A little about me

My good friend Ellie Lovell has 'tagged' me in an activity where I am now expected to reveal 25 things that you didn't know about me, just a pile of random facts. As it's Saturday, I thought I'd have a go for fun:

1. I am a an Essex girl, having been born and raised in Harlow and I am proud to own a pair of white stilettos
2. I was blond for the first three years of my life
3. When I was 15 I owned a pair of white pvc trousers – classy!
4. In 1998 I appeared on This Morning. Richard Madeley told me on live national TV that I have great eyes!
5. I have three house rabbits – Herbie, Scotch and Macy. Herbie was a rescue rabbit. He was dumped in a cardboard box on someone’s doorstep
6. One of my ambitions is to cage dive with great white sharks
7. In 2007 I ran the Great North Run half marathon for the Stroke Association because my mother had a stroke in her early thirties. I too have high blood pressure and I keep the photo of me after the race pinned in front of my desk to remind myself of the elation at finishing the race, and the ongoing need to manage my own health
8. I have a fat photo of myself on the fridge door to try to help me with my ongoing battle to lose a little weight and be a slim bride next year
9. My guilty pleasure is having a cleaner
10. If I could choose to live anywhere in the UK, I would live in Edinburgh
11. I own a hardback signed first edition of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (the book widely acknowledged to have won her the Nobel Prize for literature). It was my graduation present from my parents and one of my most treasured possessions as her work played such a big part in both of my degrees
12. Despite being a straight-A student at school, I have never managed to learn a foreign language and this irritates me
13. I play with my ear lobes. It’s a habit I have had since a baby and is my ‘comfort blanket’. It also often makes work colleagues think I am on the phone!
14. As children my sister and I once drank quite a lot from our parents’ booze cupboard while they were out of the house. When they found out (we left the cap off the whiskey!) we both blamed it on our friend and never owned up
15. I used to swim competitively. I always enjoyed the ‘tough’ events, and was once ranked as the 37th fastest woman in the UK at 200m butterfly (quite an achievement when you’re as short and stumpy as I am!)
16. When I was 14 I had a dodgy perm and was so embarrassed that I refused to go swimming training that night. My dad told me off for being so daft and I ran away from home in response (I actually only got about 30m up the road to my friends house, and only stayed for about an hour – a pathetic attempt)
17. My first pet was a budgie called Gismo. My second pet was a hamster called Rambo
18. I am addicted to my blackberry
19. I am the happiest I have ever been right now at this point in my life
20. I love skiing and scuba diving and wish I had discovered both passions when younger
21. Despite being almost 30, I am lucky enough to still have a full set of grandparents, though I don’t see any of them enough because I am a bad granddaughter
22. I don’t believe in work-life balance. I do believe in doing a job that you enjoy so much that work-life balance becomes irrelevant
23. My dad calls me Angela – it’s my middle name. My fiancé calls me ‘Goat’.
24. When I was little I drew a picture of a blue whale and sent it to Greenpeace. I still have the certificate that they sent me somewhere
25. My surname allegedly can be traced back either to a French piano maker or a German mass murderer. I know which I prefer!