Money Makes the World Go Around

I wasn't so concerned about the world going around, thanks to Robbie it was me who was going around in ever decreasing circles. He had an appointment somewhere north of here (I forgot to ask exactly where, but it involved heading towards Birmingham on a train). I altered my usual Monday routine so that I could drop him at the station at the time he wanted. I came back to the house to pick him up and he told me that he was ready, he just had to put his boots on, so I went out and waited in the car. Robbie turned up a few minutes later and I drove him to the station. He said a cheery goodbye and trundled off to buy a coffee for his journey and I drove back across town to the supermarket.

I parked the car in the supermarket car park and as I walked across to get a trolley I opened my handbag to get a pound coin out of my purse. My heart sank, there in my handbag was Robbie's wallet!! I turned around and went back to the car, I sent Robbie a text to let him know I was heading back to the station. I thought it would take me about half an hour to return the wallet and get back to the supermarket, after all Robbie couldn't go anywhere without money to buy a ticket. How wrong I was!! Baldrick Burgess had apparently bought his ticket for today's trip at the end of last week when he was at the station. So, when I arrived back at Northamptom station Robbie was just arriving at Rugby! I had to sit and wait, getting increasingly irritated while he travelled back from Rugby.

Finally he arrived looking very sheepish, I reunited him with his wallet and dashed back to the supermarket. I rushed around gathering the essentials in my trolley, but I didn't have time to do a proper shop because it was almost time for me to go to work. Men!! 

A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future - Coco Chanel

Since the new year I have been writing in my Question and Answer Journal every day. The questions seem very simple but when you attempt answer them you find that they have hidden depth. 

Today's question was simple enough 'What is your favourite accessory?' but when I asked other members of my family I found that everyone had a definition of accessory. In the end I decided that accessories include bags, jewellery, belts, sun glasses, hats, scarves, gloves etc. My daughter (who rivals Imelda Marcos when it comes to shoes) insists that shoes are accessories, but for me they are more functional so I did not include them in my definition of an accessory.

Even when I had decided what counts as an accessory I still couldn't answer the question. Usually I don't really bother with accessories, I am a very practical down to earth sort of person and I mostly think of clothes as functional more than fashionable. My handbag is important to me but it is a necessity rather than an accessory. I have a couple of other handbags in my wardrobe but I hardly ever change bags because it is far too complicated - on the other hand my daughter changes her handbag to suit her outfit. I have one or two necklaces that I like and sometimes I wear a broach but they are not exactly favourite accessories. When it comes to jewellery my wedding ring and my eternity ring are my most treasured possessions, but they are far to precious to be thought of as accessories. So having eliminated the other things, the choice was easy, my perfume is my favourite accessory.

If I asked Robbie the same question he would probably provide me with a very long list of favourites. It would not surprise me if a bag was close to the top of the list, Robbie loves man bags, rucksacks, briefcases, in fact he loves bags and wallets of all kinds.Then he would have to consider his cufflinks, he loves cufflinks and has lots of favourites among his large collection but if he had to select just one pair I think he would perhaps choose the Lego ones.

Time to Say Goodbye?

I have often written about the things that Robbie does to annoy me, but I rarely write about the things that I do to annoy him - yes it's true, I am not perfect!! One of the things that makes Robbie absolutely furious is my attitude to mobile phones. Robbie would find it more acceptable to go out without underwear than to forget his phone, while I still see my phone as something to bury in my handbag just in case I need it. 

I am not sure why there is such a difference in our attitudes to mobile phones, Robbie says that it is because I am old, but I am not so sure, perhaps I am just not as sad as Robbie! I have always seen phones a tool to use when I choose to and I refuse to let the phone rule my life. If someone rings and I don't answer they either know me well enough to contact me some other way or they can wait until I am not busy. 


Sometimes if Robbie rings me on the house phone and it is engaged, he will ring me on the mobile, that annoys me so much. I may have two ears but I only have one mouth, I can't talk to two people at once, so why can't he call back later? I hate having my life ruled by the phone. I am sure there is some hidden connection between my phone and the bathroom door. as soon as I get in there the phone rings and I have to dash downstairs to answer it - and it is almost always Robbie!!

In 1972 Bill DeWitt wrote "The bathtub was invented in 1850 and the telephone in 1875. In other words, if you had been living in 1850, you could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without having to answer the phone." That sounds like luxury to me. 


Despite my feelings about phones, I have to admit that I have a great sentimental attachment to my mobile phone. It is old now (bought in 2002 in fact) but it has been a very good phone and I didn't see the need to replace it while it was still working. It has been the cause of considerable teasing, and it is known by most of my friends as 'the brick' but I have never been that bothered about what other people think. Now it has gone silent, even when the ringtone is on the loud setting it just gives a faint buzz. It has been like that for months and it doesn't cause me any problems, but it drives Robbie mad and putting up with Robbie in evil troll mode is not fun. So perhaps it is time to admit that my phone has seen better days. I will be sad to say goodbye, there are a lot of precious memories associated with that phone.

An Early Start 26.05.07

The demands of GCSE and A Level exams have restricted our holiday in Cornwall to one week this year, so I was determined that we should make the most of our time. I have never enjoyed the ‘pleasures’ of a packed motorway and Bristol is always a black spot as it seem to be the cone storage capital of UK. I decided that we would get everything ready on the Friday, go to bed early and then set off at 2am on Saturday morning.

Everything went more or less according to plan apart from a bit of procrastinating from Robbie in the morning. Believe it or not he had to ring control to check on the progress of his ‘empties’ at 2am! He wanted us to leave a bit later as he calculated that we would then have a chance of seeing one of his trains as we went along the motorway. He got his wish, as we didn’t set out until 3.15 am and I did indeed see a train as we travelled down the motorway, but Robbie (who intended to stay awake to keep an eye on me) was ‘Z’ing by the time we passed Oxford and he dozed all the way to Cornwall, so he missed it. He said it was the wrong train anyway. I also saw a fox cross the whole motorway, but everyone else was asleep and missed it. We had an excellent journey; we arrived at Padstow just after 8am having made one comfort stop on the way. That gave us plenty of time to explore all the shops and to enjoy brunch at one of our favourite restaurants.

Robbie and I headed for the little bookshop that we love, he was very restrained and only bought one book, but I bought two, A Pictorial Survey of Great Western Branch Lines and A Portrait of the Atlantic Coast Express. I was dragged away by Laura and Emily; they had been checking out the designer shops and wanted to ‘show me’ what they had found. They jointly purchased an Animal handbag which they intend to share, but both have their eyes on other clothing as well. Maybe we should have stayed at home! Sam bought a decision dice and a gruesome pen that defies description, but he has his sights on greater things too!

We got to the caravan by mid afternoon, it has been upgraded since last year and it is absolutely beautiful. By the time we were all installed and tidied up and the shopping had been fetched and packed away, I was exhausted. I went bed before Dr Who, leaving the ‘boys’ to enjoy the flat screen LCD TV.