Raising a Glass

Robbie bought me the most amazing present today, it didn't cost a fortune but it put a huge smile on my face. I could hardly believe my eyes when I picked him up this evening and he presented me with a 2 litre bottle of my favourite brand of Root Beer. In terms of calories there is probably a whole month of wickedness packed into this bottle but I don't care, I love Root Beer and I feel like celebrating (I don't drink alcohol so celebrating with Root Beer suits me very well). The other good thing about Root Beer is that no one else in the family likes it so I don't have to share! Robbie is happy too because I reminded him that he still has a few bottles of Uncle Stuart's real ale stashed away, we bought them from Wroxham Barns in August while we were on holiday when today was little more than a dream. Back then it felt like a very big step to contemplate walking away from a job that he had loved and a company that meant so much to him, but deep down I think we knew that the time was right to move on. 

So much has happened since then; Robbie has said a fond farewell to his friends at Cross Country, closed the door on that chapter of his life and finally after lots of hard work and mountains of red tape the new chapter of his working life has finally begun. I think it will surprise a few people, in fact I think it will surprise a lot of people because there have been quite a few rumours about what Robbie will do next and none of them were right! I am very pleased about the way things have worked out, but it is not my news to share (and I never write in detail about work on the blog) so if you want the details you will have to ask Robbie.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. Benjamin Franklin

One thing that may be a mixed blessing for Robbie is that I understand him very well, too well for his comfort at times! There have been times such as the test card incident and the fuzzy felts birthday card when I've thought that Robbie didn't understand me at all, but that's not true. He knows that I love him and even when he gets things horribly wrong his intentions are usually good - misguided but good. 


Thankfully I have help in keeping Robbie on the 'straight and narrow', my older daughter (mini me) and my mum (senior me) keep reminding him of the 'rules'. 


1) Never attempt to buy clothes for me without 'advice'
2) Never spring a surprise on me - his type of surprises scare me!
3) Retro is not always good
4) Never choose music for me
5) Never make arrangements which can not be changed later.
6) If in doubt, don't!!


It probably makes me sound very boring, I'm not really, but perhaps I indulge in quieter passions than Robbie. I think the real difference is that I am the one who has to keep my feet on the ground and not let my passions run away with me. 

I was so impressed with Robbie this week, he brought me a little treat and I was in heaven. It was a can of Root Beer from Cybercandy and it was absolutely wonderful, I love root beer. It was the perfect way to show he cared, not stupidly expensive and very thoughtful. There were just a couple of little problems, it made me wonder 'what he had done' (but I was tactful enough not to put that thought into words!) and it has left me craving Root Beer. Maybe he does understand me a bit after all, he certainly knows how to make me happy!!

Loud and Impossible to Ignore

On Friday evening I collected my daughter from university, she was finally home after a trip to USA. She is a Geography student and the trip to SW USA was an important part of her course. Her flight home had been delayed by five hours so I expected her to be tired and jet lagged, she wasn't, she was very talkative. 


She had seen some amazing places but for the first hour or so all she could talk about was how much she disliked the food. This surprised me as I had assumed that they would have the same sort of food as we do in UK, but apparently that is not the case. She was appalled that they have doughnuts for breakfast, she said that everything was far too sweet and the portion sizes were ridiculously large. She said that everywhere seemed to smell of peanut butter and it made her feel ill, I think she may have been exaggerating because I can't imaginine anyone wanting to eat peanut butter on a regular basis. I think she may have seen peanut butter here but we don't have it at home. I quite like it but she doesn't like nuts so I am not surprised that she was put off by the smell. I asked if they still have Root Beer in USA, back in dim distant past they used to have root beer at Mc Donalds and I loved it. As far as I was concerned it was the only nice thing at Mc Donalds, but it was probably very bad for me - it seems that everything that I like is bad for me! She didn't know anything about Root Beer, but she told me that Mountain Dew is different in USA, it is high caffeine here but apparently they can't put as many additives in it here as they do in USA.  


My daughter said that fuel was really cheap (I wish it was here) but she went on to say that apples were very expensive. I am not sure why apples and fuel popped up in the same sentence, but who knows what goes on in the brain of a 19 year old! I can't think why apples would be expensive but that is what she said. Anyway I must stop obsessing about food, but in the interest of fairness I should point out that within a couple of days she was longing for some of the things she had eaten in USA. Young people are so fickle!

Being a typical young woman she found time for a bit of a spending spree. She bought herself some lovely clothes and a new ipod, and knowing Robbie's passion for PJs (or as he says 'lounge-wear') she bought him a pair of PJ bottoms, he loves them because they are loud and hard to ignore - just like him. They have M&Ms in various colours all over them, to say they are brightly coloured is an understatement - they are scarily loud. I didn't think the blog was ready for another picture of Robbie in his PJs but you can see the pattern in this picture. I think Robbie was rather touched that she knows him well enough to make such a perfect choice.