Last updated 19:00, Friday, 15 February 2008

THIS week I have been looking hopefully at the lengthening days and thinking about shaking off my winter torpor and taking some exercise.

The lighter evenings are good news for me, but not for our dog, who is hoping to hang on to her title of Britain’s Laziest Dog 2006-2007 by dashing upstairs to hide in the airing cupboard whenever she hears the w-word or the rattling of a lead.

But, dog notwithstanding, I feel the need for exercise, especially as it was my birthday last week.

This has always been a gloomy day, because when I was growing up it was always marked out as The Night The King Died, and later as The Day Before the Munich Air Crash, because it was.

This one hit home harder than usual, because for the first time I got a card which greeted me as a ‘wonderful grandma.’ And, when I knelt by the fridge to get out the milk for the pancakes, I had a struggle getting up again.

So I think we Grumpies, men and women, should lobby for a playground exclusively for the getting-on-a-bit, like one which has been installed in Manchester.

It has equipment on which we could play - sorry, exercise - and get ourselves fit without the worry of falling over or looking daft.

After all, which of us hasn’t secretly longed to have a go on a bouncy castle, or whizz down a banana slide? I did get to go down a slide last year, but it was part of an ‘installation’ at an art exhibition and sliding down it, and out into the sunshine (and there was no other way out, much to some folks’ embarrassment) was meant to re-enact the moment of birth or some such thing, so it didn’t count as fun.

Looking on the bright side, I won’t be allowed to use the one in Manchester because it’s for over 60s only and I haven’t hit that milestone yet.