Moving On

There has been a long silence on the blog, over a week of saying nothing I wasn't able to talk about something that was happening, hence the reason for my silence but at last I can speak again. Robbie made the difficult decision that after almost fifteen years it was time to leave the company that he works for and set his sights on pastures new. It has been a very big decision and it has occupied our thoughts for months, but it was very important to do things properly and I couldn't mention it on the blog until everything was agreed with his employer and his departure had been announced. He is still technically with the company for a few weeks longer, but he is now using up leave, his last working day was last Friday.

In the weeks leading up to his departure there were several important jobs to be done including emptying his cupboard and his desk. It sounds simple enough doesn't it, but this is Robbie that we are talking about! It took a huge amount of effort but thanks to the effort of two wonderful 'helpers' his cupboard was emptied - it is just as well that my Ford Galaxy has the rear seats removed because the contents of his cupboard filled the car. I thought that was the end of it but more bags and boxes followed as he emptied his desk - even a tardis couldn't hold that much 'stuff' so we now have a a lifetime of timetables that were taking up house room. It seems that he has several copies of every leaflet ever published by a train company, he also has the largest mug collection known to man and other sundry 'junk' that will fill at least 20 archive boxes!! By junk I mean old tickets, reservation slips and assorted stuff that 'normal' people would throw away. I have tried to be understanding but it is difficult, I feel as if I am drowning in clutter. I am ashamed to admit that you can't actually see our garage any more, the utility room has become a store room and all things railway related have invaded the bedroom!! Just occasionally I crave a a bit of 'normality'. When I told Robbie how I felt he told me that in 100 years time it will be an important historical archive. I wasn't as reassured by that as he expected, after all in 100 years (or even 50 years) I will not be around.

Clear Desk - Or Not? 27.03.07

At the weekend I gave Robbie a bit of a hard time regarding the state of his desk at work. After some initial reluctance he succumbed to a little bribery and he agreed to sort it by Wednesday morning. When he arrived home yesterday he said the job was complete, I expect the poor desk will be a bit sensitive to daylight after this long! I threatened to send him with a duster and polish this morning so that he could put the final touches to it. When I was at school we used to have to take a duster and polish in on the last day of each term to clean our desks, of course they were the old fashioned sort of desks with lids and real inkwells. The highlight of each new term was being issued with a pristine piece of pink blotting paper, by the end of the first week it would be tatty and disreputable, but that didn’t seem to matter. New exercise books evoked just as much pleasure, but they were marred all to soon by the inevitable inkblot or spelling mistake. In those dim distant days we didn’t even imagine computers, spell checks and all the other wizardry that we now take for granted. Anyway that’s enough nostalgia for now. Can anyone confirm that Robbie really has tidied his desk?

Happy Birthday Robbie 15.03.07

Happy Birthday Robbie - 35 Today! He is feeling very old this morning, so please be kind to him.

Robbie and Emily went to look at Aston University yesterday. Emily liked the course there, Linguistics and French and she seemed to quite like the university. She has finally made her choices, Leicester as first choice and Aston second, she has declined the others.

I had a report back from one of my researchers concerning the state of Robbie's desk - diabolical! Maybe Virgin needs a clear desk policy!! Obviously his hoarding gene gets him into trouble at work too. I was surprised to hear that other desks in his office were equally bad, I wonder if that is due to his influence on his colleagues or them setting him a bad example!