Z sits on the Sage's shoulder...

It was a very windy night. The wind yowled down the bedroom chimney behind our bed. I couldn't sleep. I dozed fitfully for a couple of hours, but then lay awake for a long time. By 4.30, I felt restless - and so did the Sage. The wind was keeping him awake too.

Restlessness is not a bad thing when you're in bed with someone you're rather keen on, with time to spare. We used it well. A good game of scrabble *cough* is splendid when you can't sleep, and afterwards we relaxed and napped soundly for a couple of hours.

I admitted defeat at this morning's meeting and didn't even wait to be asked, but offered to carry on as chairman for another year. I really can't bear to be coy and don't play hard to get for the sake of it. This afternoon's meeting was school governors and this evening's (at least it's social and not a committee) is the WI.

Of course, this means I'll be out on Pancake Day. I offered to leave the batter for the Sage and Ro to make their pancakes, but they say it won't be the same without me, and they'll wait until tomorrow. We all take our share of cooking and tossing, so it's not that they expect me to do the work. I think that's rather sweet. It's a good job we don't observe Lent in a giving-up sort of way.

I went to a Roman Catholic school, you see, and I've always associated this sort of thing, like being marked on the forehead with ash on Ash Wednesday, with over-the-top, heart-on-sleeve religiosity. I'm not saying it is, please understand, it's just an instinctive prejudice that results from 13 years in a convent school. I don't see the point in giving something up just for the sake of it - I mean, if you give up chocolate and then are pleased that you've lost weight, it's a benefit not a sacrifice. One year I did make the effort to do some positive 'good' thing every day, which was arguably worthwhile - but then, if it's so good, why wait for Lent? And I've already given up chocolate, biscuits, cake etc and frankly it hasn't hurt.

Mind you, today I thought I'd have to give up lunch, and that did hurt. I had put a packet of rice cakes and a banana in a bag, but then left it at home. Fortunately, the governors had had a sandwich lunch because they were being shown round the Skills Centre before the meeting (I'd already had a conducted tour) and there were a few left. There's always splendid nosh at WI, so I have left fish for the Sage and Ro and just had a glass of wine myself. And a couple of rice cakes, of course.

Apologies to all for the vulgarity of this post's title. But hey, would you have resisted?