Crunch Lunch.

A gold inlay tumbles out of my tooth and into my hand, happily not into my tum and I hotfoot it off to my lovely dentist, Mark Barrett.

"The last time you did this" he says, "was on a toffee in August!"

"Ah Yes" I mumble through his fingers. "It was on an Italian boat in the Med and I needed some sustenance after lunch as I sang a few Neapolitan Songs. We were soon surrounded by a flotilla of yachts. Someone offered to take the money and bookings for the evening, and then the motor boats of the Carabinieri, the police afloat, all started to surround us too, along with various swimmers.

It turned into quite a party, and I realised that I might be disturbing the siesta of the occupant of a huge yacht moored a little way off, and wondered who it could be. The shores of a nearby island had started to fill up too, and I wondered if I would get arrested. Holding tightly onto my tin of Kendall toffees.....I carried on under an enormous sombrero.

It was fun! We all laughed a lot and finally our captain decided to weigh anchor and set sail for dinner. As we left, all of the Carabinieri, and La Guardia di Financia (Customs), stood up in their launches, and caps, and saluted me.

They were guarding the President of the Republic of Italy! How grand...I waved merrily back.

Thank you dear Mark, for keeping my smile bright.