I’m organising a fundraiser for next week, jointly with my amazing friend Anna Curtis. Film screening followed by a sit-down dinner and silent auction.  And it occurs to me that we’re short on men.  Part of the problem is that most of our friends are women.  This is an advantage for most of our lives, it’s only now it becomes a problem.  The single women don’t know any men.  The married women don’t want to bring their husbands.  The husbands would  -we suspect - prefer to be at home on the sofa watching Newsnight.

We’ve come up with an ingenious way of keeping everyone happy, while making money for the charity - Prospect Burma - at the same time.  Charge the few single men we do have coming a premium for being sat next to a single woman.

“£200 to sit next to an under 40 year old,”  we joke.

“No, make it £400 to sit next to an under 35 year old with no kids!”  says my single friend with two kids, aged 37.

Of course, we could double charge - find that single woman under 35 and charge her the £400 as well to sit next to a single man.

Nothing like turning a negative into a positive, right?