Try as I did, it was impossible to keep to my diet over Christmas and the lost pounds found their way back home – oh dear! Luckily, Chris put on the same amount so we don’t notice the difference in each other (a bit like aging together). However, we can feel it and we’re starting afresh as of today. I’m not sure, but our decision to be good may have been inspired by an unexpected visitor we had yesterday morning…

With it being a Bank Holiday we took our time getting up and it was about ten o’clock when the doorbell rang; fortunately, I was showered and dressed but I hadn’t yet brushed my hair or put any make-up on (why is it that people always come when you look ugly?) and I was waiting for my porridge to heat up in the microwave. Chris went to the door.

“Darling,” Chris called as he came down the stairs, “you’ll never believe who it is!”

I started for the bathroom a little too late because our nimble guest, matching Chris’s steps, had reached the bottom of the stairs in no time.

“Nic,” I said, “you look great!”

He certainly looked dapper in a grey woollen three-piece suit and a trilby hat. I looked like a Highland cow that had been pulled through a hedge backwards (and a chubby one at that!) so I didn’t expect my old friend to return the compliment, which was just as well because he didn’t (it would have been fulsome!). We hadn’t seen Nic for about sixteen years. While Chris kindly distracted him with conversation I dashed to the bathroom. Moments later I returned with a Colgate smile, pink lips and slightly less dishevelled hair.

“You look dapper!” I said admiringly.

“I think it’s because I haven’t put on any…” Nic began.

“Weight,” I finished the sentence with him.

“Would you believe that I’m the same weight I was at twenty?” he asked.

I nodded and smiled my surprise. There wasn’t much I could add, seeing that he was twenty-four when we had first met and I couldn’t remember if at that time he had been fatter or thinner than now.

After Nic had gone – over an hour later –  I was pondering on the visit when I burst out laughing.

“What are you giggling at?” Chris was curious.

“You know there was almost an awkward silence when Nic said he was the same weight as he was at twenty?”

“Yes….”

“Well, it’s just come to me. I should have told him that I, too, am the same weight that I was at twenty… when I was nine months pregnant!”

And, just in case you don’t know what Highland cattle look like…..