Reaching out to the Past

It's official - I am obsessed! This morning I bought a 1980 Model Railway Constructor magazine that I have wanted for ages. This is not something I have bought just to please Robbie, I haven't even told him about it because he would probably tell me to buy a magazine about Deltics instead!

I have been researching my family tree for a number of years and as many of my ancestors lived in and around Northampton I have become fascinated by old photos and old maps of the town. If only we could have street view on old maps, there so many places that I would like to see as they were when my grandparents and great grandparents knew the town. I would like to see where they lived, where they worked and the places that mattered in their lives. Most of all I would like to see the three railway stations in the town as they were then.

We think the world has progressed but in terms of public transport my grandmother's horizons were much wider than my own. She could travel to many towns and villages within the county by train and if she wanted to travel further, the train would take her; and for more local journeys she could rely on the tram. 

The first of our railway stations to close was the most convenient and most beautiful of the three. It was less than a five minute walk from St John's station to the market square. Clearly customer convenience was not a high priority even then - some things never change! Saint John's Station had opened in 1872, it was the northern terminus of the Midland Railway's Bedford to Northampton line. The station was built above street level on red brick arches which carried the line across the road and out of the town on the 21 mile journey to Bedford via Piddington (which in reality was much closer to Horton), Olney and Turvey. It was closed in July 1939 as a cost cutting measure and the services were re-routed to the much less convenient Castle Station.

Now it would take Sherlock Holmes to find any clue that a station ever stood on that spot, the station seems to have been erased from local memory and there are so few photos that you could almost suspect a cover up. So my reason for buying the old magazine was that it contains plans of St Johns and with the help of maps and old photos I can perhaps imagine the station in it's glory days.

Indulging a Passion

Robbie sends me lots of texts. Some are rants, usually these start with the word 'farce' and go on to detail the difficulties he has experienced during his journey. Some are more enthusiastic, they usually start with 'helfire' and go on to provide extremenly detailed extremely detailed information about something (usually railway related) that has pleased him. Then there are the random information texts, they always begin with 'did you know?' Other categories of text include excuses, apologies, loving texts and my absolute favourite, the sort that make you laugh out loud. 


I got one of those 'laugh out loud' texts a couple of days ago, "Just off to Marsh Barton on the bus to get my briefcase serviced :D x x" When you live with Robbie, the ability to filter out his constant chatter is an essential skill. I had probably filtered out whole conversations I vaguely remember him mentioning the word briefcase once or twice, but that is all. I laughed at the text because the way he phrased it made me think of stud farms and such like. I wondered how exactly briefcases are serviced, but I didn't remain ignorant for very long, he spent all evening telling me about it!    


Robbie likes bags of all kinds, he loves his rucksack, but briefcases are his passion and he is the proud owner of a Henry Tomkins handmade leather briefcase. He wants to keep it in tip top condition so he took it in to be serviced. He couldn't stop talking about the fantastic customer service - in fact leather bags and briefcases were his only topic of conversation all evening! 


http://www.htleather.co.uk/catalogue/briefcase/briefcase.html#lite

The Things You Do For Love!

I have always known that Robbie and I have different tastes. Mostly I give in to his demands because I love him, I even let him eat onion rings - but I don't let him get anywhere near me afterwards! I can cope with his fashion sense, his music, his railway obsession and countless other things, but I have my limits. On Wednesday evening he begged me to do something that was way beyond my comfort zone, I told him that it was too weird, but eventually I gave in and let him watch Fred Dibnah on TV!!

Being Anal

I was reading a thread on a forum the other day about the things that people are anal about, it made me laugh out loud because the very first post could have been describing Robbie.


"....he emerges from the bathroom holding the toothpaste asking who has failed to squeeze from the bottom of the tube!"


As I read on I realised that so many of the posts could have been describing Robbie. Someone wrote about their partner driving them mad by constant checking and commenting on railway and bus timetables. Surely there can't be anyone else as bad as Robbie for doing that - or do all train planners take their quail maps to bed with them?


Another common theme was having to have tea or coffee made in exactly the right way. Robbie is impossible about the way his coffee has to be made and he criticises me every time I make coffee for him, so I find it easier to let him make it himself.


Robbie even has strong opinions about the loo roll! According to him it unrolls more efficiently if the end is on top rather than underneath. I don't think I even notice which way round it is, why would anyone obsess about anything so trivial?


In the interest of fairness I should perhaps admit to the one thing mentioned that I am obsessive about - black ink! Blue ink should never ever be used, black
looks so much nicer. Robbie is into pens in a big way, especially Parker pens, he could talk forever about all the different designs - and if anyone borrows his pens it is a hanging offence!


When I first met Robbie I thought it was odd that he counted the stairs every time he went up or down, but I soon realised that was mild, Robbie counts everything. This evening I caught him counting the increasing revs on the washing machine spin cycle, he could tell the speed just by listening to it and when it reached the maximum speed of 1400 he got so excited - seriously weird and more than a little autistic!

Too Much Detail

I am used to Robbie's odd little ways but I still find them frustrating at times. Who else would count socks into and out of the washing machine? When Sam provided 23 socks to be washed he did the full Sherlock Holmes to establish why there was a missing sock. He counts the stairs every time he goes up and down and he times almost everything he does to the second - he knows exactly how long it takes him to bath, to get dressed, to feed the cats etc. It drives me mad and he knows there is an absolute ban on timing activities that involve me! However last night he took things beyond the limit, he had counted and itemised all the items that had to be washed up! Then a little later he spotted the new bottle of washing up liquid and went into ecstasy about it. He is very fussy about washing up liquid, it has to be his preferred brand in the correct shaped bottle with just the right amount of 'squirt' but this met with his approval because it was retro. He walked around the lounge admiring the bottle and pointing out different fonts and remembering the various TV adverts. We all had to admire it, then he sat at the table with the bottle in front of him still admiring it. Then he announced that he would take it to work to show everyone; you have been warned, if you see Robbie armed with a bottle of Fairy Liquid - run!

A New Toy

Robbie managed to get it right this year, I was delighted with my present from him (apparently the girls kept him on the right track). He bought me a usb thingy to scan photo negatives on to my computer and I have spent the last couple of evenings revisiting old photos and remembering old times. I now have photographic proof that Robbie is not the only member of the family with an obsession with trains!

I hope this photo doesn't give Robbie any ideas, I couldn't cope with him dressing like a deltic! I am guessing that the photo was taken about 12 years ago but I am not allowed to identify the person in the picture because at 15 he is too cool to admit to being a Thomas fan when he was younger. I think the photo below was taken at Peterborough, but after all this time my memory is a bit dodgy and it could be Pitsford. I do remember a very excited three year old running up to a somewhat rotund member of staff and asking if he was the Fat Controller!

Obsessions 14.09.2007

Robbie has been at it again - getting obsessive. He is struggling to cope because I am re organising the kitchen cupboards and I haven't consulted him, so he is feeling really out of control. He has moaned about every new container or storage box and demanded to know exactly what it was for and why. It came to head when I bought a towel rail and he had a moan about it and demanded to know where I thought I was going to put it - I was so tempted to speak my thoughts! I think he got the message and he has been a bit more cautious about kitchen matters for a day or two. Instead he has directed his attention to socks. He claims that his new 'best' socks have been pilfered. Why is it always his 'best' socks that go missing? He went on and on about them being from M&S as if they should get preferential treatment. I have no interest in his socks, I just wash them, dry them and pair them up and I told him very clearly that if he was suggesting that I lost them in the wash he could do his own laundry in future. There was a sudden backtracking and a hint that Sam could be responsible. Two points cast doubt on this, I bought Sam 30 pairs of school socks for the start of term and if Sam tried to wear Robbie's long socks he would look ridiculous, they would go almost up to his thigh. I don't think they are lost at all just in the wrong place among Robbie's things. I explained all this to him last night and I thought he had dropped the subject, but I was woken at 1am by a searchlight shining directly into my eyes and a lot of movement on Robbie's side of the bed - he was looking for his socks!! I think he worked out that I was not happy and he beat a hasty retreat, by the time he came to bed I was fast asleep. Of all the things in this world to worry about why choose socks!