Birthday girl: Carol Vorderman is fabulous at 50In her younger days she sometimes counted her imperfections. Today, as she turns 50, Carol Vorderman prefers to count her blessings.
And as her elegant red gown shows, she is a woman who has been very blessed indeed.
‘When you’re in your 20s and 30s you often think “I don’t like this bit, I don’t like that bit, I wish I could shave a few inches off here”,’ she said.
‘But when you’re older you’re just blooming grateful for what you’ve got!
‘For instance, I’ve learned that women spend lots of time worrying about cellulite but men just don’t see it, particularly as they get older themselves and their eyesight goes too!
‘At this age you don’t beat yourself up any more - what’s the point?
‘I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m really happy and that’s all that counts.’
The mother of two, who co-hosted Channel Four’s Countdown for 26 years, has been busy concentrating on figures other than her own since she left the show.
She is chairman of a Conservative Party Task Force that will report in the new year on improving maths education.And she is running an online maths school for children up to age 12, www.themathsfactor.com, which operates with a team of 12 from Bristol.
Then there is the delight of family life in Somerset with her daughter Katie, 18, son Cameron, 13, and mother Jean, 82.
Christmas, coinciding with her birthday, is always a favourite time.
‘I was called Carol because I was born on Christmas Eve... no surprises there...and I just love this time of year,’ she said.
The year ahead, it seems, will be Carol’s year of living dangerously. She wants to use her 51st year to do 50 things she’s always dreamed of, such as learning to ski, completing a scuba diving course and getting her pilot’s licence.
‘I’m actually a real daredevil and I love engines, as I read engineering at Cambridge, so I want to learn to fly and go wing-walking and do some aerobatics,’ she said.
‘This will be an aviation year - I want to go ballooning in Switzerland and to see the final space shuttle go up.
‘There are all these things I’ve always wanted to do, but in the past the kids have been too young or I’ve been working too hard.
‘Now we can do all these things together and I have a lot more time.
‘Katie’s on her gap year before university so hopefully she can come with me to the States to learn to fly and I’ve got lots more things planned.
‘I was the kid on free school meals from a single parent family in the 60s who managed to get to Cambridge and have made the most of everything I could by working hard since then.
‘And as this year ends, I could burst with excitement. I know that a new chapter is beginning.’
Hard work, she often says, has been the key to her success. And it seems that also applies to her fabulous fiftysomething figure. ‘I do have to watch what I eat,’ she admitted.
Carol & Katie Vorderman
Carol Vorderman - Daybreak 10Nov2010
source: dailymail
