This morning, I did my weekly job of planning the menu and making up my shopping list. Our shopping list is a sheet of A4 marked in a grid of basic categories - health and beauty, fruit and vegetables, bread and bakery - in the order they appear in our local supermarket. All I need do is write the things I need in the appropriate spaces and then just go around putting things into my trolley – in separate bags, of course: dry groceries, fruit and veg, cold stuff and cleaning products.

Yes, this is frightfully organised, but I wasn’t always this way. This is all the fault of my organised husband; it was his suggestion. And in this case, he was quite right: shopping is much easier doing it his way.

I want to make one thing clear: my husband never nags – he just makes the same suggestion again and again. And again. And again. It’s always a gentle suggestion and often phrased as a question: “What do you think about doing it this way?” but I am not fooled. It’s all a cunning plan to make me do things his way.

Another issue is the throws on the sofas. I like having colourful throws on our white sofas. For two reasons: the first is that I think our white sofas are too pale in the room; the room needs more colour in it. The second is reason is – white sofas. White sofas, without throws, are always going to get grubby. The covers on these sofas are theoretically washable but getting them on and off is a whole day’s work.

He's won. I noticed the other day that the throws were really getting very faded and decided on the spot to throw them out. They have gone up to my brother’s farm to be cut up and used for tractor rags. They won’t be replaced. We now have bare white sofas and I’m just praying that nobody will spill mulled wine over them at our Christmas Eve party. Although that would add more colour, of course.

The next thing will be the Christmas decorations. As I wrote in last week’s blog, he has begun his campaign. He’s willing to start small, however; he wants to get rid of two light-up window decorations we have – a shooting star and a Christmas tree. I like them but he does not. Now that battle is enjoined, I wonder how long it will be before he wins, especially as he has our daughters on his side.

It must seem to my husband that his suggestions are like water off a duck’s back and that I am impervious to them. To me, his suggestions are like water on stone: the stone may at first appear unchanged, but eventually the water wears the stone away. He plays a long game but always wins in the end.

This just proves that, if you want your own way in something, never give up.

Mary

A Moodscope member