My friend, Dorinda, emails: “... Whatever made you think you would become mellow after the menopause? You should ask my husband what he thinks about this. Yesterday I was suffering with a migraine, something I used to get frequently but now, very rarely. Chris, in an attempt to be sympathetic, (I think) kept asking: ‘Where did that come from?’; ‘What caused it?’ and then ‘Have you taken anything for it?’ I am afraid I turned on the poor chap and nearly bit his head off. Then I noticed he had disappeared. After about a half hour when the pain killers had kicked in, I found him upstairs in the computer room and had to make a grovelling apology. ‘That’s okay’, he said. ‘I forgive you, and actually, I quite like you feisty.’ Feisty? That’s a whole new slant on grumpiness.”

My thanks to Grant, who I met at the hairdresser’s while he was being trimmed and I was being dyed. He shared with me the concept of a “forgettery” which, he said, eventually replaces memory. I wrote it down so I remembered it, Grant.