Teenage years

Good Morning. Sitting on home standby waiting for the women's Wimbledon final to start and thought, why not do another entry for my blog? I've decided to take you back to my teenage years as I was reminiscing with Aimee on our trip to Rio last week and how we were the worst waitresses ever back when we were younger…

My first job at 15 was as a waitress, so it's only fitting that I've upgraded to do it in the sky. I don't understand why some crew get so offended when we are labelled a waitress in the sky. I know we are trained in safety, fighting fires and medicals etc., but on a daily basis, if shit doesn't hit the fan, we are a waitress. I've definitely got better over the years. When I started at 15, I basically begged them to take me on after-work experience as I had pressure from my parents to start work, they eventually agreed (but I admit I was pretty useless) once poured red wine all over someone's lap, another occasion I dropped two steaks on a table of 20 and they had to wait for another 30 mins, spilt orange juice on someone but they didn't see so I blamed it on their 3-year-old. Also once gave someone a meat dish and told them it was vegetarian (to be fair, I thought it was). I met some of my best friends at the hotel I worked. I used to get overwhelmed when it got busy. I would lock myself in the toilet for 20 minutes (sorry, Gemma, Hayley and Anne, if you're reading this!) haha…

Then, I was introduced to Smirnoff Ice at 16 (I was a late starter to alcohol) and wanted to go out without fail every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We would finish our shift, and off we would go to Batchwood. I am shocked at how much confidence I had in those days. I thought I looked like Britney Spears and would wear crop tops, and I would push to the front of the queue and make friends with the Bouncer to let us in. Nowadays, I wouldn't dream of jumping the queue, and if I see someone who is, I'm straight onto them, giving them a piece of my mind. Anyway, I would go with whoever wanted to come three nights a week, and I remember everyone was too tired on one occasion, and I had no one to go with. Now I'm not proud of this, but I decided to go on my own (like I said, the confidence in me). I remember going to the club (still age 16), and I saw this really cute guy. I got chatting with him at the bar and pretended I had completely lost my friends. He became my boyfriend for a year after that, and never once did I tell him I went alone that night, hahaha. What is ironic now is that the guy's best friend became a distant friend of mine, and since I got ill, he has helped me… it's such a small world, and I really have to believe everything happens for a reason.

So yeah, my teenage years were a bit wild. I moved to a different restaurant (by choice, not sacked before you think it). After a while, Aimee and I would be on the night shift and then again on the morning shift and want to go out. (How we used to function off 3 hours of sleep, I don't know). We would have all the breakfast cereals already out cling filmed in place beside the dinner (not a good look for the customers, I'm sure) so that we could clear the dinner and leave straight away. We would even start hoovering underneath people's feet to make them feel unwelcome and go. We took it in turns who could have an extra 30 mins in bed for the morning shift as nobody else would be in to know… haha. We also took a few colleagues out with us, and one locked her jaw, and we had to wake up Aimee's mum to take us to the hospital… Good times.

I didn't stay with boyfriends very long at this point, and I loved the attention and excitement too much at that age. I remember a guy I was seeing for a while, and he would pick all of us up from wherever we were, drop us all off at our homes, and take us all to pizza express on a hungover Sunday lunch. These were the times when we had Nokias, and he knew exactly where I was before I even told him, which all the girls would be a little freaked out about (quite flattered I had a stalker, to be honest).

These were very fun years, and definitely, B having a great time. We used to have competitions about who could kiss the most men in one night (I'm not going to say the winning score), but yeah, my confidence was sky-high at this point in life. What do they put in those Smirnoff ice and Blue Wkds? I miss them. (It's just such a shame they bloat you completely). So this was my teenage years…

xBx

P.S. When I told the Bouncer it was my 18th birthday, he banned me for a month as I had been coming years underage then.