It's a My Firsts meme which means telling you all about certain first times in my life. As I'm getting on a bit and have a terrible memory I might have to make some of it up, but I'm sure you won't mind if it makes a good yarn...
My First Boyfriend
What constitutes a boyfriend I wonder. I'm wracking my brains to recall the name of a guy who was a boyfriend but was he the first? I remember he committed the cardinal sin of wearing white jeans. At that time I despised men who wore white jeans. I've grown up a lot... I suppose my first real boyfriend who justifies the title was a jolly guy called Bill Robertson whose letters I found when I was in the UK at Christmas, complete with little cartoon figures of his trademark caveman. He was studying graphic design I think. I was 18. Oh, I've remembered White Jean Bloke's name - Phil.
The First Person I kissed
That was Michael Limehouse when I was about 13 I suppose. It happened at the school disco or after the school disco maybe, at the top of the road as he walked me home. Bless. It was not what I expected and I don't think we got as far as tongues even. I remember feeling it was something of an anticlimax. I can't remember my first real kiss. Is that sad?
My First Job
I had summer jobs from about the age of 16. My first was at a finance company called Tullet and Riley, one of whom was friends with my dad and made the mistake of agreeing to employ me for a few weeks. During that time our beloved Burmese cat, Pierre, died and I had to go home out of grief. (I'm not making this up). I remember being quite shocked that the other secretary/receptionist wore a nylon blouse you could see her bra through. I was terribly impressed that there was a director's restaurant at the top of the building and an in-house chef, and terribly disappointed that I was never invited to eat there.
My First Pay Packet
I landed my first real job after university working for an art dealer. He called me Squirrel and employed me to do research into a specific type of Kumkapi rugs, drive him around London to auctions and help him set up exhibitions at art fairs. I bought my first item of worth - an Omega watch - in Jersey when we were there for an exhibition. It was stolen about 5yrs later in France.
My First CD
I've never been one to buy much music mainly because I used to play a lot in orchestras, and sing in choirs, and my elder brother bought tons and deafened the house with Blondie, Pet Shop Boys, Madness and so on. I had no wish to compete... However, I recorded pop off the radio with my crappy cassette player by sticking the microphone in front of the stereo speaker, and didn't have a CD player until I went to France aged 25 because my ex-h had one. So what exactly the first one I bought was I have no idea. It may well have been something classical just for the pleasure of hearing the sound quality. Or maybe it was the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms.
My First Holiday Abroad
We went abroad as a family from when I was about 8 (you can read about our holidays in my mother's diary blog Isn't that the Trailer Tent?), but my first holiday alone with a friend was when I was about 21 and went on a budget week to Ibiza with my boyfriend of the time from university. It was hot and I got prickly heat. Not very sexy but heady all the same because of the sense of freedom of being on holiday with a man (well, student)!
What age were you when you moved out of your parents home?
Apart from university, I finally moved out when I came to live in France with my then boyfriend (now ex-h) in 1989, aged 25. I had lived at home while I worked in London for the art dealer - he was too stingy to pay me much and I could never have afforded a place of my own.
Now I must nominate others to reveal their first times:
Aidan at Conjugating Irregular Verbs who is a fellow Montpellierain and a Texan (not fellow) and I'm sure she'll have some fun info to divulge.
David at Brits in the USA who is a great writer and has just set out to follow a different star.
Curry Queen at Every Silver Lining who is so funny I'm sure we'll be in for a treat.
Stickhead at Slightly South of Sanity who is another writer of hilarious posts and I always cheer when I see she's written another.
