10 things that changed my life: Allison Gardner, GFF co-director

ALISON and I met at Glenwood High School in Glenrothes when we were both going for the same position in the hockey team. I have to say I got it, and of course I’ve never let her forget it!

We were 13 and clicked instantly. We’re 57 now and she is still my best friend. There’s a different kind of depth to that friendship than anything else in my life – I think that’s true when you have gone through your teenage years with someone. There’s a real shorthand that develops in those long-term friendships. I know that if she’s being a pain I can say “that’s enough” or she can say “you’re overreacting to that”.

Now we both really love cycling and we both really love wine, so we go off on cycling holidays to France together. It’s one of my highlights of the year.

Of course there wasn’t much that changed my life before that, and I think that I met her at the age when you start to get that sense of self.

When she fell out with her mum, she came to stay at my house and it was a week before my parents noticed that she hadn’t left. We didn’t live in a mansion, we lived in a council house in Glenrothes!

2) France

WHEN I was still in my teens, travelling to France really broadened my horizons. It was the 1970s and my mum and dad would take us there by car and ferry.

My sister Hillary and I loved every minute of it, and she would manage to befriend neighbouring campers who she thought might have chocolate biscuits – my mum was strict about things like that.

We loved the weather, the food, swimming in a warmer sea. These holidays also gave me an interest in learning French at school. It made me think it had a value. France is still my favourite country – I don’t know if that’s because I spent my very early years in Montreal and went to a French-Canadian kindergarten.

3) Punk

IN 1976 I was 14 and I saw punk as an explosion of change and opportunity, especially for women.

It was one of the first times I remember women not being relegated to the sidelines – they were absolutely involved. I didn’t play any instruments, but there was this explosion of creativity in terms of things like designing T-shirts. Even if they were rubbish it didn’t matter. Being involved was the important thing.

Even at the scout hut discos in Glenrothes, lots of bands played. Most were terrible but we always went and it was part of a much more participatory culture. Maybe it’s my imagination but it seemed that there was a lot more culture for young people then. We weren’t really allowed to watch TV, because at certain times TV was strictly for grown-ups – there were only three channels anyway and no other way to watch movies except going to the cinema.

There was something around the spirit of the time though. My dad was a self-trained draughtsman from the shipyards and mum worked in Marshalls chicken factory, but there was something around the excitement of punk for working-class women. I felt more that I could shape my own future.

4) My daughters

I WAS in my 30s when I had my first child. One thing I remember was being called an “elderly” mum at the hospital.

Ellen, my first daughter, was about 10 months old when my mum died. I was so happy that my mum met her, because she kept saying to me: “When am I going to get grandchildren?”

Then my second daughter, Hope, arrived a few years later and she’s my mum reincarnated. I think the names were subliminally influenced by the fact that I used to watch Thirtysomething and the best friends were called Ellen and Hope.

They are really committed young women, particularly to women’s issues. Hope is doing politics and geography at Glasgow and Ellen is studying sociology at Aberdeen. They really do want to try and create a fairer world and make a difference. What I’m most proud of is the fact that they are true to themselves.

My husband Tom looked after the children while I went back to work. He chose to work part-time, which was pretty unusual in 1996. At that time, there were mum and toddler groups rather than parent and toddlers, but he would still go along as it was best for his daughters. I’m happy to hand him the bulk of the credit for bringing up two fine human beings.

5) Buying a flat

I BOUGHT my first flat around 1985, and it was £21,000. That was a massive amount of money and in those days mortgage rates were through the roof. At the time I had become a trainee primary schoolteacher in Edinburgh, after leaving Moray House, and I think my salary was about £5000 a year. I had started Moray on my 17th birthday so I was still really young.

I loved that flat so much. Even though my current house is much nicer, nothing comes close to that feeling. The flat was on Broughton Road and there was such a sense of freedom of living on my own. I had shared flats with Alison, but I realised that, apart from with her, I wasn’t good at communal living.

6) The death of my mum

MY mum, unfortunately, was a smoker and died of lung cancer aged 54. She was called Joy and was a real fighter, never letting anything daunt her. Even when she was going through chemotherapy, there was always a bit of lippy on.

She was such as strong force in my life, not only as my mum, but also because she was a very independent woman who always spoke her mind.

You always knew where you stood with Joy – good or bad.

Joy taught me to be a feminist and had an equal relationship with my father. He did ironing and housework and didn’t expect his tea to be on the table when he came home from work. It seemed like a very fair marriage for the time.

She always encouraged me to be myself and live life to the full. Except when it didn’t suit her of course!

To this day I hear her voice in my head and I use her sayings at work. I can be talking to people and I’ll say “right, there are new rules and regulations”. It’s exactly what she would say to us when the new school year started again after summer.

7) Ellen’s illness

ELLEN contracted encephalitis at the age of four and a half. She was in an artificial coma and when she woke up, she couldn’t walk or talk and had to relearn everything from scratch.

It was obviously a tough time but made tougher by the fact that Hope was just five months old at the time.

Tom phoned me in the middle of the night crying, and saying that she wasn’t going to get better and I had to get to the hospital. My dad was in Helensburgh so Alison’s husband, David, rushed over in his jammies and had a five-month baby thrown at him. We didn’t see Hope for a week.

Thanks to the treatment she received from the NHS she did get better, but then there were a difficult two years when we both worked part-time to go through physiotherapy and occupational therapy with Ellen. At the time you think nothing good will come out of it, but it has made her a real trier.

I have a sign here at the film festival saying: “It’s a festival. Nobody is going to die.” We really do need to chill out about some things.

I do think about what would have happened in the American health system – Tom and I would still be paying for that treatment now.

8) Glasgow Film Festival

I STARTED working at Glasgow Film Theatre as a duty manager in 1993. I met Tom here when he was working as a doorman – he moved on and I stayed. After a variety of jobs we started the Glasgow Film Festival in 2005 and I became a co-director of that in 2007. As of April 1, I’ll be CEO of Glasgow Film Theatre.

Working here has been a joy and a challenge. It’s a not-for-profit educational charity and that speaks to my punk heart.

All the money made here goes back into projects and to improving the building. It goes into our outreach, where we work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have the festival but there is activity all year round.

9) Gardening

FROM punk to gardening. Now, this really is something I thought I would never take up, but I absolutely love gardening. We had a potentially lovely garden at the house, but hadn’t done anything to it. Like most people, we did everything that needed to be done inside, then thought about the outside.

It was only two years ago that we decided to get it sorted. I hired someone to help me. He did the plan and all the heavy-duty stuff, while I tinkered around the edges.

Now I do it all and it really has changed things for me. My best friend Alison has been a keen gardener for a long time and has an amazing garden, which she opens for charity as part of Scotland Gardens Scheme. She’s my go-to person for all my gardening needs now.

She kept telling me how much I would love it, but I kept backing away, saying it was an old person’s thing. But working hard in the garden is such a brilliant thing for the mind – then you sit down with a large glass of wine as reward for your efforts and admire your work.

To be outside, away from phones and screens and pressure, really focuses the mind in a different direction. I think we all need that.

10) Spinning

THERE’S a small community-based spinning studio near me called LifesCycle. It’s run by two amazing people called Andy and Jeanie who are so welcoming.

I think Andy is about 62 and he leads the classes – he’s remarkable. You don’t get the usual bland Ibiza soundtrack that you hear in most gyms, he puts on punk and it helps to energise all the different ages there.

I’m not a fan of gyms, but this is nothing like a gym. It really does feel like a community, to the point where we work together on things like Bikes for Refugees. On a Friday night we might have a good spinning class, but then we’ll all have prosecco afterwards.