A Promise

Robbie is not really into gardening, after all why waste time on gardening when you could be playing trains! This year seems even worse than previous years, possibly because his only incentive to work in the front garden has gone; our very attractive neighbour has moved, so he has no reason to hover in the garden hoping to see her. The gardening situation is now desperate, the hedge is threatening to swallow the house and it is almost impossible to walk up the front path because the hedge is closing the the gap. I have to walk up the path sideways and the postman carries a machete! Robbie keeps telling me that he will get around to it, but so far I haven't seen any action. I can't use the hedge cutter because it is still lacking an electric cable since the last time Robbie cut through it and anyway I find them too heavy to hold up for very long. I have two different pairs of shears, I bought one pair especially to cut the hedge but Robbie has squirreled them away and I cant find them, I keep asking and he keeps promising to get them but I'm still waiting! Anyway I spoke to him about it again this morning and he promised to get the shears for me. I extracted another promise too, he says that he still has a working hedge trimmer and that he will make a start on the hedge. I wanted a Magnus Magnusson type promise 'I've started so I'll finish' but he only promised to 'make a start' so to add a bit of incentive I have agreed to go on a train with him on Saturday if he does a good job.