Oh cod

In the years BD (Before Diet), going to London usually had its compensations in the form of a slap-up client lunch at someone else’s expense. So whereas once I would have been found eagerly getting outside three scrummy courses, today I had to tiptoe round a gorgeous menu for some diet-friendly food. The result – Parma ham and melon for starters, roast cod on a tiny bed of spinach for mains. Hardly enough to fill a mouse. No bread. No pudding. No petits fours. Just a coffee and some chewing gum on the way home. Whoopee do.

The one consolation was that I survived one of my greatest challenges – maintaining self-control in the face of haute cuisine. I usually crumble and stuff three baskets of bread before I’ve even adjusted my napkin. Bit of a hollow victory though…actually, more like a hollow stomach…

I’ve got another challenge coming up too, an arguably much tougher one. We’re away in the van this weekend, heading to Cheshire and the Delamere Forest. We’re helping our friends who are first timers – they’re arriving on Saturday for their ‘motorhoming and campsite’ induction in a 24 footer they’ve just bought. Why they should want to learn at the knee of a couple who crashed their first van within 30 minutes of picking it up, I don’t know. Anyway, it will be tough for me because, whenever I’m in the van or on the boat, I’m always so happy and carefree that I just think sod it, I’ll eat what I like. So I’ve taken the precaution of doing a ‘diet shop’ this evening at Tesco – that means there’ll only be healthy, boring things on board, and no KitKats or Pringles to seduce me. A came with me and was trying to sabotage my plan at every turn, until I lost him in the Christmas aisles. He eventually reappeared and while no guilty pleasures went into the trolley, there was a curious bulge about his person…He’s having Hot Balls and Beans on toast tonight…don’t know what made me think of that…