Robbie went to a gig in Birmingham on Monday evening, apparently it was one of his favourite groups called The Wedding Present. Robbie was incredulous that I have managed to get through life this far without ever hearing anything about them, and he decided to put that right by providing a potted history of the group and then making a strange noise which was allegedly singing. My eyes glazed over and I decided that in this case ignorance was bliss. My ears were still recovering from the tuneless roar that Robbie calls singing when he asked me to pick him up from the station at midnight. I agreed on the strict understanding that he would not sing to me again. I duly arrived at the station at 11.55pm just one minute before the train was due in. Within seconds a text arrived to say that they were delayed at Rugby! A succession of gloomy texts followed and I sat there feeling cold and tired until the intrepid traveller finally arrived at 1.00am, I was not impressed. The journey home consisted of a long rant from Robbie on the subject of Network Rail!
Robbie is going on a charter trip on Saturday and apparently his life will not be fulfilled unless I let him go to an open day at a cement works on Sunday. Well, how can I compete with the attractions of a cement works? One thing is absolutely certain, it will be a very long time before I agree to pick him up from the station at midnight!!
Showing posts with label railway open day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label railway open day. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Sunday, 20 July 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Body Language
Our dog Meg is a great communicator. If she knows that she is in trouble she walks along with her tail tucked under her chin and her body close to the ground, and if she has to walk past me she will do a wide circle, we never hit her so it must be instinctive behaviour. When she wants something she makes absolutely sure you know about it, she becomes very fussy and affectionate and she keeps walking backwards and forwards and looking at the thing she wants (back door, food cupboard, water bowl, lead etc) until her slow but loveable humans finally get the idea! Robbie is much less subtle, when he wants something he 'creeps' shamefully. I am almost sure that the phone rings differently when he wants something because I can tell instantly, even the little silence before he speaks is different.
Yesterday I got one of those phone calls, he was a bit too loving, there were far too many compliments and he found it even more difficult than usual to get to the point, so I cut through the flattery with a simple “What do you want?” This brought on a bout of stuttering from Robbie, then a painfully drawn out explanation that he had been offered a ticket for Tyseley Open Day in Birmingham, and he would very much like to go. I was a bit disappointed because he was out all last weekend and he has other trips planned so I was hoping for a nice ordinary weekend. He obviously wanted to go because he offered to take me with him – no chance! A railway yard open day is not my sort of thing because it will be attended by the 'socks and sandals brigade' and to be brutally honest that many peculiar people in one place is a bit hard to take! The venue also puts me off, I don't like going to Birmingham, it is too chaotic and it makes me feel despondent. When we are heading to Birmingham on the train I give up hope soon after we pass Rugby, everything starts to look grim and unloved and a close encounter with Birmingham New Street Station is enough to ruin anyone's day!
I told Robbie he could go, he would have only talked about it all weekend anyway, so he may as well go. I will find something to keep me busy on Saturday and when he gets back he will find a list of jobs to keep him out of trouble on Sunday!
Yesterday I got one of those phone calls, he was a bit too loving, there were far too many compliments and he found it even more difficult than usual to get to the point, so I cut through the flattery with a simple “What do you want?” This brought on a bout of stuttering from Robbie, then a painfully drawn out explanation that he had been offered a ticket for Tyseley Open Day in Birmingham, and he would very much like to go. I was a bit disappointed because he was out all last weekend and he has other trips planned so I was hoping for a nice ordinary weekend. He obviously wanted to go because he offered to take me with him – no chance! A railway yard open day is not my sort of thing because it will be attended by the 'socks and sandals brigade' and to be brutally honest that many peculiar people in one place is a bit hard to take! The venue also puts me off, I don't like going to Birmingham, it is too chaotic and it makes me feel despondent. When we are heading to Birmingham on the train I give up hope soon after we pass Rugby, everything starts to look grim and unloved and a close encounter with Birmingham New Street Station is enough to ruin anyone's day!
I told Robbie he could go, he would have only talked about it all weekend anyway, so he may as well go. I will find something to keep me busy on Saturday and when he gets back he will find a list of jobs to keep him out of trouble on Sunday!
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