Dear Mary | 27 September 2012

Q. How do I deal with a dearly beloved wife who is beginning to display the same mildly eccentric behaviour of an aristocratic nature as her mother, also beloved by me? This week the timer went in the kitchen and my wife asked me to take off the greaseproof paper from the fillet of pork. This confused me as the roasting pan was still sitting on top of the oven and had yet to go in. Imagine my surprise when I opened the oven door to put it in and found two rather appealing stuffed mushrooms that apparently were meant to accompany the previous night’s supper. I thought nothing of this strange incident until this morning when i came down to find the swimming pool overflowing and the tap still on. It is only a matter of time before my darling wife begins to display other characteristics, such as wearing two watches, ‘one to do what watches are meant to do, and the other because it looks nice’.