Katie Melua
I don't cook very often but when I do I try and make Georgian food. I made a hinkali recently, which is like ravioli but is the size of your palm, with meat in the middle and thicker dough.Collection: Food
But I do believe in living life to the full and so I have no problems spending money on travel and holidays.Collection: Travel
We Georgians are really into food and drink. We would never have finger food at a party or a wedding - celebrations are always one long meal, on one long table, with endless toasts.Collection: Wedding
The Georgians will treat you like royalty, and the odds are you'll do a lot of eating, drinking and toasting.
Well, I couldn't speak English before I went to Belfast. So I learned English with a Northern Irish accent.
When I was younger I dreamt of intrepid travel and whenever I had some time off I wanted to scuba dive. Nowadays I'm a bit more relaxed but I'd still like to do an Amazonian trek.
If I have children, I am never going to read them stories about finding Prince Charming because they will grow up feeling disappointed.
I am not saying everything's perfect, but I embrace anything bad because that makes me appreciate all the good.
I do tend to drape my real feelings with pretty words and different layers and stuff.
What I've picked up from working with the women in the Gori choir is that they don't have egos. All that matters is the music.
And I did feel there was an album to be made about winter that can make you feel the way Sinatra and Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline make me feel - warm, nostalgic and comforted.
I'm enjoying doing research, to get better at the guitar, to get better at rhyming. That's an essential skill.
At 15, I did a ouija board with my best friend. I pretended I was possessed by a ghost, and she believed it.
After 'Nine Million Bicycles', I was sent bikes from all over the world. I got about 10.
I've always been very open and unspecific about what kind of music I want to make.
The first dramatic experience I had of music was when I was five. The electricity had gone out in Georgia, and my mum played the 'Moonlight Sonata' on the piano.
I did go through a phase of reading a lot of poetry and getting heavily into philosophy and ended up writing things that weren't really in a musical format, which I put to some very electronic-based backing.
Because of things like 'The X Factor' and 'Autotune', the real art of communicating a song is not treasured any more. But singing other people's songs can be an intensely personal experience. I want the songs to be vessels that people fill with their own imagination, the same way that I fill it with my thoughts and feelings.
I love winter. It's a beautiful time, but also a melancholic time, a reflective time, and I'd come to a point in my life where I felt I had to make certain decisions about my career.
Ever since I left the Brit school I've been so protected. I had a woman to do my hair and makeup every day throughout my 20s.
Granddad was deported to a Siberian prison camp at the age of 15.
When the lights did come on in Georgia and the electricity did come on - you know, 'cause they did for about one hour during the day - we would watch Hollywood films and we'd listen to music from America and the West.
And I've teamed up with a choir from home. They're called the Gori Women's Choir. They're a 23-piece all-female choir, and they've been going since the '70s.
I mean Georgia, and also Belfast, aren't the most stable places, politically, in the world. But the thing is, in both places, the people were just so kind and so warm and in Belfast so welcoming.
I started writing and recording, at a very basic level, just in my own bedroom.
But I do think I'm quite a selfish performer in the sense that I'm not one of those that's like 'Hey, come on everybody lets sing along' you know that kind of thing.
I used to watch 'Aliens', and I just found Sigourney Weaver's character so empowering.
When the Soviet Union broke down, Georgia suffered a huge deal. Pretty much the whole of the 90's was known as 'the black decade... because we had a lot of electricity blackouts.
I grew up in Georgia where my parents, little brother Zurab and I shared a flat with my paternal grandparents and two uncles in the capital, Tbilisi. Times were hard and the country was racked by civil war.
My father longed for a better life for us, and when I was nine he got a job as a heart surgeon in Belfast. It was very bittersweet when we said goodbye to our relatives, and I remember crying my eyes out at the airport.
My father has been an inspiration - he instilled his work ethic without ever having to hammer it home. He was also very encouraging.
My mother is caring and selfless, and really looks after me. When I'm touring, she still picks me up from the airport, no matter what time it is.
Most people in Georgia have a place in the hills for when it gets too hot in the city. We have good friends who own a place by a beautiful little river and the houses are full of hammocks.
But I'll never forget my trip to Las Vegas. I'm a huge rollercoaster fan and we did the one at the Stratosphere, which curls around the hotel, and there's one that dips out from the roof then comes back in. That was intense.
I may be developing aerophobia as I get older, or maybe I'm just becoming middle aged, because I find flying an increasingly unpleasant way of travelling. I would much rather drive than fly.
I'd love to do a food tour of Italy but the next break I'll be having is skiing with my dad in Georgia. He's 58 and only just started skiing, so I'm looking forward to joining him on the slopes.
Well, I always write when I am inspired, and I am not a constant song-writer.
I think my biggest achievement is still going out on the road and wanting to make music on the road. It doesn't matter to me that I am still travelling around because I just love everything about it, I love the lifestyle, and I love being on stage.
The thing about doing gigs is you make music, and then it is gone and that is being watched by thousands of people.
I personally stream or download from iTunes because I love the quick access that I have to music; I don't have to write down a list of songs that I like and then go to the shop.
I never wanted to be a celebrity.
There are all these tests that are done on young kids and they all say they want to be famous but I just always felt that for my generation being famous was kind of corny and cheesy. Maybe because fame isn't something that proves you're good at something.
I don't mind doing publicity but I want to make sure it's the right type and it's about promoting my music and not me.
I know I've been lucky, but I'm not very materialistic - I don't believe in collecting many unnecessary things and I'm not into girlie shopping.
I used to think being in the West would be incredible and then when I was nine my parents moved us to Belfast. I was initially amazed by little things - in toyshops you could actually play with the toys, the schools were more colourful and there were so many magazines everywhere.
I'm the worst customer for a credit card company because I always pay my balance off every month.
When I do my own makeup, I limit my options: I have one Mac eye colour, a neutral shade with a bit of shimmer, plus eyeliner and subtle mascara. I wear a little foundation and put Laura Mercier concealer around my nose, underneath my eyes and on any dark spots.
I love the French philosophy that everything starts with great-looking skin.
I've started making my wardrobe a uniform: I find that the fewer options I have, the better my state of mind.
I love a classic, white silk shirt with dark trousers or jeans or a dark, knee-length skirt: timeless clothes that are not too fussy always work.