JANET FORBES

Makes noises.

I am a maker of things – noise, music, food, mess, friends, stories, ideas, adventures, programmes and plans for the future. I’m happiest when I’m creating, or honing my creative skills.

I love to travel as much as I can, and I like to travel and explore fantasy realms too. In fact, I’m currently taking driving lessons so I can explore more of England. Unfortunately I’m not very good a steering, so maybe stay off the roads around Croydon for now! I speak a few languages, though none as well as I’d like. My biggest linguistic achievement is being mistaken for a French person – in France!

I love to read about and explore the past, too. I love museums and historical buildings, and I tend to drag Dimitris around them – fortunately, he seems to quite like it! My favourite way to start exploring a city is to walk around the old centre and see what remains. I inherited an appreciation for historical brick-work from my father. That, and the Forbes nose.

I don’t like getting wet. Dimitris is basically a FishBoy. This is how we finally decided to go to the Dominican Replublic for our honeymoon – we finally found a place by the sea which had cool historical things to see! (If you can think of any more, please tell me – I’m making a list.)

I love to sing, and I’m pursuing my dream of becoming a full-time, professional Opera singer (at the moment I still spend a few days a week teaching small children). I must admit, though, my favourite roles are the baddies. It’s good to be bad!

I’m not superficial but I do like shoes. A lot. My excuse is that it comes from a fundamental yearning to, once and for all, discover the perfect shoe. I haven’t found it yet but that just means, 30 pairs in, that I have to keep looking…