Avoiding A Nervous Breakdown

We are standing in the queue in the middle of the mobile phone shop in Exeter that used to be Orange but is now EE. I want to change Robin's contract which is years old and ridiculously expensive.  There are eight young men in yellow and turquoise T-shirts, in individual booths,  all deep in conversation with their customers, all buying phones which need lots of explaining and signing of contracts, which take a long, long time. And no-one at the front desk.

Robin engages with the friendly people in the queue behind us.When it gets too weird for me I distract him  - explaining his arm and shoulder exercises which he's very good at doing but can't remember the sequence.  I've persuaded him not to go to the loo just yet in case we are called. He waves and grins at the little girl with the ballon in the queue in front of us. I feel totally ignored as a customer. I want to shout at one of the busy young men, 

For God's sake hurry up. Why aren't there more of you?  Can't you see the queue is out of the door and we've got another appointment. 

Just when I think I'll explode one of the young men comes and asks us how he can help.

He apologises for his running nose  - I feel sorry for him and his tiny, wet, screwed up, inadequate tissue. He says it's hay fever.  Robin says What's hay fever? I explain but he still looks blank.

But I'm more interested in sorting out the phone contract. It turns out he's tied into it for another 2 months but then it can be reduced from £30 a month to £10 a month which is a great relief. 

The young man says we can arrange it by phoning the head office which will save us coming into the shop and save me from having a temporary nervous breakdown in the queue....provided they answer the phone of course.

An  hour later we are waiting in the doctor's surgery to see the lovely Physiotherapist about Robin's weakness in his shoulder and arm. I don't stop Robin going to the loo this time, I'm trying to read Hello! magazine, listening out for his name to be called and distracting him from joining in with the little girl and her mother who are playing with bricks on the other side of the waiting room, by reminding him about his arm and hand exercises. 

And all the time I'm thinking about the hours this afternoon when Robin will be in the company of my lovely brother-in-law and I can potter about in the kitchen and clean out the fridge...get the last of the plums in the oven  - maybe roast them with brown sugar and blackberries and shards of orange zest....and scrub the straggly bunch of little carrots from the allotment which have been languishing in the salad drawer for ages....maybe grate them up and make them into Feta and Beetroot Burgers for supper...

Multi tasking....dreaming up recipes in my head, seems a good strategy for avoiding a nervous breakdown in all the queues and all the waiting rooms of my life.