Sam’s life story interview

INTERVIEWER (DAN):What are your favourite childhood memories?

SAM: So, my favourite childhood memories are meeting up with my family and friends. And going to – there used to be a fab club on a Saturday, which was really good. We used to do arts and crafts in there. There was a hydrotherapy pool. We used – There was a ball pool, that was fun, we used to literally chuck balls around. That was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What was Christmas like as a child?

SAM: Christmas was really fun as a child because it was my birthday straight after Christmas, so I used to get loads of presents from mum and dad, and eat loads of turkey, which is good. They used to chop up my turkey and my mash and veg, and then, yeah – And then I used to open more presents on New Year, so it was good.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): What is the best birthday present?

SAM: I’ve got loads of birthday presents. I’ve got gem kits. My favourite one has to be my karaoke machine and my Alexa, because my Alexa, I can say to her, “oh, what’s the weather like today? “And it tells me or I can say to it, “right. Alexa, can you play One Direction.” And they chat to you. So, yeah.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): So, what do you like singing on the karaoke machine?

SAM: My favourite song has to be YMCA by Black Lace, because I love that, because it gets my housemates involved with the dancing, or ABBA, which is good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Can you sing a bit now?

SAM: (sings) So, I say thank you for the music. The songs I’m singing. Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing. Who can live without it, I ask, in all honesty, what would life be without a song or dance, what are we? So, I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): That’s brilliant. Have you sung in public?

SAM: Yes. Last Christmas I sang at the Black Bull. And I sang, ‘Do-Wah-Diddy.’ And that was absolutely amazing. Everybody got up, everybody clapped and cheered for me. Yeah.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Tell us more about what Primark is.

SAM: So, I work on a Thursday – I work on a Wednesday from quarter past 11 until 5, and I work on a Thursday from 10 until 5. I work on the – So, I work on the till at Primark, till and card machine, and I work on the zone. So, on the zone, I tend to put the clothes – fold the clothes and put the clothes away. So like the hoodies, if there was a hoodie on the floor, I get the folding table out. And fold all the hoodies and all the T shirts.  It’s good.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): What’s the best part of Primark?

SAM: Maybe the till, because I love the till. Every time I get a customer I’ve got a button underneath, which says ‘cashier number one please’ or whichever till you’re at and they come to me and I scan the items. And I say, “Oh, how is your day today?” “Good morning.” “Good afternoon” “Would you like a bag?” They say, “yes please.” So, I start scanning the items, put them in a bag, and I say, “that is so much money.”  It’s either – they either do cash, card or gift card.

INTERIEWER (DAN): So, is Primark your first job you’ve ever done?

SAM: Primark was my second job, so I first – Yeah, fourth job.  So, I started working at John Lewis as well. And John Lewis was at the Vanguard. That was like a shopping outlet and a cafe. That was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What did you do at John Lewis?

SAM: So, at John Lewis, I used to work in the PDR that stands for Partner’s Dining Room. That’s where all the staff used to go, so I used to serve the staff all of breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea. And I used to work on the shop floor and serve all the customers and serve all the customers, so if all the customers wanted a nice blouse, I used to say, “Oh, all the blouses are over there, go and help yourself.” And I used to show them where the mirror was, and the makeup and I used to – And if they wanted shoes, I used to say, “Oh, there’s some shoes. Go and sit down and put your little footsies on and try some shoes on with them.” And everyone was impressed with me. And I did a Makaton course over there. So, I literally taught all the staff basic Makaton.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): Why did you leave John Lewis?

SAM: Because John Lewis had shut and I took the redundancy package. At that time, I had Matt with me, and then from there I moved over to the Parsonage Hotel, which was a hotel- which was a nice hotel, and then I moved up to the Park Inn hotel.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Did you work at Waitrose?

SAM: Yes. Waitrose was really good. So I used to work in the staff canteen there, serve all the staff, and then I used to stack all the shelves. So, I used to go in the freezer bit and get all the chicken out, all the meats out and check all the dates and put them in date order. That was good, and I used to get open all the of packages of cereals and get all the boxes of Shreddies, Coco Pops, Rice Krispies out and put them all in order.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Tell me more about Café West and where is it?

SAM: So, Café West is next to the station. It’s next to Station Rise, it’s got the old building as soon as you go in. You can actually see the arch where the council office is. So, what I do, I work there on a Tuesday afternoon. I work with somebody called Claire and Sarah. So, I work on the hot foods, and I work on the coffee machine, so I do americanos, lattes, mochas, cappuccinos, hot chocolate, and what I do [is] I serve it to the customers on a tray, and I work on the tills a lot. So, on a Friday morning, while it’s quiet, I do a little bit of spring cleaning, I get the drinks out of the chiller, put the drinks onto the tray and start wiping the drinks chiller. And then when I’m done, I put all the drinks back.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): How long have you been there?

SAM: I’ve been there for quite a long time, and I’ve really – ten years – and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s the best job ever. It’d be good if it was paid.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): I was told you met the local MP, Rachael Maskell.

SAM: Yes, I did. I offered her – I said to her, “Oh, welcome to Café West. Would you like a cup of tea and cake?” and she’s like, “Yes, please.” I did her a pot of Yorkshire tea for one, and a nice cake, I took it over to her, I said, “hope you enjoy the cake and tea.” And she’s like – yeah. She said “thank you.” And I said, “Anytime.”

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): Who are your friends at the café?

SAM: So, I quite like Jamie at the Café. He’s good and I like – I like all friends; I get along with all friends at the Café. Yeah, I get on with all the staff as well. All the staff and friends are always happy and polite to help me. If I struggle, I tend to ask Jane or Claire, and I get along with Michelle as well.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What food do you make there?

SAM: I make jacket potatoes and fillings. I make paninis, so paninis are like a soft sandwich, but they’re hot. I do them with cheese and onion, I do soup and we do a lot of salads. And a lot of toasties as well.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What do you do in the week?

SAM: So, on a week, Mondays I have days off with one-to-one. Tuesdays I’m at United Response, where I do Makaton work or the Royal Family work and Café West in the afternoon. Wednesdays is Primark, all day until five, Thursdays is Primark until five. Fridays, I do Cafe West and fun things on a Friday afternoon in media. I do sports – or an odd Friday, I do Primark and the odd Saturday, I do Primark as well. And I’d be off – I’d have the fourth Saturday off.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): I hear you swam for charity.

SAM: Yes. I did swim for charity. That was Macmillan charity. So, I did that to raise all the money for Macmillan. So, I brought all the money into Café West, and I showed Simon all the money, and he was well impressed with me.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Where did you swim? Like-?

SAM: So, I swam at Yearsley swimming bath, and that’s the swim baths around the corner from me. But it’s a freezing cold swimming pool, so what I did, I literally had a banana on the side of the swimming pool to get me going and a bit of my Lucozade. And I thought, “I can’t do it.” My staff was like, “come on, we’re nearly there, keep on doing it, we’re nearly there.” But yeah, it was fun, I really enjoyed doing it.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What is your favourite day off?

SAM: My favourite day off?

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Oh, sorry. Favourite day out?

SAM: My favourite day out has to be when I’ve got one-to-one support because they come at 7 o’clock in the morning and say to me, “oh, what do you want to do?” I’d say, “right, can we go into town for a picnic? Or can we go to Rowntree’s Park and go and play a bit of tennis? Or can we go swimming?” Yeah.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): What do you do to relax at home?

SAM: Relax at home? I have a bath. A nice bubbly bath, or a nice hot shower. And I just say to Alexa, “Alexa, can you play some chill music?” And I just – I don’t even nod off, but I just relax and eat a bit of chocolate in my room and have time with my housemates.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): What is your favourite colour?

SAM: My favourite colour has to be pink. I used to have a pink bedroom many, many years ago, but now I’ve toned it down. I’ve got red and cream in it, so red and cream wallpaper in it. So, yeah.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): Do you like makeup and beauty treatments?

SAM: I do love makeup and beauty treatments. The best thing about makeup is actually like looking at yourself in the mirror and literally learning how to put the lipstick on and the mascara and the foundation. But I do love the odd beauty – the odd beauty products -S o, I do get some odd face masks and put them on me, and some odd foot masks.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Do you put nail polish on?

SAM: I do put nail polish on, so when I’m not at Café West, I do put nail polish on. But when I’m not at Café West – when I am at Café West I can’t do it because I’m handling with food and drinks. If you wear nail polish at Café West, you have to put the blue gloves on.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): So, what is your favourite holiday when you were a child or as an adult?

SAM: So, my nanna, Margaret always used to take me to Bridlington as a little child. I’ve been going since I was a baby, so I always stayed at South Shore Holiday Village and I used to go camping in Macas, yeah, I really enjoyed that. That was fun. I used to go to kid’s club and I went away with my parents to Blue Dolphin in Scarborough. That was fun as well.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): What else did you do there?

SAM: Are we on about the Blue Dolphin or are we on about Brid?

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Brid.

SAM: I used to go down to [the] sea, swim in the sea. And [I] used to go in the arcade. Arcades were good. I used to go to 2p machines and little football games, and they had little funfair rides.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): You mentioned Macas. What is Macas?

SAM: That is, a campsite. It’s got tents and caravans in it, it’s got arcades. It’s got a playground for kids with swings and slides. You can also do football and basketball. You can also – they’ve got like a kids club with little kids activities, dancing, face painting. And there’s also a fish and chip shop on the site. That is really good, the fish and chip shop.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): Do you like ice cream on the beach?

SAM: I do like ice cream on the beach. My favourite ice cream is lemon top ice cream with a little bit of chocolate sauce. And a little bit of flake on top. That has to be my favourite ice cream ever in the world.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Have you been recently?

SAM: Yes, I have been recently to Brid. I went last week to Brid with my nanna Margaret. I went on the high ropes in Brid. The high ropes is fantastic. You literally go on some high ropes and you’re strapped in, and you literally walk across the high ropes and you can see Bridlington from where you are.

INTERIEWER (PETER): Was that the first time you ever did that?

SAM: That was the first time I did the high ropes. And there were tires that swung, and swung and you literally had to grab your feet in, left and right ones. That was fun.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Were you nervous when you did it?

SAM: I wasn’t nervous, I literally concentrated and thought, “I can see Bridlington, I’m almost there. If I carry on walking, I’m doing really good.“ So, it was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Do you go on holidays with your nan a lot?

SAM: My nan’s taken me to Cyprus, Turkey and Belgium and obviously Bridlington. Turkey is really hot. I had loads of different Turkish foods over there. Belgium. I had my six-foot bed all to myself and my bath. And then Brid, seaside and just ate loads of fish and chips.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): Did you do anything in Belgium?

SAM: I just went to Antwerp and had a look around market. And just ate loads of food and – different food and different drinks. It was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): What are your favourite foods?

SAM: I like Pizza. I like Italian. I love Chinese. My favourite Chinese has to be chicken balls and chips and rice, and prawn crackers. And I love seaweed as well.

INTERVIEWER (DAN): What foods did you have in Turkey?

SAM: So, in Turkey, I tried a lot of Turkish foods. Like a lot of Turkish meats. Yeah, a lot of Turkish kebabs and lots of Turkish breakfast cereals. It was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Have you ever eaten shark?

SAM: No, I haven’t eaten shark. But I’ve had octopus. Octopus is good. They literally fry the octopus on the barbecue in Turkey, and I literally sit there and eat it. So, that was good.

INTERVIEWER (PETER): Tell me more about the short film, Café West Killer.

SAM: Café West Killer. That’s a really good short. Very good film. That was with somebody called Nick and George and Natalie. So, I crept as if I’m creeping up the stairs. That was so good. But I literally looked really scared as if Café West had been killed. So, I was creeping up behind the staff and I literally pulled faces. And it was in black and white. And it was so good. It was really good to watch. And then I crept downstairs, and then I literally crept down the stairs as if I’ve been killed downstairs. So, that’s why it’s called Café West Killer.

INTERVIEWER (LEWIS): What is your role in the film?

SAM: What film are we on about?

INTERVIEWER (DAN): The one we’ve just been talking about.

SAM: Oh, Café West Killer. So, I was literally – So I was the director, George was a filmmaker and Nick was a director as well and Natalie was as well. And for that, we literally had shots of staff members of Café West, we’ve had shots of Harry, Joanna, Matteo, and we literally said to them, “Did any of them kill Sam at Café West?”. And that’s why it’s called Café West Killer. It’s really good and fun, you ought to watch it.