All Sorts

Internet dating has a habit of throwing you together with people you otherwise would probably never meet.

Esteemed Partner, who has lived eight miles down the road from me for seventeen years, and I got together via
'Guardian Soulmates', one of the five sites I joined, forgetting that most of its members would be be lefty Guardian readers. When I told him I only read the Daily Mail, he nearly got up and left!

That was over two years ago now, and the better we know each other, the closer we become.

This morning he made some Grauniad-type comment along the lines of "All pharmaceutical companies are evil".

I turned to Beloved Daughter (10) who is at home with a sore throat, and said "Yes, they experiment with all of their products on animals, especially on rats, beagles, monkeys and pigs, so that they can then provide us with things that have saved your life already, like Calpol, Strepsils, Night Nurse, and antibiotics, and.. and things."

No reaction from EP, so I went on...

"Then you get shops who make their money by saying that none of their products have been tested on animals, despite the fact that most of the ingredients they use were, even if it was years ago."

I still don't even know whether I meant what I was saying, I was just enjoying my little rant, and confusing my dear little girl.  I just had to check out of the corner of my eye to see whether EP was managing a weak and resigned fond smile, or if he was preparing to stalk home. He was doing neither. He is used to me by now.  He had simply got up to clean his teeth and have breakfast.

Because the real difference between us has less to do with world affairs, and much more to do with attitudes. I am single minded, I believe, in order to get a lot of things done as efficiently as possible. EP gives himself time and space during work time, to think of others.

So this afternoon, between racing around looking for plumbing equipment with which to sort out my house, he had taken the trouble to visit the Co-op to buy a pack of ready-made macaroni cheese for Beloved Daughter - her favourite food.

As it exploded all over my microwave, because he had forgotten to put the slits in the top, I had to reflect, for the nth time, that there really are no right and wrong ways to be.