Did you ever see 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' ? - well Penelope Cruz who played Pelagia (Greek girl) - my hair is the same as her's was in the film. Long, dark brown and a bit wild now as I never do anything with it.
H has dd's 1, 2 and 3 all with the same long fly away hair like mine
I don't know, I've been thinking of cutting most of it off and having it short. H is right, I do look like a 12 year old (well, I could pass for an 18 year old). I look at my photos from then and they are the same as now except now I have lines under my eyes from all the DB'ing and court hearings!
I am still a size 8 despite having 4 children (don't know what that size is in US? 36??) and can wear clothes that say '15/16 yrs' on the label. Sometimes I do buy these as there's no VAT on kids sizes so it saves me money.
I'm only 5 foot 2 so my dd1 is up to my shoulder already at age 9 and I'm only 2 shoes sizes bigger than she is now.
That's why people mistake me for their older sister. I remember once I went with H to a customer's house and she assumed I was his daughter even though he was only 28 at the time and looked too young to be my dad.
She asked me if I wanted to watch children's TV and referred to H as my dad. I said 'No, this is my husband' - you should've seen the look on her face!
I've also had 'mind that little girl' (meaning me) when in the supermarket, even though I had wedding rings on my fingers and was 6 months pregnant.
So as you can imagine, I don't want to go on TV looking like a kid - so I'm thinking suit is probably better than dress.
Going through a D had one advantage - the facial lines now make me nearer my age. At least I can buy alcohol in the shop now without having to get H along to 'prove'that we're married!
Re the programme, generally the public percieve me as an expert due to me having read scientific papers continously for 10 years. I have no science qualifications and until a few weeks ago, had no medical ones either, but because I spent my life burried in medical books, I know more about it than the average GP.
Often what dr's tell you is not the same as what the med journals tell you and not the same as what the consumer tells you, and we are the ones who matter since we are the ones taking the drugs and if you get a large number of people sick then that is more convincing evidence to me than 1 dr who says he has a degree - you don't need a degree to show you casual R.
Well, I understand all the med talk and articles so I translate them into plain English and print them for Joe Public.
I became quite well known because of this and a lot of dr's hate me but the homeopaths love me and sell all my work. I am getting more accepted though, as I have pharmacists ring me for advice and the health service here refer people to me if they have questions they can't answer.
Journalists are usually fairly good and have represented my work fairly in the past, but most of my TV shoots have been live feeds rather than pre-recorded and I'm not sure I trust a journalist with an edit button. I shall have to think about it.
For most new programmes I get paid (average between £50 to £100 per programme and I'm only on for 5 minutes). The documentaries I wasn't paid but then I get about 50 calls a day after those so it's good for sales.
Some of them would provide free hotels if I had to travel to do the programme (I remember a few 'dirty weekends' with H because they'd summoned us half way across the country - free room service etc).
One shoot which was local they paid for cabs and gave us all free beer. I met Nicky Campbell (DJ) there but he was not the same in real life as on the radio. Different persona altogether.
The radio and newspaper work is always unpaid although it's publicity so it's worth doing to get the message out.
Magazines normally pay quite a lot (average £300 an article).
Most money comes through book sales to businesses and libraries (I sold to the library and got quite a lot for that).
My third book I'm working on which has nothing to do with my work, is all unpaid work for now till I can get it printed! I pray it will work out. It has the storyline most journalists would kill for and it's all true. This is my big hope of getting out of writer's poverty (writers are rarely well off unless they make it big).
I am definitely not in my career for the money, but even though it pays peanuts I love it which is why I carry on with it.
