On attempting to relive our student days...

1996 - Ten years ago. Everyone thought they had Mad Cow disease. Dolly the Sheep was created. Take That finally decided to call it a day. As did Charles and Diana. The USA was controlled by Bill Clinton. The UK was controlled by John Major (and the Spice Girls). Happy days *sigh*. This was also the year that I started university and met some very special girls. We decided to celebrate this anniversary by returning to our local student club, which had been the highlight of our week every Wednesday night during our student days. Scary, but once it had been mentioned, we all just knew it had to be done.

So on Wednesday night, six girls set off in an attempt to relive those lazy, hazy student days of our past. Despite being ten years older, we were still mistaken for students (well, let's face it, who else in their right mind would bother going to the student club?!) and no one looked at us as if we were too old to be there. I thought I would feel really old seeing all the students there, but my first reaction was of shock that there was no one there when we arrived. Not one soul (apart from bar staff) in the bar downstairs and about ten people in the club upstairs. AND NOT A SINGLE SOUL ON THE DANCEFLOOR! Not like it was in our day (this became our catchphrase for the evening, as we were inevitably comparing everything to how it  had been in 1996!)

A lot had changed about the place - the downstairs bar had definately been revamped, now with food served during the day and disabled access which it had never had in the un-PC late nineties. The special stage blocks with flames painted on them (cool!) that we used to spend many a happy hour strutting our funky stuff upon, were no more. The playlist was DJ and playlist were different - the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, Prodigy and the like of our youth were replaced by a combination of Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Artic Monkeys, Kooks etc. The DJ didn't take our cheesy requests very seriously and just continued to play what he wanted to, apart from towards the end of the evening when he decided to humour us. One of our group had requested that he play House of Pain's Jump Around for me which had been my weekly request back in the old days. The pure joy was indescribable. OK, so I had consumed a few drinks by this time, but as I dutifully jumped around (as the lyrics insist you do), I was immediately transported back to 1996. No thoughts of careers, paying rent, saving up for mortgages and all those grown-up things anymore. I just imagined what I might have been thinking about back then. Do I really want to get up for my Romantic Poetry lecture and seminar in the morning? and Have I got enough money left to buy some chips on the way back to halls? The nostalgia was very powerful and I know that those days are well and truly gone now, but the happy memories will be with me forever : )