“You’d better tell His Majesty that many people nowadays like marmalade instead.” A A Milne

Sunday mornings are special, but this week I was not best pleased with Robbie when I woke up on Sunday morning because he had woken me up at 3am when he came to bed. Does he seriously think that I want to chat at that time in the morning? He always knows how to get around me, very sensibly he didn't try to make excuses he just apologised and then plodded off to make me a cup of tea. 

When he came back to bed he cuddled up next to me, looked me in the eyes and said that he had something to tell me. I wondered what he could possibly want to say, he looked very serious, then he announced that he had run out of marmalade! I told him that this wasn't the moment to be talking about marmalade, but he just gave me that lost little boy look that he does so well. Then he snuggled up closer and told me to make sure that I choose thick cut Golden Shred when I buy his next pot of marmalade. Sometimes words fail me!


The title for this post comes from the poem The King's  Breakfast by A A Milne.

The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals - John Hartford

The weekend had slipped past far too quickly, so when we sat down on Sunday evening I wanted to enjoy what was left of the evening. The demands of another week would be upon us all too soon. It is nice to just be together, we don't have to talk all the time - and even Robbie can be quiet sometimes! Unfortunately yesterday wasn't one of his quiet times. I was working on updating the blog layout, but every time I started to concentrate on it Robbie started to talk to me again. Not just normal conversation, it was mostly 'did you know' type questions and a rather too enthusiastic sharing of information from the newspaper.

I thought I had made it clear to Robbie that I was becoming exhausted by too much trivia, but it seems he hadn't got the message. He called my name yet again and asked if I knew that Sainsburys are changing the size of the cardboard tube inside their own brand toilet rolls. I asked him why he would expect me to know that, we don't even shop at Sainsburys! My lack of interest didn't seem to bother him; he went on to tell me the exact dimensions of the new style toilet roll. He seemed disappointed that I still wasn't interested, so he made a final bid for my attention by telling me that there was a circle printed in the paper that we could cut out. With the aid of the circle we could find out if the new style rolls would fit our toilet roll dispenser. He got upset when I told him very bluntly that we don't use that brand of loo roll, we don't even shop in that supermarket so I don't need to know! I know Robbie loves detail, but honestly, that is ridiculous, there isn't enough free space in my memory for all the things I need to remember, I certainly don't have room for nonsense like that. 

Do As You Are Told!

Last weekend Dave (the cat) and I had a nice quiet Saturday while Robbie had a fantastic time on a rail tour to Penzance. By the time Robbie got home I had gone to bed so I didn't have a good look at him until the Sunday morning. Most blog readers will know that he likes nothing better than trotting around in his pants - only in the house, it scares the neighbours if he goes out like that! Anyway I noticed that he had cuts and grazes on his legs and when I questioned him he didn't have a clue how they had happened. Robbie's legs are a bit challenging (rather like their owner!) and what would be a fairly trivial cut for most people can be a real problem for him because things take so long to heal, in fact they often get worse rather than better. So it is hardly surprising that I was determined to bathe the cuts and put some antiseptic on them before they had a chance to go bad. Robbie, who still deludes himself that he is Superman, had other ideas and he was equally determined that his legs would be fine without any attention. I gave up on him because I knew that he would meet his match later in the day, and sure enough he had only been at my mums house for ten minutes before a large tube of Germolene was produced and his legs were duly anointed. The tube of Germolene was sent home with us and Robbie promised to take care of his cuts and grazes. Taking care of his legs has involved me chasing around the lounge armed with antiseptic several times this week and until yesterday he was adamant that he would be fine. Yesterday morning he was forced to admit that one of the cuts was now green and nasty and looking very angry and will need to be dressed to prevent it getting even worse. The problem is that he is going on another rail tour in a week or so and I am wondering how to protect his legs from whatever he managed to scrape them on last time - shin pads seem a bit extreme for a rail tour!

Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home.......

Sunday was so hot that I couldn't cope with being in the sun for too long. Sam and I went out in the morning, Robbie had decided last night that he didn't want to come with us, he wasn't in a bad mood he just wanted a quiet morning with his Sunday paper. Sam wanted to go to the car boot to look for books on photography and he found four really good books for next to nothing. We made a quick detour to Tesco to get a few essentials for Robbie and then headed back to the beach.

Robbie and I took a walk along the beach, there were so many ladybirds that it was making Robbie cross. They seemed to be attracted to his bright yellow top (perhaps they thought he was a huge flower!) He was fairly OK about them until they tried to go up his shorts, he took that as a personal insult and after doing an interesting little jig he called the insects some very insulting names! I paddled in the sea, I didn't have the excuse of paddling with children but it was fun anyway, the sea was warm and calm. Robbie sat on the beach and watched, he doesn't paddle, he prefers to keep his feet dry, after all if he got too close to the sea he would risk getting his favourite shorts splashed. Usually I pretend that I'm not with him when he wears his 'extra loud' shorts, but they have their uses, I have no chance of losing him on a crowded beach – however hard I try!

The Demon Strimmer

After being 'allowed' out to play trains on Saturday Robbie said that he would give me his undivided attention on Sunday. He told me that his body was at my disposal, so I booted his body out of bed and sent him off tho establish a deep and meaningful relationship with the strimmer. I stayed upstairs doing some jobs and listening to The Archers, but Emily kept popping in with regular bulletins on the lack of progress in the garden. The strimmer thread kept breaking and Robbie would have made more impact with a pair of scissors than with the strimmer. Being a man Robbie had an answer - when in doubt head for the DIY superstore! The garden was finally tamed at about 8.30pm!!

A Question Of Time

I woke this morning secure in the knowledge that it was Sunday morning. I reached down to turn off the alarm clock and relaxed back into the pillow to listen to the radio. Suddenly I became aware that I was listening to the Today program - and that isn't broadcast on Sundays. My heart sank as I was engulfed by the realisation that it was Monday and it was already 6.50am, we were already an hour late getting up. Robbie was still sound asleep so I had to resort to desperate but well proven measures - I pinched his bottom! The result was amazing he leapt from slumber to standing in one movement, unfortunately his brain needed to catch up and he spent almost 5 minutes working out if he had time to make a cup of tea or not! He made up time on his shave and shower, achieving almost world record speeds and amazingly he was ready and out of the house by 7.05am. I had already woken Sam and prodded him into action, it is hard enough to keep him on task on a well ordered morning and messing up his morning routine is a recipe for disaster! But incredibly by 7.50am I had said goodbye to Emily (she is off to Poland today) and Sam and I were heading off to school and work on time!

It was a tedious day at work and by home time I was feeling really tired. I had to go rushing around to do various errands, then I met up with Robbie so that we could go to the supermarket. By then I was really tired, but Robbie practically sent me to sleep while driving. He spent the entire journey telling me in the most intricate detail about the problems that they had experienced with a rogue pdf file and the various steps he had taken to resolve the problem. I asked him for the abridged version but when he still went on and on I had to tell him to shut up because he was sending me to sleep!

Departures 24.06.07

Well, I've been abandoned again! This time he has gone to work - who in their right mind would go to work on a Sunday just to be allowed to do more but different work during the week - he's potty. Even worse there were no trains running so his journey to and from work took twice as long!

So I found myself alone in bed this morning with nothing more exciting to think about than the imminent departure of Tony Blair (at last!). It seems that now that he has finally been dislodged from UK politics he is to be paid a ridiculous sum to head overseas with the aim of bringing peace and co-operation to the middle east. Now I don't have too much trouble with the idea of paying him to go away, somewhat belated maybe, but a good idea. The bit that troubles me is the plan to send him to the middle east, surely they have enough problems without having to put up with him as well! Apparently this was the idea of President Bush; I know he makes Winnie the Pooh look like a genius, but where on the Blair CV is there anything to suggest that he could bring peace and harmony to any part of the world? The man couldn't even get on with his own chancellor and surely even Bush cant imagine that Iraq was a success!!!

My prediction for the Deputy Leadership proved somewhat wide of the mark. Harriet Harman surprised everyone by just scraping a victory over some other faceless wonder who for some reason or other was the bookies favourite. Not that it matters, she will have about as much power and influence as the milk monitor in a primary school. Whoops, that aged me a bit! We did have milk monitors 'in my day', we also had a book monitor and an ink monitor, but the prized job was bell monitor. It was the job of one of the oldest children to go to the hall table and ring the bell at the end of each lesson. It was a polished brass bell with a lovely wooden handle, it was very heavy and surprisingly loud

Back to reality, another more upsetting departure has been announced. Thierry Henry is to leave Arsenal for Barcelona - that is something worth feeling sad about!