Well, here is the story. We are going overseas in 2 days time and when I say overseas I am talking Sydney to Amsterdam, which probably is a number of seas and definitely a long way. I was talking to friends the other day about the perpetual problem of packing it all in, and one said, just put any extra stuff in your husbands bag. Her husband nodded. Another said I always put my hairdryer etc in my husbands bag. He nodded. They all agreed.

Well why wasn’t I told this? Where is this in the 2^nd wives manual? So I said to Gordon well that means, according to the code, that I can put some stuff in your bag, because that is the rule. He said “NO”. The women looked appalled, the men shocked but a little intrigued. I kept at it. He didn’t budge.

The next day I rang my sisters and they said, “of course, you do”. I tried again. “NO. I married you because you can carry your own baggage”. I didn’t think he actually meant my physical bags. Now I am 5ft 2 and he is 6 ft. and weighs a bit over twice my weight, and I am female and need to look good, and seriously he doesn’t need as much as me.

A storm is brewing

But that has always been the way we have done it, until I was finally told about this “rule”. I see myself as pretty well self sufficient and independent but I am looking at my suitcase on the floor here and thinking this is not going to happen. I have taken out a lot and still have a full bag.

As an aside I have always carried the toiletries, the medical etc in MY bag.

So I rang my mother, as you do, and said you are a very bad mother. You should have told me about that rule. She said, “I thought you knew”. Well, mother, I didn’t, now fix this. So she spoke to Gordon. He said “NO”.

Then I asked the ladies at our regular coffee shop, and they all knew about the rule. They harassed him and he said “NO”.

So as I am not going to let go of this (and by the way I don’t actually need to put anything in now really) but it is the principle. So I asked whether his 1^st wife put some of her stuff in his bag when they travelled. He said, “YES”.

I do have a lovely while leather jacket that would seriously like to see Amsterdam, Ghent and Maastricht and would look good on my birthday when we are over there.

Now what do I do?