The insistent bleeping of the alarm clock roused me from sleep, but 'Sleeping Beauty' slumbered on oblivious of the cacophony of sound that filled the room as all three alarm clocks demanded attention. I shook him and yelled at him to turn it off, he said "yes dear" and carried on snoring! Clearly it was going to be one of those days. Trying to get Robbie out of bed is like trying to raise the dead - even when (as today) it is something he wants to do.
It took a minor miracle but at 7.55am we pulled out of Northampton on the London Midland service to Birmingham. It was a double set 'blue' train so Robbie had nothing to moan about (for a while at least!). As soon as we arrived at Northampton it was clear that this was no ordinary Saturday morning. The 'socks and sandals brigade' had donned their winter uniform and turned out en masse for the annual gathering of the weird, the worrying and the downright certifiable - otherwise known as the Warley Model Railway Exhibition.
We left the train at Birmingham International and when we entered the National Exhibition Centre we were herded towards the exhibition hall. We waited for the exhibition to open in a tightly packed and ever growing crowd. I felt very small and outnumbered lost in the crush of men with backpacks who all had the same thing on their minds - trains! The crowd surged forward and I was carried along with it, down the stairs round the corner and in to the exhibition. Robbie was like a kid in a toy shop, he didn't know what to do first, but in true Robbie style he insisted that we had to stick to the same route that we take every year!
Before long Robbie was walking around with a 'Roy Cropper' shopping bag as well as his rucksack. We bought some lovely books, one for me and four for him, as well as a stash of magazines a couple of little shunt engines and two very nice Hornby circus trucks. As I looked around I noticed that most of the other men were now armed with shopping bags as well as their rucksacks. It was rather like a Roy Cropper convention, or perhaps Where's Wally in reverse - If you looked hard enough you might be able to spot someone 'normal'. People watching is always fun, but at Warley it takes on a whole new dimension!
I am not sure how long we stayed at the exhibition, probably not much more than an hour but we managed to see everything and by the time we left we were absolutely exhausted. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it was as big or quite as good as last year. My favourites were the book stalls and the Stall selling Ivor the Engine books and mugs - I love Ivor the Engine! There was one other highlight, the ladies toilets, they were clean, practical and there were no queues, in fact they were almost deserted. If only it was always like this!
Robbie and I left the exhibition exhausted but content and keen to take a closer look at our purchases. It was still early so we caught a train to Birmingham with the intention of having a day on the railways - but that is a story for tomorrow, I'm tired now.
Robbie went 'out to play' again this weekend, this time it was a model railway exhibition that demanded his attention. I wasn't overjoyed about being abandoned again but he promised me his undivided attention on Sunday to make up for it. When I woke up on Sunday morning Robbie complained that he was wide awake and then promptly fell asleep and refused to be woken for ages. I just lay there thinking about Kenny Everett, I know that is an odd thing to think about but it was Robbie's fault, his legs seem to have a life of their own and he waves them around to such an extent that he lets all the warmth escape from under the duvet – it makes me furious! Eventually he woke up and finally I got his attention, but he spoiled it by choosing exactly that moment to tell me that he met Pete Waterman yesterday. I have nothing against Pete Waterman, but having to think about him and Kenny Everett before I get up on a Sunday morning is a bit scary!
Robbie does talk rubbish at times. Last night we finally sat down to eat our meal just before 9pm, because we had been food shopping. For no obvious reason he started to talk about the packaging and merchandising of Smarties - do I care? Robbie wasn't bothered about boring his audience, it obviously mattered him and he was going to make the word pay attention. Apparently the familiar Smartie tubes are a thing of the past and the new packaging is hexagonal. My first reaction was that it would make them more stable and easier to display but Robbie disagreed. According to him the manufacturer has not taken account of the problem of merchandising Smarties on board (he means on trains). I am sure he is right, after all onboard sales would be a negligible fraction of their market! According to Robbie it is a huge problem and they have to find a solution. I pointed out that Cross Country seemed to have made a reasonable start to the new franchise, but maybe they should concern themselves with issues such as punctuality, overcrowding and customer service rather than the merchandising of Smarties. I don't think I will lose any sleep over the Smartie problem, but you never know, it could make the headlines in the next issue of Rail Magazine!!
Robbie does not have a monopoly on obsessing over trivia. Sam came home and asked me if I knew the correct name for the plastic tags on shoe laces that make them easier to thread. I don't know, what is more I have got through this much of my life very well without needing to name the ends of a shoelace, so it probably doesn't matter! Later on he asked if there was a specific word for someone's hair going grey overnight after a shock. I wasn't convinced that such things really happen, but Sam pointed out that Alistair Darling may have suffered such a fate because his hair is white and his huge eyebrows are very dark. I suggested to Sam that the word he was looking for was stress! With Robbie and Sam in my life I do have a passing acquaintance with stress - and I also have a few grey hairs!
I do love Sam, and yesterday he brought a big smile to my face. He was telling me about an oral Spanish test that he did which involved describing his parents and siblings. He confided to me that he'd had to lie because he couldn't count high enough in Spanish to give my age accurately so he said I was 32 - I wish! I am not sure what the teacher would have thought about a 32 year old having a daughter age 18, but it was nice to be young again!
Robbie left home very early this morning to go to a model railway exhibition. I must admit to a bit of a fascination with railway modelling myself, but at 5.30am if forced to choose between my bed and getting up to go to the exhibition my bed would win hands down! I got up at a much more civilised hour when Emily arrived home, it was lovely to sit and chat with her about university, Christmas shopping and countless other things. She headed off to town to meet up with Laura, who was already in town, she takes shopping seriously and had made an early start. Robbie rang to tell me that the model rail exhibition was great, he was very impressed because he'd had a chat with Pete Waterman!
