Shape shifting

That's me on the left in 2005. The picture below is me now, with Sue and our neighbour baby Domenica at her baptism party. The new shape is the product of a mysterious wasting disease called "dieting".

I can tell that many people who last saw me fat and then see me thin, don't recognise me. Sometimes I see on peoples' faces that puzzled look that says "I'm sure I know this person, but who are they?" But there are other people who don't notice the weight loss at all. Perhaps these are people that see my personality rather than my superficial shape. Or maybe they just register other humans by a few tiny face details which don't change much with weight loss.

The attitude of people to my physical shape is influenced by how long they have known me. To a person I have never met before I am a middle-aged man with an unremarkable build. Whereas to people that have known me for a longer time I think I am often seen as an overweight person who is now thin, perhaps too thin. Interestingly there are some people who get angry or irritated by my weight loss. These are usually overweight male contemporaries. Sometimes they get very angry, especially when they are drunk and suggest that I am dangerously thin and need to eat more takeaway food and drink more alcohol in order to be healthy and happy.

Recently I reached the fairly arbitrary "target weight" towards which I had been "dieting" and I announced to Sue that my "diet" was over. I'm beginning to miss it already.