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Grandads' shed

Beyond a joke

(57 Posts)
lefthanded Sat 16-May-15 15:32:11

I know that it's a bit of a music-hall joke, Mars and Venus and all that, but honestly this is beginning to get me down. Does anyone understand?

This morning she asked me to take her to two places:
1. Lidl, where we do some of our grocery shopping and
2. The Range where we would "buy some fish food and have a cup of coffee".

As we enter the retail park, both these premises are on the right-hand side of the road. So to go to The Range (which is closer) first involves turning right (across the flow of traffic) into their car-park, then when we leave The Range turning right again across the flow of traffic to go on to Lidl, then turning right into Lidl's car park. Not impossible, but sometimes difficult on a busy Saturday. Going to Lidl's first involves only ONE right turn into Lidl, then a left turn into the flow of traffic to go to The Range, then another left turn out of The Range's car park to go home.

So as we approach The Range she says (and again I quote) "It's a quarter to twelve, are we going to The Range first or Lidl?". So I think "^It's a quarter to twelve, probably too late to have coffee now so it probably doesn't matter what order we do things in - we'll go to Lidl first (following the logic outlined above)^".

Everything goes well. We get our shopping in Lidl, then we get the fish food in The Range, then I say "Are we having coffee now?". And she snaps back "NO! It's too late now! I wanted coffee at quarter-to-twelve but you wouldn't come here first!"

Part of me wants to scream "IF YOU WANTED TO COME HERE FIRST WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO?" But I know that it would be pointless. Apparently I was supposed to infer the need to go to The Range first when she said that it was a quarter-to-twelve! She has decided that I am to blame here and there will be no further discussion. We will spend the next 3 or 4 days only speaking to each other when absolutely necessary.

So Ladies, Gentlemen. Give me some help here please. This isn't a joke anymore. We have been married for 40 years (next week) but we don't seem to be communicating at all now.

FarNorth Thu 21-May-15 22:40:08

lefthanded, your OP appeared to be a genuine plea for help. Posters did their best to think about your problem and to give their points of view.
Then you tell us that "fortunately" you have been out of the house working, for a couple of days. That has enabled you to dodge the whole problem and now peace reigns, until the next time .

So, as Lona asked, have you had a chat with your wife or are you just going to leave it?

If you leave it, you know a similar situation will crop up again and you will only have yourself to blame for not even trying to get things on a better footing.

Lona Fri 22-May-15 11:09:34

Exactly! FarNorth

pompa Fri 22-May-15 11:48:52

It does seem rather odd not to try to talk about the problem, it's the only way to prevent it happening again.

Mind you Mrs. P said, "take that outside please", so I did, "not that that, this that", so I returned the that and took the other that outside, confused ? so was I. smile

ginny Fri 22-May-15 12:01:25

I suspect there is far more to talk about than this one incident and the OP is reluctant to open a can of worms. So nothing will be solved and they will both just get more irritated and fed up.

rosesarered Fri 22-May-15 20:38:26

I suspect that Pompa likes very, very slim women, as Mrs P often sits on his shoulder, according to his post.May as well have a parrot.

pompa Fri 22-May-15 21:05:36

LOL, "slim" is not a word that is used in our house by either of us, definitely both built for comfort.