Robbie was back on form today, I don't know if he treated his colleagues to a 'Random Robbie' today, but if not he certainly made up for it tonight. Emily and her boyfriend Sean were in the car with us and we had been chatting about driving tests, car buying and A Levels when suddenly Robbie started rambling on about hump shunting. It sounded vaguely obscene and I have absolutely no idea why our conversation should have provoked that thought, but with Robbie sometimes it is best not to ask. I managed to distract Robbie and steer him back to a more normal subject, but as I suspected I hadn't heard the last of hump shunting. Robbie warmed to the subject again after dinner and by the time he had finished I knew all about master and slave working, that involved 2 class 08 shunters being joined together, one with the cab removed and extra ballast weight fitted (re classified as class 13's) to provided a relatively cheap heavy shunting locomotive to work in Tinsley Marshalling Yard Sheffield. That was only the first part of the lesson, he then explained the difference between 08's and 09's, basically it is a matter of speed and horse power, but you probably don't want the details - I certainly didn't!! I am quite interested in freight and I was fascinated by the book of line drawings that he conjured up, the DVD was interesting too - but there is such a thing as overkill!
It must be the day for random subjects because earlier in the day Sam and Laura had debated the question of how dogs sweat, another piece of information I could have lived without, but if anyone has a burning desire to know more about dog sweat you can find it here http://ask.yahoo.com/20061207.html
Sam had an accident at school today, someone pulled his chair from behind him and he fell backwards injuring the back of his head, he has a huge lump on his head and he is still suffering from a severe headache. Laura had her French GCSE oral exam today, she was very anxious about it, but she said it went OK. French is not one of her favourite subjects, and she is threatening to burn her exercise books now that she never has to speak French again. Emily is still showing an unnatural interest in French politics in preparation for her French A Level oral exam. She has told me so much about Jose Bovet, that I know more about him than about our own local election candidates. This will be Emily's first opportunity to vote, a bit of a milestone, and as always at such times I find myself wishing that her dad was still alive to witness it.
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