Anguilla is a vacation spot for the overly wealthy and the seriously beautiful! There was me, Mariah, a few of her nearest and dearest. A huge white mansion on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, a private beach, 12 staff looking after 10 of us and much, sun, fun and bronzed bums.

DAY ONE: Jermaine Dupri pops over to celebrate Mariah’s 17th No.1 (only beaten by the Beatles – this is history!) and to congratulate her on beating 50 Cent for the album of the year sales-wise. MC and JD drew the number “17” in the white sand on our private beach as we all sipped a couple of dozen rum punches and gazed at the starlit sky.

DAY TWO: MC invited a reggae band to come over and play for us at our BBQ as we ate crayfish, sweetcorn, BBQ chicken, ribs and garlic bread. We then had a dance off. MC’s choreographer and friend Rachel flipped upside down and did a handstand on a pole to ‘wind her booty down’ and showed the locals she may be a Yankee but her roots are strong. Then, to the locals’ delight, MC and her two friends/singers Maryann and the Grammy-nominated Trey Lorenz and I took the mic to sing MC’s songs in a “reggae style". (Pass the Duchie was my particular speciality!)

DAY THREE: We wanted to learn how to surf, so three instructors sailed over in their boats but alas, when they turned up we found they were teaching us to windsurf! MC gave it a go but when we saw how violently the sail falls we convinced her to sit back, relax and watch us attempt it instead. I think I was pretty good considering it was my first attempt – and I would’ve been even better if MC’s security man, Rob, didn’t keep trying to foil me by yelling ‘SPLASH’. Did I tell you all I can do more leg throw-downs than him in the gym. Hee hee! After getting up on the board a few times and going way too fast for my liking and bailing ship, we returned to our house pool which is heated at all times for a military-style water work with MC’s French trainer and nutrionist Patricia. Yep - she kills us but look at MC’s abs - its worth the pain.

DAY FOUR: We had mucho fun riding the waves on the banana boat and ring dinghies. I made MC sit at the back of the banana as that’s where it’s the scariest and most bumpy - well she is the bravest, so why not? That night we had another beach BBQ and bonfire and the moon was actually smiling at us, or was that the rum punch?

DAY FIVE: We went bareback horseriding on sable-brown stallions in the sunset and were left free to run the horses around the island. My horse was freaking from the second I stepped onto his back and wanted to take his own journey regardless of my whoopin’ and kicking - we think he was on some kinda herbal crack! I’m not gonna front, I was shook. MC wanted to “gallop faster" all the time and I was like: “I’ll see you later ma!"

DAY SIX: Snorkelled. It was a great day full of sunshine and pool frolicking. I couldn’t have been more relaxed. Then my hair went green. Well, if we’re gonna get technical, lime. I called my hair dresser Julian (even though it was 1am in London). He chuckled: “you’ve been oxidised by the chlorine." Luckily for me, MC (who once went to beauty school) had a batch of lotions and potions by Artec Sunflower - and soon my hair was neutralised into a slightly less crazy witch colour.

DAY SIX: Thankfully my hair wasn’t bad enough to freak out the dolphins which we had been waiting all week to play with. We kissed, clapped, danced, sang and did tricks with the five beautiful creatures including swimming with us on their bellies. One of the dolphins was called Bianca and as MC’s fans will know, Bianca is not our favourite person so we were slightly freaked out. But, by the end, MC and Bianca were swimming off into the sunset, so all was peace and harmony as it should be at the start of the year.

Then we were told it was time for “wheels up in an hour” (celeb speak for ‘planes jetting’), so we threw long (fake) fur coats over our bikinis, jumped into a jeep which deposited us to a private Anguillan airfield to MC’s G5 jet and arrived back in MC’s home town of NYC by sunrise the next day.

Much shrieking ensued as we flashed MC’s apartment doormen in our bikinis and cosied ourselves up at the end of our vacation in her fabulous crib. What a way to start 2006!