Intro Profile

[Ali]

***Name:
Ali Hewison

***Nicknames/IDs:
Also called Al or Alison.  Yahoo ID is Alhewison

***Age:
34

***Family:
married 11 years in September and have 2 daughters aged 5 and 3 and 
2 cats who were my babies, but are now just cats.  Also have 2 
parents who now live in Sussex, 1 sister who lives in London and a 
brother (and sister-in-law + 2 kids who live in Brussels). (Plus my 
outlaws and 2 brother-in-laws and sister-in-law- laws (and another 
niece and nephew).

 ***Home
Reading, England. Reading is one of the archetypal most boring 
places to live in the UK. It is no surprise that the filming for 4 
Privet Drive took place only a few miles away. I am very happy here, 
so I don't know quite what that says about me.

***Birthday, Place of Birth:
21st August, Walthamstow, London.

***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
LLB Law (Bachelor of Law) from Manchester University. ACIB: which is 
a way of saying I had passed the professional banking exams. I have 
spent some of the past 2 years studying for a Postgraduate diploma 
in HR. I'm currently part-qualified, but my performance in the exams 
last month means I'm unlikely to go any further.

After University, I went travelling, and to fund my travels I needed 
an overdraft. The easiest way of getting an overdraft (I thought) 
was to get a job in a bank. After 10 years of being a mediocre, 
junior manager, I left with an enormous grin on my face. I can't 
bear sales, don't think people should be encouraged to borrow money. 
I was stupid enough to say so.

I'm still really interested in HR, but as I really don't want to 
work full time, don't think I'll be able to get "in". I'm now 
looking at teaching, not because it's not full time, but because I 
will at least have the holidays with my kids.

 
***Other things we might want to know about you:
 Myers-Briggs type: ENFP. I long to be able to talk and feel 
confident with everyone, but I don't. Put me in the wrong place, and 
I'll be quieter than a church mouse. I'm really an extrovert in an 
introvert's shell.  

My punctuation is atrocious. I think the Romans were right in not 
having any. I'm a foul-weather Christian, non-meat eater(i.e. 
hypocrite who eats fish) and salmon pink politically.


***First contact with Harry Potter:
June 1998. I read an article about this *children's* book that had 
been spread by word-of-mouth alone and had captivated many hearts. I 
thought I'd read it and keep it for my daughter (then aged 8 
months!). My sister said she'd buy PS for my birthday, but she took 
so long over it, that CS had been published and was out in 
paperback. I got the first 2 together and was totally enthralled.

I've taken far longer to get into Fandom than anyone else here, but 
at work we had no access to the internet, and I was resisting a 
computer at home as I thought I'd lose my hubby to it (instead of 
him losing me to it!).



***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets 
d'Art, general enthusing):

Book: PoA.
Character: Harry. I also love Lupin and Sirius. I really resent 
Pippin's ESE!Lupin theory as I haven't been able to shake it off, 
and sooooo don't want it to happen.

If I ship anything, it's Snape loving Lily (unrequited). I want 
Harry to live happily ever after, and my favourite companion for 
that is Hermione (so far).

The Films: Ermm yes. They annoy me. Every word change, bad scene, 
bad acting has me fuming, but in some kind of way they're still part 
of the magic for me. I do love Daniel Radcliffe as well. In defence 
of my love for the films, I have human interest in them: a friend of 
mine used to work for the same firm as Emma Watson's mother, giving 
me gossip last year, and the son of another friend has been an extra 
in PoA – I already know of one change in the film. My brother was 
offered a place at the school Daniel Radcliffe now attends. I think 
it's inevitable that when you know (of) someone in a film/ the 
papers etc you take more of an interest in it. Well, that's my 
excuse. I'm positive that PoA will be better than the last two.



 ***Extent of Potter obsession: 
Compared to a lot of you, moderate, although most of my friends 
think I've cracked.

Collectables: 2 copies of all the books except PoA, bookends, a 
calendar, the tapes (Stephen Fry version), Mugs, glasses, a pencil 
tin, and a file. Friends bought me most of these. I've bought my 
daughters a few clothes though.


***Other interests/activities:
Kids occupy most of my time, but gardening, cooking, dreaming of 
getting fit, talking.
 
***Current/recent reading:
The Jupiter Myth: Lyndsey Davis, John Lennon, a biography: Ray 
Coleman, a Tale of Two Cities: Dickens, The Pickwick Papers: Dickens 
(I've failed to get into that).


***Current/recent listening:
The Radio, REM: Automatic for the People, Les Miserables (the 
musical), GoF, the Beatles

***Current/recent viewing:
Not much at the moment. "Have I got News for You"


Ali