So, the John Lewis store on Oxford Street is currently holding a Lingerie Buying Academy for men! According to the website, 'You’ll find leather sofas, chilled beer, plasma screen TVs and plenty of lingerie to choose from. A free gift wrap service will be available.'
What do I think about that? Only that I hope they extend it to The Centre:MK next year!

I'll never forget the raised eyebrows (followed by a smile) of my mother-in-law on Christmas Day a few years ago when Carole opened one of my presents to reveal some pretty nifty lingerie! But it came at a price....

A missionary returning home after a number of years service in an overseas country was once presented with a pretty shell, the grateful giver having walked a number of miles from home. When the missionary remonstrated over the length of the journey undertaken to bring this gift to him, the person had replied, "The journey is a part of the gift."

In my experience it's like that with lingerie (What a wonderful onomatopoeic-esque word that is: lingerie is sexy!). The lingerie department of your average department store is a cornucopia of material, colour, style...and price, ranging from the expensive (it's never cheap), to very expensive, to what some might call sous-vetements haut couture with all the frills and personal attention to detail. Buying Carole even a couple of items of lingerie requires setting aside a day and wandering between the racks and mannekins with one eye on the goods, and the other on the almost invariable Mrs Slocum-like assistant who is watching you out of the corner of her eye at the same time!

The personal assistant from John Lewis who was interviewed on the news this lunchtime appeared much more approachable - the sort of person from whom you might feel you could ask assistance, if hesitantly and with reddening cheeks. She'd understand. She'd even managed to sort out the man who'd shown her a photo of his topless wife on his mobile phone: "It did help," she said! I guess it must have been more of a help than the shoe size which was all that one husband could give to an M&S assistant (where, apparently, the personal assistants are male and called stocking fellas)!

If you're a husband and you want to live life with an L, then you've got to run the gauntlet of the lingerie department. Don't chicken out and settle for expensive chocolates or something out of a catalogue. Carpe diem.The journey is part of the gift. It will be appreciated!

Now where did I make a note of Carole's sizes!