First Job

Back in 1969, when I was eleven, my parents took us to Spain and we flew for the first time. I was thrilled and knew then what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be an air hostess. The glamour; the excitement of being in one country at breakfast and another by dinner; I was so impressed. However, reality kicked in when I discovered that you had to be 5ft 3in and I had stopped growing 2" too soon. Also I couldn't swim, which apparently you needed to be able to do so in 1976 when I finally finished my A levels, 'trolley dolly' wasn't an option open to me. But my love of travel had been established and I managed to find a job at OSL villa holidays in Broxbourne. I started work in the Private Lettings dept, organising flights, insurance, taxi transfers etc for the owners of the villas. Fast forward to 1986 and I was still at OSL, which now incorporated Wings Faraway Holidays and various other subsidiary companies. During those 10 years I had moved around within the company and ended up as Senior Passenger Relations Officer, working for the Company Secretary.
I really enjoyed my OSL years, we were selling a dream and it was my dream too! And what job perks - being paid to have to travel to faraway places to check them out and ensure that the brochure descriptions were correct and staff holidays for £10 a head!