This will take some time as I’ve had loads of jobs! In the 70’s and early 80’s they were ten-a-penny, and you could walk from one job straight into another. No CV’s or second or third interviews either! The first one was just a Saturday job in ‘Easiefit’ shoe shop on Main Street, Coatbridge, when I was fourteen. I left school at fifteen and started a hairdressing apprenticeship in a salon in Langloan. That lasted all of two weeks as I was sacked for not washing a customer’s hair properly. It was an old woman that complained, but I would say in my defence that she was nearly bald and I was terrified I would hurt her, so I washed it very very gently, but I don’t think my face fitted there anyway. That job, as it was an apprenticeship, paid £2.11/6d (two pounds eleven shillings and sixpence) in 1970. Today’s equivalent in 2011 would be about £22 for an eight hour six day week, bloody scandalous! The next one was as a Window Dresser in ‘Paige’, a large clothing department store in Argyle Street, Glasgow. As I was more into being creative, this job was a gift. There were nine of us in the display team, the manager, two seniors and six others with varying degrees of experience. Apart from working hard, we had loads of fun, sometimes putting price tickets on our clothes and standing motionless in the window then moving suddenly, scaring the poor window shoppers out their wits! After two years I was given a store to do permanently on my own. It was a feather in my cap, but the manageress and I didn’t get on, so after a row, I left. Rather than tell you about all the jobs I had, I will just list them and pick one or two to elaborate on. Bear in mind some of the jobs may have lasted weeks, others months or years. Children’s Wear, Ladybird factory Coatbridge Knitwear factory, Mackinnon Mills Coatbridge Painting & Decorating shop, Airdrie Baby wear shop, Coatbridge Photographic & Fashion Model, Davis Hamilton Agency, Glasgow Part-time barmaid (McKenzie’s Bar) Coatbridge “ “ “ Double A, Airdrie Car insurance rep, Hal fords, Argyle Street Glasgow Window Dresser, Bucanan Street Glasgow Wholesale fashion trade, Queen Street Glasgow Littlewoods, Queen Street Glasgow Wholesale fashion trade, Queen Street Glasgow Trainee Auditor, Jamaica Street Glasgow Plant hire company, Bargeddie Glasgow Isle of Man Carpet factory, Douglas Kipper factory, Peel Queenie factory, Peel Barmaid, Palace Hotel & Casino, Queen’s promenade Douglas (three seasons) Cleaner “ “ (in between seasons) Cashier “ “ Baby break – Nicola Cleaner, prom Douglas Baby break – Michael Cleaner, Hotel Continental prom Douglas Barmaid, Groudle Glen Barmaid, Douglas Head Hotel Cleaner, Dow Jones & Nikki Dow bar/nightclub Douglas (for Shoprite) Cashier “ “ “ Purchase Ledger Clerk, Shoprite Office Manager, Shoprite West Yorkshire Finance Officer, Quarry House Leeds Finance Manager, Quarry House Leeds Finance Administrator, Wakefield Financial Controller, LNT Group, Garforth Leeds Retired on health grounds I sometimes had a nine to five job and an evening one simultaneously, or two part-time positions, the cleaning jobs were convenient when the children were little as I could take them with me, or some were job promotions within companies. In my late thirties I went to night school on I.T., finance administration and touch typing courses, and a decade later Accountancy degree at Huddersfield University, which I gave up when I was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. It’s ironic then that maths, the subject that was my weakest and one I feared and detested proved to be the field I was most successful in. It makes me wonder how successful I’d have been doing something I really loved! The modelling came about when I was working as a sales assistant in a painting and decorating shop in Airdrie. Geraldine Foley, the manageress, wanted to enter the ‘Miss Coatbridge and Airdrie Advertiser, and talked me into entering with her. I was also working part-time in MacKenzies bar in Coatbridge where the newspaper’s photographer came to take the promo photo for the paper. In the picture I’m wearing a red and white checked dress (borrowed from Geraldine) and a pair of red suede platform shoes. The heats were held in the The Tudor Hotel where I got through to the final, but no further, but it was enough for a photographer from The Daily Record to call and ask if I would be interested in doing a shoot for publication. At first I thought it was a leg-pull, that someone had been put up to it, but it was genuine, and one evening I was met at Queen Street station and taken to The Record offices and photographer’s studio, a trip I made a made a few times thereafter. Through the newspaper I was given an introduction to the model agency, and worked all over Scotland doing fashion shows, promotions and photo shoots. That is my work history from fourteen years old to fifty-two.