Mike Gayle

It was an ordinary Thursday evening in January — at least I thought so. I wasround at my girlfriend Mel’s fl,at and it was to her that I’d aimed my question, as for some unknown reason she’d just turned off the TV even though I’d quite clearly been watching it. VVhat really wound me up, however, was the fact that she’d used the remote control to do it, adding insult to injury. It was an unofficial rule of ours that I looked after all TV channel-changing duties - in the same way that Mel got fi,rst grazing rights on the top layer of any box of chocolates that came into our possession. We’d arrived at these and various other rules through a process of trial and error over the course of our four-year relationship. These rules made me happy. I always knew where I stood. But when you abandon rules there’s bound to be chaos, and right now what I had on my hands was a serious case of anarchy.