A Question of Gender

Robbie phoned me from work today, just to say hello and to tell me about his day. He has something of the Reginald Perrin about him and he always provides me with a detailed account of his journey to work, paying special attention to any delays and the exact time of arrival. Today he told me that he would be having coffee with a friend of his on 28th Feb. I think it was mentioning the date that set him off, he told me that there was a very important birthday on 28th. After a brief moment of panic, I informed him that no one in our family had a birthday on that day. He told me that the most important female in his life would be 50 on that day. I said that he must have a secret woman because none of the women I could think of would be 50 any time soon. I was only mildly surprised when he said that he was talking about his favourite Deltic, Royal Scots Grey! he told me that all engines are female. He may know a lot about trains but he is wrong about that. My favourite engine is male and he was 50 in 2009, his name is Ivor, whoever heard of a girl called Ivor!!

Inconvenience

Robbie got home from his course last night, he was tired but he said he enjoyed the course. This morning he was keen to get to work, so I hardly had a chance to talk to him before he was gone. I looked forward to his usual phone call when he got tho Birmingham, but when it came he was more like Reginald Perrin than ever. There was no introduction, like hello or how are you he just launched into a frustrated tirade about the failings of London Midland. Apparently there were no working toilets on his train and by the time he got to Birmingham his need was so urgent that he had to sprint to the Gents! It may surprise him, but I really don't need a daily bulletin on the state of the train toilets!

Reginald Perrin Lives Again

Robbie is becoming more like Reginald Perrin, his morning call to me consists of a detailed account of his journey timed to the second. Paying particular attention to every minor failing and inconvenience. On the subject of convenience, he seems to have become obsessed with the state of the train toilets. A week or so ago he had a 'near death experience' when every toilet on the train was out of use, since then he has treated me to a detailed analysis on the number of available toilets and their rather dubious state of cleanliness. It wouldn't be so bad if he could choose a better time to talk about it, but it is a bit off putting when I am eating my meal. Oh well, he keeps telling me I am going deaf, so I guess every cloud has a silver lining.

Running Late

I nearly had to put Robbie's dinner in the dog yesterday evening, he got delayed at work - again! Just being an hour later throws our whole evening into confusion, it gets very complicated to try to provide the whole family with a meal at the same time, usually there is always someone who has to eat later, it drives me mad.

When he finally got home Robbie got a bit huffy because I had bought myself a book, it was about railway history in Northamptonshire, it's really interesting, but he seems to think that all train books in the house have to be chosen by him. He was bursting to read it, but he wouldn't because he kept stressing that it was my book - what nonsense!

We overslept this morning, I remember waking Robbie up, but he must have gone back to sleep because he was racing around on 'fast forward' trying to get out on time to get his next train. He rang me later to say that he got the train with 2 minutes to spare. I am used to him giving me a detailed account of all his journeys with accurate timing, but it wasn't until this morning that something triggered a distant memory in my mind. Reginald Perrin! He used to entertain the women in his life with mind blowingly boring detail about his daily journey's to and from work. At least Robbie is rather less predictable than Reginald Perrin, but he is irritating sometimes, I have to beg him to stop talking!