in 83 I was In Iceland , walkn a fence line in the snow !!!

In 83 I was in Burlington, vt spinning wrenches at a bike shop.

Oh crikey no. I grew up accepting I was the ugly one in the family.
I didn't even have a proper kiss until I was half past fifteen. Or an improper kiss should I say ;)

In fact I'll post a photo taken around the age that things changed for me. Until then, family wisdom was that I got the brains and my sister got the looks. Which I now realise was unfair on both of us - my sister was a hard worker and certainly not stupid. I was lazy but bright and it pretty much evened us out in the end.

Re looks - I just wish I could go back and put myarms around my younger self and try to teach her to love herself. I grew up hating the way I look with a passion. A lot of wasted energy.

You're not alone there, dearie. Although I didn't hate the way I looked I didn't appreciate it either...

As mentioned before, this was the picture where I realised perhaps I had changed in other people's eyes. I was nearly 16, so in fact I had had my first boyfriend. But he fancied my sister. And anyway he finished with me. Sob.

My Dad came to find me when the holiday photos arrived (remember waiting for photos to come through the post?!) and shoved it under my nose quite angrily. "See!" he said, "Don't let me hear you saying that your sister got the looks again!" I was taken aback. To be fair to my Dad, he had always told me how beautiful I was, but Daddies say things like that whatever you look like.

Second pic is just to bring you a little further up to date. My 18th. The balloons and plastic bunting are so naff, and so unsuitable for an 18 year old. I loved them. I'd stayed over at a friend's the night before and when I came down the path and saw them and Mum & Dad jumped out of the door singing Happy Birthday I was made up. Cynical quasi-adult that I was, I needed reassuring that a woman could still be a daughter.

Have found some of my amazing changing hair colours over the years, whic I will post in a few days.

Gawd Sundae, those last two pics really show the beginnings of the stunner you are.

What a hottie! :)

agreed, totally smoking.

Depending on a strand test, I might be going back to black this weekend.
So a run through some of my previous hair colours & styles seems appropriate.

Me with long (growing out) henna'd hair - outside the cottage my ex & I bought.
Then shorter and darker, on a boat in Cuba. As you do.

With black hair, dancing in a bar in France.
My sole surviving wedding photo - you can't really see my hir but it was very dark with red streaks (see Venice, below)

Honeymoon in Venice.
Back to blonde later that year.

My favourite EVER picture of me. Going to the work Christmas party 1997.
And finally, with hair extensions, posing at my parents' in my PVC catsuit Christmas 2001.

I LOVE the Christmas party one. You look so cute in all of these -- and you certainly sound like quite the globetrotter! "Oh, here I am dancing in a bar in France... on vacation in Venice... on a boat in Cuba..."

I didn't even include Egypt & Sri Lanka ;)

I love looking at your photos. You are someone who seems I would like to have known as a young person.