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My problems with my gender soon started to tell and I just never settled. After the first year I dropped into the ‘C’ stream and there I stayed. I was pathetically shy and never got involved in after school activities. Most classes I hated, particularly French and Woodworking. Maths and English were OK and I really liked Art, but the others didn’t interest me so I never really bothered. My attitude to sport was a bit mixed - Cricket and Hockey I enjoyed, though I was never much good at them, but Rugby and Cross Country Running terrorised me. Swimming was the worst though and I nearly drowned once in the swimming baths, which has left me with a dread of indoor baths, particularly the smell, which still brings on a kind of panic attack. I had a lot of problems with my tonsils and was frequently off school with tonsillitis, but it was at a time when doctors didn’t like to take them out. They used to swell up and that’s why I couldn’t breath in the swimming baths. Finally they got so bad that I was taken into hospital for an emergency tonsillectomy. If only they’d done it a few years earlier I might never have had such a fear of swimming. GCE exams came round and I scraped just five, English Language (3rd attempt), Maths, Physics, Geography (2nd time) and Art. In maths I got the top grade, which again astonished my teachers. The choice then came as to whether I’d go into the Sixth form or leave and get a job. I was offered a place at Croydon Art College but turned it down ... something I’ve always regretted ... and started the hunt for a job.