There's weird and then there's Warley!

A few months ago Robbie asked me if I would like to go to a model railway exhibition with him in November. He must have caught me at a weak moment because I agreed without hesitation. I am quite interested in Robbie's model railway collection - I don't have much choice really because they are taking over the bedroom! In previous years the thought of the crowds has put me off (I really struggle with crowds) but this year I braved it.

I thought Robbie's back pain would stop us going, but he was determined not to miss it because he had been looking forward to it for months. We got up stupidly early on Saturday morning and headed towards the station, before long we were sitting comfortably on a train enjoying a bacon roll and a cup of tea (coffee in Robbie's case). We spotted a number of other passengers who seemed to be heading for the same destination - how did we know, well they had train spotter written all over them! It was a bit too chilly for even the hardiest among them to contemplate socks and sandals, but there were plenty of beards and bellies in evidence!

When we got to the NEC we were herded into a rather disorderly crowd by one frantic man with a walkie talkie, and just before 9.30am the crowd moved forward and down the stairs and a few minutes later we were in the hall and wondering what to look at first. Robbie was like a kid in a sweetshop, he wanted to dash off in all directions at once. At one of the first stands we looked at he saw a Heljan Class 17 Clayton that proved too hard to resist, he looked at a few more stands before dashing back to blow his whole budget on the Clayton.

I managed to hang on to my money for a little longer. I was so tempted by the Ivor the Engine products, I love Ivor the Engine and I did go back and buy a couple of Ivor books later on. I could have spent a fortune, but since I didn't have a fortune to spend I manages to keep more or less within my budget. I saw loads of things that I really liked especially a Virgin Voyager set (so if Santa is reading this please take note). I spent most of my budget on books, I just couldn't resist them, there was one about Victorian and Edwardian carriage design, one about the history of the circus train, another about the railways during the war and Robbie's favourite 'Rails around Walsall'. In a weak moment I agreed to let Robbie buy loads of back copies of magazines. Before long I was weighed down with bags and I felt as if my arms would be stretched right down to my knees!

I was surprised how easy it was to lose Robbie in the crowd - but he kept finding me again! I found it very exhausting and by about 11.30am Robbie was struggling to cope with leg and back pain and I was tired, so we decided to go to York on the train. We could eat our packed lunch in comfort and enjoy looking through our new books. It was a really nice day. When we finally caught the train back to Northampton we were in for a nice surprise at Rugby, Tornado (60163) was sitting in platform 5 on it's return journey from working a rail tour. Our train was full with many people standing, lots of people were coming back from Warley and it was fascination to see all the different types of people who become obsessed with all things railway. Robbie told me off for staring, but I couldn't help it I had never seen anything like it in my life - so many variations on a theme. Robbie's quote of the day - 'there's weird and then there's Warley!'

Obsessions! 01.12.07

Robbie does talk rubbish at times. Last night we finally sat down to eat our meal just before 9pm, because we had been food shopping. For no obvious reason he started to talk about the packaging and merchandising of Smarties - do I care? Robbie wasn't bothered about boring his audience, it obviously mattered him and he was going to make the word pay attention. Apparently the familiar Smartie tubes are a thing of the past and the new packaging is hexagonal. My first reaction was that it would make them more stable and easier to display but Robbie disagreed. According to him the manufacturer has not taken account of the problem of merchandising Smarties on board (he means on trains). I am sure he is right, after all onboard sales would be a negligible fraction of their market! According to Robbie it is a huge problem and they have to find a solution. I pointed out that Cross Country seemed to have made a reasonable start to the new franchise, but maybe they should concern themselves with issues such as punctuality, overcrowding and customer service rather than the merchandising of Smarties. I don't think I will lose any sleep over the Smartie problem, but you never know, it could make the headlines in the next issue of Rail Magazine!!

Robbie does not have a monopoly on obsessing over trivia. Sam came home and asked me if I knew the correct name for the plastic tags on shoe laces that make them easier to thread. I don't know, what is more I have got through this much of my life very well without needing to name the ends of a shoelace, so it probably doesn't matter! Later on he asked if there was a specific word for someone's hair going grey overnight after a shock. I wasn't convinced that such things really happen, but Sam pointed out that Alistair Darling may have suffered such a fate because his hair is white and his huge eyebrows are very dark. I suggested to Sam that the word he was looking for was stress! With Robbie and Sam in my life I do have a passing acquaintance with stress - and I also have a few grey hairs!

I do love Sam, and yesterday he brought a big smile to my face. He was telling me about an oral Spanish test that he did which involved describing his parents and siblings. He confided to me that he'd had to lie because he couldn't count high enough in Spanish to give my age accurately so he said I was 32 - I wish! I am not sure what the teacher would have thought about a 32 year old having a daughter age 18, but it was nice to be young again!

Robbie left home very early this morning to go to a model railway exhibition. I must admit to a bit of a fascination with railway modelling myself, but at 5.30am if forced to choose between my bed and getting up to go to the exhibition my bed would win hands down! I got up at a much more civilised hour when Emily arrived home, it was lovely to sit and chat with her about university, Christmas shopping and countless other things. She headed off to town to meet up with Laura, who was already in town, she takes shopping seriously and had made an early start. Robbie rang to tell me that the model rail exhibition was great, he was very impressed because he'd had a chat with Pete Waterman!