Well, here we are, the clocks have only just gone back and spring has only just sprung, so I thought I’d be right on time this year and go buy some things for my summer wardrobe.

I went to Marks and Spencer where they do a rather tasty range called Per Una, which they tell me translates as ‘for one woman’. Well, they do have more than one of each item so that’s not perhaps strictly accurate, but not very many more than one. I chose a cool and pretty dress which I tried on in some haste, and I took it home. But, oh dear! There’d been rather too much haste in my fitting and the dress I brought home was Too Big. Sure, I’d rather it was that way round, and yes, it does make me happy to be taking a dress back to change for a smaller size, but when I returned it to the shop I found that there WERE no more smaller sizes.

Confidently, I asked if I might order one. Equally confidently, the very nice lady on the till said that no, I couldn’t. Why? Because that line was finished now. Dead and gone. And here we were still in bloody March, for goodness’ sake! Should I rush out and buy up my winter woollies, then? The till lady was sympathetic, but could not conjure me up a in size 14R. She suggested I try the internet, since they kept their own stocks and might have one left.

I tried the internet. The dress didn’t even appear in the list, let alone in my size.

But there is a happy ending. Today I drove over to a nearby town and called in to their Marks and Sparks on the chance that they might have this dress in my size. And they did! There is was, nestling next to a size 12L on a rack of forlorn and lonely fellow end-of-liners.

I think it would be nice to know where we stand though, don’t you? Exactly what time of year do we need to go shopping for summer clothes? Easter is clearly far too late. How about Christmas? Can you imagine the queues? Or maybe we should all get invitations and mark our diaries to get ourselves into town between, say, February 20th and 27th or miss our chance for the year.