I had never been to a fashion show before going to the Burberry show last month. It was an extraordinary spectacle. I was incredibly green and had no idea what an undertaking it is. I also have a new respect for models because they are so close to the front row and must be so self-conscious.

I'm quite ignorant about fashion and I'm colourblind so it's all a tad tricky. My only knowledge of that world comes through Christopher Bailey whom I first met in 2008 when I did a campaign for Burberry that featured musicians artists actors and sportsmen.

No one person invented Mulberry. The knowledge that we had to have this floating harbor slowly grew.

I'm an afternoon tea type of girl. I come from a Russian background where we love our teas. So between lunch and dinner after training I come home and I love a nice cup of tea with jam in it as we drink it there. Black English Breakfast with raspberry jam is my favorite.

We would load up the yellow Cutlass Supreme station wagon and pick blackberries during blackberry season or spring onions during spring onion season. For us food was part of the fabric of our day.

Berry Gordy turned his house into a studio and discovered over 30 acts in the city. And we're famous all over the world.

I worshipped Berry Gordy for the creative dreams he had made come true.

Like all young reporters - brilliant or hopelessly incompetent - I dreamed of the glamorous life of the foreign correspondent: prowling Vienna in a Burberry trench coat speaking a dozen languages to dangerous women narrowly escaping Sardinian bandits - the usual stuff that newspaper dreams are made of.

In terms of the technology I use the most it's probably a tie between my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro laptop. That's how I communicate with the rest of the world and how I handle all the business I have to handle.

I'm really proud of myself because I've pared my beauty regimen down to a cream blush and berry-tinted lip balm which has saved me so much time.

In America Blackberry Farm in Tennessee is one of the most amazing hotels I've had the privilege of staying at.