Profile: Alasdair MacKenzie

One thing I do know is that a lot of things annoy me in life. Just getting through life is enough to drive you mad. So I think it may be good for me to use this space to get things off my chest. I shall use this as a kind of therapy.

Before I get going, I guess I need to write a little about myself?

As you can probably tell from my name, I can legitimately claim to be from a Scottish background, but I am actually a Yam-yam, born and bred.

I burst into the world at New Cross hospital in the November of 1980. As I write this, those of you with working knowledge of mathematics will be able to tell that that makes me a spritely 33 years of age. However, that doesn't really cover it. I would say that 33 is my average age – mentally I'm around 18, but physically I'm 48.

I went to Castlecroft Primary School and despite moving house in 1987 into the catchment area of Uplands Junior School, I somehow managed to avoid having to change schools. At 11, I managed to fluke the entrance exam to Wolverhampton Grammar and went on to do my GCSEs and A-levels there. For A-levels I took physics, maths, music and general studies. My academic year was actually quite a special one, as it was the first year that they had admitted girls into the school at any level before sixth form, so they would be the first to pass all the way through.

Next stop was Keele University, near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, just a few junctions up the M6. Here I initially studied for a dual-honours degree in, wait for it, electromusic and astrophysics. Although I really did enjoy both of these subjects, I decided at the end of the first year that it wasn't really a practical combination. As I couldn't see myself spending my time in white coat in a lab in the future, I decided to maintain my music elements and switched the astrophysics to human resource management. Since I was doing a music and business degree, you'd be forgiven for thinking I would work in the music industry after I graduated.

However, instead of doing something fun when I finished university, for instance, going travelling (my one real regret in life), a friend of mine from sixth form at WGS tipped me off about a local insurance company looking to take graduates on. I only planned to work there for a few months to save up some money. Unfortunately, like most youths when they get their first pay packets, I just ended up blowing my money on expensive lunches, video games, and beer. Annoyingly after just a few months, the company were taken over and relocated to Telford. I should have taken this as the cue to remove myself from the company and pursue a career in music but instead spent the next five and a half years commuting to Telford on a daily basis.

Due to restructuring I was made redundant in 2009, but thankfully managed to have a job lined up with the RAC as a business analyst just a week after my notice period was up. I got very lucky here. Not only had I managed to move to a better paid job, but due to starting it so soon after finishing the previous job I was able to clear off a chunk of debt and still have some pocket money left, as I didn't need the redundancy money to tide me over. This was probably the first time in years that even after being paid I wasn't still in my overdraft!!

I've been at the RAC ever since.

At the moment, I live just outside Wolverhampton city centre and apart from when I was at university I have always lived in Wolverhampton.

That's the boring stuff out of the way.