The Tina Burton Column

I made the right decision - didn't I?

I am terrible at making decisions. I couldn't choose or decide on something even if my life depended on it. But it's not my fault. There are just too many choices in everything nowadays.

Take last weekend for instance. Hubby hasn't been very well, so his brother and wife came to visit us. Now I couldn't be bothered cooking different meals for us all - his brother is a vegetarian, and I am gluten free - so we went out for dinner instead. We sat at our table and the waitress asked what we'd like to drink. No problem there, I only drink dry white wine. Then we were given menus to look at.
I glanced at the huge array of food listed and looked up at hubby. I could see what he was thinking; he knows how bad I am when faced with lots of choice. I looked down at the menu again and tried to select something. But what did I fancy?

How about a nice steak? Yes maybe, but the fish sounds nice, hmm, so does the lamb.
'There's pork darling,' hubby said trying to help, 'you like pork.'

I looked at the pork dish - Crispy free range pork belly from a local farm, with buttered spinach in a thyme sauce - ooh yes, that did look good. But then I spotted the chicken dish - free-range chicken breast and portabella mushrooms in a red wine sauce, with braised leeks - that sounded lovely too.
By now, the waitress had appeared and taken everyone's order except mine. I looked up to see four faces all staring at me expectantly.

I started dithering, knowing they were waiting for me.

'Come on darling, the waitress hasn't got all evening,' hubby whispered, trying to hurry me up

.
'Sorry, but it all looks so nice,' I said smiling at the waiting girl who was standing with pen and pad in hand. She had one of those practised smiles set on her face, and I suspected she was probably gritting her teeth underneath it and thinking, just get a move on will you!

I finally made a decision. 'I'll have the chicken, but can you ask the chef if the sauce is gluten free?'

'Of course madam, now what potatoes would you like with it? You can have new potatoes, jacket potato, roast potatoes, chips, dauphinoise potatoes, mashed potatoes or gratin potatoes.'

'Oh!' Now I was really flummoxed. Hubby groaned and put his head in his hands as if to say 'oh God we'll be here all night now', my brother in law and his wife both laughed, and I just looked helplessly at the waitress.

'Oh, erm, well…' I tried desperately to think which would go best with red wine sauce. Then with a triumphant smile, I made my decision.

'Can I have rice please!'

We did enjoy the evening, and I had no room for dessert, which saved me from having to make another selection. But that is the problem nowadays, we are overwhelmed with too much choice. It would have been a lot simpler if I'd only had a couple of dishes to choose from; and as for the potatoes, well; new potatoes or roast would have been enough.

As if food isn't bad enough, I'm like it with everything. I go into a clothes shop and see a nice top, but then it comes in about six different colours, so I have to take them all in the changing room and decide which one looks best. Then I spot another top, which may look better than the first one, so have to try that on too. Oh, but what colours does that come in? And so it goes on.

For me, there are too many things to make a decision on. I shouldn't complain really, I guess it's good to have a variety, except that if you are like me, then it takes twice as long to order or buy anything. Ah, but maybe that's the plan. Because you can't make up your mind which one to buy, you might buy both. So perhaps it is a good ploy on the shop's behalf.

It certainly makes life interesting. Mind you I don't think my husband would quite see it that way, he's great at decision making and can't understand why I have such a problem. Perhaps I should just let him choose for me from now on.

Oh well, I'm off to make lunch, now what shall we have?

 

home | help | contact | e-mail

Copyright www.Age-Net.co.uk 2000 - 2008