Being together is supposed to be better than being by yourself. Not as lonely. But when you live in a small house it’s not that simple. A narrow galley kitchen means you struggle to pass each other. One persons shooing is the others dislike. You bought four huge pork pies? The potato salad is full of sugar? Why can’t you put waste food in the bin, instead of letting it float in the sink….. Then there is TV. We don’t have Netflix or anything like that, so we watch terrestrial TV. But do there have to be so many steam train programmes? Tools is another thing. Yes he has a shed, but this time of year he takes over the kitchen, there are batteries, middle boats, cable ties, screwdrivers… The list is endless, all over the place. He doesn’t like shopping and washing up. So the food is weird and the water splashes everywhere. My new cupboard door is loosing it’s surface because its always wet… So I do things myself. The most irritating? When I buy things for both of us and he eats it all first.

If I asked him to write his irritations, he too would have a long list. He would be right! Living together isn’t easy.

Interesting statistic. Married men I’ve five years longer than single men on average, whilst married women live five years less than single ones!