Robbie's Favourite Advert

My favourite advert is the one celebrating 25 years of Virgin Atlantic. Robbie loves it too but unfortunately it makes him get all nostalgic about Wimpy food and that gets a bit boring after a while. However that is not his favourite advert, his favourite is the CrossCountry advert when it comes on we all have to be quiet (except Robbie who makes little moans of extacy). It is quite good, but I can't work out why it seems to be snowing in the advert, after all when it snows trains usually grind to a halt!

Does it Really Matter?

Robbie and I don't see much of each other during the week, but even in the short time that we are together we end up talking about trains! Yesterday evening there was an advert on TV, I think it was for insurance, but it had a brief shot of a train and then you saw the people inside the train discussing insurance or whatever it was. I made the foolish mistake of asking Robbie about the livery of the train, he confidently told me what it was and then he got one of his books out to show me. I told him he was wrong and we got into a pantomime argument of "yes it was, no it wasn't" with neither of us willing to give in. Robbie decided to prove that he was right by rewinding the TV to check - he was wrong!! Then he spent an age debating (with himself) whether or not the interior shots were from the same train, he decided that he didn't think they were, I couldn't care less, I had lost the will to live by then!

You never know when some seemingly innocent remark will start Robbie off. The television was on and I expressed my irritation at a stupid advertisement that involved a man doing a somersault across the bathroom in order to fit a rim block to the loo. How ridiculous, when did a (straight) man ever interest himself in cleaning the loo and whoever has enough space at the side of their lavatory for a grown man to do a somersault!

My comment was enough to start Robbie off on the poor design of the toilets at work. Apparently they are lopsided with too much space on one side of the cubicle, too little on the other and the toilet roll holders are placed inconveniently causing problems for people who are not double jointed. The ergonomic analysis continued with a detailed analysis of the dodgy design of the Network Rail toilets. It was at this point that I experienced déjà vu and relived an interminable and unnecessarily detailed account of the management of controlled emission toilets on Voyagers - he even described the smell and the problems with the seals!

Robbie is full of surprises and suddenly the conversation veered away from design and function to position and posture when using the facilities. I will leave the rest to your imagination ...... as Richard says, too much information!!