The Coven

I have a group of girlfriends called "The Coven". The Coven (& Associates) was established in 2001. What began as a derogatory nickname for a friendship group of women in a law firm, became a symbol of empowerment. The partners in the law firm we worked in were a bit threatened and thought it was funny to call us a group of witches. Powerful women are often cast as witches and much cleverer people than me have given it a lot of thought and written about it. The joke was on the partners though, because rather than be offended, we embraced that name and ran with it.

We went out for coffee most days, had trips away and supported each other through lots of life's ups and downs. We caused quite a stir in our absence at one Friday night drinks when we put witches hats on our usual seats before we had left work early to go away for the weekend. The partners laughed uncomfortably, the support staff loved it.

23 years later The Coven is still going strong.

I have no doubt that had I been born in medieval times I would have been drowned or burnt at the stake for being a witch. If there is such a thing as past lives, I would have been cast as a witch in some of mine. I know that I would have struggled to conform and it is likely I would have resisted being owned and therefore I would not have married.

Completely unrelated to The Coven I have a male friend who calls me D'Witch. It is a term of endearment (I think). He doesn't know about The Coven so it sort of feels like my own private joke when he calls me that. I am proud to be a witch.

Anyway, I think all women should have their own coven and I dedicate this song to my coven. The subject of the song, Rebekah Harkness, an American composer, socialite, sculptor, dance patron, philanthropist and who founded the Harkness Ballet and became well known for her personal eccentricities, is a coven kind of woman. Taylor Swift acquired Harkness's Holiday House in Rhode Island in 2013. Swift is a coven kind of woman too.

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I had fat grafting surgery on Tuesday. It involved taking fat by liposuction from my "flanks", preparing the harvested fat and then re-injecting it into the top of my left breast which was hollowed out compared to the other one.

It was performed as day surgery under general anaesthetic. I have two small incisions on my lower back where the fat was removed from. Fluid was injected into that area to decrease bleeding and pain. A blunt cannula was used to remove the fat, which was then washed in something akin to a lettuce spinner, and the fat cells were re-injected into the hollowed out defect in my breast via another two small incisions.

I have been warned I will need one, possibly two more lots of these surgeries, as not all of the fat transferred will survive, especially since the area it is going into is basically a whole lot of scar tissue (from radiotherapy of the chest wall and two previous major surgeries).

I went into the operating theatre at 2:15pm and was awake in the recovery room by 4:15pm.

The next day I went for a walk and did 12,248 steps. I cannot believe how well I feel.

I have some impressive looking bruising on my flanks and feel a bit tender, like when you take a tumble after drinking a few too many margaritas. I'd do it again - especially since the next harvest site is my thighs! Apparently the thighs hurt a lot more than the flanks, but as one of the coven so wisely put it "So does the gym".