When did chewing a toffee become an extreme sport? My views do change over time; I'm not dogmatic, nothing's set in stone. I'm human here. I don't know everything. Got to be candid, the foundations of some of the things I do know, might not be that secure; so if the argument is a good one, carries weight, and there's evidence underpinning any assertions as well, then, hey, I'm confident enough to recognise it and shift over to that side of the street.

Let's call these: "I'm a reasonable, rational adult" reassessments. Happy with those, part of growing. But last night, and typically it had to occur to me on New Year's Eve - apart from Birthdays, there's no other date around which can twist poignancy out of thin air like this one - it came to me abruptly and with a nip of frost on it too, that chewing a toffee is now a complicated, multiple meaning act. Once a pleasure, now virtually a studied decision. Full of angst from beginning to end.

"Got to be careful, don't bite into it, there's been some expensive dentistry done in the back there, can't risk that again. Keep it on my tongue, let it melt gradually, you can do it. Concentrate. Don't even think of using teeth... Why did I choose a toffee, for God's sake...Anything else but... They've got plenty of fruit in the house. Oh, yeah, you had to be different...There was plenty of stuff filled with cream, soft enough to eat...but no, you wanted to go off piste..."

So, we might acquire the capability to change intellectually, effortlessly, but what gain is that now when eating a sweet has become like juggling steak knives, a moment of anxiety, even potential regret. When did that change happen?