2- I was educated almost entirely in French
3- I spent two terms in an English school (Silsoe Primary school in Bedfordshire) when I was 5, getting bored stiff because I could already read
4- We moved to France when I was 6
5- I have worn glasses for short sight since I was 5
6- My sight is now so bad that I cannot see the time on the alarm clock a few inches away from my face
7- I do not rely on my sight and frequently fail to see people I know in the street
8- I have never yet been run down by a car, by my sister nearly died once after being hit by a motorbike
9- I wrote a lot as a teenager
10- I did a French Baccalauréat in Literature and Languages, presenting four languages plus Latin
11- I did rather well throughout school and spectacularly badly at University
12- I enjoyed University more than anything else in my life up till then
13- I've since had three children, and life just keeps getting better and better
14- I was depressive throughout childhood
15- I finally shook off the depression at the age of 24
16- I was never physical as a child, and I'm still not now
17- I used to be stick-thin, particularly during depressive bouts at University, when I would stop eating
18- I sometimes toy with having another depressive bout just so that I could be 8 stone again (I usually hover too near 10 stone now)
19- Not seriously
20- I just need some will power and to get off my bum in front of the computer once in a while
21- I prefer to eat food that hasn't been mucked around with, but sometimes I have a burger
22- As a child, I ate pudding maybe once a month at home and never had sweets
23- I was a vegetarian for three years until I developped a wheat intolerance during a weekend in Dublin
24- I hardly ever see the people whom I consider to be my best friends; they live scattered all over the British Isles
25- I am still friends with the first two people I met at University
26- Between the ages of 7 and 15, I hardly ever had a new item of clothing, not even underwear; most were at least 3rd-hand
27- My most embarassing memory ever occurred because of this
28- Even my own husband did not know about it until a few days ago
29- I'm not good at expressing my emotions except in a very controlled way
30- I envy people who can write stream of consciousness
31- I sometimes get very ratty when I've got a lot on my mind
32- Mostly I'm pretty unflappable, I don't take offence at people's opinions, their way of expressing them or their idea of me
33- My father has probably said all the crappiest things about me anyway, so everything else is just so much water off a goose's back
34- I used to hate my mother for not standing up to my father, but now I understand why
35- I love my children more than anything else in the world
36- Sometimes I'd like a rest from them
37- In 2000 I trained as a teacher of modern languages
38- I had to leave my children for six weeks in February 2000
39- I loved being away, but was desperate to get back
40- I feel frustrated sometimes that I don't have more time to do exactly what I want
41- I spend far too much time in front of the computer
42- I had a ZX-81 when I was 12
43- I did not enjoy the hours involved in being a teacher
44- I love teaching
45- On balance, it's debatable if I'll ever go back to it
46- My pupils say I should be a counsellor for young people, apparently I have a flair for it (I just thought I was doing ma job)
47- Teenagers don't scare me, they just irritate the hell out of me when they're being immature for their age
48- As a teenager, I was once left stranded in the Gare du Nord by my father overnight; a drug-crazed kid waved a broken bottle in my face but I talked him out of doing me actual harm
49- I have travelled alone on public transport since the age of 10, including trains, metros, planes and ferries
50- My father worked in Paris and when I visited him in the holidays, he would leave me alone all day to see the sights
51- My own eldest child is 10, and I just about let him go to the corner shop alone
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