Ken Livingstone on his daily routine, zookeeping and hitchhiking Photo: Rick Pushinsky Zookeeper When I left school, in 1962, I wanted to work in London Zoo, but I left in July and the zoo hired at Easter. I've been heavily involved with the zoo for the past 20 years as either a trustee or a sponsor, and the funny thing is all the men who started in 1962 retired two years ago. So if I'd stuck to the original plan, I would have been a retired zookeeper by now and the Tory Party and most of the Labour Party would be very happy. Wedding Emma and I put off getting married when I was mayor because it would have been a fiasco, so we got married in September 2009 at the zoo. All my kids were there - Mia was besotted with the idea of going to a wedding; Tom wasn't quite so impressed. My oldest daughter, Georgia, had just had her baby, Sky. It was just perfect all day long. Creative outings It is pretty exhausting having two small kids running around, and was especially so when I was mayor. But our weekly routine was I'd take them out every Saturday morning, doing things. They did these plates (pictured below) on one of these outings. Now of course I'm home virtually every afternoon when they come back from school - I think they'd rather I had won the election. Job My first job was as a lab technician, working on cancer research at the Royal Marsden Hospital, in 1962. The assumption was that I would stay there until I retired. I remember sitting on the bus thinking how many times I was going to make that trip for the rest of my life - tens of thousands of times. Biggest influence At school I was closest to my biology teacher, Ray Rivers. He died only this January, in his 90s. He talked about the importance of scientific method and getting to the truth. Then when I worked at the Royal Marsden it was all about, "What are the facts?" I always found it frustrating that people in politics get these ideologies about how the world should be, and they spend all their lives bending the facts to their views. Photograph That's my dad (pictured below); he's only 56 there. He had a traumatic childhood because his dad left his mum, then his mum died when he was 14. His dad came to the funeral, shook his hand and said, "Goodbye, son," and walked away. Photos: Rick Pushinsky Hitchhiking My best mate and I had never left the country - we hardly knew anyone who had, other than for war - so in 1966 we decided to go hitchhiking around Africa. We went across the Sahara, where I picked up these stones and shells (pictured above), and arrived in Niger. The plan was to go down to north Nigeria to see the lowland gorillas on the border of Nigeria and Cameroon. But on our way down the prelude to the civil war was breaking out in Nigeria - there were bloodstains on the houses. It was quite tricky to get out - there was only one train per week, but luckily we got a seat on it. It was packed, with people hanging off the roof. We had a little pet ostrich with us, which crapped everywhere. Fridge I was born in 1945 so there was still rationing; no one ever wasted anything. If bread got mouldy it was made into bread pudding; if you had a chicken, you'd still be eating soup from the bones four days later. I hate waste. I stack the fridge so that stuff that has to be used first is at the front. I've got food waste down to about five per cent - and that goes on the compost. Boris Boris had a very good four years opening all the things I started, but now there's nothing left; he's got to come up with his own ideas. When I went into the Olympic Games, having not been allowed on the site in the four years since I won the bid, it was exactly as we'd planned it - nothing had changed. I could find my way around without a map. Have I Got News for You You've got to accept, if you're a guest, that you're going on as a stooge. I quite enjoy it, but you can't make a serious political point. I'm very easygoing - I get over things quite quickly. I can't sustain anger for more than a day or two, and even that would have to be quite dramatic. Quite a few people in politics bear grudges for decades. Crying When I was a kid men weren't supposed to cry, but it's OK now, and I think that's a good thing. I'm an emotional person; I do occasionally shed a tear.