Belly Laughs

I’m trying to catch up on some of my magazine reading and have just read Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special from March – yes, you see how far behind I am!  As ever there were some wonderful stories in amongst the pages – especially from my favourites, Teresa Ashby, Wendy Clarke and Joanna Campbell. I also enjoyed the story by Linda Povey, who is part of an online writer’s group I used to be a member of.

But what really made me laugh out loud was Jane Wenham-Jones’ description of getting stuck in a dress she was trying on and having to call a friend to get her out of it.  What amused me most was not her predicament, but the fact that it took me back to a time when a similar thing happened to me.

Not long after my youngest was born, I was going to a wedding and needed a new dress.  I went into a shop, much posher than I would normally dream of entering, and saw a beautiful dress on a hanger.  Unfortunately for me the dress looked much nicer on the hanger than it did on me so I decided that it was a non-starter.  The only problem was when I tried to take it off, it had cleaved to me like a second skin and was not going anywhere.  My throat went dry, my heart started to beat faster and I could feel the sweat starting to slick as the seams on the dress stretched to the point of bursting.  I had visions of me ending up with a ripped dress and either having to sneak it back in the shop or having to buy it anyway.

Eventually, though, I did manage to get it off, and in one piece, and it was only then that I realised there was a zipper on the side which would have prevented me from doing the changing room work out!

Funnily enough, I haven’t been back to that shop since.