While I'm in the mood for baring my soul (don't worry, I won't bare anything else!), I thought I'd share this little story about my reaction to getting lost in the Commissary on my first trip there with the OH.

I'd never visited the US, so all these aisles of strangely-packaged foods I'd never seen before in my life fascinated me. I was traipsing along with the OH when he walked down the snacks and cookies aisle. Oh, glory be! The colours! The names! The SIZE of the packages! No wonder many Americans are built like brick outhouses - your average pack of biscuits is four times the size of our long rolls of biscuits. That really makes portion control hard, trust me!

Anyway, I was standing there thinking: "Bloody Norah, how many different kinds of Oreo cookies are there, anyway?" or something similar, when I looked up and saw the OH and the trolley had disappeared. ARGH! PANIC!!!

I flew up the aisle, hurtled round the corner, found him standing there looking at me strangely. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wander off, I'm really sorry!" OH looks at me as though I have two heads and am green with purple spots.

"What's the matter? What are you talking about? I'm not upset with you, if you want to look at stuff do it, just bring it to the trolley and I'll buy it for you. Have a look around!"

Later, he asked me why I'd reacted in that way. I explained that I'd spent five years living with a man who, in Asda, would say: "Will you stop wandering off! Pay attention, for crying out loud. No, put it back. You don't need it. You can't afford it. What the **** did you pick that rubbish up for? NO, you can't buy that. Put it down!"

That's why I was cringing in the Commissary. And that is why I will never, ever, let another person make me into a cringing, nervous wreck. I deserve better than that. I am better than that!

(The fact that it now drives the OH bonkers because he often doesn't hear me say I'm just going to aisle 7 to grab so-and-so is much, much different! He doesn't give me a hard time about it, apart from grumbling a little - he hates shopping, though!)