Late September, I was feeling poorly and went to see the Doc. After endless tests he said, “We don’t know what you’ve got. It’s probably viral. Maybe it’ll go away.” (It did.)

He added scientific words to the effect of, “You’re no spring chicken though, and you do have slightly elevated blood sugar levels. If you don’t lift your game, in a few years you could become part of Australia’s Type 2 Diabetes epidemic.”

He didn’t recommend a specific diet, merely suggested that I check out Diabetes Australia, lose weight, and avoid sugary stuff and carbohydrate-rich food. “Oh,” he went on, “You should also cut down on the booze intake and exercise regularly.” A sobering thought.

So I took his advice.

Since then, I’ve lost just on 10.5 kilos. That’s the equivalent of not lugging around body fat weighing around eight and a half bottles of wine, 24 hours a day.

Basically, I eat much the same food as before but less of it. I drink about a third less wine than I did. I’ve totally cut out sweet stuff, including, sadly, muscat, port, and botrytised whites.

Everybody asks me if I feel any better for it. Nah. I can only hope it’s doing me good.

PS. I actually have had to tighten my belt and the old daks keep falling down.