There's nothing like a diet to bring out the comments. My mention of skipping meals brought me some contrasting reactions, divided equally between those who told me that it would make me fat, and those who said that it would be the start of the slippery slope to starving myself to death. Fortunately, as with most disaster scenarios, they can't all happen at once.

The reality of the diet is that, in spite of my best efforts before and after the Velazquez exhibition (well worth seeing by the way) I had lost another pound this morning. That meant I was 1 1/2 pounds under my target for the day. So now I have another day without any rules. Great! The choccy cake has run out, so I am now tucking in to scones with loads of jam.