Not Wanted

Robbie's dad is moving house in a few weeks time. Robbie feels a bit sad about it as it will break the link with the village that he grew up in. When he was talking to his dad at the weekend Robbie arranged to go over and visit his dad next Saturday. His dad said that there was a lot of 'stuff' for Robbie to take home, so we would have to bring the car. I am suspicious of that word 'stuff' Robbie already has far too much clutter and I really don't know where to put any more! We need to be fairly ruthless in sorting out the junk that we already have. I agreed to drive to his Dad's house to pick up the stuff. I am not keen on driving that far north, it is such a boring journey and it seems to take forever to get there. I especially hate driving in Walsall because they don't seem to understand the difference between roads and pavements, it is like lemming year, people just dash out into the road! Anyway I was willing to drive to his dad's next Saturday, but to my surprise Robbie doesn't want me to go! His dad is having a bit of a get together for a few friends on Saturday evening, and Robbie wants to stay for that, he seems happy to take Sam with him, but he is worried that I will cramp his style! Never mind, I will have a nice day on my own instead.

Living Dangerously!

Robbie has been in so much trouble. How many times does he have to be told – when in a hole stop digging. Things came to a head on Thursday evening when I put a casserole in the oven for him before I went off to work, it would have been ready between 6.30pm and 7.30pm when he got home from work. The problem was that he didn't get home at 6.30pm or 7.00pm, he wasn't even home by 8.00pm, it was past 9.00pm before he got home. What annoyed me was that he didn't ring home to check if Laura and Sam were OK and to make sure that anything in the oven had been turned off. So Robbie arrived home to charcoal instead of casserole and nobody had been fed. That would be bad enough, but the thing that infuriated me was that he left the burnt casserole dish for me to deal with! Not the way to win friends and influence people!

The reason for his lateness was the extra work created by the company moving to new offices. By Friday morning Robbie hadn't managed to apologise, in fact he was adamant that it was my fault for not foreseeing his lateness. He has obviously got so used to me knowing when he is lying that he really expects me to have a crystal ball. There was no contact all day, then he rang when he should have been almost home to say that he was still at work and wouldn't be for some time. Another 'dinner in the dog' night! It was about 10.00pm by the time he finally got home and the best was still to come – he wanted to go out to play on Saturday!

Until recently I hadn't thought much about Robbie's colleagues. I guess my feelings about them were fairly similar to their feelings about me, a bit odd but fairly harmless. Now it's war! I have been really annoyed about Robbie being taken for granted for a while now, why is it always him who has to stay late in order to get everything done? Apparently they were so grateful for the work he had done on the move that they left some toffees on his desk to say thank you, but nobody stayed to help him. Someone gave him a ticket for a railway open day the next day, a nice thought, but after the week we'd had, not the best way to pour oil on troubled waters!

So Robbie went to the open day, not exactly with my blessing, but he was probably safer there than at home! He returned at about 9.00pm and moaned for the rest of the evening about the cramped bus replacement between Northampton and Birmingham International. So you will be surprised to hear that none of his 'bits' have been rearranged and he has been forgiven. You will have to ask him how he managed that, but I can assure you that he cleaned the casserole dish – I saved it for him!

A Moving Experience

I think I have mentioned before that Robbie's company is moving to new offices not far from their present building. He has known about the move for months and he has played an active role in the planning and preparation of the new environment. For months he has talked of little else. I know about the proximity of the post office, the kitchen arrangements, the layout of the toilets and the exact distance and route from New Street Station, I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Now we have moved on to the next phase, Robbie is in nostalgic mode, he keeps telling me how much he is going to miss Meridian. This morning when he got up he announced that it was his last ever Friday in his present building and he sounded so sad. As you would expect he has told me about the arrangements for packing in considerable detail, but I can't help wondering if they have really taken account of the Robbie factor. That man has taken hoarding to a new level, the house is bursting with train books, old timetables, railway maps, magazines, ancient catalogues, mementos from open days etc and assorted train related debris. I am fairly sure that his office will be much the same. I keep asking him to bring his junk home to make the move easier, but it hasn't happened - yet. They have only allowed a day for packing, but in Robbie's case it will probably take a week! I don't think we will ever be able to move house because the removal costs will be more than the price of the house!!

Moving 04.12.07

I have been thinking of moving the blog for some time and yesterday I finally decided to 'do the deed' and create a new blog. It will take me a couple of weeks at least to move all the old posts, but I think it will be worth it because the new site will give me more functions and greater control in terms of layout and organisation. I moved the first batch of entries last night and it was interesting to look back at what we were doing a year ago - time flies. I will still post new entries on this site until I have got all the old entries sorted out on the new site, but if you are fairly new to the blog or you would like to revisit some classic 'Robbie moments' you are welcome to visit the new blog to check out the old entries as they are posted. The address is http://robbiesrandomramblings.blogspot.com/ I would welcome your feedback and suggestions. I put the article about the car wash on to the new site yesterday, people still mention that one from time to time, so it may be worth another look. I still have to add links, photos and several other things to the new blog so please be patient.