Cheers!

Although alcohol has been a no-no for the 3.5 weeks I've been on the restricted diet, I am looking forward to the day when I can add it back (in moderation, of course). This will make my champagne-loving sister very happy, as I spent her entire visit sulking because I could not join her in imbibing the stuff.

That didn't stop my husband from sending this to us both:

Impress your friends with champagne facts

1. There are seven million bubbles in a bottle of champagne. (Thanks to a $500k research project in California last year.)

2. The pressure inside a bottle is 50 bar - the same as at 40 metres under the sea, or like the cylinder in a London bus.

3. Cheap champagne can taste acidic because it's been rushed on to the shelves without aging properly. Good houses always wait three years to sell their non-vintages.

4. You pronounce Moet with the "t". Most pop stars get it wrong.

5. The most perfect size of bottle to mature and serve champagne is a magnum.

6. The best vintages are reputed to be 1999, 1996 and 1990.

7. A Brit invented the champagne making process but it was French monk Dom Perignon who popularised it.

8. The cleverest way to open a bottle is with a sabre, known as Sabrage. Don't try when hammered.

9. Drinking champagne helps the brain to cope with stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.