30 in 30 days: The "firsts" : pixeldiva

First Breath: Around 8.10pm, 31st August 1976.

First Celebrity I resembled: Winston Churchill on a bad day (apparently).

First Cat: Black stray that turned up while my mum was still pregnant with me. Messy on the outside but sound on the inside, we called him Darkie, cos he was black, and in 1976, nobody batted an eyelid or thought that offensive. He became my "guard cat". When my mum would put the big Silver Cross pram with me in it out in the front garden so I could get some air, he'd sleep in the basket between the wheels and woe betide any neighbour who crept up to have a peek at me. He'd immediately go on the offensive, raising his hackles, and hissing and spitting at anyone who came near, unlike our other cat, Snuffy, who just kept trying to use the carry-cot as his new bed.

First word: DaDa, at 3 months - because my mum didn't teach me to say Mummy first so when I said DaDa she could nudge my dad to get up to deal with me. By 9 months I was a right little chatterbox.

First pair of shoes: Red shoes with a buckle, by Start Rite. Hurt my feet but because I couldn't speak I couldn't tell my mum why. Were eventually found to have lumps of glue under the inside of the sole. The start of a long history of uncomfortable shoes.

First steps: 15 months old.

First book: Something cloth with pictures, read while sitting on my potty.

First sneaky move: Trying to convince my parents and their friends I could read at 18 months, when in reality, what I'd done was memorise my entire book collection. Had them going for a bit, until one night my dad accidentally turned two pages over and I read what was on the page before. Busted.

First musical instrument: The piano - just as soon as I was big enough to reach the keys.

First Holiday: To what is now the Stanwix Park Holiday Centre in Silloth in Cumbria in August 1980, just before my 4th birthday. I remember being overjoyed to find that they had Wombles. My baby sister was less impressed. To her, wombles were huge scary monsters and she screamed her head off.

First major illness: Tonsilitis that was so serious I had to be hospitalised for an emergency tolsillectomy when my throat closed over. Unfortunately, emergency tonsil operations were impossible on the NHS, with a waiting list of 9 months just to see the consultant and a further waiting period of 9 months after that to have the operation. I'd have been dead within a week, so my gran paid for me to go into a private hospital to have the operation, whereby I saw the same consultant the next morning and had the operation very shortly after. My delight at being given ice-cream after the operation turned to sorrow when I couldn't eat it because my throat was so inflamed.

First day of school: Continuing the precocious swot theme started earlier in my life, I hid the fact that I could already read from my teachers, and came home crying because we didn't get to do reading in class.

First major experience of another culture: Attending Durga Puja celebrations in Glasgow with sister and my next door neighbours (who were Indian). I wore a sari and had a bindi stuck to my forehead, and I loved the whole experience - the sights, sounds, tastes and smells were so different to anything I'd experienced up to that point. Nobody thought it particularly strange that two white children were among the celebration, and mostly they kept offering us food to try.

First computer: Sinclar Spectrum ZX, the 48k one with the squishy keys. I wrote programs on it in BASIC and the only games we were allowed to play on it were educational.

First (and only) attempt at political comment/satire: In first year of secondary school, being asked to write a story based on Tales of the Greek heroes, I wrote a piece based on people being punished by the angry gods and being forced to pay a "Pollus Taxius". It was entered in a local library short story contest and caused a small kerfuffle when it was deemed good enough to win a prize. It was felt that it would piss off the adults who'd entered if they gave me an adult prize, so created a special prize just for me because there was no junior category. The prize was a pocket dictionary that I have since used as a doorstop due to it's entirely non-pocket size.

First "proper" best friend: L-----. In retrospect, a bit of a nutter, but responsible for introducing me to heavy metal (the music, not the actual metal). Most memorable moment, when she threw a fit in a second year English class and screamed the place down because a boy used his jotter to whack a big beetle down the radiator at her. Was removed from class and given stern talking to. On her return to the class, someone casually pointed out that said beetle was now crawling up her leg. Cue further screaming.

First boy I ever really liked: S------. Tall, slim, with long dark hair and dark eyes. Played the drums and guitar and wore black jeans and a leather jacket. Was all round lovely bloke, and at least 60% of the school had a thing for him (including a couple of teachers). Hasn't influenced my taste in men at all (much).

First Kiss: J---. Friend of a friend. Happened while standing on a small patch of ground round the back of said friend's house. I was wearing leggings, a white t-shirt and Doc Martens and he tasted of beer and cigarettes. Never saw him again because something happened and I got grounded and couldn't meet him again.

First porn I ever saw: Friend found stepdad's porn stash hidden in his jumper pile in the wardrobe. Sheltered life forever destroyed in a "can they actually do that?!?!?!" kind of way. Stepdad apparently had fairly specific (and rather extreme) taste in porn.

First appearance on TV: On Songs of Praise. Some time later, my dad "accidentally" taped a Scotland international football game over it.

First "proper" boyfriend: Memorable for all the wrong reasons.

First suicide attempt: Overdosed on painkillers. Seemed like the only solution to the various problems I was having at the time. Inexperience or accident of body chemistry meant that it (obviously) wasn't sucessful.

First time outside the UK: 16 years old. A week in Holland with a youth choir I was part of. Existed on bread, ham and cheese for a week and on our day trip to Amsterdam we fell on the first McDonalds we saw like a pack of hungry wolves. It was only after we'd got our food that we realised we were on the edge of the red light district and that the shop opposite was a fully functioning sex shop. Suddenly, all the boys were more interested in looking out of the window than eating their lunch. After lunch, went to see the Anne Frank house and was very moved by the experience.

First job: Receptionist for an Estate Agent in Glasgow. Ended in redundancy three months later on account of my boss spending more time in the Bookie next door than actually doing his job.

First driving test: Failed. Never re-sat it. Still can't drive.

First time online: June 1995. Compuserve. Life changing experience.

First Sci-Fi convention: Wolf 359 - The Alliance. Blackpool, July 1997. Memorable snippets include the Spice Bunnies, my Fancy Dress costume (I still own the dress) and making friends there that I'm still in contact with today.

First website: Comic book fan site (for Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore). Hosted on geocities, created in February 1998.

First time in an aeroplane: Glasgow to Paris, via London Heathrow. I was terrified, but it was worth it.

First time living away from home: Moving to London in 2001.

30 in 30 days: The "firsts"

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