Irrational behaviour in times of stress

When I grew up in Johannesburg the car was always kept full of petrol.  My father was a surgeon and he never knew when he might be called out and where he would have to go. Fuel efficiency wasn’t that great then either.

I cannot bear to let my fuel level go much below half (Number One Husband waits until the gauge is on the red) and for absolutely no good reason I went to fill up a couple of days ago.  Don't know where I think I will be driving but rationality had nothing to do with it.

I came to live in London when we married and then in 1970 we decided to go back to Johannesburg for family reasons. Going back to Johannesburg wasn’t that stressful – we had few possessions and Number One Daughter was a baby – and after all I was going “home”.  Number One Husband had a job to go back to as well.

By 1976 it was time to return to London and we did so the following year.  When we returned to London it was very different – family and friends were gradually leaving and spreading out all over the world. We had two children and my mother was going to follow once we were settled and also spend time with my sister in the USA.

There was great uncertainty in terms of jobs and schools and where we would live. I did some vaguely sensible things such as buying underwear, t-shirts etc for the children for a couple of years and one hundred pairs of tights for myself (they were incredibly cheap!) 

The one action that was completely irrational sticks in my mind:  on the day the packers came I suddenly felt the need for a wicker basket.  I still have it and I use it for storage – but I could have lived without it. Still not sure what it represented……