Soft furnishings and the modern man

I was in HomeSense at the weekend. If you don't know the store, it is, as the name suggests - items for the home. Pictures, mirrors, frames, storage, lamps, ornaments, interesting ironwork - a girlie haven. . I love it in there and could happily spend a fortune. For those of you who read my post about Anthropologie - it's very similar products but about a quarter of the price. The place for the 'sensible' shopper.

Anyway, I was browsing on Saturday. Gently fingering fabrics, peering at paints and coveting cushions. They had some real beauties with frills and fancy bits. A young couple were standing in the way of a particularly fetching deep purple paisley print velvet specimen I couldn't wait to get my hands on. The female asked his opinion on two she was dithering over. The poor chap, he looked terrified. "The thing is" he stammered. "I'm just not all that interested in soft furnishings..."

I couldn't help but smile and, seeing as I really wanted to get to that purple velvet, I just had to butt in.

"Of course he's not going to show an interest in cushions" I lamented. "He's a bloke."

Bloke in question looked at me with gratitude and agreement. Here was a girl on his side at last. And I wasn't even finished yet..

"You're lucky you got him in here at all" I continued (receiving a nasty look from the cushion coveter). Then I returned home to my man who was on the edge of his seat in the closing minutes of the big game. We had tuned into the radio on the way home just to check if it would be safe to cross the threshold, but needn't have worried. His team won.

Clearly the girl hadn't a clue how to handle her man. I mean, seriously, you don't take them shopping for cushions for one very good reason. No, not because they don't care; they get bored in 2 seconds; or would rather be watching sport. The reason is simple... they will never find out how much you just spent on two squares of fabric stuffed with fluff!