I don't drive around London much. Any journey around Islington involves hundreds of speed bumps that seem to tear the bottom of your car off.

To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.

I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth and of London as a big freckle.

If you take the contempt some Americans have for yuppies and multiply it by 10 you might come close to understanding their attitude towards the City as they call it - London the people of the south.

When I'm in London Claridge's is a great favourite. I'm a big fan of art deco architecture and the rooms are extraordinary.

The London games mark the 24th anniversary of my winning two golds and setting the world record in the heptathlon. Someone is going to want it records are made to be broken - it's only a matter of time. I hope mine will outlive me.

I am also hugely excited to then be competing to defend my three Paralympic titles at the Paralympic Games. I believe we will see some amazing times posted and I am very much looking forward to what will be an incredible Olympics and Paralympics in London.

As a kid who wasn't into sports at school I felt almost alienated at times whereas in the theatre community there was this amazing sense of camaraderie. Early on we would go to rehearsals with my dad and I was like the mascot for the backstage crew. That was a big part of my childhood so I dreamed of one day doing a play in London.

For 'Around the World in 80 Plates' we got to travel all over having what was like a cross between a culinary competition and races. And in each country we had a chef Ambassador. We went to London Barcelona Bologna Hong Kong Thailand Morocco... It was amazing.

If you're curious London's an amazing place.