Here it is, Betty

I was tagged by Betty, for five things most people don't know about me. This is awfully difficult, as I am such a blabbermouth that anything not generally known is probably a dark and deep secret which I will not tell even you.

1. If I had been born a boy, I would have inherited a baronetcy. Yep, Sir Z. My grandfather was the heir of his uncle, and he and my father debated the matter. You do not inherit a title as a matter of course, you have to claim it. They agreed that they were not bothered about a pointless title and would only claim it if there were a further heir, my sister being an only child at the time.

2. I always eat the pith of oranges. I love it. I peel the peel, then I peel the pith, then I have, alternately, segments of orange and pieces of pith. I really don't know why. It's not exactly that it tastes good. I also love to eat the peel of lemons and of the various types of mandarin orange. I really hope that wax they put on to stop the fruit drying out is not carcinogenic or something, as I've taken in a fair bit over the years.

3. I am absolutely, if silently, evangelical about the importance of sex within marriage*. I am confident that it should become more important, as well as better*, the longer you are married. I was, some years ago, shocked speechless when a long-married friend, then probably about the age I am now, said confidentially and confidentally, that of course, at our age ('OUR'? - I am about ten years younger than her, and hadn't realised she thought of us as similarly aged), thank goodness we don't have to bother with that sort of thing any longer. I asked another mutual, and older friend what she thought and I'm glad to say that she, too, was open-mouthed with horror.

4. When I was a child, I was hopelessly in love with Bamber Gascoigne. University Challenge was my favourite programme and I played along and kept score.*** Jeremy Paxman is not the same at all.

5. Once, I saw a spectacularly striped snake swimming in our garden pond. It was multi-coloured and quite large, about three inches in diameter and maybe three feet long. It, and this is the odd thing, was several decades before I realised that I must have been dreaming as such a snake does not exist in this country.

*this is with a bow to Betty. I could not respond to a tag from her without mentioning sex.

**sorry everyone, I know you, knowing my age, are going 'ew'. Especially any of my family reading this.

***I feel quite embarrassed writing this - about the keeping score, that is.