Known as Tinklepants Aka Tammie.
Real Name: Tamara Rees
Age: 25
Hobbies: Circus Arts - Poi, staff, fire twirling, photography,
Hometown: Llandybie, near Ammanford, CARMS UK
Born in Morriston Hospital, Swansea, Tammie was two weeks overdue on March 16 1982, much to the bane of her mother who was reaching her 34th birthday. She was preceeded by her sister Natalie, two years her elder. Two years later, her other sister emerge from her mother's belly, Marie, otherwise known as the infamous LilMissSmartyPants in certain circles.
Tammie's father, a painter and decorater who worked for a firm in St. Clears near Carmarthen Bay, left when Marie was 18 months old and later, her parents divorced. Her father moved in with the older woman he'd apparently been having extra marital relations with, a widow who lived on the west coast of Wales in Fishguard.
- "My first memory was when we were living in Saron, before we moved to Llandybie. I used to think it was a weird dream, but my mum told me it actually happened. I remember I was walking at the time, and my dad had just changed my nappy, which I immediately soiled. I remember him giving me a row for doing so and smacking me. It's a very blurry, faint memory."
Her mother had an on/off relationship with a local mobile grocer, Arthur, who fathered Tammie's half brother Aled in 1987.
- "I remember when Mum was pregnant on Aled. She'd be in the bath and we'd gather round, glass in hand ready to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Then, when he was born, we all wanted to call him different things. I liked Daniel, Marie liked Michael and Natalie wanted Craig. We actually continued to call him Craig until he was about two weeks old, then Mum made us call him Aled!"
During her early childhood, Tammie's mother, who throughout her life had suffered with arthritis, was diagnosed with angina, and rarely took part in physically exerting things with her children, although she wanted to.
-"We loved to play outdoors. More so as we got older. Natalie would see her own friends but Marie, Aled and I would usually stick together, especially in my last few years of primary school. We had our own little clique. Myself, Marie and Aled, and some neighbourhood friends, Jonathan and Jodie. We'd go on wee expeditions, trespassing," giggled Tammie, "at the back of the estate there was a farm where the Marlais stream ran through. There were horses there, So we'd always say we're going down the horses, especially during the summer. We'd also get tadpoles or fish for catfish in the Marlais, or as we called them, Jonny Bulgies. We had our favourite areas to play, all in fields, and woods, as you do when you're 10!
When asked if she ever missed not having a Dad around, she replied:
-"Not as much as you'd think. Our house was always busy as there were four of us. We'd see Dad every other Saturday, but apparently it was supposed to be every Saturday. He wasn't the best promise-keeper that's for sure. He'd always give the excuse he was working, and his time-keeping was atrocious! More often than not he'd work the Saturday he was supposed to see us. And not let us know.
We'd wait at the window, listening for his diesel vauxhall working van to pull around the corner. The days he did arrive (after promising to be here around 10am-ish) he'd pull up around 2pm. Then we'd hop in and he'd take us up to his Mum's who also lived in Llandybie. We only saw her though when Dad came to see us. A bit F**ked up when you live in the same village but hey, it's how it was. Normally we were back home by six-ish, clutching a tube of fruit pastilles..."
She grew up, taking the role as peacekeeper when sibling squabbles happened, usually defending the not so guilty party.
-"They (her sisters) would both would start it, but normally it was Nat who was the more agressive and as Marie was 4 years younger than her, so I'd more often than not stick up for Pwdi."
Pwdi?
-"Marie, being the youngest girl would often pull huge tantrums when she couldn't get her own way. Aled must have been around two, and after one silly tantrum, Mum said to Marie - oh, pwdi pwdi pwdi pants go pwdi in the corner!- after that, Aled, for years, called her Pwdi! He also called our cousin Catherine, Tony, for some reason. And a shoulder was a 'love'!"
>>>>>>>>>Adolescence, The Dark Years...