Mary Killen
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Q. Last week I reached my breaking point in Waitrose when a pushy woman barged in front of me to buy a piece of heavily discounted meat. She clearly encroached on my two metres of personal space. How can I ensure that others stop being so inconsiderate when shopping for food? A friend who owns a T-shirt with the logo ‘Hard Rock Café Wuhan’ has no problems. How can I subtly remind people to keep their distance?
— R.H., London SW1
A. You could order a similar T-shirt online, but a more tasteful prophylactic would be to use trolleys defensively. Pick up two at the store door and push one in front of you while dragging another behind.
Q. With reference to your correspondent whose au pair was turning up in the kitchen in pyjama shorts barely covering her bottom, I once hosted a paying guest, 18, the daughter of friends living abroad. She came for a month, was clearly unaware of the effects of her burgeoning beauty and also turned up at breakfast wearing virtually nothing. I circumvented the whole issue of whether or not she was exciting anyone’s (e.g. my husband’s) lust by confessing to her that I had crippling insecurities about my terrible cellulite. I said I couldn’t even bear to be around my contemporaries in bathing suits, and the contrast between her flawless, taut young legs and my own was making me despair. She was delighted with our ‘conspiracy’ and always covered up from that moment on.
— A.Z., Nairobi, Kenya
A. Thank you for sharing this tip.
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