My next door neighbour, Clare, is what you would call a ‘big’ girl. She loves her fast food, chocolates, biscuits, crisps ….in fact just about anything that adds the pounds and kilos to her weight. And to make matters worse, she hardly ever walks anywhere but prefers to drive instead.

So it’s not surprising that about 3 months ago, she felt that her weight was getting out of control and she needed to do something about it.

Did she take up jogging? Or go down to our local gym? Nope – she decided to buy a Wii console!

She claimed that because the Wii had some new-fangled controls that didn’t just involve pressing buttons like other games consoles, but that actually required you to put in some effort to play games, then she’d lose weight.

Needless to say, her husband and I were not convinced and thought that this was just another one of Clare’s mad ideas (that she does have a reputation for coming out with!).

With her Wii console, she also got something called a Wii Fit that looked like one of those step blocks used in gyms for step aerobics. Clare said that this connected to the Wii console and came with a Keep Fit game that had her doing various exercises every day.

The software also kept a record of her weight, body-mass index and improvements in her performance of doing the exercise schedules.

Clare stuck to her new “exercise regime” and I would often pop round for a chat in the afternoon and find her red-faced and breathless from having just completed on of her sessions.

And the result?

Well, in the past month, she’s lost an impressive 14lbs (6.4 kilos for those of you who’ve gone metric) and it’s very noticeable. We are all impressed (even though she does keep saying “I told you so”). You can find the Wii Fit for sale on eBay at bargain prices. I’m definitely going to get one to get fitter and in shape.

Me, my boyfriend and our dog, Mr. Cache live in an Akumal Villa down in Riviera Maya. We decided to spend our first Holiday ensemble with his family in Merida. So on the 24th I worked until 1 o´clock because our plan was to get going at 2 in the afternoon or so, since a 4 hour dive awaited us before having our dinner. It was unreal to think we would exit Akumal on schedule! We’ve never stand out for being an “on time” couple!

As previewed we left our Akumal Villa at 5pm and after a long night and a straight drive (without a need to exaggerate Merida’s highway is the straightest and the most boring one in the world) we got to uncle Mau’s place. After noticing that Mr. Cache was definitely not invited nor welcome we tied him to a tree in the backyard; we quickly dressed up for the occasion and were soon having holiday drinks over the tree.

In my experience the whole party was a complete experience, everyone in the family was having a great time, fifteen children were running around picking on Mr. Cache, Mr. Cache didn’t stop barking and crying (of course because he was far away from his familiar home in the Riviera Maya), seven guests played Wii and many others like me nearly dying from starvation, were looking for the best timing to rob food from the unaccesible table, since dinner was served until midnight.

Today is the 25th and I awoke up to a lonely Holiday Inn vacation morning, the place itself made me sick for the rest of the day. It didn’t matter if I was with my boyfriend and my cute dog! The vacation was ruined and I had to go back home so as to save me from holiday depression.