I can remember a time – not so terribly long ago – when to admit that you associated with us (aka The Weirdos at that healing-centre-place-thingy) was social suicide.  You might just as well have admitted that you juggled babies over firepits.  When asked what I did for a living, I would say “I manage a complementary healthcare centre” and then, inevitably, I would be asked to go into more detail.   The MOMENT I mentioned the word “healing”, people would get fidgety, and start surreptitiously looking around for someone less dangerously unhinged to make small talk  with.

It is, therefore, something of a shock to the system to send out 20 & 10 Birthday Bash  invitations to the Great and the Good and discover that we’ve apparently become the hottest ticket in town.  Everybody who is anybody wants to be seen rubbing shoulders with us.   I mean, heck, the Mayor and Mayoress are turning up.

We were sort of forewarned at the end of last year, of course …at the AGM of the Cumbria Community Foundation … but we’d more or less  convinced ourselves that THAT was just a blip on our otherwise unblemished record of pariah-hood.  Apparently not.

So, realizing that we were going to have to make some sort of effort to look respectable, Gretchen and I rather pathetically attempted a  girly conversation … something we’ve never done before in our 20 year joint history.

G:   What are you going to wear?

M:  I hadn’t given it any thought.  Clothes, I suppose …

Feeble, I know – but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the longest journey starts with one step, and  great oaks from … oh … provide your own cliché.

Does this mean I have to buy a lipstick?