Something Close to Normal

Robbie is back in 'normal' mode – well, not normal exactly, Robbie doesn't do normal but he manages a fairly close approximation. He has been trying to make up for being a pain in the rear on Christmas morning, I have forgiven him, but he is still cross with himself. He invited me to have an early night last night, but I realised that it was just his one track mind getting the better of him when he said “just you and me and the new train DVD”. I like watching the DVD's with him, but sometimes I think trains are taking over the bedroom. The top of the wardrobes are packed with his model trains, he has piles of railway magazines on his side of the bed and his collection train DVD's is growing like a triffid. Most of his books have taken up residence in the lounge, but there are still plenty upstairs and some of them even find their way into the bed! I have to ask him not to read his books out loud when I am trying to sleep!! People told me that having a 'toy boy' would be exhausting, but I don't think this is quite what they had in mind, sometimes it would be nice to be just a bit more normal.
On the subject of 'normal' Robbie was in a fragile mood on Christmas Eve, not yet in a full blown strop, but working on it. All the family were at my mum's, just enjoying a nice family day together, but Robbie sat there reading The Grocer! What am I going to do with him?

This evening he is watching a scary film on his laptop, it is called The Strangers. It is comical to watch him, he's there with his headphones on looking terrified and making occasional terrified gasps and whimpers. At least it has given me a bit of peace for a little while.

Robbie Makes Demands

Robbie finally got home from his weekend playing trains. To be more accurate he got as far as Rugby and got stranded, so I had to go and rescue him. He chatted almost non stop about his weekend and as usual the food seemed to interest him almost as much as the trains. We had a busy afternoon and evening but in a quiet moment Robbie demanded an early night - so that we could watch railway DVD's in bed!! A company called MD Rail Productions has produced a DVD of The Spitfire Railtours Cumbrian Coast Explorer and Wey-farer tour, and Robbie was very keen to watch the DVD. Here is a link to the Spitfire Railtours DVD. He also had his latest British Transport Films DVD to watch so it looked as if we were in for a long evening.

Our early night didn't materialise, but when Robbie came to bed at about 12.25am he woke me up and demanded that I stay awake to watch the DVD's. I managed to watch a film called Travelling Intercity, when the next one about the design of the HST came on I couldn't keep my eyes open and I had to settle down to sleep. I don't know how much he watched, but when I woke at half past three he was sleeping soundly, still clutching the DVD case. I think there may be another night of railway videos in store!!

Father's Day

It was Father's Day on Sunday and in our house that is a day of very mixed emotions. My own dad died when I was still at school, and I still remember the pain of Father's Day without a father to buy a card for. I have a step father, he is not a substitute for my dad, but over the years he has become special in his own right and he has been a fantastic grandad to my children. The mixed feelings are much the same for my children, Robbie is a brilliant step dad and he has a good relationship with each of them but that does not replace their dad. Being a step parent is always a challenge, and in my case there was no vacancy to fill, they have a mum and a dad, so I needed to find a different sort of role with Robbie's children, more like a grown up friend than a parent. Of course from the other angle it is difficult to accept a step parent, how dare your parent inflict this person on you without giving you any choice in the matter and apparently without taking your feelings into account. My own stepfather didn't always get it right in the early days, but because of him I know that a good step-parent can make so much difference to family life.

Robbie misses his children when he is not with them especially on Fathers Day and birthday's, but we have some happy times when we are all together. Robbie's main present was the latest in the series of British Transport Films DVD's but it hadn't arrived on time so he is looking forward to getting that later in the week. He also had a couple of books, a big glossy book about railway blunders and a little book packed with railway facts. He loved both books, but by the end of the day I was getting a bit fed up with all those facts. That little book has a section on timetables and lots of information about Bradshaw's, he is bad enough as it is without a little book of facts to encourage him to bombard me with random railway information!

When in a Hole Stop Digging! 21.07.07

Robbie decided to live dangerously earlier in the week. I was annoyed, not because he was late home, but because he didn't notify me promptly about the delay. By the time he phoned I had already accepted several other commitments all based on the assumption that he would be home at the time he had planned. Somehow the irritation was perpetuated, I think it was partly due to Robbie's habit of digging furiously when he finds himself in a hole. It is silly to get annoyed about lateness that was obviously not deliberate, but a simple sorry and an acknowledgement of the difficulties his lateness caused would have worked wonders, the combative approach in the style of John Humphries was less successful - I must stop him listening to Radio 4 every morning!

Harmony seemed to elude us, I could feel that it was within reach but it just kept slipping through our fingers and the longer the situation persisted the more frustrating it became. It was at this point that Robbie very bravely (or stupidly) clung to the higher ground and told me it was about time I started to toe the line!! Maybe my expression gave it away, or maybe he genuinely had used the wrong words, whatever the cause a look of terror spread over his face and if he hadn't been in the car at the time I think he would have actually run for cover! I don't recall exactly what I said, but it involved him acquiring a much higher voice!

We never stay cross for long and harmony reigns once more. Robbie had a day off work yesterday and he came up over to me and gave me a big hug, he then asked if we could please buy the latest British Film Institute Railway DVD. When he got a favourable response he decided to make the most of the moment and he announced that he was going out to play trains next Saturday - apparently he absolutely has to go on an HST to Newquay and when he gets there he will turn round and come back again! Men! If you didn't laugh you would cry!

This Way to Plymouth, or Maybe That Way! 28.01.07

Robbie watched one of his DVD's this morning, about the southern holiday routes. He sat there on the bed like the Buddha, competing with the narrator, trying to squeeze in even more exciting little snippets of information about the routes and the stations. I now know all about the peculiarities of Exeter St Davids. Trains to Plymouth could enter and leave the station in opposite directions on either the Southern or Great Western line, that must have caused no end of confusion.

I finally coaxed him out of bed and after a bit of dithering he headed off to town to for the last little bits for Emily's birthday. I wrote him a list of what was needed including 4 sheets of gift wrap and he bought 4 pieces of wrapping paper, nothing more or less. I forgot that train planners have no imagination, when he got home he presented me with 4 sheets of the SAME paper and 2 identical gift tags! He got very upset when I refused to wrap everything up in the same paper because it would be boring. He asked how he was supposed to know if I didn't write down exactly what I wanted! I give up!!