Thought I must be very late when James ran past me, as I was ambling slowly towards school, with intention of picking up children.

James is urban house-husband and sometime actor (who looks after children while waiting for his big break, while his solicitor wife keeps him in publicity photos).

I quickened my pace but couldn't actually run, as skirt I was wearing was too tight and too long to allow for much leg movement.

A few minutes later, had a Groundhog moment when James ran past me again and, thinking I must be very late, quickened my pace but couldn't actually run, as skirt I was wearing was too tight and too long to allow for much leg movement.

"I've just had the same moment twice," I said, when I finally did get to the school and found a breathless James moving on the spot outside the classroom doors.

"And you were in it ... running past me."

"I did," huffed James. "Ran past you twice ... ( pant, pant,) I was running ... (deep intake of breath) got to get fit for an audition next week."

The audition, it turns out, is not for a part in the stage version of Chariots of Fire, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, or anything that requires running but for the role of a council official, in a touring production of a well-known film.

Why a council official should have to be super fit was not clear until James muttered that the well-known film just happened to be The Full Monty.

"So, you're going to be a stripper," I said, probably quite loudly really and, as it happened, within earshot of the lovely attractive new class teacher who was just opening the doors to let rug rats stream forth.

James made a sort of throat-clearing noise, whether because he was trying to avoid saying more on the subject of stripping or whether his run round the block had caused a certain build up of phlegm, I couldn't be sure because as soon as the door was open he ignored me and began asking attractive teacher something irrelevant about daughter's numeracy aptitude.

He caught up with me on the way home, having forgotten he needed to ask if I could take his children home with me tomorrow while he went to said audition.

"It might go on quite a long time," he said. "So, is it all right to have them until Edith gets home from work?"

I agreed, even though Edith works totally non European Union working hours, usually on some case which involves trying to make sure her client only has to work European Union hours, and doesn't usually get home until well after Coronation Street.

The next time I saw James he was chatting to Tony, the urban house-cleaner, who I had not seen since giving him a lift home in the pouring rain when I was not wearing trousers.

The reason for this being that trousers had got soaking wet (after going to interview someone in pouring rain in Milton Keynes) and, not foreseeing that Tony might appear banging on window when I stopped at traffic lights in Brighton, I had seen no reason to drive all the way home wearing them.

"Hello," I said, to both of them, before addressing James more directly. "How was the stripping?"

As luck would have it I said it again, just as attractive teacher opened door of classroom and directed distinctly odd look at James.

Fortunately Tony came to his rescue.

"She's a fine one to talk," he said. "She drives without trousers ..."