Losing weight is not enough, friends have to gain weight at same time

I’d got to the stage of elasticated waists, edge-to-edge jackets and raucous necklaces designed to distract from the horror lower down, those necklaces matched at the other end by extra-high heels in the attempt to look tall enough to be this fat.

The end result was a unique fashion look: decorated compost barrel on stilts

IT seemed such a good idea, six weeks ago. Most of us in the office made a resolution. We would lose weight during the summer, sustained by mutual support (of which, as you know, there is none among women). We’d have a ritual weigh-in at the beginning, with everybody watching, followed by weekly weigh-ins thereafter. On the starting day, we’d each put €50 in a kitty, to be scooped up by the one who lost most by the end of August. She’d have nearly five hundred smackers with which to buy herself a garment befitting her new fragility of person.