Life before Mummy Matters . . .

Sometimes when I write my blog posts I still feel like a ‘newbie’ wondering where my blog will take me, am I doing it right and how I can blog better? I sometimes stop and ask myself who I am? First and foremost, I am a wife, mother and daughter. They are the things that ultimately make me happy, all of my family (extended family too) and friends are the most important part of my life. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I am 38 years old because it doesn’t feel like I’ve been around for that long.

I often wonder how the people who read my blog perceive me as a person, does it really give that much away or do I just waffle on in a bid to get words out of my head?

Soooo with that in mind, I have decided to write a little post all about me to give you an idea of who I am/was before I became Mummy Matters . . .

• I am originally from a small market town in Lincolnshire called Alford. I grew up there with my Mum, my Nanna and my Grandad. I’m pleased to say that I had a VERY happy childhood, we had a very close family, I had good friends and have so many happy memories.

• I remember thinking that my Mum was like magic because she would get up extra early and go to work before I woke up so that she could come home (we lived with my Nan and Grandad so I wasn’t alone) and give me breakfast, take me to school and then go back to work until it was time to pick me up from school. I remember that my Mum was ALWAYS there for me.
• When I think back to my childhood I remember the Sunday morning walks with my Grandad along the old railway line and stopping off at the corner shop for 50p worth of sweets to fuel my walk.
• I remember the time that I was collected from school to be told that my Nanna had passed away and how my old dinner lady Mrs Albans gave me a hug in the Co-op when she heard the news. Everyone was sad when they heard about my Nanna because everybody loved her as much as we did. She was only 54 years old.

• Childhood summers were spent playing with my friend Catherine in the cellar of her parents’ tobacconists shop or making dens in their lounge with her dog Scamp or racing around the garden at Fran’s house.
• When I went to Grammar School I would walk home at lunchtime to find my Grandad having ‘forty-winks’ sleep on the lounge floor before going back to work and the sound of the phone ringing at Easton’s Yard where my Grandad worked next door to our house. We had a big garden there with great trees for climbing and a 5 ft high wall that we would walk on without fear (yet my heart is in my mouth when the Beans walk on a 2ft wall!!).
• A few years later my Grandad moved away to Northampton and so my Mum and I moved to our own house just around the corner. It was a lovely little house with open plan wooden stairs. Once during the summer holidays I was trying to be ever-so-good and help Mum with the housework – I even polished the wooden stairs!!! Yes they were rather slippery and dangerous, I will never make that mistake again! Or the time that I opened up a blueberry Muller Yoghurt corner and it sprayed all the way up back of my Mum’s pale pink sofa!!!!

• We had many a drunken night out in Alford spent at the Half Moon on West Street, I often wonder if it’s still the same now? Alford always had a good community spirit, everyone knew how to enjoy themselves. I worked at the local Supermarket and Freezer Shop, Davids, from the week of my 14th birthday. It felt good to have my own money but I could spend it faster than I earnt it, especially on all the shopping trips I would go on with Mum. She trained me well!
• When I left school I got my first ‘real’ job working at Walkers, Owen & Craig Solicitors in the Market Place. An old family firm where my Aunt had started out her career many years previously before moving to London. It had the creepiest cellar where they stored the files, I hated it down there. Those offices have now been converted into flats I think? I wonder if the cellar is still there?? It used to flood!!
• Later when I had passed my driving test our nights out would take us to Skegness, taking it in turns to drive. I have never enjoyed Bank Holidays as much as I did in Skegness and New Years fancy dress celebrations were always the best, although the Winter months were pretty good too (if you could stand the cold) because that’s when most of the locals would come out to play.

• I worked at Marks & Spencers on Lumley Road as a Saturday girl for many years in the clothing department (textiles to the insiders) but sadly it has gone now. My Mum worked there with me until she moved to Peterborough a few years later. We were in the old Skegness store a couple of weeks ago and it’s so hard to believe that M&S ever fitted in that shop, it looks tiny now? I loved my job at M&S, it was a great team where I made made friends and have recently rediscovered a few on Facebook.
• During my M&S years I helped a friend out by modelling Wedding Dresses for her shop and one day she talked me into modelling the underwear too. I was mortified when this picture appeared in the local newspaper but now I’m quite proud of it, I would love to look like that again!!
• I still remember the morning I received a call from my Mum during the early hours to tell me that my beloved Grandad had passed away. My Grandad had been a father figure to me and losing him was so hard. I went into work at M&S that day but I was a useless weeping wreck so they gave me lots of warm hugs and cups of tea then packed me off  home to be with my Mum and family. I still think of my Grandad every single day.

• It was at James Smith Partnership Solicitors working in the Personal Injury Claims department where I met my longest ‘serving’ friend MumtoC whom I still see regularly now. Growing up I always said I didn’t want to work in an office full of women as I thought it would be too bitchy but at JSP we bucked the trend, yes there was the odd bit of bitching but on the whole we were all really good friends, we had soooo many laughs and I miss those days, especially the Christmas parties. When the time came for me to leave JSP it was with a very heavy heart and sadly not all of the friendships stood the test of distance and time although we do try to keep in touch where possible through social media.

• I left Skegness and moved to Peterborough at the end of 2002. It was a scary decision to take and a big move to make as I didn’t have a job or friends to go to. Luckily for me, my Mum had moved there a few years before so I was able to move in with her. Within days of moving there I started temping and within two weeks I started work at BMW in Peterborough which is where I met Simon (aka Hubby) although we didn’t actually become a couple until 2 years later.

• Working at BMW was perhaps where I had the best social life ever, we all got on so well and had the best laughs. We would all go to the gym together at lunch times as it was just next door and we would have regular work nights out which would always get messy. I never in a million years thought I would work in the Motor Trade or have the opportunities to drive some of the cars that I have but I had never felt more at home in any job than I did there and at my next job working for Volkswagen. The Motor Trade is a totally different kettle of fish and unless you have worked in it, I think it’s hard to explain but it’s certainly one that is difficult to let go of, especially if you have a love of cars like I do.

• When I became a Mummy to Little Bean in 2008 the intention was always for me to return to work but I managed to find a little job working from home doing admin work for a Motor Trade Consultant and eventually started blogging which is now my ‘job’ as well as my Hobby and the rest can be found right here on the blog.
• This year Mummy Matters is 5 years old and yet it still feels like only yesterday that I started out in this previously undiscovered (by me) world and now I can’t imagine life without it. A bit like life with my children. It has times where it drives me crazy but my family has a lot to thank Mummy Matters for and in turn I have a lot to thank my readers for – so Thank You!! It wouldn’t be as much fun without you xx

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