In Trouble Again

Robbie is in the dog house yet again. He has been forgetting to phone me because he is too busy, then when he did mange to remember to pick up the phone he managed to annoy me even more - he has been mixing with the wrong kind of people! I may not be there to keep an eye on him but he needs to remember that he has left me to do his packing for our holiday next week!!

Absolute Trust?

Robbie has gone to Ireland for a week and I am enjoying the peace and quiet. We are going on holiday at the weekend, we leave in the early hours of Saturday morning and if all goes to plan he will be home on Friday evening so he has left me to do his packing. That is either very brave or totally stupid - for the first time ever he will find himself wearing the things I want him to wear! Of course there is some doubt about him making it home on time to go on holiday, if he gets delayed I will go without him!

What a Week!

I didn't have much time to get things done last week, my computer died and refused to be revived, then I had problems with the one I bought to replace it and I had to spend hours sorting it out. Then this week horror of horrors by beloved mobile phone took a dive into the toilet (clean water). I dried it straight away and it is now shut in a zippy bag full of rice to help absorb any moisture, but it is as dead as a dodo and I am devastated. I have a couple of very precious voice recordings on that phone and I can't face the thought that they are gone forever. If anyone knows how to recover those recordings and my contact list please let me know, it would mean so much to me.

The highlight of last week for me was seeing the worst prime minister in my lifetime walking out of Downing Street, if only I had confidence that the new government will do a better job. It seems odd to me that the Liberals can do so badly in the election but end up in the government. I was especially disappointed that the shifty looking ginger haired one was given a job in government, he looks dodgy. Oh well I guess time will tell.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It seems that Robbie is aspiring to become a Mills and Boon writer - in other words creating a work of fiction that doesn't sound real and expecting the readers to suspend their disbelief! He didn't get as far as writing it down but the more he repeated the story the less believable it became.

Robbie managed to upset me during the afternoon. I was having the day from hell, in fact it is no exaggeration to say that it was the week from hell. Things were going wrong at every turn, it felt like a line of dominoes falling over. I will not bore you with the whole list of problems, but the final straw was the car not passing it's MOT, needing several expensive repairs and not being ready until Monday or Tuesday. The frustration and expense had me really worried and when I told Robbie about it all he could say was that he was OK because he had his bus pass! I felt so upset that I put the phone down, so he was in a mood with me and I didn't hear from him again that day.

Robbie was due home soon after 6pm and after a dreadful week I was looking forward to a 'normal' evening. Six, seven and eight o'clock came and went with no Robbie and no contact. I guessed that he was out enjoying himself and he wasn't going to tell me because he knew I wouldn't like it. The trouble is that it is always possible that he could have had an accident or been taken ill and as time went on I couldn't put those thoughts out of my mind, so by 9pm I was angry and worried.

10pm came and went and there was still no contact so I got on with all the evening jobs and at around 11pm I locked the front door, took the key out and went to bed. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew it was 11.30pm and I got a text thanking me for locking him out - he had forgotten his key! I got up and let him in, but I was in no mood for excuses and I went straight back to bed.

The next morning he told me that he had gone out for a drink because I had annoyed him. He'd caught the train to Rugby but had dozed off and only woken up as he was departing Milton Keynes for Euston (any excuse for a bit of cranking!). He then had to buy a ticket to get back home. He said he didn't bother to text me because he was annoyed with me. To borrow a word from my son - whatever! I hope his adventure was worth a night on the sofa!

Local Voters Got It Right

Robbie had a bit of a close call when it came to voting on Thursday. Laura and I had voted earlier in the day but Robbie left for work before the polling stations opened and he went to visit his friend in hospital after work, so we had a last minute dash to the polling station when he got back to Northampton. He made it with ten minutes to spare.

I was fairly happy with the result locally, our MP lost her seat. She was a complete waste of space, she was only interested in headlines and photo opportunities, there was no substance and no respect for real people. When she attended school events she was always late arriving and as soon as she had elbowed her way into the newspaper photo she was gone before the camera flash died away. Other important visitors took time to talk to the children, but she was to 'important' for that! When Emily was in middle school she wrote to her and the other local MP about a proposed change from a three tier to a two tier education system. The other MP replied with a personal letter and followed up as more information became available. but all our MP managed was a printed postcard to say she had received the letter. People have long memories and that insignificant schoolgirl is now a voter!

I think we must have been a target seat for the Liberals, I certainly felt targeted, in fact it felt like harassment! They waged a war of paper against the voters, almost every day we got more junk mail from them and as the election loomed we got two or three items a day. What a waste, we didn't read them, our recycling bin is conveniently located next to our post box! They get a thumbs down from me for not being green and an even bigger thumbs down for being annoying. I had to laugh, after all that effort they still came third!

A Cool Name

In UK have all been preoccupied (or in my case bored rigid) buy the uncertainty of our election result, but this week in Nigeria the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua who had been ill for some time led to a little more clarity. Months of fierce argument about the leadership of the country when the acting president Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as the new president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The news coverage caught my attention because the new president has such a cool name, and in a volatile country like Nigeria he will need all the good luck he can get. I wonder if a name can really bring success? Most of the images of Goodluck Jonathan on google show him wearing a black fedora-like hat, it makes him look much more interesting and friendly than our politicians, with their boring suits and predictable ties. Good luck to him.

X Marks the Spot

I have been sick and tired of the election hype for weeks. I tend to think that the desire to hold high public office generally means that the person is totally unsuitable. I have been lied to by experts (have you met Robbie?) I am not easily persuaded that any of them deserve to be trusted with the care of a goldfish, let alone trusted with the running of the country! However jaded I feel about those standing for election there is one thing I am absolutely sure about, I must vote. We often forget that the right to vote was hard won and in the case of women it was not until 2nd July 1928 that the right for all women to vote on the same terms as men became law. It is a right that was hard won at great cost to many.

In Disgrace - again!

Photo by Chris McKenna

I know Robbie has been terribly worried about his friend and I have tried to be as supportive as possible, but I was really cross with him on Friday evening. He has a habit of dropping off the radar whenever I wouldn't approve of what he was doing. I had planned our even meal and found myself in suspended animation when Robbie didn't come home and didn't respond to any of my texts. He eventually sent me a text to say that he had gone out for a drink (plural!) with some railway friends. If he had told me I wouldn't have minded, he needed cheering up, but I was less than impressed at being ignored. He finally crept home and sent me a text asking for a lift from the station. To put it kindly he was on the wrong side of sober and he spent the night on the sofa.

He didn't wake up very early in the morning, but I stayed upstairs out of his way listening to the radio and getting on with my writing. Eventually he appeared bearing a cup of tea and an apology and I decided that life was too short to be angry. He cuddled up to me and finally I had his full attention - or so I thought. Suddenly he was totally still and his body went rigid, I thought for a second that he was having a heart attack or something, he seemed to stay like that for ever but it was probably only a minute or so. I was scared, then suddenly he put his head on one side as if listening and then he started muttering to himself. I slowly became aware that he was listening to the radio, it was about train announcements and he was trying to work out if he was listening to the sound of a Voyager or a Pendolino. Needless to say the moment was lost! Sometimes with Robbie I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

Belt and Braces

I am fairly used to eccentric fashion sense, after all Robbie is more 'unique' than most when it comes to fashion sense, but Sam seems to have a sense if the ridiculous too. Apparently black skinny jeans are the latest 'must have' fashion item and according to Sam they must be worn with skinny braces. He bought a pair several weeks ago and I was unable to suppress a chuckle when he proudly appeared in the the lounge wearing skinny jeans, trendy shirt, skinny braces and a belt! I have heard the phrase belt and braces many times, but until now I have never seen the reality!

Perspective

Life has a way of putting things in perspective. It seems as if one thing after another has gone wrong recently, a broken shower, a nail in my tyre, my mobile phone has given up the ghost and worse of all my laptop is apparently beyond repair. Last week I had a painful reminder that they are all just things and in the end none of them matter a jot. We heard last week that Robbie's friend who has been ill for some time has taken a turn for the worse. It is a very difficult time for him and his family and it leaves everyone feeling completely powerless.