Lent started on the 25th of February and I decided this year to go back to what I used to do when I was a kid and give up chocolate. Last year I gave up ‘confectionary’ and was on the receiving end of a lot of slagging off. This year my objective is clear and the rules are as they were when I was a kid. Basically I can’t have chocolate at all until Easter Sunday with the exception of a break for Paddy’s day. I can still eat biscuits, cakes and ice-cream as long as there is no chocolate in them. You’d think this would be very east but it’s amazing how many biscuits on the market have chocolate chips in them or are covered with a layer of chocolate on top. The only good thing about abstaining from chocolate is that I am rediscovering alternative biscuits that I had long forgotten. I’m becoming particularly fond of gingernuts and I adore dunking them in milk. The only worry I have is that I may end up eating my own body weight in gingernuts by the time Easter Sunday arrives!