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Somehow I managed to persuade my husband to come to an aerobics class last night. He's not usually a fan of dancing about to Lingala music - preferring a gentle jog around the block but he has done it before. January is always a good time for New Year's Resolutions; we are both predictably keen to lose the big tummy and get fit.
Helping my argument last night was the fact that the gym was packed and all the machines were occupied. What didn't help much was when a macho man wearing a singlet behind the desk, just as we were signing in, said laughing;
'Ah, but aerobics is only for the ladies.'
'There were two men in the last class I went to last Friday!' I blustered. There were.
Anyway. We all danced about and got hot. There were about seven of us. My husband was indeed the only man, except for the instructor. You could tell that a lot of us, panting, were working on New Year's Resolutions in there.
'I'm glad you did the class,' I said at the end as we left, stretching stiff muscles in the night air.
'Did you think that if you laughed at me I'd walk out in a strop?' He asked.
'Probably,' I said, 'but at first you were making me giggle on purpose. I had to stop looking at you.'
'I wouldn't have walked out,' he said. '...but I really don't know how you do it. When that instructor just stands there in the front, doesn't bother to do half the routine then says lift your leg higher, or jump harder - I just feel like punching him in the face.'
'Right.' I said. 'By the way, when is all this testosterone going to just melt away with age?'
'You just don't understand, you're not a man.' He said.
We then locked ourselves out of the car and after trying to break in with the alarm sounding for some time, had to go home in a taxi to fetch some spare keys.
My husband's first thought was to phone a friend to come out and rescue us.
'What sort of friend would be willing to come out after dark to drive us all the way home?' I asked.
We settled on the taxi and waited.
I think that might be our last, 'husband and wife' aerobics lesson for some time.