In our house, we call it Fridge Surprise. It’s where, usually before the need to go to the supermarket becomes really urgent, I open the fridge and make my husband’s dinner from the available contents. It’s a bit like emptying the carrier bag in Ready, Steady, Cook but without the exciting ingredients. On this particular occasion our fridge yielded some eggs, a leftover pepper going a bit wrinkly (why is it always a green one?), a bit of creme fraiche, and some old cheese. Ah-hah, I thought, a Spanish Omelette of sorts!

I whipped the eggs and creme fraiche, grated in the cheese, and put in the fridge for later. Next, I sauteed the pepper with an onion and popped a jacket potato in the oven.

As I was going out I left instructions for him to warm through the pepper and onion, pour on the egg mixture and, hey presto.

Except he didn’t hear the bit about the eggs.

When I came home nothing was said but the next morning he mentioned how odd he had found his jacket potato topped with pepper and onion.

“You never listen to a word I say,” is a lament oft-repeated by me. Will he learn to listen more? Somehow I doubt it.