This is where it ends!

But it all started on the 13th of November 2002 the day that the inaugural meeting from a virtual racecourse Portman Park happened. In the Ladbrokes on Headington High St, Oxford a girl in need of a job and a love of realhorse racing turned up.
She'd never placed a bet in her life but liked the irony of studying horse racing and working at ladbrokes and figured she's just have to learn.
. A force of nature by the name of Shirley ran the shop and in those days the customer was never right, particularly on days when Shirley was working, cigarette in one hand, cloud of smoke above her head she ran the shop with a lackadazickle authority .

After about 4 saturdays on headington high st the girl was told that when she went home for Christmas it was possible to transfer back to work in the branches there and then transfer back to Oxford when term started again. Being one to try anything , and still in need of money ... she decided to give it ago , and there she found herself on the friday before Christmas working in the busiest shop in Norwich with a rather sleep deprived fellow who was being kept awake by his second baby. It was busy, there was only two of them, he told her to do what she could , she did. Then the servers collapsed due to the sheer weight of the workload they were under. No bets where being settled. Customers were queuing up to be paid. He told her to show him each bet and he would settle them. She was impressed by his ability to work out each return in his head
She was a fast ish learner, & after learning much over that christmas, she returned to Oxford....

..... and soon was sent to work all over the city to increase the speed of her learning and to meet other people. The Jamaicans of Howard Street were a hit, spending many an hour there crying with laughter at their jokes and their comic timing , and learning how to settle bets from Nicky a biker chick who had different coloured hair every saturday . Then there was the not so nice Holloway, a shop where the unofficial security was a man covered head to toe in tattoos who never lifted a finger in anger but just had to look at people causing trouble for them to scamper.
There was Garsington road, near the BMW factory the shop where you could put your feet up for all but 1 hour a day when the factory bell went and the entire workforce came in to the shop for their lunch break and frantically tried to boost their wages.
There was gloucester green in george st (theatre land)which catered for a curious mixture of down on their luck folks and well to do theatre goers.

Easter holidays came, and with it the grand national, a race ran in what felt like the far away north, she returned to Norwich and worked in the busiest shop once more with the (not so sleep deprived) man and the rest of his shop team.

The years continued , and every term time she'd work in Oxford and every holiday time she'd work in Norwich. 3 years after the inauguaral running of portman park, there were many tracks popping up all over the parallel universe of virtual land. She returned to Norwich between working at a genetics lab , and a thoroughbred sales company, to learn how to be a manager.
A good hearted very small statured lady, who's gravelly voice and smoking habits, was to be the one to train her, in the oldest part of Norwich she learnt how to run the shops, opening and closing the system, dealing with whatever and whoever decided to walk through her door.

From that day hence , she was sent all over the county to run betting shops far and wide. From the beaches of hunstanton to the easterly winds of Lowestoft , she became a relief manager..... A year later, she left Oxford, and was given the chance of a lifetime.......

Part 2 will continue later....