Ruth Walker: 'A compliment's a compliment, right? . . . You take 'em where you can get 'em'

But one day I was aware of the occasional unwelcome wolf whistle from the general direction of a building site, now and again a belter of a beep from the driver's seat of an unwashed white van and, once or twice, from an unknown source presumably too shy to be identified.

Or who thought better of it once they'd had time to examine the object of their outburst at closer range.

Then, the other day, it occurred to me: it just doesn't happen any more. Not a peep. Or a toot. Not even a "How you doin' darlin'?" Which is, of course, all very welcome. But strangely not at the same time.

For while I have no desire to be leered at by overweight men in hard hats and steel toecaps - men who seem to feel the twin advantages of scaffolding and a subscription to The Sun give them the right to treat all women under the age of 35 as sex objects - this development is symptomatic of a growing invisibility as old age and general decrepitude creep ever closer.

Do men still whistle at women anyway? I wondered. Has it become a politically incorrect and antiquated way to show one's admiration for the feminine form?

Or am I simply too elderly (deaf, even) to notice - or be noticed - any more? It is at moments such as these that even a backhanded compliment can be welcome; nay lapped up and savoured as a rare and precious treat.

A friend recalls (how could she forget?) the day a good friend responded to her announcement that she was going to join a gym.

"That's great," he enthused, grin spreading across his face, clearly oblivious to the potential offence he might cause as he continued: "With your body - the sloping shoulders, the thick waist, the weightlifter's thighs - you'll bulk up perfectly."

A colleague arrived at work the other day in raptures, after a man had come up to her in the street praising her "beautiful hair". He had tried to touch her head, so enthusiastic had he been. He may even have tried to follow her.

When asked to elaborate, she admitted she had been passing a psychiatric hospital at the time and the gentleman in question had obviously been a patient. But, hey, a compliment's a compliment, right? And when you've been with the same bloke for around four years, as she has, you take 'em where you can get 'em.

On the same day, I, too, received a spot of unexpected attention from the opposite sex.

Plodding across the road on my way to work, a chap in a truck called me over (he may actually have whistled, but I had my earbuds in so couldn't hear - I merely spotted his come-hither gesture from the corner of my eye).

I ventured over, thinking he might be lost and need help with directions.

"Sorry," I wheezed, "I didn't hear you, what was that?"

"I said you're a good-looking woman ..." snigger ... "for your age."

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This article was first published in Scotland On Sunday, 23 January, 2011