David's Daily Diversions

Communication

Communication is important in any marriage.

As his final Christmas present to me, my brother gave me a Norelco triple-head razor. I had owned one some years ago, and I suppose my brother thought I needed another. It is convenient for shaving on the run. That is, until the charge runs out and you need to plug the American prongs into a British socket. The shaver runs on 240v, so conversion wasn't necessary - just adaptation.

I bought an adaptor from a local DIY shop and for some unknown reason, it refused to accept the American plug. So I left things for months before I saw another one as I was waiting in the queue in Boots and thought I ought to give it a go. So I invested another £4. Mrs H was with me at the time.

Before I opened that one, I remembered one that Mrs H had owned for some time and I dug it out. Sure enough, it wouldn't work either. I never did open the one I bought from Boots, though it was in the bathroom for ages.

Finally a couple of days ago, I decided that it wasn't doing any good in the box, so I might as well open the one from Boots. Because I was bathing Aidie at the time, Mrs H went down stairs and opened the hermetically sealed package with scissors and brought it back up to me. Once again, the plug would not fit!

Then after over a year of observing me trying to adapt my razor plug and even opening my third adaptor, Mrs H commented that there was a shaver socket on the side of the light over the bathroom mirror. She had apparently known about this all along and it is a common feature in British bathrooms. Sure enough, it plugged right in - no adaptor required - worked perfectly on the mains and charged up overnight.

I waited a year to find this out!