I had a similar story with the Spectrum; they had industrial action and wound up not shipping. My dad cancelled and bought a Commodore 64. I think I dodged a bullet there (although I'm sure the Spectrum would have been interesting).
Haha, I remember that. My maths teacher DM had a mate in the factory who eventually got me a speccy out the factory door, but it was a longgg wait.
Spectrum was a fun machine. Basic was ok for very simple games. I never did learn z80 assembler.