About Me
“When I grow up,
I want to be the Pink Power Ranger with a Pterodactyl!”
Perfectly achievable, right???????
If I’m honest, I was never very good at gymnastics & my favourite colour is yellow! So maybe I should be the Yellow one with a Sabretooth Tiger instead!
I promise, I am only a bit weird…………….. ok I am just weird but who isn’t right?!?
Hi, my name is Annika, a mum of 3 feral little humans (I mean beautiful little children), a wife & now a business owner.
All that sounds very grown up. If all that wasn’t enough, I am a glutton for punishment, I am also the PTA Chair at my daughters primary school.
I see you rolling your eyes at me!
I know PTA isn’t for everyone, & a lot of the time I wonder if its even for me! My friend Rachel laughs at me all the time for volunteering for the roll, but hey, someone’s got to do it! Why not me? I have to admit, drinking has become a more regular thing since joining, its 5pm somewhere right?
When I am not mumming, working or PTA’ing, you will find me on a hockey pitch somewhere in the country, either umpiring, coaching or assessing. Having been involved with hockey since I was 4, (without giving my age away) I have been involved with the sport in one way or another for over 30 years.
I absolutely love Hockey! Once upon a time, before the kids came on the scene, I umpired for the Ladies National Premier League which was such a great experience. I also had the opportunity to represent England on a few occasions, WTAF!!!! The experience was phenomenal!!!!
Have you ever heard of the Beep Test? Well, for those who haven’t, its a fitness test. I had to complete one every year & I FRIGGIN HATED IT!!!! Its just sooooooooooooo boring!!!!!!!
Now, I am an Umpire Coach & Assessor, supporting or assessing umpires who wish to progress to the next level, which I thoroughly enjoy!
Will I pick up the whistle again? Who knows! (Watch this space!)
What to do next?
I never really understood why people kept telling me “you’re an adult now, time to grow up do adult things like get a good job, pay tax etc”, to be honest adulting sounded too much like hard work, I liked the just before adult stage, you felt like you were an adult but had non of the responsibility, it was awesome! But, I wanted to buy myself a car, so, job it is! I admit, I had a little panic as apart from being a Power Ranger, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
I had a few admin jobs, then I fell into finance, it wasn’t intentional, honest!
The latest was with the University of Oxford for Central Finance, as a Project Administrator on their big IT Projects. I left to have my children, but I can honestly say I bloody loved it!!!!
So after many years of sleepless nights, blah blah blah & all the other rubbish that comes with having tiny humans, I was finally packing the eldest off to school & decided I wanted some independence again, I wanted to go back to work but I wanted to work for myself. My rules, work the hours I wanted, etc, why the hell not? The hard part was deciding what to do!
Knowing I had experience of balancing books etc I decided to start studying for my AAT in Bookkeeping through Pitman Training in Reading. I was super excited, I flew through the course, absolutely buzzing! Once I was qualified & got some clients, for some reason I kept thinking……….
WHY AM I NOT LOVING THIS????
It was very repetitive & I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it than I thought. I really enjoy variety. One of my besties told me I would make a great Virtual Assistant.
“WTF is a Virtual Assistant?”.
Once I had found out what it was, I very quickly realised it was 100% the job for me!
So, I hit the books again (more bloody studying). I took a course to get a Virtual Assistant Diploma, again through Pitman Training in Reading for which I achieved the grade of Distinction! WOHOO! Lets just say, once the course was complete, I had a few glasses of something boozy to celebrate.
And so, AB Virtual Assistants was formed! With the ball well & truly rolling, my vision became reality!
About Me – AB Virtual Assistants