Hi Liz, Glenda, Blondie and Ellie,

Apologies for not replying sooner, but I didn't realise you had all posted - discovered it by chance!

Blondie, I know what you mean about how demoralising people's thoughtless comments can be when you think you have made tremendous progress, and left the worst behind you, as a recent incident will demonstrate. It was a filthy night, dark, wet, windy and cold, just a few days ago. I was out with one of my children, my 8-year old, and we were walking on a sidewalk to the local supermarket to get a few provisions we needed for that night. A cyclist came tearing along the sidewalk towards us, with no lights on and total disregard for any other users of the sidewalk.

If I had been on my own, I would have stepped to one side and let the incident pass, but having my son with me made me think about what would happen if my 8-year old son had been on his own, so I decided not to let this cyclist get away with it. The sidewalk was only wide enough for two people, side by side, not a bicycle as well. The cyclist slowed down to go round a signpost, so I stood in his way. This man shouted vile abuse at me, and told me to get out of his *** way. I explained that the sidewalk existed to protect pedestrians from the likes of him, that we were entitled to be there, while he was not, and that it was he who should get out of the way, not me. He leapt off his bike, threatened physical violence, then started a torrent of abusive comments about my weight and size, calling me a "Fat ******" and various other choice names, to my embarrassment, in front of my son.

I have often noticed that people who trangress rules of behaviour and decency are extremely unreasonable, and virtually impossible to persuade by logic or reasoning. Their answer is always violence, abuse, and - most commonly of all - mocking your size and shape in crude, loud and loutish terms. Ironically, I had just been congratulating myself on the amount of weight I had lost, and what a difference there was between now and when I weighed about 75 pounds more. But, like Blondie, my pleasure was short-lived. Unfortunately, my reaction was the reverse of hers, and I ended up gaining a couple of pounds more. Was it worth the aggro? Was this lout persuaded in future to think of pedestrians, especially children? I don't think so