I was temporarily living in my home town of Wangaratta while caring for my grandmother, who had dementia. I got weekends off and on one of those occasions I met a girl called Marie. During that lovely early period of a new relationship where you’re still getting to know each other, I took her camping … Read more
British Gas is causing me mental breakdown. I am a refugee and was grateful to be given a social housing flat. I duly informed British Gas, which supplies the gas on a prepayment meter and electricity, which was supposed to be billed. They sent me a new code and top-up card and I paid in … Read more
It began as a support group for overweight New Yorkers in 1963 and ballooned into a multimillion pound global enterprise that has spent decades selling people the dream of long-term weight loss. The trademark WeightWatchers’ points-based programme has been followed by millions, with accompanying cookbooks, groceries, weekly weigh-ins and “judgment-free” meetings, and a food-tracking app. … Read more
The question I am a man in my mid-50s, living with my wife and our children. Two years ago, I admitted to an affair, texting sex workers, watching porn and checking out women in public. I was not upfront with my wife and it badly affected her self-worth. Since then, I have been in therapy … Read more
The gym is back. In the UK, about 11.5 million people aged 16 and over now belong to one. Even old habits are making a comeback: after a few years of exhorting people to socially distance and wipe down machines, gym chains are removing cleaning stations, while their clientele go back to sharing kit and … Read more
Dove, 31 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2EU (020 7043 1400; dove.london). Starters £4-£16; mains £12-£33; wine from £35 I am a potentially dull person to eat with. However much I love and relish food, food is not my friend and I have a host of verbotens, ranging from garlic, onion and chives, which for … Read more
Like most sane people, I’d always assumed “love at first sight” was a concept reserved solely for sappy romcoms and teenage diary musings. It certainly didn’t happen in real life, to real people, and it certainly couldn’t happen to me. I was entirely devoted to my career in radio and, after a particularly bad breakup, … Read more
I was sold on Le Touquet even before we reached the beach, a vast sweep of golden sand and grey green sea. There’s something about the way the town was created that appeals, an eccentric idea that was based on nothing more than a desire for pleasure. (A bit like Las Vegas, but classier and … Read more
For so many years Devon was viewed as the poorer relation to Cornwall; its coastline less rugged and epic, its beaches smaller, less elemental. For us, the county was always just a cut-through to the treasure beyond and never a destination in itself. The fact that Cornwall was much further to get to somehow proved … Read more
Mussels, ribbons of pasta, herbs and cream is a perfect marriage for a spring lunch. I sometimes fill a puff-pastry case with such an assembly or present it in a white porcelain dish with a splodge of creamy potato in the retro style of coquille St Jacques. (And when exactly did I last see that … Read more