My partner has recently retired and has - just - gone on a walking holiday with a group.
We have always had different approaches to packing. If I was going away for a few nights, I'd just pack a nightie, toothbrush, two changes of clothing etc. He likes to feel that everything he might possibly need will be there, and gets very worked up about assembling it all So he'll pack his dressing gown and slippers, as well as pyjamas. That sort of thing.
So a lot of fretting about weather forecasts, different kinds of clothing over the last few days. They're doing their own breakfasts and he said he'd have to go to the corner shop first thing this morning and buy a bottle of semi-skimmed for tea, and another of full-fat for cereal. (I said, 'Wouldn't it be a bit simpler to have one kind of milk for both - just while you're away.) This might sound micro-managing of me, but he tells me everything he's going to do - rather than just getting on with it. I try to minimise his getting in a state before departure, by trying to point out ways things could be made simpler.
This morning his fussing before going felt non-stop. Would I need the nail scissors? If not could he pack them? That short of thing.
It came to a head with the dental floss. Was I hiding a spare packet somewhere in our bedroom? Because though he'd bought several packets, there was only one in the bathroom. (I looked in our room, then in the open cabinet where there was a single opened packet. Then I looked in the bathroom cabinet that has a door. There were two unopened packs there.) I pointed this out to my husband, who said - 'Well you didn't find them straightaway, did you?' He then asked, 'Shall I take the opened packet or one of the new ones?' To which I replied, 'I don't bloody care!'
He promptly said, 'I'm leaving,' and stormed off in the car without saying goodbye.
I think this was just more pre-holiday nerves on his part. But I feel a bit fed up....