Slow Learner

Robbie is having trouble with his knees - no it is not another post about his legs misbehaving, this time the cause is crystal clear - groveling! In the past I have called him a slow learner, I was being generous his behaviour this week suggests rank stupidity. He waited until Thursday morning to ask if he could 'play trains' at the weekend. I am not at my best before 6am so it was stupid to ask me when I was still half asleep. To add insult to injury he then tells me that it will only be a day and I will hardly notice that he isn't there. A little more digging illicited the information that he would leave for work on Friday morning and arrive home late morning on Sunday - since when does Friday to Sunday equal one day? Last night he sat there with a face like a pig's bottom (not that I am over familiar with the nether regions of pigs) and a little black cloud of doom hanging over him. I was so angry with him, this is our last weekend before going on holiday, there is loads of work to do getting things ready and I don't see why I should do all the hard work while he is out having fun. It didn't help that he had his headphones in and spent the evening doing 'train stuff' on the computer. This morning he tried the 'poor pathetic me act' and it made me feel like breaking something - his neck probably! I decided to let him go for his own safety and because I will have a nicer weekend without him, but he needs to watch out, he is going to be a very busy boy next week!!

Miracles Do Happen!

I have tried everything, threats, encouragement, punishment and even bribery! Bribery works best, but even then making progress is painfully slow. No, I am not talking about trying to achieve world peace or anything like that - I am referring to the problem of getting a 14 year old to tidy his bedroom! After weeks of nagging Sam has finally rediscovered the carpet in his bedroom and by Friday it should be sorted out to my satisfaction. It feels like a miracle - maybe I could get Robbie to sort out his stuff next!

Laura got back from holiday on Monday, she had been to Greece and she looks very tanned and a bonus is that the sun light has eased her skin condition a bit. She had a really good time, but now she has to face reality and start earning some money ready for university. Why does time go so fast when you are on holiday and so slowly when you are doing things you don't like.

An Extra Leg?

I found out why Robbie has been so impossible recently, he is worried. He is having numbness and pain in part of his hand, until now the numbness has only been in his feet and legs. When he told me I thought it may be something like carpel tunnel syndrome, but the symptoms don't match that. He will not go to the doctors to find out what is causing it, so his imagination is on overtime. Why do men make everything so complicated?

I explained to Robbie that I was very tired and that when he wakes me up at night I can't get back to sleep. I even warned him that if he woke me up again he would need to run very far and very fast! By the time he came to bed at about 1am I was asleep, but he was talking loudly as he walked into the bedroom. This time he was accusing me of stealing his socks! At the weekend when I was sorting and folding the clean washing I paired up and delivered at least eight pairs of socks; so unless he has recently grown an extra leg he should have enough socks to last a week! I didn't argue with him, I was too tired. Thankfully I was so tired that I went back to sleep fairly quickly.

Giong Comando - A Scary Thought!

On Sunday night I went to bed at at about 12.20am and Robbie assured me that he wouldn't be far behind. It was the usual story, I stayed awake, he didn't come to bed and I fell asleep. Suddenly I was aware of him shouting, he was really angry and moaning that he had no clean pants for the morning. I told him that they were in the pile of folded laundry that I gave him earlier, and there was at least enough pairs of pants for a week. He argued and insisted that there were no pants and he would have to go without. I was equally sure that the pants were exactly where I said they were. It was well past 2pm and I begged Robbie to shut up, but he was warming to his theme and he intended to list the many ways that I was neglecting him. Nothing I could say or do would make him shut up, and I was so annoyed about being woken up that I was ready to harm him. There was no alternative, I got up and went to sit in the bathroom to listen to the radio for a bit. When I got back he was still awake and I made it clear that if he spoke to me again I would go and sleep downstairs. He didn't speak, but he 'breathed aggressively' until he fell asleep and started snoring. I was awake for ages, then when I had got to sleep again it was time to get up! All that fuss about missing knickers! In the morning I made him look again at the pile of clean folded laundry and there were the pants, exactly where I said they were. That man is impossible sometimes!

Lost For Words

It hasn't been the most wonderful weekend. Robbie has been struggling with a bad back and an uncooperative leg for a while and he found last week especially challenging. We planned to go shopping as soon as he got home on Friday, but I could tell as soon as he walked to the car that all was not well. He was not walking very well at all and as soon as he got into the car he complained about the pain in his leg. He then sat in the car and had a serious word with his foot telling it to behave itself - I was expecting the men in white coats to turn up at any minute! It is the sort of situation when whatever you say will prove to be the wrong thing. I could tell there was something on his mind and before long he told me that a casual remark by a colleague had really got to him. He hates to give in, and accept that he has a problem, but occasionally he has to take things a little more steadily. He still meets his deadlines, but sometimes he just needs to do it his way.

Shopping wasn't a joy Robbie insisted that we should still go but he was ready to fall out with his own shadow. He may not have had much control over his wayward leg, but he was going to make sure he controlled everything else. We nearly came to blows when we got to the checkout because it had to be done Robbie's way and he got really assertive about it. I left him to put the shopping in the car his way, but when I dared to put something in the fridge he declared war and ordered me out of the kitchen. When I went back a bit later to do some washing up he tried to take over and when I resisted he stood behind me telling me I was doing it all wrong!

It was no surprise when later in the evening we had an argument because he was being totally controlling and unreasonable. I look forward to the weekend all week but I don't know why because something or other always comes along to spoil it.

Memory Lane

When I was a child colour television was a new and exciting development and daytime television had yet to be invented. It sounds rather quaint now, but we knew what we wanted to watch and we turned the television on five minutes or so before to 'warm up' and when the program was over we turned the television off and got on with other things. When I was small sitting down to see Watch With Mother was an important part of my day and among my favourites was Mary Mungo and Midge, a cartoon series about the adventures of a girl, a dog and a very badly behaved mouse who lived at the top of a tower block. When I was a little older another cartoon series captured my imagination, Captain Pugwash was the cowardly and greedy leader of a band of pirates and their comical exploits always made me smile. John Ryan, the cartoonist who created Mary Mungo and Midge and Captain Pugwash died last Friday, his work brought a lot of pleasure to generations of children. Television may have become much more sophisticated since then, but somewhere along the way it has lost the simple magic of those long gone days of Watch With Mother.

Head in the Clouds

Robbie was very late home last night, so he met me from work to get a lift home. Guess what he talked about on the way home - trains! Apparently there are plans to electrify certain routes and Robbie has big reservations. He probably has good reason for his doubts, but I was tired, hungry and not in the mood to hear a detailed comparison of the merits of diesel against electric. I was just thinking that for once it would be nice to talk about anything but trains, when Robbie did one of his famous conversational U turns and began talking about clouds. He pointed upwards and said "look at that cloud formation". I was tempted to remind him that I was driving and it was fairly important to keep my eyes on the road, but as usual I couldn't get a word in. I thought it was nice to hear him talking about something that had no connection at all with trains, you could almost call it romantic (well, as close as Robbie gets anyway). Then he spoiled everything by telling me that there was a list of cloud names in that dreaded book of his, Shott's Original Miscellany. He started to list the various different types of cloud and I made a mental note to burn that book. I love books and I honestly don't think I could destroy any book, but in Robbie's hands that book becomes an offensive weapon!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/5892821/Electrified-rail-network-the-benefits.html

Why Does He Do That?

This morning as I was sitting on the bed drinking my tea I watched Robbie getting dressed. It wasn't his body that I found so fascinating, it was the method. I have always known that he has the shower process organised and timed to the last second. Not only can he tell you what order the 'bits' have to be washed in, but he has also timed each action and he knows exactly how many squirts of shower gel are required, needless to say he also dries himself 'by numbers' too!

When he gets dressed the socks come first, he has a very special relationship with his socks, they are like an extension of his personality - loud and annoying! It is the next bit that fascinates me, why would anyone put their tie on before their shirt? I was still pondering that as he put his trousers on, and I reminded him to fasten his zip. He put things right but then he went on to explain that he would never go out with his zip undone because when he stands on the pavement next to the drive he always checks that 'all is secure'. It is true, I have told him off for doing it many times, and he always stands on exactly the same spot to do it. Why would anyone do that in public, when it could be checked in private before leaving the house!

You Don't Understand!

This a quote from Robbie this evening, to get the full effect you should know that he was waving his arms around and looking anguished as he said it. "You don't understand, they are mine, they mean everything to me and nobody should take them away from me". With all that drama you could be forgiven for thinking that he was auditioning for a part in Eastenders, but believe it or not he was talking about his lost socks!!

The Vanishing Trick

I wasn't too happy with Robbie on Sunday night. He was telling me all weekend that he was looking forward to getting home, and he promised me lots of attention. He spent the evening listening to train noises on YouTube, then when I told him that I was going to bed he said he would be there in a minute. He even came up to bring me a drink and to tell me that he just had to lock the front door and put the dog out before coming to bed, then he vanished. I waited and waited, but after an hour I gave up and went to sleep. He finally arrived over an hour and a half late and he got a very short answer when he tried to cuddle up to me. I didn't get a chance to discuss his vanishing act with him until this morning, We went through the usual ritual, first he denied it, then he said he was mistaken about the time, then finally he admitted it. He was doing something that he has to do in private, he doesn't like talking to me about it, but apparently it really did take him an hour and a half - he was packing his bag for work!!

Robbie was unwell this morning, he had 'the trots' and being Robbie I was treated to a detailed account of his troubles. He got ready for work as usual, but then he came into the lounge and announced that he felt dreadful and he had a really bad sore throat. I suggested that going to work wasn't the wisest move, even if it wasn't swine flu, he wouldn't be popular if he passed on his troubles to everyone else in the office. In the end he decided to work from home today. To be honest I am a bit worried about Swine Flu, I have been in contact with it, but I hope that Robbie just has a nice ordinary bug. I was OK this morning, but then I developed similar symptoms and I had to come home from work feeling very unwell.

The Wanderer Returns

Robbie is back home after his railway weekend. He said he was really looking forward to being home because he had missed me, but he may as well still be away because he is sitting in the corner watching footage of trains on YouTube!!

I was quite looking forward to seeing him, but within half an hour he was seriously annoying me. I had been cooking him a nice meal, but he came and staged a takeover bid, I was getting increasingly irritated, but I kept my temper as he informed me that I had cooked the wrong kind of potato, I was making the gravy too soon, I had the plates in the wrong place, the milk in the fridge hadn't been rotated correctly and I have bought the wrong kind of cat food etc, etc. The final straw came when he accused me of setting the food out wrongly on the plates, apparently the peas were in the wrong place. It took a supreme act of willpower to resist the urge to throw it at him. He is impossible, if I had to spend more than ten minutes in the kitchen with him I would kill him.

It seems it wasn't just me that was out to get him, the Scottish midges got there first, he is covered in swollen itchy bites. Those midges certainly mean business, they reached parts that other midges can not reach!

A Question of Time

I was a little unnerved when I got home on Thursday evening and Robbie invited me to feel how sweaty he was. He was trying to prove to me how hard he had been working on the housework so that I would let him go out to play trains at the week end. I declined his offer and accept the evidence of my eyes, most of the jobs he promised to do had been done so I didn't need to 'touch and feel' option as proof.

Robbie was a little evasive about his plans for the weekend, I knew that he was leaving home on Friday morning and not coming back until Sunday. He admitted that he would be leaving at a stupidly early hour on Friday but it was hard to pin him down on the the time he expected to return. When pressed he said 'tea time' - that is extremely vague for Robbie who always uses the 24hr clock and tell me his time of arrival to the second. I didn't want to have another 'dinner in the dog' episode, so I pressed him to define tea time and I found that we have yet another communication issue , clearly 'tea time' in the north is very different to what I understand as tea time. Robbie will be home in the early evening, assuming that he manages to improve on his track record and actually turn up at the time he said he would.

Ulterior Motive

I'm expecting snow - Robbie managed to get home from work early yesterday, and that is so rare it is bound to up upset the weather! Of course he had an ulterior motive, he was trying to get into my good books so that I would let him go out and play trains all weekend. He thought he could charm his way into favour, but in the end it came down to tough negotiations, he is going to be a very busy boy over the next day or two!

It looks as if I will have another lonely weekend, Laura is on holiday in Greece with her friend, Emily will be out and Sam has plans to celebrate the start of the school summer holidays by meeting up with his friends, so I plan to enjoy myself too.

The Wrong Kind of Balls.

For a man who spends his working life dealing with timetables, Robbie's record of keeping to any kind of timetable in his private life is dismal. Yesterday he rang me at work to announce that he was still at work and wouldn't be back until 9.30pm, and he needed a lift. I couldn't express my annoyance adequately because I was at work, but he got the general impression.

When he finally got home, I expected him to be tired and just a little bit sorry for messing up our evening routine. Instead he appeared in the doorway of the lounge, hands on hips complaining that I had not discussed an important purchase with him. He complained that I had bought the wrong kind of tumble dryer balls, because the last ones eventually cracked. I told him that the previous ones had lasted for almost 3 years, not bad for 99p! He was not convinced and he said that he wants nothing to do with the new balls because they are the wrong brand. Oh well, he has two choices, he can either put up with it or manage without any balls!

Always Tired

I am always tired and according to Sam it is all because of old age, that may be a factor but I think Robbie has a lot to answer for too, he seems incapable of going to bed at a reasonable hour. Normally I head off to bed by midnight, and Robbie always assures me that he will be right behind me, but that is usually the last I see of him. Last night was fairly typical, I got into bed and there was no sign of Robbie, so I listened to the radio before drifting off to sleep. I don't know how much later it was when Robbie woke me up to tell me that he had brought me a drink for the night. He said he was just going down to lock the front door and he would be straight back. He must have vanished into a black hole on his way down the stairs because that was the last I saw of him. I was woken much later by the sound of ghostly moaning and heavy footsteps came closer to the bedroom, either it was a Scooby Doo style haunting or Robbie was on his way to bed. The door opened and a naked apparition stood moaning in the doorway, Robbie had just woken up and everything ached. After the usual torture with the light, he thumped down on the bed and settled down to sleep, still moaning painfully. Within minutes he was deeply asleep and in possession of all the duvet - I was wide awake. An hour and a half later the alarm clock went off and it was time to get Robbie up for work. No wonder I am tired, I never get any uninterrupted sleep!

Horns and a Tail!

Robbie has been totally horrible all weekend, he went down to make a cup of tea on Saturday morning and came back with horns and a tail! He thumped and clattered around all day and as I wasn't feeling very well, I really didn't have the energy to be bothered with him. He was just as bad this morning, but thankfully he went out to take his frustration out on the garden and left me in relative peace to get on with my work. He declined a trip to Tesco's so I went without him, then he turned down a visit to my mum's so I went without him again. He waited until I had got to mum's then rang me to complain that I had gone without him apparently when he said no what he actually meant was yes. I have always known he was in touch with his feminine side, but that is ridiculous!

By 9pm this evening he decided to speak to me again. It began with a 'do you know' then he went on to ask me about the most frequent and least frequent causes of death in the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie. As soon as I had answered his questions on crime fiction he embarked on a whole series of facts about the shipping forecast areas, and I found myself wishing for silence. It seems he bought himself a book called Shott's Original Miscellany when he went out yesterday. I managed to silence him with a stern look, but his colleagues better watch out because the book is small enough to slip into his briefcase and it is bursting with enough facts to keep Robbie talking for weeks!

Conclusive Evidence

Robbie still says that his behaviour provides no evidence of aspie traits, so he has challenged me to make a list.

He counts the stairs, he used to do it out loud until I teased him about it, now he does it quietly but I can still see his lips moving as he counts.

He acts as if he is the 'fridge police' if I shop and put new food away in the fridge he has to empty the whole thing and pack it again when he gets home. Robbie's Random Ramblings: The Fridge Police

He has a full scale tantrum if I buy the wrong size or shape tomato sauce bottle because it doesn't fit his plan for where things go in the fridge. Robbie's Random Ramblings: Fitting In

Even more irritating is his habit of leaving post it notes on items in the fridge, it makes me furious. Robbie's Random Ramblings: King of the Fridge

When we go shopping he he is a total control freak, he has to be the one to push the trolley, he has to pack the trolley and when we get to the checkout the food has to be packed his way (which as far as I'm concerned is not the best way). Usually by the time we get to the checkout I am too exhausted to argue and I just let him get on with it. Robbie's Random Ramblings: Survival - Against The Odds! 14.06.07

Robbie is very possessive about 'his seat' at home and he even gets upset if someone sits on 'his seat' on the train. I fact he will run and force his way to the front to make sure that he gets on the train in time to get 'his seat'.

The clothes he wears are a bit like him, loud, startling and a bit crazy - need I say more!
Robbie's" Random Ramblings: Human Rights

Robbie is very lovable, but he has a complete lack of awareness of the way that his actions impact on those around him - mostly me!
Robbie's Random Ramblings: Tiredness Can Kill 19.04.07
Robbie's Random Ramblings: Give Him an Inch and He Takes a Mile!

I could talk forever about his obsession with trains and all things related to the railways, but I think everyone already knows that he lives, breathes and sleeps railways.
Robbie's Random Ramblings: Withdrawal Symptoms
Robbie's Random Ramblings: Obsessions 24.01.08

When it comes to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time Robbie is in a class of his own!
Robbie's Random Ramblings: The Moment Was Lost 07.01.01

In the end, it doesn't matter, I love Robbie just the way he is.

A Testing Time

We have a house full of teenagers so I spend a lot of my time every day driving around in the car, all that is missing is a chauffeur's cap! Often I listen to Radio 4 while I'm driving, but I also enjoy listening to talking books. At the moment I am listening to The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night Time, it is about a 15 year old boy with Asperger Syndrome. It is an excellent book, but perhaps for me it provokes a mixture of emotions because Sam has Asperger Syndrome. I don't write about it often because Sam doesn't like to be talked about and he certainly doesn't like being labelled. Living with Aspergers is not easy for the person who has it or for those close to them, but as with most things in life you get used to it and you make adjustments.

As we were driving home on Tuesday evening Robbie interrupted our conversation to comment on the open door of a telephone box. I am used to the rapid twists and turns in Robbie's conversation, but that was a bit random even for him. He talked at some length about the phone box, reasoning that the door closure must be broken and speculating on what would have caused it to break. I told him that I hadn't even noticed the phone box and that his obsessive interest in trivia was yet more evidence of his Aspie traits. He was adamant that he was totally normal and that it was the rest of the world that was out of step, come to think of it, that is exactly what Sam says! Anyway our conversation concluded with me challenging Robbie to take an Aspie test. The online test is not a diagnosis, but it does give a good indication of the likelihood of having Aspergers.

Robbie promised that he would answer all the questions truthfully and to prove his honesty he provided a running commentary as he took the test.
It seemed as if some of the questions were written just for him, especially the one about getting upset if someone sits in his seat. He is dreadful about that at home, but he even gets upset if someone sits in his favourite seat on the train! The test seemed to go on for ever, but eventually he completed the test and he was able to print out the detailed results, I will not bore you with the details but the conclusion was that he was very likely to be Aspie. Robbie seemed surprised by the result, but I doubt it would be much of a revelation to anyone who knows him well. I have always said that one of the reasons that I love Robbie is that he reminds me of Sam, now I know why. They would be deeply indignant about being compared to each other, sure there are superficial differences, but deep down they are very alike.

Sound Effects

Robbie was late home from work again today and when I left work he was waiting for me in the car park so that he could get a lift home. I love him dearly, but at times like that I wish he could be a little more 'normal', last time he turned up wearing that dreaded flasher mac and today he had his white London Underground umbrella!

He told me a funny story on the way home. This morning he was in he bathroom on 'the throne' when he became aware that he could hear faint music and someone was talking to him. It wasn't 'heavenly' music so he had no fear that he was about to 'do an Elvis' and meet his maker in the bathroom. This was much more down to earth music, and it bothered him, he couldn't believe that someone would be thoughtless enough to have their radio on in the street at 5am loud enough for him to hear it. He then remembered that the bathroom is at the back of the house, so he deduced that the offending radio must be in our garden, but he wasn't in a position to go an investigate straight away. Thankfully the neighbours were spared the vision of Robbie in his smalls searching for a radio in the back garden, because he found the source of the mystery music before he left the house. We have two radios in the bathroom, ours (tuned to Radio 4) and theirs (tuned to something else). One of the children had turned their radio down to almost nothing instead of turning it off!

On the subject of mystery noises, the previous day Robbie and Emily searched the lounge for a phone that kept vibrating. It wasn't a phone, it was the cat snoring!

Trouble Afoot

On Sunday evening I had just settled down to do some writing when there was a yell of pain from the bathroom. The yell was followed by a string of expletives and then thunderous bumps that indicated that Robbie was hopping down the stairs. He burst into the lounge groaning in agony and dripping blood onto the floor. Incredibly he had manaed to get glass in his foot again, and he was ranting that someone was deliberately leaving glass around for him to tread on. I'm not sure what made me more angry, his stupid accusations or the fact that he had hopped arround the house leaving a trail of blood instead of calling me to the bathroom to help him. He parked himself on the sofa with his foot resting on a chair waiting for me to remove the glass a procedure not made easier by his yelps of agony or by my less than perfect close up vision when wearing contact lenses. I removed the glass fairly easily, it was a tiny sliver of very thin glass, but shutting Robbie up was more of a challenge. I said that the way he walks must have something to do with it because it never happens to anyone else and the sensible thing would be for him to not walk around barefoot. He wouldn't hear of it, so I have no idea how to avoid further incidents like this. I've had a very close look at the bathroom floor and I can't see or feel any glass. I think it must get trodden in on Robbie's boots, and those boot, just like Robbie's feet are a law unto themselves!

Making Up

Robbie was late coming to bed again last night. I expect he was finding it hard to drag himself away from that book again. I don't know what time it was when he finally arrived in the bedroom, I had been deeply asleep but his loud conversation woke me up. I growled at him but he ignored the warning and continued talking. Then just to ensure that I had no chance of getting back to sleep he put his search light on and sat on the edge of the bed contemplating (or searching for) his navel. I threatened him with dire consequences but he just laughed at me, so war broke out. I was ready to kill him! He settled down in bed still giggling and within seconds he was snoring, but as always I took me forever to get back to sleep. I am going to confiscate his bulb!!

This morning he was repentant (and bruised). He said he wants to make up for always putting the trains first and neglecting me. Guess what he has in mind? A trip to York on a Voyager and a visit to the National Rail Museum!! Oh well, at least he is consistent. Sometimes I don't know if I should laugh or cry!

Excess Baggage Talks Trains.

The 'Nationalised Express ' situation has been getting a lot of air time on Radio 4 today. There was an interesting discussion about it on Excess Baggage with Sandy Toksvig, you can listen to it here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ldbks/Excess_Baggage_04_07_2009/

They also got a mention on the Now Show at lunchtime, I was a bit surprised at the strong language use to describe National Express, this may be a comedy program, but they were spot on about how little they care about the travelling public. You can listen to it on the BBC Radio 4 website until next Friday, just search for the Now Show and press listen again.

Secret Vices

Robbie managed to convince me that he is sorry, so despite my suspicion that he is more sorry about being found out than about what he did wrong in the first place, he is forgiven. It was a strange Saturday morning because Robbie was actually here for a change! Well to be more accurate he was mostly here. We didn't plan on getting up too early, but each time Robbie went downstairs there was a long delay before he returned. When he went down to make a cup of tea he was gone so long that I thought he'd gone to milk the cow! He found a couple more reasons to go downstairs and I was becoming suspicious, something or someone was monopolising his attention. I listened carefully and I could tell he was in the lounge, but I had no idea what he was up to. There was very little movement and I couldn't hear him talking, so I was suspicious, you never know what he will get up to if you don't keep an eye on him. He did his best to distract me, in fact he did a fairly good job of distracting me for a while. He even made me that bacon sandwich he owed me, but then he vanished and he didn't return. I left him to it, to lull him into a false sense of security, I was determined to find out. When he popped up to offer me more tea I asked casually what he was doing and he mentioned 'MTV and Stuff'. Later on I casually wandered into the lounge and there was the evidence - he has a new book and he can't put it down! I can't quite see the attraction, it is called On Track Plant . When I commented on it he got so excited that I thought he would burst. Oh well, I suppose it keeps him out of trouble!

Too Much Information

I haven't had too much to say to Robbie in the last few days because he is still in the dog house, but I happened to mention to him that I saw a train when I was driving back from Stratford the other day, it was near Warwick I think. I told him it was high up on a viaduct type thing. It was a bad move on my part, Robbie bombarded me with questions about the livery. At the time I was trying hard not to get lost and focusing on road signs and roundabouts not trains! That didn't bother Robbie, he didn't give up until he had identified the toc and worked out the time of the train, where it came from and where it was heading. He can remember whole chunks of timetable, if he could apply his mind to something other than trains he could probably take over the world - so maybe it is a good thing that he restricts his attention to railway related matters!

Nationalised Express!

So the National Express East Coast franchise is to be taken back into public ownership. It was hardly a surprise announcement, I don't really see what else the government could have done because it it starts letting toc's renegotiate contracts it will make a mockery of the whole process (which is a bit of a farce anyway). What worries me most is what we end up with when the government try to fix a problem - Network Rail for example!

Yesterday was a really busy day for me, so I had no time to ponder on the rights and wrongs of the decision about National Express, in fact I didn't even think about railway matters until I got home in the evening. Robbie began by reading out snippets to me from his railway magazine, then when he wasn't getting much response he grabbed his headphones and settled down to watch the DVD about Laira Depot that he had for Father's Day. I could just about tolerate the appreciative sighs and grunts coming from his direction, but when he began to add to the soundtrack with his own train noises I had reached my limit. I gave him one of my most meaningful stares and he got the message loud and clear. He is already in the dog house (yet again) so he didn't need too much of a reminder not to push his luck!

One of Those Days

After the drama and stresses of Sunday and Monday I really needed to be a nice ordinary day. I was so tired that I really couldn't deal with anything else, but Tuesday turned out to be 'one of those days'. I had spent the morning running around after people and I had just settled down in front of my computer when Laura phoned tho say that she was losing peripheral vision and she was scared -me too! Within an hour she could see almost nothing from one eye and the other eye was causing problems too. The GP advised her to go to casualty for tests, but she was really not well enough to do that and instead the GP examined her. He was concerned, but he thought it was probably a retinal migraine and we had to take her home and keep a close eye on her. By the evening there was some improvement but even this morning her vision is not back properly.

I was so scared, but by the evening I hoped that the worse was over - that was until Robbie got a splinter of glass in his foot. He hoped around yelping and he had me inspecting his foot for over half an hour searching for the elusive shard of glass. The search proved fruitless and it seems that it wasn't glass at all, most likely it was his own hard skin causing the problem. I hadn't done any work that day and at this rate I would be working until well past midnight, I felt like screaming, but Robbie's 'splinter that never was' dominated the evening.