DEAR SHARON, LIKE most men, I regard shopping as a chore – something to get over with as quickly as possible.

Over the years, I’ve become quite efficient. I write a list, I get only what’s on the list. I know my local supermarket like the back of my hand, and I can get round in minutes.

The idea of shopping as a leisure activity is totally alien to me. This, I guess, is why you see dejected and panic-stricken men wandering about town centres on Christmas Eve. No shopping list! What on earth are we supposed to do?

So, if I’m out and about with my wife and/or daughters, and they want to do some shopping, they generally park me in a pub with a newspaper, and collect me later.

On a recent visit to our daughter in Edinburgh, I was pleased to note that this is common practice. I was duly parked at the White Hart Inn in Grassmarket – see attached photo of blackboard outside the pub.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.

  • Maybe it’s a Scottish thing – we saw a similar sign outside a pub in Stornoway earlier this month. Tempting – but I might not have got husband out in time for the ferry home…