I discovered this meme on Dovegrey Reader’s very readable blog, here’s my attempt.
4 jobs I have had
A Saturday girl in a drug store, my first job and it was horrible. I don’t think I was thought trustworthy/intelligent enough to work on the tills so I restocked the shelves most of the time, but when I did work on tills it was horrible, they were little raised wooden cubicles, designed so that the cashier could sit down on stools whilst working, yet our boss decided that it would be far better if we stood up and towered over everybody, which was murder on the feet but very handy when a packet of condoms came to the till with no price and we needed to yell to another shopworker “x how much are the condoms,” yes I was one of those mean drugstore girls.
My second job was far better, also a Saturday job it was for a little independent book store, run by a lovely old couple who’d retired from publishing and risking ruining my anonymity here slightly but the bookstore was called Cornwall’s or Cornwell’s, I think the latter but I can’t remember and it was in a North Norfolk town, I’d love to know what happened to them if anyone reading this knows. I think they sold the bookshop to someone else, shortly after I went to college and I don’t think whoever took over the ownership lasted long, the net book agreement had just ended, allowing the big chains to sell books for whatever they wanted, giving the kiss of death to alot of lovely independent bookshops. Anyway back to what I used to do there, it was only a small shop, so most of the time I was the only person working in the shop (whilst one of the owners was in the back), I used to serve customers, take their orders, order books from stockists, do book searches on a little old micro-fiche, it was bliss. I blame that experience for me trying to relive my youth by my current not very successful book selling enterprise (and once again I’m being thwarted by the big book sellers). I still have the ambition to one day own my own bookshop . . .
My worst job ever though was a secondary school science teacher in East London, I only lasted 6 months, it was an absolutely bl**dy horrible experience, I used to stand at the tube station on the way to work and let the trains go past me rather than get on, it was that stressful.
My most boring job has to be the temp job I had after I quit teaching, I joined a science temp agency and due to the fortune of timing (my CV arrived on their desk just as they were looking for temps for a new work placement) I landed a temp job in forensics but it was the most boring job on the planet, whilst other science firms had robots to label their test tubes, I think where I was working, people were cheaper (I’m talking nearly 10 years ago now by the way, I’m sure it’s changed). So I spent 7 months labelling test tubes, writing numbers and sticking barcodes on batch upon batch of little ependorf tubes, it was as scintillating as it sounds, however my bosses liked me and I was promoted, made permanent and had a very pleasant and interesting career climbing up the career ladder to a position I wouldn’t even have dreamt of back when I was a tube labeller, before leaving to have kids.
4 places that I have lived (in no particular order)
York (a lovely, gorgeous city, with the best bakeries and fish and chip shops on the planet, but bl**dy cold)
Llantwit Major (a little South Welsh town by the sea, an absolutely idyllic place to grow up)
Northampton (very briefly and put it this way, that’s where my in-laws are and I don’t want to go back!)
London (the best place on the planet)
4 places I have been on holiday
New York (we saw it at it’s worst of times (9/11) but it’s still a fantastic city)
Poughkeepsie, New York State, (our New York holiday was planned to be spending the first week in the city, then travelling back to JFK to pick up a hire car and then spending the second week exploring New York State before returning back to JFK to fly home, 9/11 occurred towards the end of our first week and when it came to getting the hire car (which we’d prebooked) the airport was still closed, all other routes out of the city seemed impossible, so it felt literally like we were stuck, so some frantic searching online and pouring over train maps and hire car locations we found that there were hire cars in Poughkeepsie and we could get a train there, so our first night outside the city was in Poughkeepsie, we took the train from Grand Central Station, this amazing train with great big black leather seats, with hardly anyone on, passing this amazing countryside, landing in this town which we didn’t have a clue about. So we walked to this nearest cafe from the train station, which was just like out of a movie and poured over a phone book to find a room to stay and a taxi to get us there before picking up our car the next day. Much as I’d fallen in love with New York City and I’d go back there in a second if I could, it was a relief to leave that day).
Istanbul, probably the most ‘foreign’ place I’ve been to, it was an ‘experience’ but it was more of a journey than a holiday.
Venice, a lot and I’d still happily go back for more.
4 favourite foods
Pepperoni pizza
Chocolate
Coca-cola
Pasta
4 places I’d rather be
New York
A little cottage on my own, in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands.
Bhutan (much for the same reason as above)
One of the big houses on the road next to mine, which have the added much wanted features much lacking in my flat of stairs; at least two more bedrooms, a loft, another reception room, a much bigger kitchen (not hard).
Tagging anyone reading this!
