As I Was Going Up The Stair ..................

We were cuddled up in bed this morning when Robbie started talking about Alice. I was confused, who was Alice? Was it another one of his women, a friend of Brenda perhaps? No he doesn't have a harem (as far as I know) he wasn't even talking about Alice. Apparently he was talking about the name of a company that provides road transport for railway locomotives. It is so nice to know that I have his full attention!!

Last night I had to abandon Robbie in the lounge, I tried to wake him up but he was deeply unpleasant. Apparently he woke up a few hours later and he couldn't move because his back was so painful. Eventually he managed to fall from the chair to the floor and there he remained on his hands and knees for more than five minutes. Eventually he managed to crawl upstairs to the bathroom, unfortunately I chose that moment to wake up and walk along to the bathroom. We made each other jump and we both shouted out. It reminded me of that poem 'As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there'. Robbie was real enough, but he really made me jump. When I got back from the bathroom Robbie was already sound asleep in bed and he was doing Ivor the Engine impressions - I give up!

Genetic Engineering

Sam and Laura are back at school this morning, they only had Friday and Monday off school because Easter was so early. They have another school holiday coming up in a couple of weeks. Easter has been a bit of a non event for us this year, usually we go to Plymouth to visit family, but with such a short holiday that proved impossible. It is lovely to visit family, but when we had snow on Easter Sunday I was quite relieved that we were at home, it is bad enough driving to Plymouth in good weather, I've had miserable journeys in driving rain and fog before, but thankfully I have never encountered snow.

Sam must be growing, when he put his uniform on this morning his trousers were perilously close to becoming 'ankle bashers' and they will certainly not last until the summer. His blazer is also looking a bit short, but that will have to last for a while longer. I am annoyed about his trousers, I bought him three pairs of M&S trousers for the new school year, they had plenty of growing room (or so I thought) and I expected them to last until the summer, but it looks as if we will have to go shopping in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it will not be as traumatic as the saga we had buying shoes recently. I think I wrote about the visit to the shoe shop, but that was just the tip of the iceberg, for the next couple of weeks he refused to wear his new shoes. He wore his old shoes and then when I removed those he sneaked out in black trainers, he claimed the new shoes were tighter around his ankle and we had to have a 'frank exchange of views' before he surrendered and went to school in his new shoes. I feel as if I am running a laundry at the moment, Emily is home from university and I have been sorting out all the stuff that no longer fits Sam so I have piles of washing. I know it is mad to wash clean clothes before passing them on for recycling but I can't help it.

Robbie was late home from work again yesterday. He told me he had some exciting news and he had a huge grin on his face. He had been in contact with Wendy, his cousin from USA and she had met up with cousin Bobbie who reminded Wendy that various family members had worked for a well known company building locos. As you can imagine Robbie provided me with a full account of the various classes of loco that the company built, but I will spare you the details. He was delighted by this news and he has decided that trains must be in his genes! I wonder what is in my genes, endurance perhaps?

Obsessions 24.01.08

Most of the time I really don't mind about Robbie's obsession with trains and all things railway. After all, imagine how much trouble he would get in to if he didn't have his precious trains to distract him! I am used to hearing about the trivial details of every journey he takes, in fact it would be fair to say that the subject of trains dominates his thoughts. Of course there are limits, I had to get rather assertive about him taking his pager to bed and thankfully he doesn't do that anymore. Can you imagine what it was like, that thing poised on the bedside cabinet would vibrate and wake me up, sleeping beauty would be oblivious, prodding didn't work so I would pinch his bottom. He would then fling off the covers, turn on the light, read the pager out loud (just to make absolutely sure I was awake!), but then he would replace the pager and be 'Z'ing away again before his head hit the pillow, leaving me to reach across to turn out the light and recover the duvet before trying my best to get back to sleep. Often the whole process would be repeated before I had even dozed off again and by morning I was thinking murderous thoughts! The pager doesn't intrude into our private life anymore (or else!) but there is a new threat to my sanity, he has become obsessed with wnxx.com. No, it's ok, it's nothing dubious, it's a website about withdrawn and stored locomotives! Whenever I want help in the kitchen etc. I have to make an appointment because he is busy on wnxx, as if that isn't bad enough he then tells me all about it - scintillating!!