There are three simple ways to avoid fraught moments:

(i) don’t get married

(ii) don’t move house

(iii) don’t go on holiday

Each factor alone provides sufficient explosive material for a lengthy exchange, combined the three create a very unstable mixture.

This afternoon, I sought the mains lead for the camcorder. (We are going on holiday on Wednesday.)

The last time I could definitely remember having it was in May of last year. We have moved house twice since then, to allow our old house to be knocked down, and a year later back into the new house.

House moves create problems for holiday packing.

“Have you seen the mains lead for the camcorder?” I asked the Best Beloved.

A number of suggestions were profferred, each more fruitless than the previous one. Sorting through unpacked boxes in the attic, I became increasingly irritable. Moving house and going on holiday are not good for blissful relationships.

I counted to ten and came downstairs to my study. Underneath a trolley of suspension files there was the lid of a five ream box of paper. I wasn’t sure why it had been left there when we moved. Lying in it was the mains lead.

Fraught moment past – after twenty-four years I’m getting quite good at not having arguments.