It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed - Horace

We are on holiday and we should be away from the everyday cares of the world, but the news over the last few days has been so appalling that it has been impossible ignore it. News of the rioting and looting in London and other cities has made me feel so ashamed of my fellow citizens. There really is no excuse for mob violence, they have made people homeless and devastated countless businesses. They don’t seem to care that people have lost everything, homes, livelihoods and jobs are gone and so many communities have been deeply scarred.



Robbie and I have reacted differently, I don’t want to look, I just want to cover my eyes in shame, and Robbie on the other hand can’t stop checking for the latest updates. His work place has been affected, other rail companies have been badly affected, nearby shops have been looted and damaged, big city centre shops have suffered serious damage and normal life has been brought to a halt. I am thankful that we are on holiday because I would be so scared for Robbie if he was at work, it may sound selfish, but because of his spina bifida if he got caught up in any trouble even a relatively minor injury to his back could mean he would never be able to walk again. I just keep wondering why such young children are on the street running wild, what on earth are their parents doing?


Apart from keeping in touch with the news we managed make the most of the day. We went to Mundesley, there were lots of people on the beach despite some rather impressive waves. The highlight of Robbie’s day was a visit to the Beach Café for lunch, their food is excellent and the portions are so generous that even Robbie can’t eat any more. I am making him keep his distance because he had onion rings with his lunch!


We visited Stalham on the way back, we had to pop into Tesco for milk and bread and supplies for our packed lunch tomorrow - Robbie is determined that we have to go to the North Norfolk Railway. Oh well at least there is a nice bookshop there!

Wide Awake or Sleep Walking.

Robbie went to see Speech Debelle in London on Wednesday so I had a quiet evening without him. I knew he would be very late home, so when I had finished my work I went off to bed to listen to the radio and before long I was sound asleep. The next thing I recall was a familiar thunderous sound, Robbie was galloping up the stairs and as usual he was talking to himself. He bounced into the bedroom bursting to tell me all about his evening, he sat down heavily on the bed and embarked on a detailed account of his evening. I glanced at the clock, it was 1.24am, no wonder I could hardly keep my eyes open!

Thursday evening was very different, Noddy was sitting at the table with his laptop as usual and I was determined that he would stay awake and talk to me. He did make an effort for half an hour or so, he even managed a few complete sentences, but before long he was back to the same old Robbie. I saw out of the corner of my eye that the table and everything on it was vibrating noticeably. A closer look revealed Robbie, headphones clamped to his ears doing a very convincing impression of the nodding dog from the Churchill advert. Clearly he was listening to some of his more extreme music. Before long the localised earthquake subsided and Noddy had nodded off again, head against the wall, mouth open like a stranded fish. I was very tempted to leave him parked there when I went to bed, but with a combination of threats and dogged persistence I got him on to his feet and then to bed.

The Highlight of the Day! 30.01.08

Robbie was late home and extremely talkative after his expedition to Cambridge. He met lots of people he doesn't see very often but the first thing he told me about was the re-branding of the sandwiches on West Coast!. I asked if that was the highlight of his day and he said that it was. I nudged the conversation on to what I hoped would be a more interesting direction but that led him to tell me all about the queue for the toilets at Stanstead. He should count himself lucky, if he was a woman he would be used to queuing for the toilet! Oh, and the other highlight of his day - the buffet of course!

Windows 30.01.08

Robbie managed to have a reasonably uneventful day yesterday, no delayed trains or railway chaos, but he only went to Birmingham yesterday so there was less potential for disaster. It seems that every time Robbie travels north of Derby he puts a jinx on the entire railway network. He is going to Cambridge today (via London). It is one of those occasions when rail travel really doesn't make sense. It is 57 miles from Northampton to Cambridge by road with an estimated journey time of 1hr 20 mins, but on the railway the journey can take over three hours depending on the time that you travel. There is a bus that goes from Northampton to Cambridge and I suggested that Robbie should go by bus. He was horrified and he insisted that he is a railway man so it would be disloyal to travel by coach. He was really excited about his journey - because his train to London will have pull down windows!!

Dave wearing a red and white sock.

I haven't written much about Dave the cat recently. His foot is still not healing and the vet intends to freeze it to remove the bad flesh and hopefully give it a better chance to heal. His foot doesn't seem to bother him, in fact he gets into so much mischief that I dread to think what he will be like when his foot is better. He has obviously been used to fending for himself and despite being very well fed and comfortable now he is still a scavenger. He has an amazing sense of smell and if I leave food out in the kitchen he is there in seconds trying to steal it. The other day he stole a jam doughnut and when I spotted him he growled furiously and ate every bit of it, he got strawberry jam on the hall carpet! His favourite trick is to get into the kitchen bin, the other day I heard a rustling and when I went into the kitchen there was just a ginger tail sticking out of the bin. Robbie does get cross about the Dave ransacking the bin, but he and Dave get on very well because they share a passion for food. Dave's little understudy Oreo is fine, Dave teaches him all sorts of bad habits but he is still really cute.

Oreo doing a spot of French Revision.

Silverlink Standard Pace

On Thursday Robbie went to a gig in London, to see a group called Bromhead's Jacket. His gig buddy Laura wasn't able to go with him, GCSE coursework deadlines kept her imprisoned in her bedroom. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise because rail services via Milton Keynes went pear shaped that day, the strong wind had brought the overhead wires down.

Robbie decided that nothing would prevent him getting to his gig and he travelled from Birmingham via Reading to Paddington, then across London to the gig. I was treated to a step by step progress report by text, that wasn't too bad, but the phone calls with station announcements in the background nearly burst my eardrums. Robbie enjoys his gigs and I am happy for him to go providing that I don't have to go too, I don't like noise and I can't cope with crowds so they are not really my thing.

He sent me a couple of texts during the gig, but I was already asleep when he rang to say he was heading home. He had to get a bus from Milton Keynes so it was close to 2am when he arrived home. He has never been able to come to bed quietly, when he sits down on the bed he practically bounces me onto the floor! This time he was not that subtle, he shook me awake - living dangerously! He wanted to know if the dog had been fed - of course she had been fed. He then gave me an in depth account of his evening, the journey, people he met, the venue, the merchandise, he went on and on and on. He bored me back to sleep, but he still didn't shut up and when he jolted me awake again I threatened that if he didn't shut up he would learn to sing so high that he could join the Bee Gee's . It must have worked because the next thing I heard was the alarm clock!

Robbie said train services were still messed up on Friday morning, but I didn't realise the severity until I went to the station on Friday evening. It was bedlam, there were coaches all over the place, and yellow coated men moving around at Silverlink standard pace, frantically waving their arms and talking on mobile phones. For those not 'lucky' enough to live near a Silverlink station, I need to explain Silverlink standard pace, I wouldn't call it slow, more funereal! In fact if you look at the lugubrious faces they possess, you could be forgiven for thinking that Silverlink was running a rehabilitation program for ex undertakers. You would be wrong, you have to take two other factors into account to get to the truth, the austere uniform and the absolute refusal to divulge any useful information to passengers. It then becomes obvious that the KGB was not disbanded, it has diversified! No wonder I hear so many eastern european accents in town these days!

The Sleeper to Penzance

Robbie has just read the last entry and he says I should tell you about our honeymoon. Don't worry; no classified information will be included! Apparently our honeymoon has become a bit of a legend among his work mates. Robbie works for a railway company as a train planner, and he is obsessively interested in everything to do with trains. His mates couldn't work out how he got away with a 'train focussed' honeymoon.

We had the most amazing start to our honeymoon. We spent an afternoon and evening in London cranking at Euston and the Kings Cross, after that we made our way across to Paddington. We had a first class booking on the Penzance sleeper, but it didn't leave until almost midnight, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the wonders of the First Class Lounge. Robbie got 'ants in his pants' and asked if he could go off and do a bit more train spotting. That was fine by me, I was happy to sit there and take in every detail of my surroundings, those rooms are incredible.

The sleeper journey was really special. I made sure I was awake in time to enjoy the early morning part of the journey. ‘Sleeping beauty’ didn’t wake up until his breakfast arrived! One of the most magical memories was watching the sun rise as we came towards St Michaels Mount.

Well I have shared quite enough details about our honeymoon! The rest of the week was great too …….and it involved lots more trains!!