It is Inexcusable!

I detest London Midland, yet again they managed to mess my day up. I am sick and tired of them randomly cancelling trains and not bothering to tell anyone until it is too late. Having had to get up early on Sunday morning to deliver Robbie to the station I was less than enthusiastic about having to do a mercy dash to rescue him from some out of the way place in the evening. Robbie rang me to say that he had noticed that his train from Birmingham (and a number of others) seemed to be listed as cancelled. I told him to come home via Kettering instead, but he refused so I gave him an alternative - sleep outside the office or travel back by East Midland Trains. Still undecided he said he would ring London Midland to see what was happening but that proved a fruitless exercise, they didn't even know what day it was and they couldn't give him any firm information about his train. A clear example of 'the plan is, there is no plan' it is inexcusable. Eventually Robbie saw sense and travelled home via Kettering, annoyingly it cost him extra to do so, but there was no alternative. So I had to trail off to Kettering in the dark to pick him up, why is life with Robbie always so exhausting?

Back to 'Normal'

The trains from Northampton were back to what passes for normal on Tuesday so I didn't have another trek to Kettering. I'd already seen rather more of Kettering station than I wanted in the last few days. The previous evening I had taken Emily to Kettering to catch the East Midlands Trains service back to Leicester, it is quite a good service - as long as you don't expect a seat! Usually it is a Meridian, but on this occasion it wasn't hr usual train. Emily sent Robbie a text to say that it was a very old train and she found his reply so funny that she forwarded it to me.

"Hellfire! You've got an HST then. 27 years old this year and still OUTSTANDING! You lucky girl!"

That man is so sad!

Making Life Difficult

What could be better on a bank holiday morning than getting up at the crack of dawn to drive Robbie to Kettering in the rain just because there are no trains running from Northampton today. Quite a lot of things would be better, actually but I got the short straw, so I drove him to Kettering with Robbie rambling on about diversionary routes and amended train plans. He was extremely eloquent (but unprintable) when detailing the inadequacies of Network Rail. The return journey was nice and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of an empty car!

When I got home there was just time for a cup of tea before I had to take Emily to work. Robbie rang me later in the morning to give me a detailed account of his journey to Birmingham via Derby! It would have been so much easier if he'd taken the bank holiday off, but when did Robbie ever do anything sensible?

I had a call from Robbie to tell me that his planned return journey had fallen apart, I can't remember exactly what the problem was but he had all sorts of contorted plans to get back without travelling by coach. I wasn't impressed and I told him in no uncertain terms that he should just follow his normal route and put up with the coach replacement, and just for once he did as he was told! He didn't get home until 8.30pm, but if he had tried to get home by train I would probably have still been running around at midnight!

Too Much Detail - Again! 11.02.08

It has been a strange morning. Long before 6am Robbie came to sit on the bed to chat about trains. Apparently he has been offered the chance to be involved with another charter trip, he rambled on about tractors, but I'm fairly sure he was talking about engines rather than Massey Ferguson's or John Deere's. He wanted his pass signed and he obviously thought he would need to grovel, but at that time of the morning I wasn't too interested in what he was planning to do, it was the free 'respite' that attracted my attention. I readily agreed, in fact I even asked if he could stay a bit longer!

I took Emily to Kettering station at just after 6am and Robbie came with us as he was heading for a meeting in London. He talked non stop about train timetables all the way to Kettering and every attempt to shut him up proved futile. Just before I dropped them off at Kettering Robbie announced that it was his 10th anniversary, ten years since he started working for CrossCountry. The journey to Kettering was OK but the journey back was more challenging because thick fog had developed in the short time since I drove there, I don't enjoy driving in fog.

I received an excited phone call from Robbie when he got to St Pancras. Believe it or not he actually rang just to tell me that the toilets at the station were now free!! He obviously took full advantage of the facilities because he described them in great detail. My week will be so much better for knowing that!

Monday Morning Blues 21.01.08

Monday mornings seem to crop up far too frequently. This morning found me driving towards Kettering at just after 6am to get Emily back to Leicester in time for a 9am lecture. Robbie decided to travel to work via Leicester too, he says he likes a bit of variety in his life, but really I think he just wanted to be sure that Emily was OK. I got them to Kettering station in plenty of time, but there they stayed until just after 7.30am because a signalling problem was causing long delays. Emily still got to her lecture on time, but if Robbie's colleagues hoped for a peaceful morning without him they were doubly disappointed, he wasn't late in the end, and when he got there one of his colleagues made a serious error of judgement - he asked what Robbie did at the weekend! Apparently Robbie was still talking several hours later! It could have been worse, he could have worn that dreadful shirt. He wore it on Saturday, I didn't notice at first because he wore his waxed jacket done up tightly under his chin so that I couldn't see his shirt. This made him look rather like a character from that dreadful program that he likes so much - Kenny from South Park. The shirt looked every bit as bad as I had feared and I was cross with him for wearing it in public. Maybe he was wearing it for protection - to repel the Wild Woman, if so it worked! Come to think of it, it could well have been Robbie's shirt that distracted the lorry driver and caused the bridge bash on Saturday. He loves it, but I think it will look better after a mixed wash accident!!

A Well Travelled Weekend 20.01.08

I haven't updated the blog this weekend because Robbie has been distracting me. He has caught the family tree bug and I have been busy checking census records and adding information to his tree. I wonder if we will find anyone else quite like him - somehow I doubt it! He has made contact with a distant cousin in USA and that seems to have fired his enthusiasm to continue his research, or to put it more accurately he is filled with enthusiasm for me to continue his research!

Robbie and Sam had a busy day yesterday, they made an early start and went to Walsall to meet the gang, but the Wild Woman is playing silly games again so Sam and Robbie had to rethink their day. After visiting one of Robbie's favourite cafe's to sustain themselves the embarked on an epic journey. They had already travelled from Northampton to Walsall via Birmingham, they then headed to Wolverhampton and back to Birmingham New street. They caught a train to leeds Leeds, changed trains to Bradford, their destination was the Media Museum - they liked it so much they stayed until it closed! On the way back from Bradford they became stranded at New Pudsey because a lorry had bashed into the railway bridge. They were rescued by one of Robbie's 'women' from Northern Rail, she picked them up and drove them to Leeds to continue their journey. According to Sam, Robbie talked non stop all the way to Leeds - sorry Jill! They resumed their rail journey from Leeds to Birmingham New Street and then back to Northampton. It was past 11pm when the bleary eyed pair got home - but they were still talking non stop!

They had a brilliant time at the film museum. They were both very impressed with the animation gallery which explained the evolution of animation from the earliest film cells to Wallace and Gromit. They were able to find out about various film illusions and tricks in an area called Magic Factory. I think Robbie liked the TV Heaven section best, it gave the history of British television and you could go into different booths to watch snippets of old shows. They saw Zippy and George from Rainbow, the Playschool toys, Gordon the Gopher, Captain Scarlet, Captain Black and one of the Thunderbirds puppets. There was loads more to see, but by the time they had told me that much I couldn't take in anymore information!

After their busy day yesterday Robbie and I were in no hurry to get up this morning. It was nice to have a bit of 'us' time, but Robbie managed to spoil it by choosing the most inappropriate moment to inform me that East Midlands Trains are proposing to run an additional service to and from London which starts and terminates at Kettering. My life is so much richer for knowing that!!

Essentials 04.01.08

I'm fed up with this 5am performance. This morning found us trundling off to Kettering again, even the birds don't get up that early. Poor old Robbie is finding the long journey time exhausting, he didn't get back to Kettering until 8pm and by the time we got home it was almost 9pm, it isn't a bundle of laughs for me either. Allegedly everything will be back to normal tomorrow, but I won't be holding my breath. If Network Rail have done the work at Rugby it is a pretty safe bet that something will go wrong when the line is back in use, but I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't done the new overhead work, they have probably had to put it back as it was just to get the line back in use and bring an end to the torrent of bad publicity. Who would have thought that they could upset so many people in so little time; perhaps they are aiming for some sort of record!

Anyway after a long and frustrating day at work you would expect Robbie to want to talk about ordinary family stuff on the way home, but that would be a bit too normal for Robbie. He gave me a detailed account of his new system for packing his briefcase! Apparently he only carries essential items with him now. Rather foolishly I asked what he included in the list of essential items and he reeled off a list that took him about ten minutes to recount. First on his list were his complete collection of quail (railway) maps, then his Platform 5 complete guide to all locomotives and coaching stock - absolutely essential obviously! He has a selection of diagrams to work on during his journeys, his ipod, spare batteries in assorted sizes, a selection of pens, pencils, erasers and a pack of spare leads, imagine being stranded with no lead in your pencil! He also takes his flask, his mobile phone, the latest issue of NME, a selection of railway magazines, a couple of notebooks, a massive selection of train keys, his laptop, the charger and assorted sundries. Thank goodness he only carries essentials, most people take less than that when they go away for a week!