When I started this diet blog, I wanted to hold myself accountable to an audience. Well, it hasn’t worked. And, in particular, this week it hasn’t worked at all. It all started on Monday when I left for a business trip in Paris accompanied by my wife.

We arrived in Paris after a short flight and went to a restaurant, Hotel du Nord. After examining the menu for 2 minutes, I decided to abandon the diet. This was a complete lack of self-control on my part.

I had French Onion soup, Steak frites and Creme Brûlée. We washed this down with a bottle of red. The whole thing was inexpensive and delicious for the price range.

The following evening I had dinner one of my colleagues. We had a tasting menu at an excellent restaurant called Milord. Every bite was delicious. The staff are both cooks and waiters. They managed to serve the same tasting menu to ten people whilst we were there. Again, we assisted the food with two different wines although we did not drink much.

On Wednesday evening, I had dinner with another colleague. We decided to go to Milord… This time I shared the beef which came with potatoes gratin. It was huge. There was also Baked Alaska. Yes you guessed it: we washed the food down with a bottle of wine.

Then onto Thursday evening. I decided last week to give myself a pass because I was having dinner with three colleagues who are leaving. We went to an inexpensive restaurant Le Bon Bock and each had the three-course meal. I had French Onion soup, Duck Confit and Baked Alaska. Ok - yes we washed the food down with red wine. It was Beaujolais Nouveau day, so we tried two.

And by Friday when we had to return home, I’d given up. We started with the hotel buffet breakfast and finished with fish and chips when we got home.

The week was long and it was hard work. We released a test system for Etherlink. The team and I also achieved a lot of other things. I guess that puts it into perspective.

Anyway, forget the statistics this week. The statuses are a sea of red. But I have not started this diet properly. The run up to Christmas with all the travel is making it difficult.