Dear Mary: how do I stop a nosy acquaintance from snooping in my house?

Q. I’m very fond of a neighbour in our village and we see a lot of each other. She has told me she has got X, an acquaintance of mine, coming to stay and wants to bring her over for a drink before lunch on the Sunday. The trouble is X is a decorator and will ask if she can look around the house. I happen to know that she’s very nosy and indiscreet – but how can I say no?

– Name and address withheld

A. Why not pretend to be enthusiastic about the visit and then, on the day before, ring to say you are longing to see X but cannot possibly have anyone in your house as you have had the rat man in and there are disgusting smells emanating from under the floorboards – can you switch venues to your neighbour’s house?

Q. I was on a 90-minute flight recently in the USA and had just stupidly left my favourite sweater in a shared Uber after a complicated diversion to pick things up from a friend’s rental. After checking in my suitcase, I was still carrying a straw hat, jacket, handbag, mobile phone, carry-on case, plus a heavy book the same friend insisted I take to read on the plane. As soon as I sat down, the woman next to me asked if I could swap places with her husband in another aisle so she could be next to him. I said: ‘I’m sure you have many years with your husband. I have already lost one item and am rather flustered. Also I don’t want to be parted from my things’ (now stored above my seat). Mary, did I do the right thing? The woman did not seem an anxious flyer as she was reading on a Kindle throughout the flight and like me only drank water.