Today was a momentus occasion. I went shopping for clothes.

It’s something I’ve always hated doing. I don’t follow fashion at all and frankly buying clothes is something of a bore. Having Mark around was good because occasionally I got dragged out into shops and told whether or not I looked OK in things.

Over the past two or three years, I had amassed a number of gift-tokens for department stores and they’ve been littering the drawer in the study for too long. So it was good to make a decision to take them into town to be used.

So why the change in heart? Well, I’d realised previously that my wardrobe was almost monochrome. I say almost, because a lot of my work stuff has faded in the wash and is thus not quite as black as the other stuff. And having gone through a phase over a number of years of choosing dark clothes to wear outside of work (in the times when I was suited in the daytime) peering into the wardrobe is now a bit like having a personal box of night-time.

So the brief was quite easy. Anything other than dark clothing!

Now it seems since the last time I went shopping two things appear to have happened:

• I have lost weight
• the rest of the world has gained weight

With all the training for the marathon last year, I lost about 4″ off my waistline which I’ve thankfully not put back on, despite terrible eating habits and a love of cake. 30″ waist trousers are therefore a possibility and in fact, a preference. Except the big shops in town seem to have abandoned that size with 34″ being the realistic minimum for most styles of casual wear and 32″ if you want to have hobsons choice in the matter.

Thankfully a 32″ pair of trousers can be rescued with a belt.

In the end I had a successful shopping trip using vouchers galore – and I’ve still got some left over! In the end with spending a princely £4.50 in cash I came away with:

• 3 pairs of trousers – non-dark colours
• a shirt – light in colour
• a full meal for 2 including two bottles of (non-alcoholic) wine
• two cookbooks

I could do more shopping like that. But not for a while yet. I don’t want it to become a habit!