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Original poster

'Unusual' occupations

32 replies

Lethal · 14/07/2004 12:05

I don't know if this topic has been done before but I've just been thinking about the jobs that some people have to do. My parents & I took my brother out to lunch today because it was his 40th birthday, & afterwards he gave us a tour of where he works. I found it a bit unnerving though... mainly because he's a mortician!! He showed us the freezer where the bodies are kept (uggghhh), the slab where he lays them out and embalms them, and the room where they store all the coffins and other funeral paraphernalia. The office & chapel were all very nice but I couldn't help getting the 'creeps' in a big way when he showed us the rest of the place. He's so used to it now, he said it doesn't really bother him anymore, but my SIL was telling me that some of the cases are really sad, like the ones who die young or tragically. I just could NOT do his job, but my bro was in the police force for years so I guess death is no shock to him anymore.

Does anyone else out there have unusual/strange occupations?!

OP posts:
notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 13:06

I was a spy for six years. Does that count?

Fio2 · 14/07/2004 13:12

my husband lost his job a few years ago and worked as a telephone engineer to 'fill in' for a while. One of the main contracts was for the co-op so involved alot of work at the funeral parlours. He didnt seem creeped out about it all but used to love describing the bodies to me [bleurgh] and how old they were and what they had died from!

He has does loads of strange stuff in his 'normal' line of work but I cannot post it on here because it really is secret!

Original poster
Lethal · 14/07/2004 13:57

Hmmmm... were you really a spy notwhoyouthink?! That would be fascinating...

Maybe men are more cut out for that kind of work, Fio2 My SIL dropped in to see my brother at work the other day and without warning, he opened the freezer door and said "Look at the mess they've made of this one". It was a naked man who'd had an autopsy done and was he sewn up from his waist to his head. She was mortified (sorry ) and couldn't believe he was so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. She couldn't get the image out of her head for a while afterwards.

OP posts:
misdee · 14/07/2004 14:12

at least he wont ever be out of business.

sorry, that was lame.

notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 15:26

Yes, I really was! Changed my nickname here of course.

popsycal · 14/07/2004 15:27

now the guessing starts as to the true identity of the MN spy!!!

Lisa78 · 14/07/2004 16:54

Its obviously you popsy! You just followed on to put us of the scent

popsycal · 14/07/2004 16:55

hey i wish!

MarmaladeSun · 14/07/2004 17:05

Hi. I'm just about to qualify as a hypnotherapist/psychoanalyst if that counts as an unusual occupation? My third baby is due tomorrow, and once qualified, and in a routine I will be setting up my private practice.

Ameliasmum · 14/07/2004 17:17

I want to be a spy. What do I have to do to qualify.

No truly, I really do

notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 17:21

Ummm...an honours degree in Soviet/US foreign policy Ameliasmum. My Dad pooh poohed my choice of course and asked me what the hell I was going to do with THAT!?? Ate his words contritely five years later.

suzywong · 14/07/2004 17:22

NWYT
Can you tell us any more about it?
Where you the listening in kind or the following targets around in raincoat type?

A freind of mine's sister does the psych profiling for MI5 or is it 6 candidates. And my SIL's brother spent years up a montain in Belize when in the RAF, just listening in to who knows what.

notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 17:30

I don't look good in raincoats. Only an eavesdropper I'm afraid.

suzywong · 14/07/2004 17:32

Would you go back in to the field?

notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 17:39

Ahh... Would depend on a lot of factors, and the details would give me away! The work was great though.

suzywong · 14/07/2004 17:44

Very interesting
OK I shan't push you anymore on the details, but have you found it hard to assimilate back in to non -spy life?
I mean beng involved in things on an international level etc, do you still keep an interest in the topic or is it all about different priorities now you are a mum?

notwhoyouthink · 14/07/2004 17:57

No problem with assimilation. Spies are just ordinary people with a flashy job title. Some people are a bit taken aback when they learn about my previous incarnation but on the whole they just accept it and don't ask questions. Many, I'm sure, just think I'm a mad woman and have imagined the whole thing. Only problem is with international travel - some places I cannot go, and some that I wouldn't go to because of things I learnt in my job. Hey we've come a long way off the mortician track here?

Janstar · 14/07/2004 18:05

I have a part-time job writing questions for TV quiz shows.

Janstar · 14/07/2004 18:24

Well I know it's not as exciting as being a spy but I didn't think it would kill the thread!

suzywong · 14/07/2004 18:28

my mother would love you, she is Hants and Dorset pub quiz champion and veteran of 15-1.

How did you get in to it? From TV research or exam setting or what?

Janstar · 14/07/2004 18:38

Is your mother Daphne Fowler?

Janstar · 14/07/2004 18:40

I used to write a quiz for a pub, did it every week for two years, sold a few quizzes to clubs and so on. Then I approached a couple of companies on the internet and kept annoying them until one gave me a job

lemonice · 14/07/2004 19:06

How enterprising Janstar! I don't think I've ever had an interesting job never mind an unusual one (well with the exception of beetroot screwing which does have a certain ring to it)

Janstar · 14/07/2004 19:12

Blimey, lemonice, whatever's that?

Suzywong? Is she Daphne then?

lemonice · 14/07/2004 19:17

Crawling through a muddy field pulling beetroot and screwing the tops off them. I've also taught English as a foreign language in Brighton Aquarium which was quite surreal.

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