5 things......

I've been tagged. And after thinking long and hard about it, I've come up with the following. I doubt anyone knows all five:-

1. One of my relations survived the sinking of the Titanic.

I'm fascinated by the Titanic disaster, not least because I'm related to someone who was there - in April 1912, Clear Annie Cameron set off from Southampton for a new life in America. Unfortunately, the ship she chose to travel on was RMS Titanic. Fortunately, at least for a 2nd Class passenger, she managed to get on a life boat - boat no 16 out a total of 18 (so it was a close run thing).

Sometime later, she married my Great Great Uncle and disappears from history.

2. I once met Shimon Peres (former Prime Minister of Israel)

I was in the Hyatt Regency at the Dead Sea waiting with a couple of extremely gay Australians for the bus to take us down to the water for the traditional dip whilst reading the Jerusalem Post. Suddenly, this rather elderly chap, surrounded by some extremely hard and dangerous looking friends/relatives (we thought), sauntered over to us and started asking whether we were enjoying our stay in Israel. After a moment or two, the penny dropped as to his identity, so we stopped looking at him as if he was some mad old geezer and started chatting. He was attending a celebrity wedding on top of Masada and was just stopping off en route, he told us. And then he sauntered off again (surrounded by what we now realised were very hard and dangerous bodyguards).

To this day, I've no idea why he chose to come over and talk to us. And having seen his bodyguards, I'm very glad I'm not palestinian.

3. I once shot my sister in the back. Or rather I persuaded my brother to do it. It was with an air pistol and a bit of rolled up paper. She still has the dent in her back to this day.

A couple of years ago, I reminded my brother about this heinous act, expecting him to be covered in shame about this act of wanton violence. He thought about it for a second and said "well, she probably deserved it".

4. Grace Jones once stood on my foot. It was at a recording of The Tube which was how I spent my early Friday evenings in the first year at college. On this occasion, they'd kept us back after the recording of the regular show to film an insert for the following week's programme - basically, Ms Jones miming to her latest single.

We were bored by this point and had wanted out, so were queuing to leave before she'd even finished her act. I don't think she was too impressed, as she stood on my foot as she swept past us. Bitch.

Possibly not the first time Grace Jones has been called a seven foot tranny, but almost certainly the only time she's been called it by a Goth with a lancashire accent.

5. I can pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. That's what comes from spending every summer holiday until the age of 12 on Anglesey.