When a man opens the car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife - Prince Philip

The title of this post has very little to do with the content, I came across it and I liked it so I used it. My son pointed out to me the other day that I am getting more Random. He claims that I go around assimilating all sorts of odd information, facts and quotations and then when I find an unsuspecting 'victim' I share all my all this information regardless of whether they are interested or not. I told him that he was describing Robbie not me, but he said that was his point, I am getting more like Robbie.


I thought about what he had said and I had to admit that I do have some random thoughts. The other day I found myself wondering why some of the things that my grandmother considered essential are hardly used at all today. People can't have changed that much in my lifetime so why is it that we no longer need such things as back scratchers, shoe horns and smelling salts? Could it be true, am I becoming as random as Robbie?

I told my son that he was completely wrong, I could never be like Robbie because I would never wear the same sort of clothes as him. My son has the unnerving ability to raise one eyebrow (I wish I could do that). He looked at me, raised his eyebrow and reminded me about the coat that Robbie bought for me which is similar to his Berghaus jacket. I told my son that his theory was rubbish but in my mind I had visions of Robbie and I becoming the next Howard and Hilda with matching anoraks! What a terrifying thought.


With that thought still niggling in my mind I turned to the internet for support. I found some research from America that suggested that couples do not grow more alike over the years. What they found was even more worrying, they suggested that people tend to settle down with people whose traits mirror their own. So couples don't grow alike over time, they are fairly similar to begin with. That can't be true, Robbie and I couldn't be more different. I dismissed the research, after all it was done in America and I have serious misgivings about the collective judgement of a country that elected George W twice! I told myself that the results would be different if the same research was carried out in England. I remembered a quotation about statistics from my school maths book 'Statistics are like a lamp-post to a drunken man - more for support than illumination'. The American researchers may have questioned 1300 couples but their conclusions didn't support my point of view; no doubt if I had looked hard enough I could have found more favourable research but why bother. Despite my son's dire warnings, Robbie and I are very different people and that is exactly how it is going to stay. Just in case those researchers are right, we will be the exception that proves the rule!!