003.5 - Background and History
Occupation
Colette herself acknowledges (rightly or wrongly) that her social anxiety issues have probably prevented her from ever securing “proper” employment befitting her qualifications but it may equally be that having a conventional “career” is not something that, in any event, would appeal to her sensibilities.
She does, however, earns a steady income from a job which she describes as “helping out part time at an antiques shop on Whiteladies Road”. She implies, when asked, that she got the job through a shared interest with the proprietors in Japanese artefacts even though it seems her primary function in the business is book keeping. Perhaps their chance meeting occurred at an antiques fair or the like but there is speculation that the two guys who run the shop are gay and that Colette met them at a Pride event, the Japanese angle being something she brought to the business as an unexpected bonus.
Colette also derives some income from work as a freelance software developer. It seems unlikely that she has the social skills necessary to maintain a contact network that would facilitate this but, perhaps, she is sufficiently good at what she does that word of mouth amongst potential clients brings in enough work to keep her happy.
Future Career
Colette sees her current situation as relatively comfortable and secure; she would be loath to take any steps that might put that in jeopardy. She would also respond indignantly to any suggestion that she was wasting her talents working as an underling in a shop by asking what, exactly, was wrong with working in a shop if that was what you liked doing. Colette, we may safely assume, is not hoping or expecting to change jobs any time soon. Except, of course. . .
Jennifer now has it within her purview to offer employment in the very field Colette is passionate about. She would, of course, question whether she possessed the skills and experience Jennifer would need. And it would be wrong, on so many levels (in Colette’s mind, at least), for Jennifer to offer or for Colette to accept a job based only on the strength of their friendship. Nevertheless it is something that she would have to consider very carefully were the opportunity to arise. Not that she has ever dared to drop even the slightest hint that she would be interested and nor, more to the point, has Jennifer ever suggested that the opportunity was there. But, we do know that Jennifer — by virtue of her own insecurities — has been more than a little reluctant to make any post-election plans.
Home Town
Bristol is where Colette has lived since arriving as a fresh faced undergraduate back in 1979 and she is very happy there but it is not where she is from. Sheffield, where she was born and grew up, is her home town. She is fiercely proud of Sheffield, its history, traditions and heritage and proud to call herself a Yorkshirewoman. But it is a pride tinged with sadness because that city is also home to so many people, family and former friends, who will not accept her for who she is. It is now a decade since she last set foot in the city of her birth and she does not suppose she will ever return. In fact, she means not to.
Cultural Influences - Japan
Colette is, inwardly at least, proud of who she is and not the least of this is her cultural heritage, both that of Yorkshire and of Japan.
Now, whilst Colette is descended from a Japanese bloodline, it is important to remember that she was born and raised in Sheffield, has lived her whole adult life in Bristol and has (probably) never even been to Japan. Similarly her mother, Naomi, though in the same line of descent, also lived her — all too brief — life entirely in England. Colette’s perspectives on the culture of Japan have, therefore, been shaped by her rather fragmentary exposure to it:
- through her grandmother, Takako, who will have been Colette’s initial influence. Bear in mind that Takako herself left Japan at a young age (generally undefined but, whilst not still a child certainly with little adult exposure to life in Japan) in the early years of the twentieth century. Takako will have encouraged the young Colette to learn and speak Japanese though her current fluency may be autodidactic, driven by her other passions.
- through her lifelong study of martial arts.
- through a (probably) rather sketchy knowledge of Japanese artefacts, though that may have been a knowledge which improved while working in the antiques trade.
- through her exposure to late twentieth century popular Japanese culture, primarily manga and anime.
Childhood
Earliest Memory
Colette sometimes says she is not old enough to remember the 1966 World Cup Final. But this is true only to a point; she does not remember it because she did not see it and had no interest in it. The day itself, however, does form the backdrop for one of her earliest childhood memories — certainly the earliest coherent one. Although not overly fond of her paternal grandmother (a state of affaris that was destined not to ever improve), her offer to take the young Colette to the local swing park on an afternoon which, she was assured, would see the nasty boys who normally infested the place conspicuous by their absence, was an offer not to be refused. Plenty of other mothers, grandmothers and aunties had taken similar advantage of the opportunity and so no one really noticed Colette become engrossed in conversation with a young girl who had not been seen in the neighbourhood before — a very strange little girl indeed.
A Troubled Childhood
In general, Colette’s childhood was a difficult one; anyone suggesting that one’s schooldays are the happiest of one’s life can look forward to a long period of Colette’s disdain. But, however bad things got, Colette did not break. Something that the strange little girl had said on that summer afternoon at the swing park, something which Colette could never quite recollect, which perhaps had never been said out loud but merely understood, had kept her strong through even the darkest of times.
Happier Times
Let us, however, not assume that Colette’s childhood was one of unremitting horror for there were, most certainly, periods of brightness therein: most notably those spent in the company of her maternal grandparents in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. It would be unfair, indeed wrong, to suggest that they indulged their granddaughter but, when no one else would, they always accepted Colette for who she was even though they themselves perhaps did not understand what that was. It was they who encouraged Colette to express her individuality and who nurtured the extraordinary talents and the extraordinary person that lay within her.
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