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.
