I have always enjoyed travelling, and I developed a real taste for it when I was a teenager. I was fortunate to be good at badminton, so I travelled a lot around Europe, representing Scotland. My teenage years were spent in Juniper Green on the outskirts of Edinburgh, and I started playing for Scotland at under-16 level. I went to university in Memphis in America, where they did not seem to know what badminton was.

Both my parents were PE teachers, and my mum, Ann, was my coach. It was a very sporty family — my older brother, Stewart, was a much better badminton player than me; and my dad, Ronnie, had played volleyball for Scotland. The practicalities of training at least three times a week, then playing a tournament at the weekend, meant there were few times when we ever sat down at the dining table as a family.

Badminton was great, and my parents were pleased I had something positive to occupy me during my teenage years. I don’t think it would have mattered to them which sport it was, so long as it was sport. Stewart was an exceptionally good player, so I suppose there was not much option but for me to follow in his footsteps. Luckily, I enjoyed it.

My dad and my brother also liked golf, which meant they were out a lot together. Neither my mum nor I were fans, but life was pretty much all about training, playing and tournaments.

Our house on Baberton Crescent in Juniper Green fitted perfectly with the sporting lifestyle. We moved in when I was about nine, just before Christmas.

It was much bigger than our previous house, which was just down the road, and what was particularly great about it was the garden. For me, being into sport meant being into the outdoors, so it was the garden that I really enjoyed about that house.

My dad even built a putting green on it, although it did not last too long with kids running all over the place. My mum was the one who tended the garden and planted the flowers. Given the chance, my dad would have put decking in all over the place.

The sporting connection also meant a steady flow of visitors from abroad. Some arrived after I had taken part in a tournament in Aalborg, Denmark, which is a big badminton nation. I was 16 at the time and stayed with a family over there. So, by way of reciprocation, we invited some players to Scotland.

There were quite a lot of exchange trips to take part in competitions. My dad was always inviting people he had met abroad to drop in and stay for a night or so. They were very encouraging of me inviting people to stay. Even after I had left home for university, they were still happy to put up my friends.

The house was, thankfully, big enough. It had four bedrooms. I think it was quite a stretch, financially, for my parents to buy it, both of them being on teachers’ salaries. Because they wouldn’t have had much money, any decoration or renovation took place on a piecemeal, room-by-room basis.

It took several years before the house could be described as having been “done up”, but the compensation was that its location could hardly have been better. It was a walk to school, there was a nearby glen — Colinton Dell — where you could play and hang out with friends, and it was pretty easy to get into the centre of town.

The house was a converted bungalow, with a large cellar that was covered over when the kitchen was renovated.

One of my earliest memories comes from when we moved in. I was able to paint the inside of my bedroom cupboard any way I wanted it to be. Since I was a little girl, you can imagine how it ended up, but my parents were very relaxed about it. They were pretty relaxed, in general, but there were boundaries.

It always seemed sunnier back then than it is now, and the garden certainly was a suntrap. That encouraged you to be out in it as often as possible.

Since the house was at the end of a cul-de-sac, it was safe to play out in the street but, invariably, I’d have my friends from the street come and play in the garden. It was a bit of magnet for all the kids in the street.

There was another conversation-starter for the local kids: the neighbour who parked a full-size glider — though collapsed into a box — in the street. Sadly, we never got the chance to fly it.

Sport was important, but I was pretty diligent at school, too. My bedroom, where I did my homework, was a place I enjoyed being in, but I did most of my studying in Edinburgh central library.

Music-wise, I was into Duran Duran, Wham! and Take That — I had a teenage crush on Jason Orange. There were also lots of photographs on the walls from my trips abroad.

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