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Census meme
Mar. 9th, 2011 10:20 pm2011 - I live in Reading, England, with Rob (to whom I am legally married) and our three children. I have just discovered painting. I don't have a paying job and the children don't attend school. Rob has a job he loves about as much as I love bringing up the children, but he gets paid for his one. We have three cats. We own our 1899 mid-terrace house and it's big enough for us but lots of people would like us to live somewhere bigger. Most of them have stopped saying so, since we only want to live somewhere bigger if we can have magic pixies to clean, tidy and heat it, and also if we don't have to move.
2001 - Rob and I lived in a miserable, horrible flat in Wapping, London, England, but we moved to this house that year. We were engaged to be married and the law still said that for full parental rights, a child's father had to be married to a child's mother at the time of the child's birth. Actually the flat wasn't too bad - it was damp, especially in Rob's bedroom, and I had absolutely no space to have any of my own stuff, and it was dark, but the main living room was big and the toilet and bathroom were separate, so it could have been much worse. And after I moved in it got a lot cleaner and I sorted out the nettles by the front gate so one could get in and out without being stung half to death in the face, and things. But. I'm glad we didn't buy it, though we considered it for a while. I faintly remember the census. I had severe RSI and couldn't do quite a lot of things, and lost my job because of it.
1991 - I lived in Ireland with both my parents and some of my sisters, but I don't know how many. Definitely my younger sister. I don't know when my older sisters left home. I have a faint recollection of a census from around this time but couldn't swear to it. In Dublin we lived in a huge mid-terrace house with a kitchen, scullery, playroom and toilet in the basement, garden room on the return, dining room and sitting room on the ground floor, full bathroom and separate half-bathroom on the return, master bedroom and drawing room on the first floor, just a landing on the return, and three bedrooms on the second floor, as well as a shower and toilet room which was never really finished. When all my older sisters lived at home, the garden room and sitting room were sometimes bedrooms. And I spent a while sleeping in the playroom, too, for some reason. The ceilings were anything up to 13 feet high and there was a private entrance to the train station. We were miserable. On the Aran Islands we lived sans papa in a cottage with a shower room, kitchen, bedroom and living room on the ground floor, and a loft-bedroom open to the main living room on one side of the first floor and a master bedroom above the ground floor bedroom with a regular staircase. We were very happy. We ran a 14-seat tearoom from the living room to help fund our living expenses and my sister's university fees. There were 14 seats, but we often had people on the stairs and picnicing in the garden too. The nearest shop was almost 5 miles away - someone had to cycle there twice a day for milk and fresh veg. A lot of the veg for the café grew in our vegetable garden because it was cheaper and easier than all the cycling, and the food was better quality that way, too. It was incredibly hard work and I loved it. It was usually me, my mother, my next oldest sister, and my younger sister.
1981 - My younger sister was born in July. In March I was 2 years and 4 months old. We lived in a smaller house in Arnold Park, Glenageary, Dublin. I don't remember it but I think it was a 3-bedroom semi. Two parents, five daughters, and by the time the youngest was born the eldest was almost 15.
2001 - Rob and I lived in a miserable, horrible flat in Wapping, London, England, but we moved to this house that year. We were engaged to be married and the law still said that for full parental rights, a child's father had to be married to a child's mother at the time of the child's birth. Actually the flat wasn't too bad - it was damp, especially in Rob's bedroom, and I had absolutely no space to have any of my own stuff, and it was dark, but the main living room was big and the toilet and bathroom were separate, so it could have been much worse. And after I moved in it got a lot cleaner and I sorted out the nettles by the front gate so one could get in and out without being stung half to death in the face, and things. But. I'm glad we didn't buy it, though we considered it for a while. I faintly remember the census. I had severe RSI and couldn't do quite a lot of things, and lost my job because of it.
1991 - I lived in Ireland with both my parents and some of my sisters, but I don't know how many. Definitely my younger sister. I don't know when my older sisters left home. I have a faint recollection of a census from around this time but couldn't swear to it. In Dublin we lived in a huge mid-terrace house with a kitchen, scullery, playroom and toilet in the basement, garden room on the return, dining room and sitting room on the ground floor, full bathroom and separate half-bathroom on the return, master bedroom and drawing room on the first floor, just a landing on the return, and three bedrooms on the second floor, as well as a shower and toilet room which was never really finished. When all my older sisters lived at home, the garden room and sitting room were sometimes bedrooms. And I spent a while sleeping in the playroom, too, for some reason. The ceilings were anything up to 13 feet high and there was a private entrance to the train station. We were miserable. On the Aran Islands we lived sans papa in a cottage with a shower room, kitchen, bedroom and living room on the ground floor, and a loft-bedroom open to the main living room on one side of the first floor and a master bedroom above the ground floor bedroom with a regular staircase. We were very happy. We ran a 14-seat tearoom from the living room to help fund our living expenses and my sister's university fees. There were 14 seats, but we often had people on the stairs and picnicing in the garden too. The nearest shop was almost 5 miles away - someone had to cycle there twice a day for milk and fresh veg. A lot of the veg for the café grew in our vegetable garden because it was cheaper and easier than all the cycling, and the food was better quality that way, too. It was incredibly hard work and I loved it. It was usually me, my mother, my next oldest sister, and my younger sister.
1981 - My younger sister was born in July. In March I was 2 years and 4 months old. We lived in a smaller house in Arnold Park, Glenageary, Dublin. I don't remember it but I think it was a 3-bedroom semi. Two parents, five daughters, and by the time the youngest was born the eldest was almost 15.