Harrison, Alexandra
Mar 31, 2014 11:17:05 GMT -8
Post by Lexie Harrison on Mar 31, 2014 11:17:05 GMT -8
Your Name: Rose
Age: 26
Contact Info: PM
Character Name: Alexandra Daisy Harrison; known as Lexie to friends and family and the gender neutral Alex to ex-colleagues at Goldman Sachs.
Age: 29
History
Lexie is the elder of two daughters of a professional couple from Surrey. Academically high-achieving and consequently suffering from parental pressure to excel as a child, she attended a private school and subsequently read maths at Cambridge University. A slew of internships during vacations saw her land a job as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs after graduation. There, she continued to push herself within a 24 hour work environment. It gained her several promotions, an unbelievably large salary and parental pride along with a total lack of a social life and stress related depression for two years.
The depression lifted but as it did so did Lexie's motivation to maintain this lifestyle. Memories of the things she actually enjoyed doing - reading, singing, playing sports (not just powering away at the company gym at 6am) came back to her and she longed for sea air, silence and the space for thought. Examining her back account and finding its contents more than enough to support her for several months without any other source of income, she abruptly handed in her notice, sold her flat in Stratford and upped sticks.
Penchurch was chosen almost at random. A childhood holiday there stuck out as a particularly happy memory, perhaps made all the more poignant because her parents announced their divorce the day after they got back. It looked quaint and sleepy and very pretty so, with the decisiveness that characterised her decisions when moving millions of pounds around the aether, Lexie rented a pretty, one-bedroom cottage in the centre of the village and moved down a couple of months ago.
She is not yet accepted. Partly this is to do with the fact that she is so different from most of the other people in the village. She drives a black sports car which she gets cleaned every other weekend (the mud is dreadful!), she orders white wine in the pub, she dresses too sharply and she speaks too quickly, too demandingly. However much in her heart she might crave peace and quiet, she has not yet managed to unwind. The other reason is that Lexie herself does not make it easy for herself. The only social interaction she has known for eight years has been connected to buying and selling, profit making and constant pressure. Her friendships have been superficial ones with work colleagues. She is struggling to know how to form real bonds with people and how to express genuine affection.
Appearance
Lexie is tall and slim with glossy chestnut hair and brown eyes. Although her diet has not been the best, excessive alcohol consumption has meant she has never got too skinny and a better and more regular diet of hearty country food since arriving in Penchurch has put some colour in her cheeks and roundness on her body. When smiling naturally, Lexie is very pretty. Mostly, however, she prefers to be imposing, wearing dark, tailored suits, hair up in a tight bun and high heels with facial expressions ranging from glass ceiling shattering glare to come-to-bed flirtatiousness. Even now when she has no reason to dress that way, Lexie finds it hard to let go of her style. Jeans and jumpers are a no-no and while she does sometimes appear in trousers, she nearly always looks overdressed and out of place. Stilletos have been replaced by heeled boots, however. The steep hill and cobbles round the harbour saw to that!
Personality
Lexie is currently in a state of rediscovering herself. Incredibly highly strung and having pushed herself nearly to breaking point, she has not yet been able to fully relax, though it is coming. Her professional life has taken over her natural personality for so long that she is finding it difficult to be just "Lexie" apart from her job. She can be impatient, demanding, even cruel towards people who aren't quick enough or who don't meet her high expectations. Her relationships have been superficial - friendships born of after work drinks and gossip, and lovers taken from a small pool of equally stressed businessmen purely to let off steam. She has only recently begun to realise how unfulfilling this is, how fake, but she has not yet taught herself how to create anything deeper. She is willing, but her willingness does not always show itself in actions.
The hidden Lexie who is starting to emerge is a pleasanter person. She is intensely curious about the world with a naive enjoyment of people and places and experiences. A lover of comforting village books by authors such as Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer and MC Beaton, Lexie has an idea about what village life will be and is drawn to the escapist fantasy. Her opinions are stereotyped and so of dubious appeal to the long term residents and she sometimes lacks tact in expressing them, but she means well and has a real drive to succeed at this new life, once she has worked out how and stopped chasing her tail. Her imagination, now that it has time to flourish, could be dangerous however. It is unlikely that scandal is lurking round every corner and not every solitary man is a Byronic hero in disguise. But Lexie is determined to find out everything and enjoy everything - or else!
As a teenager, Lexie had many hobbies as girls of her upbringing tend to do. She played the piano and sang soprano to a high level, she acted in plays, she learned sailing and horse riding, she did ballet, she was on the school netball team... Most of these interests lapsed after university but now she is keen to fling herself into village life as much as possible and to reconnect with her talents now that she has the opportunity. She is capable of laughing at herself, but she lost her sense of humour a long time ago. It is returning in fits and starts and she welcomes it as an old friend.
When it comes down to it, Lexie is intensely lonely. She has an outwardly friendly relationship with her parents but she is mature enough to recognise the harm their high expectations have caused her, without being able to escape from it. This still continues - "Perhaps you'll meet a nice man and we'll finally get some grandchildren!" her mother said before she left for Penchurch. When she came to visit, she had only criticisms - of how she had decorated the house, what she was wearing, why she had given up her job. It was very wearing. Lexie gets on better with her father when she sees him - they have a similar sense of dark humour mixed with wonder at oddities in the world - but he has a busy job as a lawyer and there has always been a tension between him and the rest of the family following the divorce. Little sister Steph, on the other hand, dealt with pressure the other way - she is currently "discovering herself" in South East Asia and Lexie hasn't seen her since she quit her job.
Age: 26
Contact Info: PM
Character Name: Alexandra Daisy Harrison; known as Lexie to friends and family and the gender neutral Alex to ex-colleagues at Goldman Sachs.
Age: 29
History
Lexie is the elder of two daughters of a professional couple from Surrey. Academically high-achieving and consequently suffering from parental pressure to excel as a child, she attended a private school and subsequently read maths at Cambridge University. A slew of internships during vacations saw her land a job as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs after graduation. There, she continued to push herself within a 24 hour work environment. It gained her several promotions, an unbelievably large salary and parental pride along with a total lack of a social life and stress related depression for two years.
The depression lifted but as it did so did Lexie's motivation to maintain this lifestyle. Memories of the things she actually enjoyed doing - reading, singing, playing sports (not just powering away at the company gym at 6am) came back to her and she longed for sea air, silence and the space for thought. Examining her back account and finding its contents more than enough to support her for several months without any other source of income, she abruptly handed in her notice, sold her flat in Stratford and upped sticks.
Penchurch was chosen almost at random. A childhood holiday there stuck out as a particularly happy memory, perhaps made all the more poignant because her parents announced their divorce the day after they got back. It looked quaint and sleepy and very pretty so, with the decisiveness that characterised her decisions when moving millions of pounds around the aether, Lexie rented a pretty, one-bedroom cottage in the centre of the village and moved down a couple of months ago.
She is not yet accepted. Partly this is to do with the fact that she is so different from most of the other people in the village. She drives a black sports car which she gets cleaned every other weekend (the mud is dreadful!), she orders white wine in the pub, she dresses too sharply and she speaks too quickly, too demandingly. However much in her heart she might crave peace and quiet, she has not yet managed to unwind. The other reason is that Lexie herself does not make it easy for herself. The only social interaction she has known for eight years has been connected to buying and selling, profit making and constant pressure. Her friendships have been superficial ones with work colleagues. She is struggling to know how to form real bonds with people and how to express genuine affection.
Appearance
Lexie is tall and slim with glossy chestnut hair and brown eyes. Although her diet has not been the best, excessive alcohol consumption has meant she has never got too skinny and a better and more regular diet of hearty country food since arriving in Penchurch has put some colour in her cheeks and roundness on her body. When smiling naturally, Lexie is very pretty. Mostly, however, she prefers to be imposing, wearing dark, tailored suits, hair up in a tight bun and high heels with facial expressions ranging from glass ceiling shattering glare to come-to-bed flirtatiousness. Even now when she has no reason to dress that way, Lexie finds it hard to let go of her style. Jeans and jumpers are a no-no and while she does sometimes appear in trousers, she nearly always looks overdressed and out of place. Stilletos have been replaced by heeled boots, however. The steep hill and cobbles round the harbour saw to that!
Personality
Lexie is currently in a state of rediscovering herself. Incredibly highly strung and having pushed herself nearly to breaking point, she has not yet been able to fully relax, though it is coming. Her professional life has taken over her natural personality for so long that she is finding it difficult to be just "Lexie" apart from her job. She can be impatient, demanding, even cruel towards people who aren't quick enough or who don't meet her high expectations. Her relationships have been superficial - friendships born of after work drinks and gossip, and lovers taken from a small pool of equally stressed businessmen purely to let off steam. She has only recently begun to realise how unfulfilling this is, how fake, but she has not yet taught herself how to create anything deeper. She is willing, but her willingness does not always show itself in actions.
The hidden Lexie who is starting to emerge is a pleasanter person. She is intensely curious about the world with a naive enjoyment of people and places and experiences. A lover of comforting village books by authors such as Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer and MC Beaton, Lexie has an idea about what village life will be and is drawn to the escapist fantasy. Her opinions are stereotyped and so of dubious appeal to the long term residents and she sometimes lacks tact in expressing them, but she means well and has a real drive to succeed at this new life, once she has worked out how and stopped chasing her tail. Her imagination, now that it has time to flourish, could be dangerous however. It is unlikely that scandal is lurking round every corner and not every solitary man is a Byronic hero in disguise. But Lexie is determined to find out everything and enjoy everything - or else!
As a teenager, Lexie had many hobbies as girls of her upbringing tend to do. She played the piano and sang soprano to a high level, she acted in plays, she learned sailing and horse riding, she did ballet, she was on the school netball team... Most of these interests lapsed after university but now she is keen to fling herself into village life as much as possible and to reconnect with her talents now that she has the opportunity. She is capable of laughing at herself, but she lost her sense of humour a long time ago. It is returning in fits and starts and she welcomes it as an old friend.
When it comes down to it, Lexie is intensely lonely. She has an outwardly friendly relationship with her parents but she is mature enough to recognise the harm their high expectations have caused her, without being able to escape from it. This still continues - "Perhaps you'll meet a nice man and we'll finally get some grandchildren!" her mother said before she left for Penchurch. When she came to visit, she had only criticisms - of how she had decorated the house, what she was wearing, why she had given up her job. It was very wearing. Lexie gets on better with her father when she sees him - they have a similar sense of dark humour mixed with wonder at oddities in the world - but he has a busy job as a lawyer and there has always been a tension between him and the rest of the family following the divorce. Little sister Steph, on the other hand, dealt with pressure the other way - she is currently "discovering herself" in South East Asia and Lexie hasn't seen her since she quit her job.
