by Louise Cairns

Created on: November 07, 2009   Last Updated: November 08, 2009

I am coming up on 40 at a rate of knots, and I've been pondering on the old saying 'life begins at forty', this has made me look back at my first 40 years and wonder what else could happen in the next 40. I think my life has been quite varied so far, so I thought I'd share it with you.

== The Good ==

Childhood

I was born on the other side of the country from where I live now, in a small town called Hessle, which is just on the outskirts of Hull. I only lived there until I was 6 though, when we moved for a year to Israel, because of my dad's employment. I actually went to school while I was there, but for the most part all I remember from that year is spending time on the beach and swimming in the manmade lagoon just across the road from our apartment. From there we moved to Barrow, where the family have stayed ever since.

Work

These are some of the things that I've enjoyed, been proud of, etc. First would be being promoted to Computer Department Supervisor in my first job after starting out as just a YTS trainee. YTS for those too young to remember was a government scheme, it stood for Youth Training Scheme, where teenagers straight out of school would work for just over 20 a week, and in return receive on the job training. The scheme lasted for 2 years, after that I was employed directly with the firm and 6 months later I was promoted; there were a few complaints and grumblings, because there were people who'd worked there for 10 years or more who also went for promotion. I' very proud of the fact my work was of such a high standard that I beat all these people to the post.

My other moment of glory was a few years later. I'd left that job and gone back to college, and then moved south to plunder the job opportunities down there, as Barrow had already begun its decline. I found a job at a firm working in Mars Confectionery, and after a couple of weeks I was given a manual of Pascal (the computer programming language) and asked to write a programme that would collate and compare historical weather data and crop yields. I'd done a bit of programming in BASIC at school, but that was it. But after lots of studying in the evening and lots of head scratching I finally had a programme that worked, and I was really proud when it was distributed to various offices, including Mars and other food manufacturers.

Happy, giddy or just plain drunk

For a good 10 months way back in the early 90's, myself and a friend went on a wild drinking spree. We went out every night

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>