Upgrading through the decades
As we start another decade I can't help but wallow in a bit of nostalgia. I love a flashback as you may know so have been enjoying a trip down memory lane.
They don't seem to make decades like they used to though, it doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years since 2010, where did it go?
How is it that when I hear 2003 I still automatically think people are talking about 10 years ago? Is that going to finally change now?
For Christmas this year Aaron joined the boys and became the owner of a Kindle, he's been very anti Kindle preferring (justifiably) to read a proper book, but it got me thinking about tech gone by.
In the 80s I used to watch 'Tomorrows World' with my Dad and I was excited about all the new and amazing things that would appear. Do you remember how cool CD's were going to be!?
Dad used to rent our TV and video player so we often changed them as the years went by. It meant that we didn't have old models going spare though but I was lucky enough to got to have my own video player in my room as I was given my Grandparents old one after they upgraded. It was an old top loader and didn't have a remote but it was still pretty cool!
Not as cool as the double decker players that came out, we never had one but we really wanted one!
Even better than the video was my Commodore 64 computer, I loved it and spent many many hours playing my favourite games, after many hours of waiting for them to load that is.
We did upgrade to an Amiga at some point but while I'm sure it was great at the time it's not as memorable to me now. It did have amazing floppy disks though which I remember being wowed by.
I was excited about the 80s giving way to the 90s, it seemed like such a big thing to me. I even had a '1990' shaped soap on a rope in a gift box from Avon which I kept for years to commemorate the occasion. I was about to become a teenager in the 90s.
At the start of the decade I had no idea what I would be doing at the end, I couldn't have even pictured where I would be in 1999.
As it was in those 10 years I went from the early years of secondary school, through college, several jobs and moving out of home. I got my first car, my first Windows PC, mobile phone and was wowed by the arrival of the internet and text messages.
Of course when the 90s came to an end it was a Big Thing. The New Millennium was upon us and that was officially exciting, well assuming that it all didn't go to s**t with the Millennium bug!
I was living in my flat in the early 00s, bouncing between jobs, going to the pub and generally arsing about. It sounds awesome, it was, sometimes. I think it sounds better looking back now that it felt at the time to be honest though.
Do you remember these beauties?
I loved my Nokia 3210, I had different covers, I think a blue one, and at one point a pink sparkly one. I loved changing my ringtones and playing snake and could text just as fast if not faster than I can with todays predictive text. They were awesome, the battery lasted for days and you could bounce them off walls without even scratching them!
I eventually upgraded to the 3310 I think it was, and then in no particular order had a Sony Walkman phone (white and orange, loved that too!) and a Motorola Razr, which just looked so cool and made hanging up on people more fun.
There were big changes again in this decade, in 2003 we brought our first house together and in 2004 we got married. I changed jobs a few more times before finally settling in one for almost 6 years!
We upgraded things quickly in this decade, got a new mobile phone every year, a CD player in my car, a Playstation 2 and an ipod, as well as a Streamium which we thought was going to be the best thing ever and we ended up selling it for peanuts a couple of years later.
We brought an apartment in Cyprus, had a baby, and left the UK in the final year of the decade.
I don't remember thinking much about the fact we were entering a new decade as the year changed from 2009 to 2010, but we were finding our feet in Cyprus and Leo was just over 6 months old so I was a little distracted.
There has been huge changes in the last 10 years although many passed me by at the time, I guess in part to the boys, reduced income and simply due to being out of the UK and away from high street shops, and a office/ shop working environment.
I was a little late to the party but I got my first (second and third) smartphone - the best thing to happen since the internet! (ah, remember when things were the best thing since sliced bread?) We also leveled up with the game consoles, with a Nintendo Wii and upgrading the PS2 to an Xbox one.
TV is all about streaming now, and it's something I know almost nothing about - I can sadly now see for the first time where 'older people' sometimes struggle to keep up with it all. I don't watch much TV and tend to leave it to Aaron.
CD's have finally become obsolete for us with new USB car stereos, DVDs have given way to internet streaming. Books are hanging in there but I do love my Kindle too.
What's next?
They don't seem to make decades like they used to though, it doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years since 2010, where did it go?
How is it that when I hear 2003 I still automatically think people are talking about 10 years ago? Is that going to finally change now?
For Christmas this year Aaron joined the boys and became the owner of a Kindle, he's been very anti Kindle preferring (justifiably) to read a proper book, but it got me thinking about tech gone by.
In the 80s I used to watch 'Tomorrows World' with my Dad and I was excited about all the new and amazing things that would appear. Do you remember how cool CD's were going to be!?
Dad used to rent our TV and video player so we often changed them as the years went by. It meant that we didn't have old models going spare though but I was lucky enough to got to have my own video player in my room as I was given my Grandparents old one after they upgraded. It was an old top loader and didn't have a remote but it was still pretty cool!
Not as cool as the double decker players that came out, we never had one but we really wanted one!
Even better than the video was my Commodore 64 computer, I loved it and spent many many hours playing my favourite games, after many hours of waiting for them to load that is.
We did upgrade to an Amiga at some point but while I'm sure it was great at the time it's not as memorable to me now. It did have amazing floppy disks though which I remember being wowed by.
I was excited about the 80s giving way to the 90s, it seemed like such a big thing to me. I even had a '1990' shaped soap on a rope in a gift box from Avon which I kept for years to commemorate the occasion. I was about to become a teenager in the 90s.
At the start of the decade I had no idea what I would be doing at the end, I couldn't have even pictured where I would be in 1999.
As it was in those 10 years I went from the early years of secondary school, through college, several jobs and moving out of home. I got my first car, my first Windows PC, mobile phone and was wowed by the arrival of the internet and text messages.
Of course when the 90s came to an end it was a Big Thing. The New Millennium was upon us and that was officially exciting, well assuming that it all didn't go to s**t with the Millennium bug!
I was living in my flat in the early 00s, bouncing between jobs, going to the pub and generally arsing about. It sounds awesome, it was, sometimes. I think it sounds better looking back now that it felt at the time to be honest though.
Do you remember these beauties?
I loved my Nokia 3210, I had different covers, I think a blue one, and at one point a pink sparkly one. I loved changing my ringtones and playing snake and could text just as fast if not faster than I can with todays predictive text. They were awesome, the battery lasted for days and you could bounce them off walls without even scratching them!
I eventually upgraded to the 3310 I think it was, and then in no particular order had a Sony Walkman phone (white and orange, loved that too!) and a Motorola Razr, which just looked so cool and made hanging up on people more fun.
There were big changes again in this decade, in 2003 we brought our first house together and in 2004 we got married. I changed jobs a few more times before finally settling in one for almost 6 years!
We upgraded things quickly in this decade, got a new mobile phone every year, a CD player in my car, a Playstation 2 and an ipod, as well as a Streamium which we thought was going to be the best thing ever and we ended up selling it for peanuts a couple of years later.
We brought an apartment in Cyprus, had a baby, and left the UK in the final year of the decade.
I don't remember thinking much about the fact we were entering a new decade as the year changed from 2009 to 2010, but we were finding our feet in Cyprus and Leo was just over 6 months old so I was a little distracted.
There has been huge changes in the last 10 years although many passed me by at the time, I guess in part to the boys, reduced income and simply due to being out of the UK and away from high street shops, and a office/ shop working environment.
I was a little late to the party but I got my first (second and third) smartphone - the best thing to happen since the internet! (ah, remember when things were the best thing since sliced bread?) We also leveled up with the game consoles, with a Nintendo Wii and upgrading the PS2 to an Xbox one.
TV is all about streaming now, and it's something I know almost nothing about - I can sadly now see for the first time where 'older people' sometimes struggle to keep up with it all. I don't watch much TV and tend to leave it to Aaron.
CD's have finally become obsolete for us with new USB car stereos, DVDs have given way to internet streaming. Books are hanging in there but I do love my Kindle too.
What's next?
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