The greatest gift is our own eyes, sense of smell, and abilities to deduce - Patricia Cornwell

I was dreading going home after our holiday, because I knew the house would be a mess, it was, but it was not as bad as it was last year. We had a nice surprise because my daughter had painted the bathroom and it looks very nice. When we opened the front door we were met by a very unpleasant smell and my first hour or so at home was taken up with trying to track it down. It wasn't animal related and it wasn't the bin, amazingly the bin bag in the kitchen was almost empty. I tracked the pong to the kitchen but I couldn't identify it, I checked for rotting vegetables, but there were none, I had a good sniff inside the fridge but the smell wasn't coming from there. 

In the end I had to leave it and get on with tidying the kitchen and doing the laundry. Then Robbie made me a cup of tea and I sat down in the lounge to drink it. I could smell an over-ripe banana in the fruit bowl and I took it out to the food recycling caddy and as I lifted the lid, the pong was revealed in all it's glory. The contents of the caddy which had morphed into a green hairy mass, had been there since before our holiday! When I had escorted the stinking mass to the outside food bin and disinfected the food caddy, the inquest began. My son was adamant that it was not on his list - a typically aspie response! My older daughter who has a poor sense of smell claimed not to have noticed it and her sister announced that she doesn't have anything to do with food recycling because it is gross. So, the combined intellect of two university graduates and an A Level student was not sufficient to cope with the 'complexities' of  emptying the food caddy. Next year I will leave the cat in charge!

“A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.” Spanish Proverb

It is not unusual for me to be annoyed with Robbie -  he would probably tell you that being 'in the doghouse' was an almost daily occurrence! That isn't true, of course there are minor irritations and I get annoyed when he rearranges the fridge, hides the recycling bin, puts things out of my reach and leaves the toilet seat in the wrong position (believe me I could come up with a much longer list!) but serious disagreements are much less common. 

We are a very odd and unconventional couple, but it works, I love him more than I could express in words and I know that he feels the same. That is why I worry about him, especially when it comes to looking after his health and well being and I get seriously annoyed when he takes foolish risks with his health. Yesterday he was at the railway station by 6.10am and he didn't get back to Northampton until 11pm. He was asleep on his feet and in so much pain that he could hardly walk! Nothing so important that it is worth risking your health. A friend of his gave him some very sound advice, I just hope he takes notice.
" .......... She speaketh of kind tongue. The railway will break itself without your intervention, and it will heal itself thus. Will the railway fixeth you? The runes say "bugger off". Do less more often; the difference is negligible."

Too Many Cooks ................

Robbie has many talents, but don't worry I am not going to tell you about all of them! He is surprisingly useful in the kitchen and on a good day we can work well together. The difficulty is that I think of it as my kitchen while he acts as if it is his. To be fair it is not the best designed kitchen in the world and we could do with a lot more storage space, but for the time being we have to work with what we have - and that is where the problem arises. 


I have written before about him being a control freak when it comes to food shopping, and about the way he controls the fridge. It can be challenging, but most of the time I tend to let him get on with it, he may be totally rigid about the everything having to be the correct size and in exactly the right place, but at least he makes an effort. There are times when he goes a bit too far, such as his phase of leaving post-it notes in the fridge, thankfully that is a thing of the past but we still have bitter disputes about sell by dates. I don't expect him to eat anything that has past its use by date, but I am not as fussy especially with things like horseradish sauce. I am the only one in the house that likes it, so how dare he throw it away without asking me! He was in big trouble when he did that - but he will not do it again!!

Now we have a new problem - recycling. We recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass without any problems, but now our local council collects food waste too. We have an indoor caddy for food scraps and an outdoor food bin. We don't have much food waste, mostly it is used tea bags, egg shells, a few crusts and an occasional potato that has passed it's prime. Logically I want the food caddy on the work top near the kettle so that it is easy to put tea bags straight into the caddy. However Robbie takes a different view, he doesn't like it there and he would rather have it on the opposite worktop near the cooker. So for several weeks it has been a case of 'hunt the caddy' - he moves it and I move it back again. As if that is not irritating enough, on Monday morning it had vanished completely. I rang the 'king of the kitchen' and he admitted that he had hidden it in the cupboard under the crisps to hide it from the cat. It seemed like lame excuse, Dave the cat is the 'Robbie' of the cat world, they share a passion for food of all kinds, but even Dave would turn his nose up at egg shells! The caddy has stayed in 'my place' for two days now, so we will see what happens over the weekend. 

Fairy Steps

Robbie apologised for being a miserable old man yesterday. The reason for his strop was (allegedly) that I had made him late and he would miss his train. Robbie is an unstoppable force and absolutely nothing could make him late if he didn't want to be delayed. Yesterday morning he did everything possible to make himself late, he even stopped to put the recycling out for collection - he never usually does that. Even when he got to the station he wouldn't hurry because he was adamant that he was too late and it was all my fault. It is hard to describe Robbie walking in fairy steps - but I wish I had it on film! Anyway despite his best efforts he caught his train so I didn't make him late after all!

The evening before, Robbie had told me that he'd turned down the chance of 'playing trains' at the weekend because he needed to be at home. Roughly translated that means that he dare not push his luck any further after last week! Of course what Robbie says does not always turn out to be what Robbie does. Yesterday evening he had been reasonably pleasant, he was sitting in his corner glued to his computer when he was overcome with what I can only describe as an excess of pleasure. His moans of excitement were rather disconcerting, but I knew that only one thing could have that sort of effect on Robbie - a train! Not any old train, his favourite deltic, Royal Scots Grey. Apparently it will be at Neville Hill at the weekend and despite not having broached the subject yet, I know that I will have another lonely weekend, because where the Royal Scots Grey goes Robbie is sure to follow. Oh well, if I have to put up with another weekend without him, I'm going to enjoy myself too, maybe I will go somewhere nice.

Happy New Year

The end of the year always seems sad to me, but it is also a time to look forward to another year and perhaps to make some new resolutions. Robbie says that I have embarrassed him quite enough recently, so most of his resolutions will remain private. I don't usually make resolutions, but this year I intend to make a few changes. On a personal level I intend to end 2007 lighter than I am now - OK I know I have made the same promise to myself for at least 20 years, but this year will be the year that I actually act on my good intentions. Anyway, if all else fails, I could shed a stone instantly by de-cluttering my handbag!

On a family level I think we should try to reduce our global footprint. After all modest changes from everyone would combine to make a significant difference to our world. On the subject of footprints it would be nice if Robbie would make his footsteps lighter especially during the night. He is usually the last person to go to bed, but he thunders around like the honey monster. To be fair he adapted his night time routine ages ago to ensure that he made less noise in the bathroom - at least he doesn't wake people up now! It would make a big difference to me if I could get him to walk around the bed instead of climbing across it at night - getting trodden on doesn't improve the quality of my sleep.

We will make an effort to recycle more, to reuse more and to consume less. Robbie has reluctantly agreed that he doesn't need to buy that huge limp lefty newspaper everyday, he never reads it anyway and it makes the recycle bin incredibly heavy. I will cut back on magazines too and I will recycle old ones instead of hoarding them. We need to reduce our energy consumption too, fuel as well as gas and electricity. It is easier said than done but we will try. Of course Robbie is already doing his bit to save energy - by wandering around in his underwear most of the time he creates very little laundry. I am not sure the world is ready for such a drastic solution, surely one Homer Simpson is quite enough!