I would give up alcohol for Lent, but I don't much like it and we only ever drink wine for Sunday lunch anyway - or special company for dinner, but we've done family birthdays until April (and that's Helen who is t-total) unless we want to toast people miles away.

I would give up chocolate, but that's another thing I eat in such moderation (it gives me asthma) that it would be no real deprivation.

I could give up tea or/and coffee, but am I so caffeine dependant that it would be other people who would suffer when I exploded at them?

Sugar would be good, but, since I only take sugar in tea and coffee, the above would still be true, and sugar substitutes make me gag which would not be pleasant for other people either.

I could follow Rev Ruth's example and give up fiction. All fiction or just written fiction? Because I have already read 5 chapters of a Ruth Rendell and watched an episode of Lovejoy today (It is half-term.)

What I should really give up is my sins of omission, and do all the things I ought to have done rather than putting them off until tomorrow. That would really make me think and be a constant reminder throughout Lent. That way I would be giving up things I enjoy: time spent dusting instead of blogging, time spent ironing instead of reading, time spend hoovering instead of making another pot of tea, time spend gardening instead of watching repeats of ancient Sunday evening serials on ITV3 . . .

So that is what I am going to try and do.