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.

Back From the USA

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 was to SW USA. 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. She was appalled that they have doughnuts for breakfast and 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, 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 was to SW USA. 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. She was appalled that they have doughnuts for breakfast and 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 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. She said that fuel was really cheap (I wish it was here) but apples were very expensive, I can't think why they would be expensive but that is what she said. 
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. She said that fuel was really cheap (I wish it was here) but apples were very expensive, I can't think why they would be expensive but that is what she said. 

Photo by Laura Jones

They visited the Hoover Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona, my daughter didn't seem terribly impressed by the dam itself but she had a lot to say about the very heavy security around the dam to prevent any terrorist attacks. On the same day they went to Walnut Canyon, Route 66, and the National Monument. They spent one night in Flagstaff.

Photo by Laura Jones

The next day they visited the Grand Canyon National Park and she got some amazing photos. She said that she wasn't that impressed by the Grand Canyon at first but it got better as they went further on. It certainly looks spectacular from the photos.

Photo by Laura Jones

They stayed in the Grand Canyon National Park overnight and the next day they spent more time in the National Park, visited the Navajo Nation and saw real dinosaur tracks in Moenave Arizona. It took her a while to be convinced that they were real, but she was really impressed by what she saw. Footprints seem like a very direct link to the distant past.


The next day they visited the Navajo Code Talkers exhibition, Monument Valley and Goosenecks State Park in Utah. It was really interesting to find out about the very important work of the Navajo Code Talkers in the second world war. I had never heard anything about the very important role these brave men played in creating unbreakable military radio codes. 

The pictures of Monument Valley made me think of John Wayne and i was surprised to find that she'd had her photo next to a life size image of him. 

Advice From An Old Farmer

I don't mean to offend anyone, but we have had an overload of news and information coming from America in recent months. I am very pleased that Barack Obama is the new president, but I am alread starting to feel that if I hear his name one more time I will scream. So I thought I wouls include something a bit different on the blog. I read a number of websites and among all the drivel about politics I came across this, it made me smile and it contains some good advice.

Advice From An Old Farmer

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
* Keep skunks, bankers and lawyers at a distance.
* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen, anyway.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.
* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
* Always drink upstream from the herd.
* Good judgment comes from experience, And a lotta that experience comes from bad judgment.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around

I hope Robbie takes note of the bit about fences, he still hasn't finished mending our fence!

Communication Skills

The wall to wall US election coverage was impossible to avoid yesterday. I couldn't believe that people had to stand in line for hours just to be able to vote, I thought that sort of thing only happened in third world countries. I am feeling tired this morning because I kept the radio on all night to listen to the Radio 4 coverage of the election results - Robbie was not amused, he buried himself in the duvet and snored loud enough to drown out the radio. I stayed awake long enough to hear about Obama's early victories, I woke several times to hear that the Democrats were heading for victory and when my alarm went off just before 5am (usual time) I was in time to hear Barack Obama's amazing victory speech, and then to John McCain's gracious acknowledgement of defeat. I think even his critics would admit that Obama is a great orator, of course he now has to turn the dreams and promises into action, but it really felt as if we were witnessing something significant. After Bush who is barely literate and seems incapable of stringing a sentence together coherently, it was a joy to listen to Obama. It made me feel a bit envious because we have no hope of inspirational leadership any time soon.

Talking of great communicators brings me on to Robbie. He can manage more words per minute than anyone else I know, but as far as communication is concerned sometimes less is more; I have to keep telling him to talk slowly because I haven't got a clue what he is talking about. He often accuses me of reading his mind (because he doesn't get away with very much!) but this morning he failed to communicate at all, apparently he thought telepathy was sufficient. My alarm went of at the usual time, I woke him at the usual time, he got up as reluctantly as ever and caused the usual clatter when he went downstairs. He brought my cup of tea earlier than usual, I didn't take much notice but I observed that he was well ahead of schedule when he went into the shower. I embarked on my normal routine at my usual time, but I felt that Robbie was rushing me along. Eventually I told him that he was way ahead of schedule, and it was only then that he told me he was aiming to catch an earlier train. Since I play an important part in getting him organised and out of the house on time clearer communication would have been very helpful!

It's Almost Over

The US election is almost over and hopefully we will finally have some respite from mindless news reports. I am so exhausted by the whole thing, it seems to have been going on for years. I have to admit it has made me grateful to be British because our election campaigns are mercifully short in comparison. We don't have any politicians to be proud of, in fact I can only think of two or three senior politicians in my lifetime that have inspired trust or respect, but I sincerely hope that we don't have anyone as unsuitable as Sarah Palin. I couldn't help laughing at the clips of her being taken in by a broadcaster who phoned her claiming to be the French president, it was such an obvious spoof, how could she possibly have taken it seriously? The thing is that it isn't really funny, that woman could potentially be the next vice president and McCain is an old man, so there is a possibility that if the unthinkable happened and he became president he could die or become unfit before the end of his term in office. Would anyone seriously want that woman to be president? She only has the vaguest idea where Russia is, and that seems to be the sum total of her knowledge of anything beyond Alaska, I think she would set the whole world fighting and that scares me. My greatest objection to her is that she does the cause of women no good at all. For at least a century women have struggled to prove themselves equal to men and to gain the same rights and responsibilities in society. Finally women we have reached a situation where they are recognised for their ability and achievement rather than for what they wear or who they are married to. Then this woman comes along, every time she opens her mouth she demonstrates her woeful ignorance, she spends far more than is decent on clothes (that don't make her look any better anyway) and she has some seriously disturbing beliefs. She is an example of pseudo equality, she is nothing more than a puppet, look hard and you will see that a man is pulling the strings. She is an embarrassment, but worse of all, she lacks compassion, if you look at what she believes in you are left wondering where is the humanity?

High Speed Chase

When Robbie got home yesterday he was very keen to tell me about a link that his cousin Wendy in USA had sent him. It enabled Robbie to guide the cursor and view the road where Wendy lives. It isn't like google earth where you are looking down on the houses from above, it is as if you are driving along the street and you can look at all the houses. Robbie doesn't drive, and he wasn't very good at virtual 'driving' with the cursor either, one minute we were looking at Wendy's house then suddenly we went speeding off down the road into the next road, and the next - we were practically in the next state before he released the cursor! It is an amazing link and it was really interesting to experience, it was like being able to walk down a road in a country that you have never visited. Well, actually with Robbie in the driving seat it was more like playing The Simpsons Road Rage game, but you know what I mean. Robbie said he would look again later when he had more time, I think he wanted to practice his 'driving' skills in private.

I am rather glad there is not a similar site that allows people to have quite such a close look at our house, the front hedge needs cutting and the hedge cutter is still out of action after Robbie last escapade - he cut through the electric cable! We have a gardening weekend planned, Robbie plans to restore order to the back garden and I need to tidy up at the front. I think we will avoid the electrical gadgets for the garden as far as possible!