Union City Shoes

Ignoring the ill fated attempt to sell minging macaroon bars round the doors for 2p commission when I was 14, I pocketed my first wage packet as an after school checkout scanner in Aberdeen's brand shiny new Safeways, where I never grassed up the elderly lady that shoved a luminous orange block of cheese into her woollen jacket pocket every Saturday and the £13.50 pay packet got me two nights out at some wonderful dives every Friday and Saturday.

A Saturday girl stint in Dorothy Perkins didn't quite work out, what with my heid full of badly dyed fuzzy frizzy dreadlocks and hangovers, I wasn't model Debenhams employee material. I got serious and shaved it off to get a part time job in BT directory enquiries during that fatefully forgetful and awkward college year that I've all but blanked out. I needn't have bothered with the skin head. The place was full of mega wattage goths, ageing punks and deranged silent types; no one can see you in a call centre, no daylight either, perfect goth habitat. But I didn't last long there either.

On to my years at University and I eventually found myself as a part-time pizza waitress, surrounded by people that liked all nighters, questionable lewd practices and too much stimulants, most of the customers, all of the staff.

After Uni, and some years as a researcher that all but killed me off completely, I ran away to London to get a real job and started a long many years as a local authority girl and went to work in County, Shire and City, before coming back full circle to Uni as a staffer. I've kept up with the nice folks from all my previous jobs, not least this lot from the City who I had an impromptu get together with today at the shiny shiny mall that is Union Square Aberdeen. Never having been left alone (without family restraints) in this temple of all things for sale that we don't really need, I accidentally fell into an unconscious detour and bought (maybe more than) 1 pair of shoes on the way home. Oops. A second first for me was to follow with a night out in Dyce in the evening, Dyce??!??!!!