Over dinner last night with my parents, the conversation moved to an interesting topic: if we were reincarnated, who we would like to be.

"I'd like to come back as someone with a sense of humour," said my Dad,"Like Jeremy Clarkson."

I was a bit shocked by this. Not being a Clarkson fan, I thought he could be more ambitious in his choice. So we debated for a bit. Mother Theresa? The Dalai Lama? (imagine watching the destruction of your culture)The Queen? (too much hand=shaking and rich food)

I said that I would like to come back as someone who can read maps while driving cars because not being able to navigate is such a handicap in my life. Which led my Dad to suggest that I should come back as Jeremy Clarkson.

My mum and I wanted to come back as women and my Dad was equally sure that he wants to come back as a man. Avoiding the controversial and impossible question of whether it's better to be a man or a woman, (although Greek myths say it's better to be a woman) we eventually gave up on famous people and decided that it would be much better not to be famous. Then we decided it would be best to live in the twentieth century because of modern medicine. Gradually it became apparent that we would like to come back as middle-class people living in happy obscurity in the countryside.

This reminds me of the story about the old woman who lived in a bottle.