Age: 27

Gender: Female

Hair Colour - Blonde

Eye Colour - Blue

Height - 5'3"

Date Of Birth: 22-Feb-1985

Location: UK

Likes: Chinese takeaways, quiet nights in, listening to music, my iPod, oh and my Renault Clio -- which I love driving everywhere since passing my test the 13th time!!

On Fanfic 5 (WR - Secrets & Lies): With this one, I wasn't planning on spinning it out for as long as I have done, but I wanted to put more realism into it by adding more real life experiences (I haven't been sleeping around with any of my teachers, don't worry about that - they weren't my type LOL!) but the part where Bex is having trouble trying to find her real dad coincides with my life experience as I've never met my own dad and my folks have always kept quiet about that. They also lied to me about his name, as I've asked them twice and they gave me two different names for him.
The most heartbreaking thing is that I ordered my original birth certificate in the vain hope his name was on there, but the 'father' field had been crossed out. And he'd been in and out of prison a few times...not an easy thing to deal with.

Also, the part where Karen was assaulted while abroad actually stemmed from my own experience. I was assaulted while holidaying in Turkey when it was just me and my mum (I was 15 at the time), and it happened to be the bartender who worked in the hotel we were staying in. To make matters worse, his dad was the hotel manager, so I was in a pretty tight spot.
Nothing really nasty happened, but it happened more than once. Unfortunately none of my folks know about this and I've been in shock for quite some time - so much so that I've been masking the emotional pain for all this time.
The reason I can't tell my folks is simple - they all have problems of their own which makes it very difficult for me to tell them. My mum has Multiple Sclerosis and is disabled, my grandad has an aneurysm and any surprise like this could give him a stroke, and my nan is currently looking after him, so that could only add to the burden. All the docs I've talked to about this have said to me that this is a very hard thing for anyone to deal with on their own. But because I've been working for almost over 7 years doing the same job and been in and out of a relationship or two, I haven't really thought about it - till my partner suggests the 'm' word (marriage) and the 3-letter word beginning with 's' (LOL yes, that's right - S-E-X.)

Not trying to make this fanfic into my own life story, as most are elements which don't apply to me.

Education Level: Umm well I did go to college and take a few A Levels...One in Art, which I never passed, History, never passed that either, LOL. However I did pass English Literature and I'm pleased to say I didn't scrape through!!

Brothers and sisters: Absolutely none to speak of.

On my job: I do like my job, but there's a 'but'. I've been in it for 7 years, doing the same thing at the same level. I've helped out at other sites when they've been pushed to their limit with illness/holidays/too much work. But there's nothing stimulating about it. Most of my mates on my own team said before I started helping out this other team, that it was that much harder. They worked differently to us and did many things differently. But what do you know, I pretty much picked it up the first day I was there! Ok a few glitches, but on the whole, there was nothing challenging about it all. For that reason, I've been looking around for something else on and off. Plus, I'm kinda getting pushed into going for a promotion. But I've been doing this job for so long, that I don't really care about getting extra perks, responsibilities or money. I just like the job - however simple it's deemed to be!
I long to do something creative, like journalism, but from what I've heard, I would need a degree in that first. So-o-o-o writing fanfics is the only way I can ever use my creativity. And I'm happier writing than I am talking, which is funny really...oh well.

On my illness: I haven't exactly got an illness per se, but it's a very, very annoying condition that I've got.
It's rarely heard of, but I have something called Iliopsoas Tendinitis in my right hip. I've had it for as long as I can remember, but I'm ninety-percent positive that I've had it for around nine years as I think I may have injured it back in college.
At the time I think I injured it, I remember getting a sharp pain in my hip area, and for years on end, I've had the actual joint locking and snapping - to start with the snapping was painless, but as the years went on, the condition became more progressive, the snapping got painful and made me take a lot of time off work.

I don't think I can count the number of times I've had MRI scans and X Rays with my fingers, but eventually an ultrasound confirmed that I have something called a snapping iliopsoas.
Reading up about it, the condition is caused by the tendon becoming short and is more prevalent in athletes but the clincher here is that I'm not an athlete. Ok, I dance in my spare time, I'm very slim and I do a fairly mobile job, but that doesn't make me athletic.

So-o-o-o several months down the line (blasted NHS waiting list!!) I had a tendon release. That's where the surgeon divides the iliopsoas from where it snaps and causes pain and then they stitch it back up to lengthen it.

Now I've got a new illness - Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. This is where the thyroid (the gland in the neck) goes through periods of overactivity and underactivity, thus swelling up and generally causing a lot of problems. I haven't yet received any treatment for it but because my family is riddled with autoimmune problems it's heavily suspected that I have this and this condition does make blood test results go from normal, then abnormal and then normal again.
AAARGH so horrible!!!

Oh well, see how it goes I guess.. x