I want to look beyond the legends, to find the real story of Scotland. And it's every bit as thrilling.

It is security that I crave and money provides security. What is that old line about money? "Some is good, more is better and too much is just right."

After I graduated from the University of Glasgow, I was a self-employed archaeologist going from dig to dig around Scotland, and it was not well-paid. I was an excavator, not a lecturer as well, so paying rent on a flat was tricky. In the end I decided to retrain as a journalist as I couldn't see a future in it.

I live in a perpetual present. I don't look back and I don't look forward. I just live from week to week.

My father's example taught me self-reliance, to make my own luck, and to work to make things happen.

It took me a while to get established - success didn't happen overnight.

I'm wary of the new contactless ways of paying. The idea of paying with your phone is a little worrying: I have lost more than one over the years.