The ever cheery Mr W was on fine form today, although he didn't believe me when I said it was going to rain later, and that based on the forecast I might need to swim home (the latter may have been a slight exaggeration...).

With familiarity though comes the ability to read Mr W's mind and after he'd pointed to the empty washing liquid and fabric conditioner bottles on his sink as the two essential starting items for today's list, he then left it to me to decide what else he might need today and I quickly drew up a short list that he agreed with.

As always the throwaway line of "if there's money left, you decide what else to buy" made me smile - and not for the first time he seemed genuinely thrilled with the extra surprise packet of ginger nuts and some smoked salmon in his shopping bag. In turn I'm thinking of applying to go on Mastermind with "Mr W's shopping list" as my chosen specialist subject...