Tuesday 5 February 2013

You learn something new every day!

There are many occasions when I wish I could put a smile on the faces of my children but I rarely succeed.  Teenagers seem to turn drama and disapproval into an art form and even when they are no longer teenagers old habits die hard, so it is very unusual to see all three of them smiling at once. 


Tonight was an exception, all three of them were helpless with laughter. I guess on balance I would rather have them laughing at me than sitting there looking miserable. The cause of the hilarity King Richard III, or to be more accurate it was a joke about him that led to the laughter. It was confirmed today that a body found buried beneath a car park in Leicester was Richard III the last Plantagenet king, and the last king of England to die in battle. Having warned me that it was in slightly bad taste my daughter shared a joke from Twitter 'What was Richard III doing in the car park - dogging'

My other daughter was crying with laughter at my reaction and she made this comment on Facebook
That awkward moment when your stepdad has to explain what dogging is to your mother.. 'You are joking arent you...? What are they, double jointed?!'

Oh well, it was nice to see them happy, and it led to a nice family evening, with everyone chatting and laughing. They helped me to choose a ringtone for my new phone, it is 'Me and Mrs Jones' - it was the obvious choice really!

Friday 1 February 2013

In Need of an Off Switch!

I love Robbie very much and mostly I like having him working from home, but I have my limits and just occasionally I need a bit of time on my own. I need peace and quiet, time to think and to process my own thoughts without someone talking non stop at the side of me. 

On Wednesday Robbie really seemed to have his talking boots on. During the morning I was trying to focus on several important things that I needed to do, but I couldn't concentrate because Robbie kept talking. He keeps returning to the subject of the Sky box and the possibility of moving to Virgin for our television, internet and phone. I am very reluctant to move and I told him 'loud and clear' that pestering me is not going to make me change my mind. After a few brief moments of quiet he was at it again, and we leapt from one subject to the next without stopping for breath. Much of the conversation was about his work in one way or another, but eventually he settled on the subject of irritating people - and as I listened to him I was mentally adding to my own list of annoying people!!

We had lunch at Morrisons with my mum and step father, it is nice to spend an hour or so with them during the week. We chatted about all sorts of things as we ate, but Robbie was making me feel exhausted because he didn't even stop for breath.  He had returned to the subject of our television and Internet provider his voice seemed louder than usual and he didn't pay any attention to my hints so I had to tell him point blank to stop talking. That worked for a few seconds but then he 'defaulted' to his specialist subject (trains) and off we went again. I wanted to scream at him to shut up but I managed to control the impulse and settled for a withering look instead.

Robbie was aware that I had some shopping to do, but as we finished eating he told me to get a move on because he needed a lift to the station to catch the 13.55 train. The urge to harm him was almost too much for me to resist! He had talked non stop all morning but he had not bothered to share the one piece of relevant information, that he needed a lift to the station just before 2pm. Having had a brief but meaningful exchange of views, we ran around the supermarket to get the absolute essentials and met up again at the till. I was still livid and when Robbie told me that he thought I would have know what time he needed to be at the station, I informed him very firmly that I am not Mystic Meg. The woman in front of us in the queue gave me a knowing smile and let us go in front of her as we only had a few items.

I had to hurry to get him to the station on time and I wasn't taking too much notice of Robbie. Then I realised that he was talking about 'Percy' and I was completely mystified. The only 'Percy' that I know of is the one that gets 'pointed at the porcelain' so when Robbie started talking about 'web Percy' and 'normal Percy' I had no idea what he was on about. I should have left it like that but I was unwise enough to ask what he meant. He told me that PERCY is a computer program that DfT and train operators use to check that they are meeting existing franchise commitments. He gave me more detail and I got the feeling that he could have talked for a lot longer but thankfully we arrived at the station on time and he had to dash off to catch his train. At last I had a few minutes peace!