We have reached the month of October, and this month I have decided to join in with Blogtober – where you blog EVERY DAY! I don’t know if that is crazy or not, but I’m going to give it a go. The idea was set up by Hex Mum Blog and if you would like to join in too, below are the list of prompts. Each day you link up to her blog and you can see what everyone else has written too 🙂 I’m going to try to do most days, but some days I already have things planned so they will go live instead.

Today’s prompt is “All about you” so I’ll tell you about me! My name is Sabrina, I’m 38 (wah!), I’m married to Ganesh, I have two children, Tyler (5) and Lily (1) and we live in Slough – but you  already knew that I’m guessing! I am the eldest in my family – I have one brother who is 4 years younger than me, and one sister who is 13 years younger. I laugh a lot, people say I am funny and I do like to make people laugh, but I am quite an emotional person too and cry very easily (hiding the tears in embarressment). I love my family and when we all hang out – my siblings, parents, hubby, children, cousins – I feel so happy. I love art and design, being at the seaside, shopping, playing with kids, reading books, fun days out, taking photos and videos of everything and putting everything on Facebook 😛

I was born in Truro, Cornwall – my dad was a hospital doctor and that year he was placed in Cornwall. Then got a job as a GP in Uxbridge (you know, Zone 6 at the end of the Met line on the tube map) and that’s where my family settled for good. So Uxbridge really is my home. I went to a little primary school in Hillingdon, which I wrote about here, and to secondary school in Northwood with a load of posh girls so I really didn’t fit in. I was described as ‘painfully shy’ at school, a lot of teachers thought I had no future, and to this day that makes me feel so angry. I think I have proved them wrong.

I went to uni in London, at first studying Accountancy before realising I can’t do balance sheets. It just didn’t go in my head, me being a creative person, I didn’t fit in with my classmates who got excited about excel spreadsheets (sorry if you do, that’s cool if you do :|) So I transferred to City University in Farringdon to do Management and Systems. It still wasn’t a creative course but at least I could start in the second year rather than from scratch, and that is where I met my best friends for life. I love those girls, I still remember the first time I approached them and we’ve been there for each other through jobs, weddings, pregnancy, children – I am really glad I moved to that university!

While at uni, I worked at McDonalds (I was the fries girl), Etam and Birthdays the card shop – which actually led to my first proper job after uni, where I was Merchandising Assistant in the greetings card department at Woolworths. That job changed my life as I met my husband there – he was in the Stationery department and gave me his flexi ruler (that was a big deal then, and they were a new thing). I was 23 and he was 24, so I feel like we grew up together. Our twenties were the fun years of going out with friends – it was very social at Woolworths – lunch every day together, sunny days at the park, and generally a happy go lucky life.

After Woolies, I got my dream job as Assistant Brand Manager for Barbie. The job was in Maidenhead and I did find it hard adjusting to life in the countryside as opposed to London. It was completely different. Even though I got to play with Barbie dolls when setting up the showroom, and I found my confidence presenting (who’s shy now?!?), I just couldn’t get my head around the finance side of things and those damn excel sheets.

So after two years there I took a little career break, working in a bar at the Beck Theatre, before realising I want to be a graphic designer. That was the bit I’ve always enjoyed in my jobs, thinking up ideas and briefing the designer. Now I wanted to be the designer.

I did a short course at City Lit, before retraining properly for the next few years at WAES and RACC. I did it in the evenings whilst working full-time and I enjoyed it so much. I was finally at art school! I loved doing the homework and carrying around those big art folders.

At the same time as this career change, I married Ganesh! If felt like a dream as it took a long time to get to that stage. I was 30 and wow the thirties was the most exciting part of my life, it was finally beginning with so many changes. We had our honeymoon in Hawaii and then moved to Brixton, renting this cute little one-bed flat in one of those traditional terraces. Our landlord was this old Jamaican guy who lived upstairs with his cat. I worked at M&S head office for a year before getting my first graphic designer job at Union Insurance where I stayed until just a few months ago.

I loved living in London, we had Tyler a few years later and we had one year with him in London before moving back to suburbia. This was so my mum could look after Tyler while I went back to work. We spent one year living at my mother-in-law’s in Greenford, using that time to decide where to buy a home and settle down properly.

And that brings up to here – we settled in Slough, for reasons you can read about here. I had Lily here last year, and I handed my noticed to my work a few months ago so I am now a full-time blogger in Slough who does freelance graphic design work too. I love living here, the friends I have made, Tyler’s school, Lily playgroups, and I love writing about Slough too, letting you guys know the good stuff about this town.

So that’s me – my whole life story haha. Thank you if you’ve read all the way to here!

Sabrina x