Me Life Story by Scarlett Moffatt (best classic books of all time txt) 📗

of the above in my home is normally done in nothing but my Bridget Jones big white pants and my hair in a top-knot with toothpaste all over my face while I’m trying to dry my spots out. I just have completely fallen in love, well, with myself since moving to London.

I think it’s important that we really enjoy spending time with ourselves. To realise that being alone doesn’t mean we are lonely, it just means we get to forget about everything for a little while and just enjoy being our weird and wonderful selves. As the American politician Ann Richards once said:

‘Learn to enjoy your own company. You are the one person

you can count on living with for the rest of your life.’

Chapter Nineteen

SATURDAY NIGHT TAKEAWAY

(MINE’S A CHICKEN KEBAB)

Turkey has thirty different variations of the kebab (get me on a plane right now!).

The idea behind helicopters has existed since as far back as 400BC, when vertical flight was invented in China in the form of a flying toy made from bamboo which created lift when spun.

In 2007, the mayor of Chicago decided to award the singer Jennifer Hudson with her own special day, calling 6 March Jennifer Hudson Day.

I will set the scene. It is Thursday 23rd February 2017 and I am about to have my first ever script meeting. Now, I don’t actually know what a script meeting is at this point and I’m hoping it can be something that I can just wing. I walk into the cosy little room in the ITV studios holding a cup of tea. The tea is actually burning through the paper cup but I am pretending I’m not getting third-degree burns on my hands as I want to play it cool. Ant, Dec and all the lovely ITV bosses are sitting around the table.

‘Hello, how are you?’ Dec asks. I nod.

‘Looking forward to your first script meeting?’ Ant adds. I nod. For some reason, words will not come out of my mouth, and then I realise it’s because my brain’s concentrating on the heat from the tea. Put the bloody tea down, Scarlett!

This sounds silly on reflection but I was so shocked that everyone at the meeting was so nice. When I thought of big TV bosses I thought they would be like Mr Burns from The Simpsons. I thought you had to be mean to get to the top of your game, like in The Devil Wears Prada. But they’re just genuinely lovely, passionate people who are good at their job. We started the meeting with a little introduction and a chat about what we had been up to. I couldn’t believe I had got myself so nervous, but it shows how much the whole show meant to me that I wanted to make a good impression. (I’d relaxed so much by the end of the first meeting I was even dipping biscuits into my tea; I felt right at home.)

Smiles with the big boys, Ant and Dec.

‘So for the first episode we were thinking you could hop on a motorbike, get over to Battersea, jump on a helicopter, and bring someone who’s watching the show on the television to come back with you in the helicopter to sit on the best seats in the house to watch the show in the studio,’ said one of the producers. ‘Little Ant and Dec can serve you food prepared by Jamie Oliver and there will be a little glass of champers waiting for you all.’

I started laughing. I mean, no way was that really going to happen. ‘Imagine, sounds like a scene from Batman!’

‘So you up for it?’

‘What, in real life you want me to do that?’

‘Yeah, what do you think?’

‘Oh my God, this is actually going to happen. Of course I’m up for it!’

I wanted to kiss and cuddle everyone in the room but I knew that would be unprofessional. I couldn’t believe that Ant and Dec and ITV were trusting me, little me, on my first ever episode of live TV presenting in a studio. And I was getting to be a bloody Bond girl.

‘I have never actually been on a motorbike before,’ I admitted. ‘In fact, I’ve not been on a push bike in over fourteen years.’

‘That’s OK, you can have a little practice so you feel comfortable with it and if you don’t, do not panic – we will think of another plan.’

Now if this had happened before the jungle I probably would have said no to even trying to go on a motorbike; the fear and anxiety would have been too much. But because I had gotten through things that I never thought I’d be able to manage, I thought to myself, well, you’ve been through worse, Scarlett, it’ll be fine.

So when the day came I was ready to swerve in and out of cars on the busy roads of London whilst riding on the back of a motorbike. It was 27 February 2017. Now this date might ring a bell as it is just my luck that the day I decide to face my fear of bikes is the day that Storm Doris hits the UK. Yep, that’s right – 90mph winds was my first ever motorbike experience. The only way I can describe what it was like being on that bike is something that you may have witnessed yourself. Have you ever seen a fly or spider on the window pane in your house and you’ve blown it and it has just skidded out of control, not knowing what the hell’s going on? Yep, that was what we were like, skidding through the roads of London. I mean, if I can get through 90mph winds I can get through a bit of rain and late-night London traffic on a Saturday night. So I agreed to the adventure of a motorbike and