Mavis Facts

Mavis Facts

I'm only five feet tall, yet I've never dated a man less than 6 feet tall, and one boyfriend was 6 feet 8 inches. I think my subconscious was determined to give any possible offspring the best chance of being taller than armpit level.
I used to read palms for a living, and was interviewed for a national newspaper as a palmistry expert.I no longer have the delusion the lines in the hand, or the fantasy known as psychic powers can help us see the future, but some people are more perceptive than others, in a perfectly prosaic way. There is nothing supernatural about it.
My favourite colour is green.
I can't stand symmetry, except in nature.
I met the Queen Mother and had lunch with her - along with about 100 other people.
As a teenager, I worked as an usherette at a prestigious theatre, and once showed Lawrence Olivier to his seat. He was watching his wife, Joan Plowright, play in Ibsen's Master Builder.
Although I teach maths to GCSE (16 year-old) level, I stopped going to maths lessons at school, from the age of 13. I am self taught but passed my exams with good grades.
Parts of my house are 400 years old.
For ten years (from age 20 to 30) I lived on narrowboats cruising the inland waterways of England and Wales.
I have stood on the beach on the west and the east of the Pacific Ocean, but never swum across it....yet.
In my life - so far - I have owned 12 dogs and 9 canaries for all of their lives, but only 3 cats.
I used to write the horoscopes for a local newspaper.
Between the ages of 18 and 23, I was a born-again Christian. I have been an atheist ever since.
I am English but my father was of Irish descent and my mother was Canadian.
I have an umbilical hernia - present from birth.
My eyes are sometimes grey, sometimes blue and occasionally green.
I have double-jointed thumbs.
I'm entitled to put the letters BEd (hons) after my name, but rarely do.
In 2000 I had a near-fatal riding accident, was in plaster for 7 months, and have not ridden horses seriously since then. I still go on occasional hacks on trekking ponies.
I have two sisters, three nieces and one nephew, 2 great-nieces and 2 great-nephews, but no children of my own.
I'm allergic to all metals and never wear any jewellery, even a wedding ring (although I have one, which I keep in a jar by my bed).
My father was an officer in the Gurkhas. (6th QEO) so I didn't live in England until I was fully grown. I was brought up in Hong Kong, Brunei and India, chiefly.
My birth-date is a palindrome.