Never have, never will. I’ve never cared about having the ‘right’ stuff/job/car or going to the ‘right’ places or mixing with the ‘right’ people. I’ve always had very clear ideas about what I like, in everything, and I won’t go for something just because it’s the in thing, or the done thing, or the popular thing.

I was reading something last week about how we (supposedly) buy things for ourselves purely to make certain impressions on other people. The guy said: if everyone disappeared from the planet tomorrow and there was just you left, you wouldn’t live in a big house or drive a sports-car or wear expensive clothes because there would be no-one to impress. You’d live really simply because you wouldn’t have anyone to project that carefully curated image of yourself onto. My immediate thought was, “Bollocks! I’d be straight down to the Aston Martin showroom grabbing the first set of keys I can find, stopping by Chanel before retiring to my penthouse at One Hyde Park!” I don’t care about looking rich, or appearing to be popular, or putting on a façade of constant happiness and excitement. Quite the opposite, in fact. I know what’s good, and I always buy the best I can afford because I like to have quality. For me. And I’d rather have a handful of really good friends than a load of impossibly pert, perfectly suntanned, blindingly white-toothed acquaintances who’ll drop me quicker than the proverbial hot potato because I’m wearing the wrong shades, or stab me in the back without a second thought to make themselves look better. I find that whole LOOK AT ME AREN’T YOU JEALOUS OF MY LIFE thing a real turnoff. Nothing puts me off a person faster.