Dear mary your problems solved

Q. I volunteer for a charity one morning a week. This happens on one of the mornings when my cleaner comes. I have a feeling that as soon as I have gone out she knocks off early, knowing I won’t be back, although she still has another 45 minutes to go. I cannot put my finger on why I think this; it is just instinct. She is generally reliable but I think this is a temptation too great for her to resist. As I pay her £12 an hour, I find it annoying. What can I do, Mary?

—J.F., London SW12

A. Why not get into the habit of loading the oven with a cake just before you go out? This will give you licence to ask her to take it out of the oven just before she leaves.

Q. The other day I was treated to a fantastic lunch by a restaurant-owning friend. There were quite a few of us in the restaurant, celebrating a birthday, and everything was excellent; however, I simply could not finish the steak I had ordered. I knew my dog would love this leftover, but quite frankly, I was thinking more of living off it myself for a couple of days. Under normal circumstances I would have had no compunction about asking the waiter to ‘box it up’ for me, but drawing this sort of attention to uneaten food felt somehow wrong in the context I was in, i.e. as the guest of the person who had essentially produced the food. I could not wrap it in my napkin, as this was a luxurious linen affair about one foot square. I had to watch the steak being whipped away by the waiter.