"Book lovers never go to bed alone" - Unknown

Tuesday 13th August

We'd planned to make an early start this morning because we were going to Cromer, but it proved harder than expected to get up and get organised, so it was 10am before we left the bungalow. It didn't really matter, we had an enjoyable drive and we found a parking space without too much difficulty. 

Our first port of call was the tourist information centre, it has an Internet hot spot. We have missed having a reliable Internet connection while in Norfolk, so we took the chance to catch up on email, facebook etc. While there we bought a pile of railway poster postcards - Robbie likes to collect them. 

 We wandered in the direction of Jarolds, but we didn't get that far, I had forgotten about Robbie's need to stop and photograph every bus that he sees - he even used his phone to take photos as he was crossing the road! I had also forgotten  about the hardware shop, Robbie absolutely loves that shop, he has a bit of an obsession with crockery. I waited and waited until I was so bored that I told him that I was going over the road to the second hand bookshop. I was in heaven! I had forgotten about this shop and I spent a very happy time looking at all the children's books. When Robbie saw the Ladybird books I thought he was going to burst with excitement. He bought the Ladybird book about the railway, he had a good look at the railway book section but he didn't buy any, instead he chose two hardback Snoopy books - one of them is in French!

We finally got to Jarolds where Robbie indulged his passion for pens and erasers as well as books, Playmobil, purses and postcards. We were hungry by now but Robbie still had another bookshop on his list so we walked across to the bargain bookshop and Robbie checked out the transport section - they had bus books as well as railway books so I knew I was in for a long wait! I found a fantastic book which contained all the Britains model catalogues of the 1970s. We bought that book as well as a railway book that Robbie just couldn't resist. 

At long last it was time to eat, we found a little restaurant called the Garden Street Grill. I loved the meal, the service was prompt and friendly and the toilets were excellent. It was good value and I would definitely go there again. 

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!

'Essentials' 31.08.07

There is not much time left before the school term starts, Sam and Laura go back on Wednesday next week so we need to get organised. I bought Sam's new school trousers, shirts and other essentials online when M&S had a 3 for 2 offer. Now I have the ominous task of sewing all the name tags into the new garments, it is an essential task as Sam is even worse than Robbie at losing his belongings! I bought the stain resistant, allegedly easy care garments but by day two I guarantee that he will look as if his style consultant was a graduate of St Trinians!

Today we are going to tackle a very sensitive issue - Sam's hair! Several months ago he gave up on the excessively gelled look, something I had been longing for but I didn't bargain for what came next. He now aspires to an Emo look (whatever that is). From what I can tell it is an uncut, unwashed, uninspiring style that due to his very thick hair makes him look like a lego man. On his last couple of trips to the hairdressers he has resisted having anything meaningful cut off his hair, so today he is going to my hairdressers to have something 'more significant' done to his hair. Hopefully we can reach a compromise and we will both be satisfied with the outcome, but I am determined that it will look as if it has been cut.

In theory Laura shouldn't need school clothes as they wear whatever they like in sixth form, but Laura is a shrewd operator and she has convinced me that despite having more clothes than the queen and more shoes than Imelda Marcos, she needs different clothes, a new coat and believe it or not, more shoes. When we were at Milton Keynes I bought both girls a new winter coat, after considerable debate and visiting ever shop known to man we settled on, warm coats that are versatile enough to wear with smart clothes or with jeans. I also bought Laura some shoes and a top last week so I think we will leave it at that and see what she really needs when she has done a few weeks at school. In the meantime we have to get a new schoolbag for Sam and a handbag for Laura, it seems that Robbie's passion for bags is contagious!

Earlier this week we bought all the 'essential' stationary and sundry items for school. I can't understand how they appeared to have everything they needed in the last few weeks of term, but suddenly they absolutely have to have a whole mass of essential items in order to succeed at school. Am I the only parent who feels I am being mugged by slick marketing regarding the return to school? Anyway, when the school stuff is sorted out I need to focus my attention on all the things Emily will need for university. She is taking the catered option for the first year, but she will still need lots of things and it is difficult to come up with a sensible list. Any suggestions?