keep him company. We had to go from Crapsville to Southend to pick up his brother who had been living in the Essex resort. Then we had to take him to Bognor Regis on the south coast where he had got himself a job at the Butlin's holiday camp. When we arrived at Butlin's I went in with Small Doses & half-heartedly enquired if there were any more jobs going. (I hadn't worked properly for a good year or so & had fallen into the rut of unemployment being a way of life).
They said yes. Would I like to work in a shop?
No problem, I've done that before.
You start tomorrow.
What????
You start tomorrow, your induction starts at 9am.
But I can't, I haven't got anything with me. Just the clothes I'm wearing.
Sorry, it's now or never.
Ok, I'll be back later.

So, knowing that this would be just what I needed to get out of the frankly crap life I was living, I came up with a plan. It was now about 4pm, Funny Dance drove me all the way back to Bedworth. There I furiously packed as much stuff as I could muster & begged Married A Proper Bitch & Dot to take me back to Bognor. This they agreed to do but I'm sure it was driven more by the fact they wanted rid of me than just helping out. I arrived back at Butlin's at around 10pm. Said goodbye to my friends & warmly thanked them for putting up with me for the last couple of months, dropped my stuff into my new home; A 8 foot square room with 2 beds and a sink (I didn't even meet my room-mate till the next day) & then headed to the staff bar.

6 weeks later, I met Temper Tantrum (I still blame Carl Shutt!). 2 weeks after that she went backpacking round Europe. I remained at Butlin's very happy with the way things had turned out.
I had so many good times in my 4 months in that holiday camp. I'll no doubt tell you more of it some other time. Right now my bed is beckoning me.
In summary then my 1992 was mostly crap but redeemed by an excellent last third.
The music of 1992 has less to redeem it.

I do just have to say that again I got a very welcome text from a colleague declaring "Egg wielding freak" to be "A FUCKING CLASSIC TUNE".

Who am I to argue?