With it being the close season, I thought I’d tell you a short story which I promise actually happened.

During my time living in Henley-on-Thames I got to know two middle-aged ladies. They’d married early in life, and now their children had left home, and their husbands had retired to life either on the end of a fishing rod or on the golf course.  They now had the time and the money to pursue their own interests and hobbies, and did so with relish! At times it was like watching teenagers, which of a fashion it was, after all, they were doing nothing more than what young people of today take completely for granted. They’d been denied this when they were young, and were simply making up for lost time.

On one occasion they decided to book a weekend hotel and show package in London, and took the train from Henley to Reading then on to Paddington. The trouble was that afterwards there wasn’t a suitable train home, so I got roped in to give them a lift from Marble Arch back home. On that short journey I learned a little of the human psyche.

I pulled up on Park Lane, and fortunately they were already waiting for me. After dumping their bags in the boot they clambered into my car, and I asked how the weekend went. Their responses surprised me.

“Well, the hotel wasn’t the best….”

“The breakfast was meagre…”

“The room was pokey.”

“The wine was expensive…”

“The seats (at the show) were quite a way back…”

And so it carried on all the way back to Henley, and the village just outside where one of the ladies lived. I dropped off there first as the second address was on my way home. I pulled up to the house and it was there I learned my lesson on human nature and how some people communicate.

The two ladies said goodbye, and as she got out, the first said, “Thanks for organising things …… I had a MARVELLOUS time!”

You see, some people only communicate by whingeing. The trick is to be able to pick when the whinge really is a whinge. I’ll never forget those two.