Soup for the soul

I'm on a diet this week. When people ask me why I'm not doing a PhD I say, quite truthfully, that it would take forever and I can't commit myself to longer than two years ahead with anything. As I age, even two years seems like an awfully long time to maintain anything with a degree of interest. With diets, a week is generally about the most I can stick to. I used to tell folk that I was on a post-natal regime but, unlike me, that's wearing a bit thin as the last time I gave birth to anyone was over twenty years ago.

A lot of soup from the staff canteen has been involved in this current attempt which was initated following a review of the latest holiday snaps. (If only that which has replaced the area where I once had a waist could, like a photograph, be nothing more than a moment in time). Monday it was green soup. Tuesday it was white. On Wednesday I was looking forward with some anticipation to red soup but the green made a re-appearance. Today, I was pleasantly surprised by orange broth. The colour of the soup is extremely important as there is little else to either identify it by or distinguish it from the day before or the day after in this place. I have resisted the accompanying roll and have even managed to walk directly to the till without even a backward glance at the puddings. Lunch takes a maximum of ten minutes eaten, if possible, alone in order that I don't have to watch my super-sized colleagues knocking back plateful's of curry or fish and chips.

Last night I had half a roasted butternut squash with a glass of water for supper and went to bed hungry. This morning, I was in the swimming pool at twenty to seven; the only one there at such an ungodly hour. Up and down, up and down with repetitive monotony and only the delights of coffee and three cardboard breakfast biscuits to look forward to. And what difference is it making? Absolutely none. As a child of mine helpfully remarked, 'you're only like that because you're old'. I have a suspicion that tonight's liquid intake might have one or two grapes in it.