2003-2007 A basic recent history of Ray

Let's play catch-up.

Some of you will know me as Rach, others as Ray or Razzle (or 'poppet' if you happen to be my dad)- truth is all the names belong to the same 22 year old redhead... me.

So... how did i end up a post-grad student working in a bar in Leicester? Let's see shall we?

This is me in winter 2002 @ Creation with my then best mate Amanda. For all Leicester girls my age, Creation was the place to be. Well, sort of. Anyway, i danced the weekends away while i did my A-levs in Wigston....

As you can see... i was much much fatter than i am now. But i had a great rack, so all wasn't that bad.

I don't miss Creation. All the boys that thought you were going to fall head over heels in love with them if they rubbed themselves up behind you..bleugh. And the drinks...i used to only drink SoCo and lemonade at that point. How utterly niave.

So anyway... i finished up in Wigston and upped myself and moved to Bir-min-gum to study at the oh-so-gorgeous UoB... a red brick university that looked like universities are supposed to look. I changed so much in the first year...dropped three dress sizes, gained an uncontrollable addiciton of buying clothes and shoes (in my defence i lived a ten minute walk away from the Bullring...recipe for disaster) and my signature drink had changed to tequila. straight with no gay trimmings. And it had to be jose...

This is what i looked then. I love this photo... this was taken in Zanzibar (n.b Leicester kids... the one in Birmingham was MUCH better and there were less 'yis mate yis mate' chavs). It was for my flatmate Hannah's birthday and we divided the girls into cowboys and indians. I was sherrif.. obviously.

God my hair is orange.

In feb 2004... still in my freshers year. I began working at a bar- Revolution. I shouldn't have even got an interview... i had no bar experience and they were then one of the busiest bars on Broad Street. But my hair saved me. The manager had a weird love for redheads (his last two wives were ginger) so he hired me on the spot when i came in in the middle of the day dressed in ripped jeans and a UoB sweater. They taught me everything i know about alcohol....well, mainly vodka. I know all about grains and polish vodka history.. and which goes best with which mixer blah blah blah, although you wouldn't think it when you see me work. Every night looks like my first night. I'm just naturally clumsy i guess.. but at least i'm damn entertaining.

It was here that i truly came out of my shell. From a timid little ginger girl who got bullied through school and college to a thinner, confident bar supervisor who got over £20 in tips on a good night and even a few phone numbers on napkins too!

They may not think so, but i owe these two everything. Danny and Shafi, my two best friends for soooo long. They rock. And i love them to peices. We used to dance while we worked and shout 'tune' to each other when our favourite house tracks came on. Plus we'd spend ages chatting and giving each other advice.

Summer 2004... i had a great time. Mainly in Paris. It's where my love for all things French and a overwhelming love for art comes from. Most of you that know me very well will either hear me babble on about Paris, Revolution or both... so i wont bother you with all the details here.

Passed first year with flying colours, moved three times (!) in the second year (don't ask... long-ass story involving a mean flatmate who called environmental health in on our lovely but weird landlord plus many fall outs and stuff that i regret.) and began my final year living on Hubert Road, Selly Oak.

And became firm mates with this motely crew. God, i had such a fun time in my last year. I learnt so many things living in house with one other girl and four blokes. Things like:

1) Learning how to use an xbox (it's hard for a girly girl...) and becoming good enough to be allowed to sit in the living room and join in. I was the type of Halo player that would sit on a ledge high up and bomb people with rockets.. and the type of GTA player that would take ho's out in my car, fuck them and then take back the money...i'm sure everyone's done that right?

2) Seeing how the other side of relationships and how the lads coped with their girlfriend dilemmas. Very insightful.

3)Learning a HELL of a lot about music (thank you Neil and Dave).... music was on 24/7 in our house... and i quickly became addicited to it. It's weird to think that i can't sit in a room by myslef anymore without having some kind of music on...If it wasn't for them i don't know where i'd be now. Certainly not live music editor @ a local magazine..

Having said that though...there were some aspects about boys i never figured out. Like how boys can get so much water on the floor in the bathroom...or why they have to use a whole roll for one toilet session. Or why they insist on putting their food on everybody else's shelves in the fridge when there are clearly marked areas (argh!!)

The highlight of my year was getting a photoshoot session for my xmas from my then-boyfriend Dan. I was so scared and nervous.. but this is what they came up with. Nice huh?

So that brings us to summer 2006... end of my final year. I was worried i would fail after taking the shock decision to base my dissertation on pornography, but i did okay. I graduated with a high 2.1 in BA Media, Culture and Society...basically media theory.

I moved back to Leicester, and began a post-grad course at the very lovely DMU. I've always wanted to write... either books or for a magazine. I'd looooove to write for Vogue, but maybe that's a good decade away. So i became a student again, this time vowing to do things differently.. no counselling this time (another story for another time), more dancing, and more exersise. I joined a pole dancing class in Barrow-on-soar (which i still attend regularly) and own a pole too... just to keep nice and thin and flexible. I began to learn french (and now blog sometimes in french... use an online dictionary to translate if you want).

That course is nearly finished (few exams to go now), and i'm really going to miss these people....

They've totally kept me sane...and we get up to as much drinking and dancing as we work, ferreting away in our own private Mac lab.

Those that know me well will know that i take hundreds and hundreds of photos of my friends because i love them so much. This night.. which just happened to be Valentines Day (i love being in a relationship.. and i was all sad and single so we decided to organise a night out and run riot round Zanzibar while all the students were getting it on with each other. I owe the hacks for that). I took 145 photos that night. 80 made it to fbook. Go see.

The other half of my leicester life is spent at my current place of work- The lovely Turkey Cafe. Night after night, i drop glasses and spill drinks and make mistakes... but we end up all having a right laugh. Plus i can make a damn good cosmo and pinapple sour. I love them turkey people (and of course our honorary bar staff: Emma's #2 and #3, Gaz, Jonny, Andy J, Ryan, Steph etc)- they make my random turbulent life seem a little less stressful.

That brings us to the present. What else do you need to know? I get myself into very very sticky situations, say stupid things and get up to lots of mischief. So i'll keep you entertained, don't worry.

By the way, this is me. Yesterday.

Much Love, Ray xx