Going out for dinner with XN - always a joy

I remembered today some of the times I'd gone out for dinner with XN.

On several occasions, XN would get into a mood because the food wasn't good enough. He'd take one look at mine or his meal and start ranting about how they'd charged us £XXX and he could have made it at home and it would have been better.

The evening would usually go downhill from there.

At other times, XN would get stressed at simply having to sit opposite me and make conversation for a few hours. He would go quiet, I'd start asking questions to try and get a conversation going and he'd usually then attack my social skills, call me a tw@t and would go outside for a cigarette in a sulk, leaving me alone for ages twiddling my thumbs.

On other occasions, he would have a pint or two of beer which would seem to tire him out immediately and he'd go into a vacant stupor and again wouldn't talk. Another time, we were out shopping and decided to eat out. We were both tired and hungry so settled for a Pizza Hut because it was nearby and quick. XN was in a mood before we even got into the restaurant because it was a chain and he said we should have been able to find somewhere else to go. He didn't stop being in a mood for the rest of the evening.

Fast forward a few months.....we're on holiday in Spain and have gone to Barcelona for a couple of nights. We've gone out for something to eat on Las Ramblas - the main street through Barcelona, full of lovely little tapas bars and nice Spanish restaurants. XN gets stressed with the choice and decides he wants to go into....guess where...Pizza Express!! I refuse because he'd made such a fuss about going into Pizza Hut and we're in Spain...in Barcelona; I didn't fly there to go to Pizza Express as I can go there anytime. XN goes into a mood then, only coming out of it later on because the food was actually really great.

The next day, when I ask XN if he's had a nice time on holiday with me (it was our first one together) XN tells me that I am "intractable" because I always want everything my own way....! So I leave the choice of restaurant to him, afraid to voice a preference. XN gets stressed with having to choose somewhere and, you guessed it, goes into a bad mood.

We had two nice meals out this year when I'd gone back for round 2 but XN was drugged up on beta blockers and antidepressants that time