6.

I had always been a sleepwalker. My mother had bells attached to all the doors and chimes on hinges which she put down at night so she'd know if I was up and about. It was first discovered when they found me at the age of five, sitting in the compost heap at the end of the garden, doing something that seemed close to making a cup of tea.... I had long periods when it went away, but it would always come back inexplicably. I had a few girlfriends in my twenties but none of them liked it at all. I guess that a man who was active and un-conscious during the night was always going to be a liability... as if men weren't difficult enough to trust anyway...

I had known Mary since we were in the sixth form together, where I had no idea she'd had a secret crush on me. We used to go Ice Skating with a group of friends on Saturdays and a few of us went out walking in the Peaks on Sundays. Eventually, this dwindled but Mary and me carried on - most weekends. She would take her camera with her and I was once a keen amateur Geologist, so i'd take a few tools and a bag and go rock - hunting. She told me later that she'd got bored taking pictures early on. Truth to tell was, I wasn't that keen on collecting rocks either.

Quite romantic looking back. We got married on Mary's 30th Birthday - we went to Las Vegas. The chapel of little flowers. I was Elvis. Two kids later and ten years on, we were really happy and content.