14 things most people don't know about me.

I have constantly recurring dreams (at least once or twice a week for decades now) all to do with flying – missing a flight, forgetting to pack, being in a plane crash, in strange airline seats etc. It’s exhausting.

 I used to be a tech-head: I can write html and I am A+ Certified – that means I’m qualified to fix personal computers. It's why I use a Mac.

I was written about in The Lancet by a speech therapist because the roof of my mouth almost doesn’t join (I was close to having a cleft palate) and I had a subsequent speech impediment. They’re now all wishing they’d never taught me to speak.

I never grew underarm hair.

I spent more than forty years thinking that the London cab in the Free Parking spot on a Monopoly board was actually an old fashioned telephone. It didn’t even occur to me to wonder why it was there.

After my father died four years ago I discovered that the surname I had grown up with wasn’t actually our legal surname.

I have an illogical fear of speaking on the phone and have had hypnotherapy and psychotherapy for it over the years, to no avail.

When I met my [future] husband we didn’t like each other. But I spontaneously kissed him to make my ex jealous. And that’s where it all started…

I do a secret thing for luck before I get on any plane. It’s my only superstition and I’ve done it for 40 or so years.

I have a reaction to the sulphites in white wine and champagne and I will vomit even after one glass. Unless it’s VERY expensive (in which case I’ll duct-tape my mouth!).

I spent 3 days in a psychiatric hospital last year by accident. I thought it was going to be a bit of a spa. Admittedly, I wondered why I was able to claim it on Medicare.

I once danced on stage with Bob Geldof then went back to his hotel on the tour bus with the band. They harmonized ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and I was very disappointed at the state of what they were calling 'punk'.

I was engaged for a night to an MP (military police) when I was 16. I met him when he spotted me dancing on stage with Bob Geldof. I used him to get the phone number for the first guy I ever asked out on a date (you know who you are!).

I still have my ears double pierced because my mum thinks it makes me look like a slut and that amuses me.