Your last memory of 1999

Merritt · #1 13th January 2018, 23:51

Can you remember the last thing you did, or were doing, before the millennium? On the day, or minutes before, or whatever?

I'm pretty sure at about 11:50 I was playing Sled Storm on the Playstation. Not even the full game, just a demo disc.

If anyone can beat that for a zany, madcap end to the 20th century, let us know.

Mo34 · #2 14th January 2018, 00:06

Haven't the foggiest.

Omar Little · #3 14th January 2018, 05:41

This played just before the countdown.

I'm in there somewhere, falling down drunk and thinking I better get a move on if I want to get off with a certain someone - I failed.

Not long after that, we met up with some other people we knew at some kind of dance club thing that I remember having to pay a lot of money to get into. Was in there for ten minutes, took a pill, sat on the floor of the chillout room, then left with two other guys.
Decided to run in the front doors of a busy, posh hotel, the other two kids stupidly followed me. Went round trying all the doors, looking for somewhere to sleep or something to drink or something to **** about with. A security guard came at us, our only option was the fire door behind us. We burst through it, sirens went off, we threw ourselves down about a million flights of stairs then burst through another set of fire doors at the bottom which opened onto the freezing, bustling streets of Cardiff - drunks everywhere with dopey hats on, cheering the sound of the sirens. The other guys didn't come out. I waited and waited on the other side of the road, watching the fire doors. No sign. I wandered about for a while until I ended up in a really rough part of Cardiff; knackered, I ducked into the hidden entrance way of a large office building for a sit down. As soon as I sat down I put my hand in a big puddle of piss. So I had to get right back up and go look for somewhere I could buy water to wash it off, walking along with my hand held out far from my side, sleeve rolled up, someone else's stale, cold piss dripping off my fingers. I was bastard freezing. Found a petrol station. The guy behind the counter wouldn't let me use his mobile to call my friends, so I gave him my wallet and anything else I had on me to ensure I didn't nick it. Don't remember much else.

It's strange how different the world felt then. Smaller. I think they've upgraded the OS a number of times since then: more data = bigger maps and more content (or something like that, I don't know tech shit).

A Whimsical Stranger · #4 14th January 2018, 10:24

I was hiding under my bed because I was scared of the fireworks.

Toxic · #5 14th January 2018, 10:49

I can't remember last week, let alone what I was doing when I was 14

I'll have been on some sort of game

Oddity · #6 14th January 2018, 10:50

Playing Quake, pretending it wasn't new year's eve and that I wasn't a total loser. Oh how times cha.....wait...

Clementine · #7 14th January 2018, 10:52

I was single and had just moved into a new flat in a new town and I didn***8217;t know anybody. I went to bed early and had my babies in with me. Fireworks had never really been a thing before the millennium (not around here, at least) so I really wasn***8217;t prepared for what woke me at midnight. I think the boys woke up scared so I comforted them and cuddled them up and just lay awake feeling very lonely and quite sad and scared for the future.

Professor Willow · #8 14th January 2018, 13:13

I vaguely remember going out into the garden and letting off some fireworks, watching the sky waiting for the aeroplanes to drop like flies when the millennium bug kicked in

les · #9 14th January 2018, 14:56

I was in bed ... and not on my own

anxiouslondoner · #10 14th January 2018, 15:02

I was sulking and didn't care about the end of the millennium, so just went to bed early. Bit pathetic of me really.

humphrey · #11 14th January 2018, 15:40

I went down to the centre of the Village to watch them light a beacon on the top of the church tower.

Jam · #12 14th January 2018, 17:50

I've spent a large portion of today trying to remember.

Unnecessarily Long Username_1 · #13 14th January 2018, 18:13

I was babysitting for a neighbour, just watching their television while their kids slept, earning £20 per hour. I was watching a Graham Norton New Year's special on Channel 4. The show featured a woman firing ping-pong balls from her vagina at the... ahem... stroke of midnight, if I remember correctly.

Vienna · #14 14th January 2018, 18:58

I was 22
Was at home watching it on TV and thinking about a guy I had a crush on

kirbycrackle · #15 14th January 2018, 19:44

I have no idea exactly what I was doin...suprises me how many can remember ! I was twelve though so that's good enough.

I remember the y2k panic though. When you look back at that now it's comparable to people once believing they'd fall off the face of the earth! Modern age my arse :0

Kipling · #16 14th January 2018, 22:07

I was 19 and had previously been really anxious about the turn of the millennium. I don't like celebrations at the best of times and I've always been someone who lives in the past somewhat so this unknown future with new numbers scared me a bit! In fact, I sometimes feel like I'm still living in the 90s.

I can't remember the exact final moments of 1999 - I actually remember the turn of 1998-1999 a bit better, and 1997-1998 - but I do remember the first moments of 2000, standing at our landing window with my nan (who lived with us) watching the fireworks. Fireworks on that scale at New Year was a relatively new thing so it was quite unique to watch - now I find them a bit boring, predictable and a bit annoying!

Just two months after watching the millennium fireworks with my nan, she died suddenly and unexpectedly aged 78, a proper landmark event in my life as she was like a second mother to me and my brother and sister. But I'm glad she lived to see the year 2000.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Change87

I remember so much of my childhood as if it was yesterday.

Me too. I can vividly remember conversations I had when I was like 4 or 5, or feelings I had for things - and people. I have a lot of happy memories as a child, but some bad ones too, mostly to do with school. I try not to dwell on the latter too much and just remember the nice things.

Hayman · #17 15th January 2018, 12:01

From memory, I was watching Jools Holland on BBC2 (as I always do on New Year's Eve) waiting for the VCR to get that virus that everyone was worried about when 1999 become 2000. I remember reading articles earlier that day about setting it back to 1st January 1970-something which had the same days/date layout as 2000...!

Needless to say, nothing happened and it all felt like a typical, dull New Year for me.

My first memory of 2000 immediately after that, was walking out of the front door with my father to the car - to check the date/time display on that was working fine and indeed, it was showing 1.1.2000!

I went to bed after that.

Sunshine Recorder · #18 17th January 2018, 21:36

I was at a New Year's party with my family, and remember this was the first New Year where I drank alcohol.

I didn't get wicked drunk, but I vaguely remember a Scottish relative starting a conversation with me, speaking in a broad Scottish accent. I just nodded my head and pretended to understand what he was saying.

Afterwards I can remember going to my grandparents' house (they lived next door at the time). Some of my cousins were there.

Other than that, I can't remember much else, besides the Y2K bug not happening, Will 2K, and the Queen not crossing her arms for Auld Lang Syne.

gregarious_introvert · #19 17th January 2018, 22:32

I had to change my plans for welcoming the new millennium at short notice: I was due to appear on a programme called "The Biggest Breakfast Ever", but Channel 4's lawyers found a legal technicality which meant that I received a call that morning from Planet 24 (the production company) telling me that I wouldn't be participating. With everything booked solid, I found myself joining the throng on the South Bank, along with my girlfriend of the time, her ex-husband and his partner, awaiting the fireworks (for which they had changed the law, as until then fireworks on the Thames had been banned) and drinking champagne from paper cups.

Vienna · #20 19th January 2018, 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregarious_introvert

I had to change my plans for welcoming the new millennium at short notice: I was due to appear on a programme called "The Biggest Breakfast Ever", but Channel 4's lawyers found a legal technicality which meant that I received a call that morning from Planet 24 (the production company) telling me that I wouldn't be participating. With everything booked solid, I found myself joining the throng on the South Bank, along with my girlfriend of the time, her ex-husband and his partner, awaiting the fireworks (for which they had changed the law, as until then fireworks on the Thames had been banned) and drinking champagne from paper cups.

Is that something to do with the Chris Evans show?
Why didn't they let you on?

Quicksand · #21 19th January 2018, 21:36

Remember the countdown...vaguely....just don't remember where I was.

gregarious_introvert · #22 19th January 2018, 21:52

^^I can't remember who was hosting it at the time - I think it may have been Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen, but I'm not entirely sure.

The reason I wasn't allowed on is slightly complicated (well, it isn't but it takes a lot of explaining) and I don't want to get this thread moved to the basement so I'll summarise: the feature in which I would have been participating was called "join our club", in which someone who runs a club or society would speak about what they do and at the end, the viewer would be told how they might join the club. However, broadcasting laws dictate that there are certain types of organisation which cannot be promoted and my business fell into one of those categories (I did suggest that we omit the joining instructions at the end, but Planet 24 said that would defeat the object of the segment).