Irony

Robbie got himself into a strop on the phone on Monday. He rang in part to ask if I was going to the supermarket and I said that I hoped not to go because I had a lot of work to do and I wanted to get it finished. He said that he needed to get some bagels, cream cheese and salmon for his lunches this week because I hadn't bought them at the week end. I suggested that he could buy them in Birmingham, because if he chose to stay out all weekend on a 'jolly' I didn't think it was my job to do his errands for him. Almost as soon as I had put the phone down it rang again and it was Robbie asking if I needed anything since he now had to go shopping. I said no thank you and I thought no more of it. Yesterday I was going to the supermarket and shortly before I went Robbie rang again and asked me to get the same things, I expressed surprise in view of his phone call on Monday. His response was "Oh, that was irony" - he will have to try a bit harder next time because that was lost on me!

A Frustrating Morning

I have had a very frustrating morning getting quotes for house contents insurance, they want to know more about me than I know myself! My renewal quote was £720 and I have got it down to £250ish, now I just need to chose one at a realistic price that will let me speak to someone based in England who speaks the sort of English that I can understand. Meanwhile I am waiting for the car insurance people to ring me back about coming to repair a stone chip in the windscreen, so far I have waited three hours for them to ring back “in ten minutes” - I thought people wanted business these days!

A Big Let Down

When I finish work on a Thursday evening I look forward to the weekend, I don't have work again until Monday so if Robbie gets home at a reasonable hour on Friday we can enjoy the evening together and we have Saturday and Sunday to look forward to. The problem is that one way or another Robbie always manages to snatch defeat fro the jaws of victory and our weekends often turn out to be miserable. But this weekend Robbie had promised not to be late home from work and I knew he had a dental appointment on Saturday so I hoped that this would turn out to be a nice couple of days. On Friday lunchtime when I went to Morrisons I was anticipating a good weekend - until I got a phone call from Robbie. He said he'd had an email offeringhim the chance to 'play trains' the following day, so he was ringing to ask me if he could go. For the first time ever I said no, not this time, because I wanted to spend some time with him.

He told me that he would be home on an earlier train and when I saw him I knew instantly that he had ignored me and agreed to go out to play. It took a bit of prodding but eventually he admitted it. It didn't create a very harmonious evening, he was gone before I woke on Saturday morning and I had no contact from him all day. I waited up until well past midnight because I thought he would be home and I didn't want to lock him out. In the end I gave up and went to bed, when I woke up he still wasn't home and there was no contact from him all day. I didn't know where they had gone on, but I thought he had mentioned going north, either the north had been annexed by a foreign power that was blocking phone signals or Robbie was avoiding me. I decided not to worry about it, I knew he would be home when people stopped feeding him! I was right, after two days of silence I had a series of texts as he summoned the courage to ask for a lift from the station. I'm still not overjoyed with him, more about the lack of communication than anything else. I have another week stretching ahead of me and I'm not going to bother looking forward to the weekends!

Looking Forward

I have enjoyed the sunshine this week because Robbie's 'Columbo mac' has not made an appearance - until today. My heart sank when I saw him coming down the stairs, I expected him to get his notebook out and inform me that he had one more question! Oh well, I cant do much about it except wish for sunshine.

I have to pat the balance on our holiday today, I can't believe that we only have a month until we go to Cornwall. I am really looking forward to it, a holiday will do us good.

Do normal people travel by train?

I have a question, do normal people travel by train? It may seem like an odd question but every day Robbie tells me about his fellow passengers or the train crew he meets. I am not sure if Robbie acts as a bit of a magnet to people who are a bit 'out of the ordinary' or if he only tells me about their strange interests. Yesterday he told be about someone he met who was a bus spotter (as well as a train spotter) that wouldn't be so bad if he he didn't give me a verbatim account of his entire conversation. On weekdays we only have a few hours together in the evening, does he really think I want to spend that time listening to a load of drivel about the various types of buses in use in different towns? He chattered on happily as my eyes glazed over (a dangerous thing when driving!) and I wondered why just occasionally he couldn't meet someone ordinary and talk about something a little more interesting than trains, buses, roadworks etc!

Not My Day!

Do you ever get the feeling that is not you day? I couldn't wake Robbie up this morning and when he finally did get up he was like a bear with a sore head, what a wonderful start to the day! Then when Robbie had gone off to work Sam appeared, he thundered down the stairs like an angry troll, he was in a strop because he couldn't find his PE top. Even when his PE kit was found, Sam's strop made Robbie look like an armature! Just before we went out to school Sam announced that he had lost his hay fever medication and I went to get some more from the medical cupboard. Like everything else in this house it is above my reach and I had to stretch up to reach it and I knocked a little blue plastic tube out of the cupboard. When I picked it up I took a closer look at it, a blue plastic tube with a press on lid containing a glass ampule of amber liquid wrapped in tissue paper. I was concerned, I couldn't think what it could be, it really bothered me. I shouldn't have investigated quite so closely, it was a remnant of Sam's Dennis the Menace phase - a stink bomb!!

A Brief Spell of Normality.

I love having the children off school for the holidays, but I must confess to a little sigh of relief when they went back to school yesterday. At last I have some structure back in my day, it is really hard to get jobs done with people there all the time and I found it hard to get my writing done when one or other wanted to be taken here or there. Emily is still at home, she doesn't have to return to university yet and Laura is only back at school for a few weeks before she has exam leave for her A Levels, so it will be a fairly tense time and any sense of routine in my day will be short lived.

I should know better really.....

You know sometimes you just sense when you are wrong, but still you carry on trying to believe you are right? Well 'stupidly' I thought that yesterday and was proved very very wrong, so her I am HUMBLY apologising to my darling wife......SORRY CHRISTINE x x

Triffid Trouble

Robbie spent Sunday morning doing battle with a 'triffid' in the garden that has to be dug out before he can erect the final fence panel – it won! It is still standing defiantly, Robbie had to retire from battle due to exhaustion but he thinks he has a least inflicted some damage to the roots and battle will recommence next week. Maybe his skirmish in the garden put him in an awkward mood because he was in argumentative mood in the afternoon. First he absolutely insisted that I was wrong about the type of shampoo that I use for the dog, then later he insisted that I was lying about the cost of a BT call out when there is no line fault. What stupid things to argue about! He did apologise later when he found that he was wrong on both counts, it was fun watching him eat humble pie!

Mistaken Identity

I am having little success in persuading Robbie not to wear his 'flasher mac'. The other day he became very indignant and told me that I was being ridiculous, apparently it is quite obvious that it is not a 'flasher mac' because it doesn't have epaulets. When I managed to control my laughter I pointed out that if you are unfortunate enough to encounter a flasher I very much doubt that that you would be looking at the epaulets! Someone commented that it made him look like Inspector Gadget, and when I looked at a clip from the cartoon I realised that he even stands like Robbie with his hand on his hip! I just hope that Robbie doesn't decide to wear a hat.

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2661792

The Columbo Fan Club!

I am lost for words, my worst fears have been realised – Robbie has bought a flasher mac! I worked so hard last year to put him off the idea, but I made a serious error when he mentioned it last week, I was tactful and Robbie doesn't understand tact. Yesterday he got home late and I couldn't quite believe it was him when he walked out of the station, the word that sprang to mind was – Columbo!

I don't know what I am going to do about it, perhaps I will be lucky and he will leave it on a train!

A Fright in the Night

Robbie is not very good at going to bed on time and very often I leave him sitting at his desk in the corner with his laptop in front of him and his earphones in listening to what he misguidedly calls music. Usually he stumbles up to bed later on and makes enough noise to wake everyone in the house. On Sunday evening I went to bed and Robbie must have fallen asleep with his head on his laptop he didn't wake until about 3.30am when he opened his eyes and found two pairs of eye looking back at him. He woke with a start and retreated upstairs as if he was being chased by a ghost. The cats had been standing on the desk looking into his face, I suspect they were disturbed by his snoring, they certainly managed to shock him into silence!

Headline News

I had expected a last minute objection from Sam when it was time for his haircut on Saturday morning, but he went off willingly with Robbie without any sign of reluctance. From my point of view it was a win-win situation, an hour of peace and quiet and smart hair cuts for the men in my life. When they returned I was pleasantly surprised, Sam no longer had that annoying floppy fringe, his hair had been thinned considerably and it was cut into a nice shape at the back. What a difference a girlfriend can make!

Robbie's hair seemed to have been thinned considerably too - but that's a different story! He told me that according to his hairdresser his scalp is showing signs of stress. That doesn't surprise me, as well as the concerns and complications relating to his work, I know that he worries about his legs misbehaving. Recently he has started to suffer with very bad cramp in his legs which leaves him with muscle pain afterwards. It just makes life that bit more complicated, but I have finally extracted a promise from him to go to see the doctor about his legs. I think he has decided that he may as well deal with it because I am not going to give up!

Moving the Goal Posts

Men! Just when you think you have got them worked out they change the goal posts. Sam has always objected strongly to having his hair cut, when he was a little boy he would scream the place down as if he was being attacked. As he got older the difficulty was getting to the hairdressers in the first place because he flatly refused to go. Each time he needed a haircut, I had a feeling of dread, because I knew it would involve a fuss. Robbie and Sam usually go to the hairdressers together. While Robbie isn't yet having to pay a 'finders fee' to the hairdresser his hair is significantly thinner than Sam's thick mop of hair, so much to Sam's annoyance his haircut takes considerably longer than Robbie's. In the last few months he has taken to wearing a ridiculous hat, so it was possible to ignore the problem to some degree and to put off the dreaded moment of the haircut. When Sam came to me yesterday and asked me to make an appointment at the hairdressers for him I nearly died of shock. When I recovered my power of speech I asked why he was suddenly willing to have his hair cut, the answer was simple - his girlfriend wants it cut! Maybe I could give her a list of other things to work on!

A Distracting Wiggle

Robbie's legs are still hurting him, but he is managing to walk more normally – if you can call his gay walk normal! I waited in the car while he went into a shop the other day, I watched him walking and he really does have an noticeable wiggle. What was also noticeable was his new wallet sticking out of his back pocket. Does that man never learn? Having already had is pocket picked while at a gig, he knows how upsetting it is to lose a wallet and to have all the fuss of stopping your cards and waiting for new ones. He loves his new wallet, it was a birthday present and it probably cost more than the value of the contents, so if he loses this one he will be in big trouble. I think I will have to attach it to his pocket with elastic, just like the little children who have their gloves attached to their coats on a string of elastic!

Mission Impossible!

When Robbie got home tonight he was in so much pain that he could hardly walk. Being in pain doesn't make him any easier to live with, but he refuses to go to the doctor, apparently he doesn't need to go because he can cope and he has too much to do at work. He was walking around like Spotty Dog from the Woodentops, but he was still insisting that he wasn't limping!! I have given up for tonight, but that is only to give him time to get used to the idea of going to see the doctor. I will get him there one way or the other!

Happy Pills

When I went shopping yesterday I couldn't find any happy pills so I bought Robbie a huge quantity of crumpets instead in the hope that it would put a smile on his face! It only had limited success.

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we had collected some boxes of 'memories' from Robbie's dad. I have spent the last few days sorting the items out and packing them away safely so that they don't get damaged or broken. I went out and bought some special boxes for Robbie's things because I knew they were important to him and I didn't want them to be put up in the loft where he couldn't get at them. I bought two very large storage boxes that were made to look like huge hat boxes, one was just the right size for his mum's tea set (well wrapped in plenty of bubble wrap) and various ornaments and her collection of Wedgwood fitted into the other one. There were also lots of photos and cards so I got a nice strong wooden box that is made to look like a briefcase to put them in.

I have said for a long time that Robbie thinks he is Superman, he works too hard, does too much and doesn't take good enough care of his health. Thankfully he hasn't yet started to wear his underpants outside his clothing, but I found an old photo among the stuff his dad sent that shows that his superhero aspirations started a long time ago. The photo is not good quality, but you get the idea.

Man Stress!

I have had a horrible weekend. I had great plans, but it didn't work out as I'd hoped. I always look forward to the week end because I like spending time with Robbie, but I will be glad to send him back to work in the morning. He has managed to spoil the whole weekend with his 'man stress' and I am looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet tomorrow. Believe it or not he got himself into a mega strop because someone had eaten some of his crumpets - crime of the century!! As far as I am concerned when we buy food it is for everyone and this is a big fuss about nothing. Anyway a packet of crumpets costs 57p and I had already bought another pack so there were still 8 crumpets left for him to eat. In fact I wish he had eaten all 8 because at least he would have stopped moaning for five minutes. Oh well I guess there is always next weekend to look forward to!

All His Own Work!

When I was listening to the radio on Saturday they were discussing Michelle Obama's comment that she chooses all her husband's clothes. Maybe that is OK for a US president, but I want to make it clear that I have no control whatsoever over what Robbie wears, it is all his own work! Well I have to admit refusing to have anything to do with him if he wears certain T-shirts, and I did veto a red tie because it made him look like a party political broadcast, but that is the limit of my influence! It has crossed my mind to try to modify his tastes, but it would be a waste of effort, Robbie will always be 'a bit unique' and if I stop him wearing one thing, he will only find something worse! He tries to influence me sometimes, but I do as I like. I don't like loud colours and bold patterns (except on circus clowns) so him pestering me to wear brighter colours is pointless, I wear what I like.

What is Normal?

Yesterday would have been my 23rd wedding anniversary, but sadly Eric and I only made it to 17 years before he died. It is an odd feeling because I know that he wanted me to move on and get on with life and make things as normal as possible for the children, but I think that part of our lives will always be in limbo. I am not sure that we ever came close to achieving 'normality' as a family and while having Robbie in our lives has been good it certainly hasn't brought us closer to normality. After all Robbie and normal do not exactly go together in fact they are mutually exclusive! I feel so lucky that he is part of our lives and he has been extremely supportive of the children in so many ways, but still the thing I miss most is just being an ordinary family without the complications and the extra dynamics. I really hope that doesn't sound ungrateful because I am extremely fond of my step children and I know that having Robbie in family has greatly enriched the lives of my children, but still there is that feeling of being the only parent and trying so hard to get it right. Teenagers are very free with their criticism, but it is rare for a word of praise to ever pass their lips so it is hardly surprising that parents feel that they are a bit of a let down, and the complications increase when step relationships are added to the equation. Sam's computer is a good example, I have wasted hours over the last few days nursing that thing back to health, but if you believed his rants my only intention was to deprive him of any enjoyment and to isolate him from everything that is important in his life! Are all boys of 14 totally paranoid?

Staying Awake

I am so tired, I must be getting old, I really didn't want to get up this morning. Maybe it is just losing a hour last weekend that is catching up on me. I love the spring and the longer days, I really don't want to sleep through it all. The blossom has been on the trees for a couple of weeks now and the park is a sea of daffodils. Our house is on a long avenue, the trees that grow on each side of the road are not especially impressive for most of the year, but when the blossom is out they look amazing The petals are a bit annoying when they blow all over the car, but the blossom looks so pretty and it reminds me that we have the whole summer stretching ahead of us. In the last day or two I have noticed that the magnolia blossom is out, my mum loves magnolia trees and when I see the blossom it always makes me think of her, it also brings back memories of a special time and a special place for me. My favourite plants are less exotic but every bit as beautiful, I love primroses, not the brash coloured things that we grow in the garden, I like the delicate pale yellow wild ones. They are beautiful because of their simplicity and I love the way that grow in such unlikely places such as at the edge of a motorway or busy road. I love horse chestnut trees too, the candles of blossom are very impressive, the rows of horse chestnut trees in the park look amazing. Oh well, having got all excited about spring being here at last, all I have to do now is to stay awake long enough to enjoy it!

Fast Forward

We were up until 1am messing around with Sam's laptop, I wish people gave me that much attention when I feel overworked and under valued! Anyway poor old Robbie was nodding off in his chair and leaning at a precarious angle, I tried to send him off to bed, but he insisted that he was wide awake and he would wait for me. I gave up on the laptop in the end and left it to sulk, while Robbie and I got some much needed sleep.

Not surprisingly we overslept slightly this morning, so Robbie had to start the day on 'fast forward', but I think he still caught his train. He loves his job, but he has found the last couple of weeks hard going, even when he is at home he seems to find it hard to switch off. I understand, I've had similar times, but I'm determined that this coming weekend I will find a way to take his mind off work – even if it means going on a train journey!

The laptop is being a little more cooperative this morning, it is defragmenting, very slowly, but at least we are heading in the right direction.