As seen but definitely not tagged for because she is too shy at Green House By The Sea ;).

Twelve years ago me – March 1996, I was 22

LOCATION: In this house in Sompting, Sussex – we’d been here just over 2 years and having carpet on the floors was still a novelty. The lounge was peach coloured woodchip wallpaper.

CHILDREN: not on the agenda at all. I was still adamant that I didn’t want any.

JOB: I was working at B&Q in Shoreham as a Showroom Administrator / After Sales Advisor for kitchens and bathrooms. I had my own office, although I used to spend most of my days sitting in the manager’s office next door drinking tea with him. My actual job was phoning through orders for kitchens and bathrooms to the suppliers in Blackburn, coordinating with the installers and customers to arrange to have the kitchens and bathrooms fitted and dealing with any issues. Which were approximately every kitchen or bathroom ever ordered or fitted 🙄 I sometimes had to visit customer’s homes to deal with complaints and negotiated compensation claims where things went really wrong. It was my favourite B&Q job in the three different ones I did during my 6 years working for them.

TRANSPORT: We had one car between us then, a white Ford Escort. I worked furthest away so Ady mostly walked to work and I picked him up or if he needed the car he ran me into work. I wrote it off later that year in a spectacular accident right outside our house witnessed by Ady who had nightmares about it for several years afterwards.

EMPLOYEES: None.

FAVE DRINK: had alcopops come out by then? I think they probaby had which meant I would have drunk Hooch or Two Dogs alcoholic lemonade back then. But not in vast quantites because we couldn’t afford it. Used to drink many cups of vending machine tea every day in managers office at work as mentioned above.

LOVE INTEREST: That’d be Ady :). We’d been together for nearly 3 years by then.

CONTRACEPTION: the pill.

WISH FOR FUTURE: I had serious career plans within B&Q back then and wanted to reach the giddy heights of Department Manager as quickly as I could. We’d already bought a house and my relationship with Ady was going well but I don’t think we were particularly planning marriage back then.

SPONSORS: This would have been one of our rare periods of financial good health I think. We’d have gotten used to paying the mortgage and household bills, it would have been before we started using credit cards and with two wages coming in we were probably among the richer lot of our social circle.

HAIR: Long, red and messy. I had occassional perms and it was rarely cut.

UNDERWEAR: Blimey, no idea! This was in pre-cleavage days when I was a fair bit slimmer so it would have been black and cheap I imagine.

FAVE OUTFIT: I know I stopped wearing jeans for a few years when size 14s got too tight so this would probaby have been the age of those ski-pants style leggings with stirrups under the feet. I *always* wore high heeled boots in the winter and kids black elasticated front plimsolls in the summer.

9 years ago me: March 1999 , I was 25

LOCATION: Same house as now, still a two bedroomed bungalow. Lounge walls were green at this time I think. 1999 was actually the year a lot of the bungalow got decorated including the kitchen getting finished paid for (along with a new cooker and washing machine) as a wedding present from my parents.

CHILDREN: something we were talking about but still not intending happening for a while. Late in 1999 we actually started trying.

JOB: leaping ahead from 3 years previously via a stint in Recruitment and managing a Clinton Cards shop, working in newspaper ad sales very briefly and having a career stumble being asked to leave a job after 10 days in 1999 I was working for Bhs as a Team Leader. I managed Ladieswear, Menswear, Shoes and Accessories. I ran the whole store every third Sunday and was in charge of some 40 odd staff. In March I was still enjoying the job, later that year I would grow to loathe it.

TRANSPORT: I was driving a red peugot 405, our second ‘proper’ car after a selection of old bangers. I loved it, it had sunroof, electric windows and ‘volume on a stick!’ (the volume control for the radio was on a little stick on the steering wheel – the novelty of that never wore off in all the years we had that car :lol:). We had a second car by then too, Ady was driving a red escort estate which was an old banger but he needed for his gardening jobs.

EMPLOYEES: none

FAVE DRINK: A friend at work had introduced me to white wine which was now my drink of choice. That and copious amounts of tea.

LOVE INTEREST: Ady. Late in 1999 we got married but it was with just 3 weeks notice so no talk of it back in March.

CONTRACEPTION: the pill, until I stopped taking it in September.

WISH FOR FUTURE: In March when I was still enjoying my job I would have been hankering after furthering my career within Bhs. I had vague ideas of wanting to travel a bit more but most of my wishes were of the job description and associated salary back then.

SPONSORS: We changed mortgage supplier and consolidated some debts in this year – so Virgin were our main sponsor 🙂

HAIR: it was shorter and straighter and I did a bit of experimenting with wash in wash out hair dye with varying degrees of success. At one point it was decidedly pink, which didn’t go down well at work, or look that good with my suit!

UNDERWEAR: I was a fair bit heavier by now so I think this would have been my pull you in and push you out again underwear phase, coupled with staff discount making nicer Bhs underwear affordable!

FAVE OUTFIT: I wore suits for work and had an impressive wardrobe full of them. Infact work seemed to be what I spent most of my time doing but on days off I would mostly be found wearing jeans, crash helmet and motorboke jacket so I could ride pillion on Ady’s bike.

6 years ago me: 2002 I was 28

LOCATION: A lovely big end of terrace house in Sale, Greater Manchester. The decor was not to our taste as it was a rented property but it was big and spacious.

CHILDREN: I had Davies, who was 18 months old and had (literally) just discovered I was pregnant with Scarlett after 3 months of TTC.

JOB: In March I had just started working at Dreamieland in the capacity of Marketing Manager / Personnel Manager. I was part of the management team and had one person reporting directly to me. It was a bit of a dream job really, having been taken out to lunch and told to write my own job description and pitch for my salary! :). I officially worked 3 days a week, one of which was Ady’s day off so he stayed home with Davies and the other two days Davies went to nursery. I did quite a lot of working from home. My role mostly seemed to involve meetings at Starbucks. I handled recruitment and did some of the interviewing, wrote and rolled out the training for new staff, handled contracts and personnel paperwork. In the marketing capacity I arranged all the promotions and PR (more meetings in Starbucks) advertising and events.

TRANSPORT: I was driving the same white Sharan that I still drive but it was distinctly newer and in better nick. Ady was driving the red Peugeot mentioned above (the one with volume on a stick). I also toyed with public transport back then as the Metro / tram into Manchester city centre was so good. I also did quite a bit of walking with pushchair then too.

EMPLOYEES: none

FAVE DRINK: Starbucks hot chocolate 😉 Having discovered I was pregnant I wasn’t drinking wine and was drinking ever such a lot of water.

LOVE INTEREST: Davies! Oh and Ady of course.

CONTRACEPTION: being pregnant sort of negated the need really 😉

WISH FOR FUTURE: career dreams had totally diminished and I was happy to be part time. We were very hopeful that Dreamieland would hold the passport to our big life dream at that point of living abroad for a while – infact Japan and US both seemed very strong possibilities for a while around that time, neither of which came to anything. A healthy pregnancy and new baby and the normal hopes and dreams for my toddler would have been key priorities too.

SPONSORS: Mastercard and Visa! And probably every other credit card you can think of too. 😳

HAIR: this was one of my most ‘groomed’ phases and it was longish and curlyish – a smarter version of what I sport now, without occassional bunches or plaits!

UNDERWEAR: a rather gorgeous rotation of leopard print, black and white polka dot and floral maternity / nursing bras and matching pants from Bravissimo. Which I later sold on ebay for almost what I paid for them!

FAVE OUTFIT: Suits for work, my wardrobe-ful had steadily increased. I’d also started to sport cleavage around this time.

3 years ago me: 2005, I was 31

LOCATION: We were back here, in the same house again. By now it had grown from a 2 bedroomed bungalow to a 3/4 bedroom house (although it’s still small according to some ;)). The lounge was yellow.

CHILDREN: A 4 year old Davies and a 2 year old Scarlett

JOB: I think I might have been doing the freelance CV writing about then and possibly odd bits for Miranda here and there. The only period since I was 14 when I wasn’t doing any sort of paid work though.

TRANSPORT: I was driving the Sharan, Ady had a company car of a VW Golf. We’d given the red Peugeot to my brother as a birthday present when we moved back to Sussex.

EMPLOYEES: none

FAVE DRINK: tea between 4am and 7pm, wine between 7pm and 4am :). This would have been the start of my long term love affair with teas of all sorts including hippy teas.

LOVE INTEREST: Ady.

CONTRACEPTION: Ady had been snipped to ensure no further children for us.

WISH FOR FUTURE: We had already decided to Home Educate which meant my dreams for the future were for success in that, health and happiness for my family.

SPONSORS: hmm, wherever I could get credit at this point I think. 3 years ago is just before our finances finally imploded so the full list of 13 creditors would have been borrowed from by now.

HAIR: Longer than now, red and messy

UNDERWEAR: Ady and I seem to be the main purchasers of each others underwear – so mine was mostly lacey, cleavage enhancing and in pretty colours.

FAVE OUTFIT: the suits had been pushed to the back of the wardrobe and I was mostly to be found in cleavage revealing tops and jeans.

Me now: 2008, I am 34

LOCATION: still here, 12 years later although it’s bigger than it was and I have spent some time away. This will be an interesting one to revist in another 3 years as my hope is not to be here then.

CHILDREN: Davies is seven, Scarlett is five.

JOB: A nice balance of just 11 hours a week at the local library. Not my favourite job or indeed what I want to be doing forever, but pretty much perfect on all levels for me, for now.

TRANSPORT: still that white Sharan, increasingly ‘loved’ and with a catalogue of ailments these days. But I like it, it sorts of reminds me of me, bearing marks and evidence of having been loved and worked hard, wearing stickers and badges reflective of it’s lifestyle, bigger than the average and often filled with laughter, shouting or music :).

EMPLOYEES: none

FAVE DRINK: 😆 Thatd be tea between 4am and 7pm, wine between 7pm and 4am.

LOVE INTEREST: Ady :).

CONTRACEPTION: Sex with someone who can’t have babies anymore 😉

WISH FOR FUTURE: It’s all over on Make a Dream come true really but continued health and happiness for me and my family, hopes of a greener and more self sufficient lifestyle, continued success with Home Education and many more days filled with love, laughter, friends and fun.

SPONSORS: technically I can’t say ‘none’ because we still owe £££s but it’s decreasing steadily.

HAIR: slightly shorter, still red, still messy, currently has lots of tiny plaits in it.

UNDERWEAR: still cleavage enhancing, still lacey and pretty coloured, still mostly purchased by Ady :).

FAVE OUTFIT: all the suits have long since been sold on ebay. I have ‘Nicola’ clothes for when I’m at work and ‘Nic’ clothes for when I’m not. My tops are still mostly cleavage revealing, my shoes are still mostly green DMs and my bottoms veer between jeans with rips and hand drawn art by Scarlett or grown up skirts and trousers :).