Having Robbie in my life means that I am used to strange questions and not to be out done, my son has spent his whole life bombarding me with questions on every imaginable subject. Believe me there is never an easy answer where my son's questions are concerned. Here are two diary entries, my son was 9 or 10 at the time.
...........He was almost back to normal, asking his usual stream of questions. Among several other things he wanted to know how exactly it is possible to kill 2 birds with one stone!
...........My son questioned me in detail about the ageing effect of space travel, it made my brain hurt. He said that if there were identical twins and one went into space while the other stayed behind, one would end up older than the other. Having thought about it, he must be right, I saw William Shatner on TV not so long ago and all that space travel has clearly taken its toll on him!
Usually my older daughter is more likely to tell me the answers than to ask questions but yesterday she was even more 'random' than Robbie. When I came back from work she came into the lounge and said "Mum, why didn't you tell me about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore?" I was lost for words, there are so many things that I have tried to pass on to my children, but I am fairly sure that Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were not on the list. She went on to tell me that she didn't know that they used to be a double act, but having come across clips of them on YouTube she had discovered that they are very funny. I don't think forgetting to tell her about Pete and Dud makes me a failure as a parent, but it has left me wondering what else I should tell her about.
It is time to admit that I am a failure, I know that because Robbie told me so loud and clear. I picked him up when I finished work yesterday evening so it was passed 9pm when we got home. The cats were not impressed, they are very good at telling the time (thanks to Robbie's efforts) and they knew that their dinner was late. The loudest complaints were coming from Shadow the guinea pig. I am not aware that Robbie has been actively teaching Shadow to tell the time, perhaps guinea pigs have an innate sense of time or perhaps she just loves to eat whatever the time.
Robbie and the cats disappeared into the kitchen; it was hard to work out if he was feeding them or trying to extend their vocabulary! A little later Robbie emerged from the kitchen holding a plastic bag with a few flecks of green in it. The clues were there, the expression, the hand on the hip, not to mention the expletives from the kitchen - he was not a happy chap. The plastic bag had once contained curly kale, but except for tiny traces of green it was now empty. He waved the bag at me and said "now what am I going to do?". It took me a moment to compose my features because there was something vaguely ridiculous about Robbie who is not noted for his love of 'greens' getting so upset about a deficiency in the curly kale department. Before I could say anything he said "what am I going to say to the guinea pig". I took a deep breath and said that we had other greens, carrots and apples as well as her dried food and hay, so it was unlikely that she would starve. Unbelievably he walked over to the guinea pig to show her the empty bag and to apologise on my behalf for running out of curly kale. I don't think she took too much notice, she was too busy tucking into an apple and her dried food.
As soon as I finished work today I dashed to the supermarket and we now have an ample supply of curly kale. After all I don't want the guinea pig to think that I'm a failure!
I'm sorry, I'm still going on about trains, but there was yet another problem with the West Coast Mainline yesterday! I couldnt resist quoting from this article in The Times Rail expansion grinds to a halt as power line faults cause chaos Last December Network Rail promised that a new timetable would “herald a step change in the frequency and speed of train services” unfortunately we didn't realise that meant more delays and chaos than ever! The article made me laugh out loud, Network Rail really make themselves look ridiculous The company has stopped carrying out daylight inspections of the lines and does them at night instead to avoid closing tracks during the day. An industry source said that it was much harder to spot defects at night.
It was one of those days. Robbie's first text of the day got him into enough trouble to last a week. Last month he promised me that he would seriously modify his language but this mornings text conveyed his feelings about Network Rail in the most strident terms. A couple of phone calls followed Robbie was ranting so much that he was almost incoherent but eventually I understood that none of their voyagers had been able to leave the depot at Central Rivers due to a total power failure. Robbie was so cross, everything was a total shambles, the departure boards at New Street announced that train after train had been cancelled and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it until Network Rail got their act together. I didn't realise that so many trains went off to Central Rivers for the night, it conjures up images in my mind of Thomas and his friends all tucked up in their sheds on the Island of Sodor
My own morning was a bit challenging too. Dave the cat went back to see the vet and we have arranged for him to go in on Friday to have treatment on his bad foot. As well as his usual supply of steroids and antibiotics the vet prescribed a probiotic because his other tablets upset his tummy. The vet said it would be simple to administer the dose from the syringe type dispenser into the side of his mouth. It proved easier said than done. He clamped his mouth shut, swore menacingly and lashed out with his claws. I don't give up easily and I eventually got the required dose into the cat's mouth, that was when the fun really began. Dave sneezed or spat the medication back at me! It cost more than powdered gold and I ended up wearing it - such gratitude!
Well, it seems I'm not the only one who thought Iain Coucher the 'invisible man' from Network Rail was trying to pass the buck. This link will take you to the Telegraph which has published an email from the MD of One Railway to Iain Coucher. To say he is not happy seems a bit of an understatement! It makes very interesting reading.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/01/08/cnrail208.xml
We arrived home yesterday afternoon to find that the internet wasn't working. On closer inspection I found that our telephone was not working and my heart sank. I have had dealings with BT many times before as their service in our area seems to be very temperamental. I had to deal with the automated faults - system, press this number, press another number, stand on one leg, tell us how to contact you, tell us again, now press another button and key in all that information again just to waste a bit more of your time while you are calling from a mobile. Having done all that I was invited to transfer my calls to another number and yes, you guessed they wanted the same information all over again! Finally the dratted machine gave me the option to speak to a live human being, I pressed yet more buttons and waited, only to be told by the machine that they were very busy and if I gave them my contact number - again, I would be called back within 45 minutes. I kept my phone with me (even when I went to the bathroom) and 19 hours later I am still waiting for the elusive call back!
Much later in the evening Robbie managed to have a protracted conversation with a live human being, unfortunately she appeared to be in India, she couldn't understand what he was saying and eventually told him that she couldn't give him any information about the fault except that there was a fault - very helpful! How hard would it be to provide a real person based in UK who can speak and understand English in the way that we do?
