My name is Andrea. I'm 34 and I live in Te Awamutu in a flat that I own. I am currently living on my own. I'd like to find a good flatmate to help pay the bills, but I need someone who is the right sort and reliable. I have had some flatmates in the past who were trouble.

I've always lived in Te Awamutu and since I left school I've had a variety of jobs. I always struggled with literacy and numeracy at school. My family lives here in Te Awamutu and I see a lot of them, especially my mum.

I enjoy embroidery and used to belong to the local embroidery guild. My grandmother was an embroiderer and I liked it and thought it would be a good hobby for me. I've exhibited some of my work. I also do artwork, mostly painting in acrylics and using pastels. I've exhibited and sold some of my artwork too. When there was a gallery here in Te Awamutu my artwork was displayed for sale, but the gallery closed down.

I used to enjoy going to an evening art class. It was a smallish group and very social, as well as learning new art techniques, but the class is no longer on. It was great to get out to it one evening a week as you need something like that when you live on your own.

I like to travel. I have travelled with my family, especially my grandmother, to Europe, England, Australia and Canada. I especially liked Canada. We have lots of family overseas and I'd like to keep visiting them and to see more new places and do more new things.

"When I'm not working I like being out in the community, doing embroidery and art courses, being with people."

My income comes from the work I do and from a benefit. I've done a lot of jobs and quite a few courses. As an adult I've had literacy support from a one-to-one tutor but she has left the area. I would like more literacy support but it is not easy to find the right person to help me.

I do have Cheryl, a support person who comes and helps me with my finances - budgeting and shopping.

Because of my difficulties with reading and writing and because I can get stressed in difficult situations there are some limitations to what jobs I can do. I've had a lot of cleaning jobs - motels, rest homes and shops. I have cleaned for family and friends for a little extra income. I had a job in our local restaurant that was cleaning, doing dishes and clearing tables. It was a good job because it included weekend work when the pay was better, but the restaurant closed down.

"I would like to work in a good job with supportive people who understand my disability and be involved in community groups where people do things together."

I have done some courses in food preparation and now I work four days a week from 2pm to 5pm at KFC. There is someone from Gracelands who supports me at work and just makes sure there are not any problems. Work problems can stress me if I can't get them sorted out. KFC is a good place to work, the bosses are great - they understand my disability and make it easy for me to work well. I get on well with most of the staff but I have had a time when another worker said some nasty things about me. It did upset me, and I found it stressful trying to work out what to do about it. I didn't really want to tell the boss, although I knew he would sort it out. It is good to have a support person who can help you work through this and get it sorted before it's too late and it gets to be a big thing.

In the past my family and I were part of a rock'n'roll group that went away a lot. It was fun but the club closed down. I used to belong to a church young people's group that took lots of trips, but it got to be a bit expensive really.

I like living in Te Awamutu, although it's hard for me to find suitable work in a small town. Sometimes I get disappointed when jobs finish, or courses close, or support people move on.