Some might say the currency of a happy marriage is love, patience and kindness. Some might even suggest it’s about passion and romance. Others even say it’s a form of domestic slavery where you swap supper and ironing for money.
But here at the Palace of Bundance it’s handbags, shoes and, sometimes, shiny things in small boxes.
Here’s the what the Index looks like at the moment:
Press trip to Nice: proper nice bag made of buttery soft yet thick leather and lined with something silky and prettily patterned. It might even have one of those cotton bags you’re supposed to store it in, but never actually do.
Weekend in Ireland reviewing potency of Guinness and whiskey: a new pair of boots in the end-of-winter sale so they’re almost an investment.
I know that in houses up and down the nation similar Indexes are being established. Newly decorated kitchens and holidays in hot places are put into the negotiations and pushed around like toy soldiers. Shoe collections are assessed and found wanting, catalogues are snatched up from doormats and studied for evidence.
What’s on the Index in your house? Is it new undies for a night out with the boys? Or fancy-schmancy mascara in exchange for attendance at a sporting event? An upgrade from Tesco to Waitrose for tolerating a fly-fishing fixation?
PS A press trip is when a travel company’s PR people take a load of hacks (from a range of areas entirely unrelated to travel) to the destination they are trying to plug. The PR people patiently try to interest them in the good bits and the new things while the hacks try to have as much fun, drink as much booze and eat as much fancy food as they possibly can. Think toddlers rampaging on e-numbers only noisier and greedier.
OK give in. How much