Are you a Lemon or a Passion Fruit? by Julie Sykes

I’m a Leo. Not the ‘Link Everything Online’ kind of LEO but the astrological sort.

As a Leo I’m charismatic, generous, beautiful, bright and a natural leader. Apparently.

Leo’s can also be arrogant, smothering, not satisfied with their lot and with a resulting tendency for extravagance.

But of course, I’m not any of those things so that just goes to show what a load of rubbish the whole thing is - except the bit about being beautiful, bright and a natural leader, of course!

Everywhere you look, there are quizzes and tests to tell you what sort of person you are. They’re kind of addictive. The paper ones are best cos you can cheat a bit with the answers to get the result you want. Did I really answer a to question 103? But, I meant to say b and I meant c for questions 30, 96 and 89.

Not so easy to cheat when you’re taking those tests on line. Recently, I took a test to find out what sort of dinosaur I was.

The answer came back T-Rex.

T-Rex. Really? NO. No way.  I’m not a big scary, aggressive bully of a dinosaur…am I?

Immediately, I mailed my friends. Take this test. Which dinosaur are you?

None of them were T-Rex. Not one.

‘I’m a Velociraptor,’ said one friend smugly. ‘The intelligent dinosaur.’

‘But, but, but…I didn’t know who the celebrities were in the pictures,’ I protested. ‘I answered question 3 by guessing.’

‘Me too,’ said that smug, intelligent friend.

The dinosaur test plagued me for days. I was incredulous and a little bit scared. That’s not how people really see me, is it?

Then I remembered a very good friend I’ve known for years. We regularly have the same email exchange. It goes like this.

Friend: Fancy getting together for a coffee?

Me: Definitely. Got any gossip?

Friend: No, I don’t think I have.

Me:  Make some up then ; )

Last year, completely out of the blue, this friend handed me a small parcel at Christmas.

Friend: I know we don’t do presents but I saw this and thought of you.

This is what she bought.

Have tea with me. The gossip is free.

Personality tests – who needs them?