A Near Death Experience!

I had a near death experience on Sunday. We went to a car boot sale and Robbie and Sam were in rummaging mode, Sam has a passion for buying old coins and he dragged me over to a stall to look at some Victorian pennies, he got chatting to the lady on the stall and before I knew it she was offering him a box of bits and bobs at a very low price. Our house is full of junk already, we don't need to buy any more, I think my look of horror said it all. Sam managed to restrict himself to individual coins and he bought a pocket watch and some other oddments too. Just when I was breathing a sigh of relief about Sam, Robbie found a huge box of railway magazines. I stood there growing old while he scrambled under the table to sort through the magazines in the box. The man tried to negotiate with Robbie to buy the whole box and my heart sank, I had visions of dragging that big box of magazines back with us, but thankfully common sense prevailed and he didn't buy it.

Common sense hadn't extended to Robbie's choice of shorts, he was wearing those lurid brown and luminous yellow/green shorts that look like a skirt. I did my best not to look at his lower half, but when I did glance down I noticed that his left leg was covered in blood! As usual Robbie hadn't felt any injury and had no idea how he hurt himself, but closer inspection revealed three or four long cuts to his calf, it looked as if someone had tried to chop his leg off! We went back to the bungalow to tend to Robbie's wounds, then we spent a lovely afternoon sitting in the garden looking down at the beach listening to the gentle lapping of the tide. The sun was lovely but the noise pollution wasn't so attractive, it was Robbie running through his repertoire of farmyard impressions in his sleep. Nudging didn't wake him and shaking him only brought forth insults, so I decided to take a walk along the beach to the shop. I invited Robbie to come with me, but he told me to 'go away' so I left him there. He woke briefly when I brought him an ice cream back, but only seconds after the last mouthful the snoring started again and he remained there in the sunshine for another hour or so. When he came in he had caught the sun on one side of his face, it was very noticeable, the left side of his face was red and the other side was white, to complete the picture he had glowing red knees, it made him look like a comic book character – I could just imagine him as one of Batman's adversaries!

Not So Hidden Secrets 10.03.08

Some people are so careless about what they leave in their pockets and at the bottom of abandoned carrier bags. I always make a profit on the laundry, I put all the lost coins in a jar to boost our spending money when we go on holiday. I check carefully, but it is surprising how often a tissue sneaks into the wash, it's so frustrating because it takes ages to get all the bits off!

This morning I was sorting out the hall, to be honest it looked more like Steptoe's yard than a hall. Why do people abandon shoes, coats and bags all over the place, in fact why do they need so many bags and pairs of shoes in the first place? Having plodded up and down stairs delivering Sam and Laura's belongs to their rooms I was left with a selection of Robbie's bags, there was the casual rucksack, the laptop bag containing his old computer, his retired briefcase which he can't bear to part with, then there was a suit cover and a couple of carrier bags. On closer investigation I found that one carrier bag contained Robbie's (still dirty) travel mug and a magazine, the other proved more interesting it contained an opened package, lots of bubble wrap and a receipt - another accidental purchase perhaps? It turned out to be a very recent receipt for a very expensive (and unauthorised) item, two items in fact, two model railway carriages! £55 for two carriages!! Oh well, it looks as if he has bought his own birthday present, at least it has saved me a job!