Take time to Reflect

Saturday 10th August

A very early start! The alarm woke us at 5am and Robbie seemed unusually keen to get out of bed. I snuggled back under the duvet for a minute or two, listening to him trotting around getting ready for the day. The ritual of packing the rucksack is a time consuming and from my point of view irritating procedure. Everything has to be taken out of the bag, checked and then packed back into the rucksack in the correct place, then additional items will be added according to the occasion. Throughout this process Robbie provides a running commentary on each item, presumably this is for his own benefit as it is of no interest at all to me. The result is that his newly packed rucksack weighs a ton and contains equipment to deal with every conceivable railway emergency as well as personal essentials. 

I could hear Robbie reciting the contents of his rucksack to himself in the other room so I took the opportunity to beat him to the bathroom. Before long Robbie was showered and ready for the day's adventure and we headed in the direction of North Walsham. He was going to play trains for the day, he likes to do something that he refers to as the drags when we are in Norfolk. By 8am I had delivered him to the station and I was safely back at the bungalow enjoying a nice cup of tea.

I decided to take a drive to Stalham to do a bit of shopping. I bought some lovely treats from the Truly Local shop, strawberries for Robbie, raspberries for me, bread, bread rolls, and tomato focaccia. I popped into a table top sale in the church hall and I bought myself a necklace from a handmade jewellery stall, I really like it, it's made of colourful glass beads with tiny little flowers within the glass. I went back to the bungalow to put the food away and then I took a drive to  Mundesley, it was lovely to enjoy the beach and the sunshine. I had a little look at the shops and sat in the sunshine for a while, then I went to the beach cafe for some lunch. I never tire of the beach cafe, the food is beautifully cooked, the portions are generous and the views across the beach are wonderful. I had fish and chips, it was lovely but it was such a large portion that I couldn't manage to eat it all.

I spent a quiet afternoon back at the bungalow, enjoying the sunshine and catching up with some writing. Robbie sent regular updates throughout the day, his second text of the morning was just one word "Farce!!!" apparently things hadn't gone exactly to plan. Robbie is never deterred for long and he scraped his timetable for the day in favour of Plan B which among other things involved a trip to London. I suppose it is all route knowledge and if it floats his boat why should I stand in his way. I picked him up at 9.45pm. The road from North Walsham to Walcott has lots of twists and turns and at that time of night it was pitch dark, so we took a gentle drive back. On the way I became aware of two sets of eyes at the side of the road and there were two deer looking out at us from the undergrowth. They stood still at the side of the road as we passed, it was a very special moment.

If the shoe fits, buy it in every color! Author Unknown

Robbie abandoned me again on Wednesday because he'd had a better offer. How can I possibly compete with  his beloved trains, especially when it is something a bit unusual that can't be put off until another day. It would have been nice to have spent the day with him, but he bribed me with the promise that if I let him go he would take me out for lunch on Thursday. I had a nice time without him, I visited one of my favourite shops (but I didn't spend too much!) then I went to the park with my daughter. We bought an ice cream from the van, Gallone's make the best ice cream in the world! It was lovely in the shade of the big horse chestnut trees, we watched the children in the playground and reminisced about how much better the playground equipment used to be before 'health and safety' spoil the fun. She will be 21 in a couple of weeks, I couldn't help smiling when she said that things were so much better in 'her day'. I wonder how she will feel when she is my age.

Robbie kept his promise and took me out for a carvery lunch, it was lovely. We ate outside in a shady spot in the garden, after all those weeks of rain it is lovely to have some sunshine. I waited until after lunch to break the news to him that the cats had scratched his Dr Marten boots! His initial reaction was calm, especially when I offered to take him to the Doc Shop. He was over the moon with his new purchases, some English made pink shoes and some English made black 1461s with yellow stitching. He was more vocal when he got home and spoke to the cat, he called him a fat, furry, fatherless feline (among other things!).

The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her - Marcelene Cox

I think it is a myth that women love to shop, I detest shopping and I do everything in my power to avoid it. Robbie loves to shop, if shopping was an Olympic sport  he would be a gold medalist! Pain permitting he will happily wander from shop to shop making a mental note of everything in stock. He is interested in absolutely everything, clothes, shoes, books, toiletries, gadgets, kitchen equipment, you name it Robbie knows about it! When he can't shop he reads about shopping, even about the changing dimensions of toilet rolls!


These days unfortunately pain and long working hours limits Robbie's enjoyment of shopping to some extent these days. I find myself I often find myself doing errands for him and woe betide me if I get the wrong item. Yesterday I went shopping for food, just day to day items mainly, but Robbie likes a particular brand of chicken and mushroom pie and I was going to get one of those for him too. They didn't have any in stock so I was brave (or foolish) enough to buy an alternative brand instead. It was a more expensive brand so I thought Robbie may be willing to try it. As soon as I told him about it he had that sulky look that he does so well. It was as if a big black cloud had settled over us. He said he was unhappy because the quality of the gravy was bound to be wrong and he would rather go without than have to put up with an alternative. Failed again! 


I failed last week too, I bought the usual brand of liquid soap, but I chose the green one with aloe vera rather than the usual option. Robbie gets very sore cracked hands and I thought the aloe vera may be good for his skin. He was not impressed, he complained plaintively about the 'smell' I think it is quite pleasant, but it doesn't float Robbie's boat. It looks as if we will have to have his and hers hand wash for a while until I work my way through the three bottles of aloe vera that I bought. Today he mentioned that he needs more hair stuff. I am dreading getting that because when they changed the packaging I bought a stash of the old design, but now he has to adjust to the new pack and I know that he will moan about it. I guess I will just have to throw a deaf ear, I am good at that, I get lots of practice. 

I am quietly confident that he will be pleased with one recent purchase. I have to do some odd things for Robbie at times but 'feeling' Lego men has to be closet to the top of the list. The minifigures come in individual sealed packs, there are 16 to collect but the only reliable way to find the one you want is to feel the pieces through the foil bag. I have become very good at finding them this way, but I have had some very dodgy looks. I must be mad, standing in the shop for ages 'molesting' Lego men, just to put a smile on Robbie's face! He only opens one figure each day and he still has a couple of unopened ones in his stash, but I am confident that they will complete his set of series 7 minifigures.

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely - Ogden Nash

When I was looking back through my recent blog posts, I realised that I had forgotten to mention an interesting little incident that happened while we were in Earls Barton on Saturday. While we were in Jeyes shop I was busy looking at recipe books and other bits and bobs when I noticed that Robbie was missing. I thought it was a bit odd because it is quite hard to lose him - I know because I've tried! I called his name and at first there was no reply, then a rather distant and reluctant voice announced that he was 'here'. Guided by his voice I headed in the direction of 'here' and found him in a quiet corner of the toy department. He was kneeling down at a little wooden table with a wooden railway track layout on it. He was guiding a wooden Thomas the Tank Engine around the track with his hand while making a selection of engine noises! I asked him if was about to be 4 or 40 and I was answered with a shrug, he told me that it was just too tempting.

Robbie continued to play trains while I loitered in the toy department grateful that this part of the store was relatively quiet. Then after what seemed like hours Robbie stood up, he had spotted some diecast versions of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. At first Robbie seemed preoccupied by changes in the design of the packaging, but then he spotted one called Spencer that he would quite like to buy. Thankfully it didn't come to that, we couldn't possibly accommodate another collection of engines, the house is bursting at the seams as it is. He left the shop with a big smile and big plans to build a new layout for his model trains - that should keep him out of trouble for a while!

To the Farm Shop and Beyond

Robbie was really tired and in a lot of pain at the weekend, it had been a very long and challenging week. We didn't have the energy to go racing around finding exciting things to do, but it does you good to get out and do something different. So after dealing with all the routine household tasks we got in the car and took the scenic route through the Northamptonshire countryside to the farm shop. We are very lucky to live in such an attractive county, I always find the beautiful views and the happy memories associated with the little bit of the county that we visited on Saturday very uplifting. 


When we got to the Farm Shop Robbie went off in search of dripping and he was very excited when he found it because they didn't have any last time. We had a look round and chose some free range eggs (the main reason for our visit). Then as we approached the payment desk Robbie noticed some pork scratchings which he absolutely had to have. I thought he was teasing me at first, I didn't know that people actually eat them, I thought they were pet treats or something. Apparently I was wrong, according to Robbie they are a great delicacy but they don't look or smell like something I would want to taste! 


I tried to ignore the chomping noises coming from the passenger seat on the journey back to Northampton but it was challenging. Apparently it is not possible to eat pork scratchings quietly, and he was not amused when I suggested that maybe he should suck them instead! My disapproval didn't seem to spoil his enjoyment because the chomping was interrupted every so often by little expressions of delight and the word "Bostin". Not a word that we are familiar with in Northampton!


According to the Urban Dictionary Bostin means 'brilliant; fantastic; excellent; derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'bosten', meaning 'something to boast about' and now used almost exclusively in the Greater Birmingham area of the UK'


I can't complain too much about Robbie's treats, he bought me a can of Root Beer on Friday (as a thank you for supporting him through a very difficult week).
It was heaven, I love Root Beer, but I know it is not good for me. I also know that Robbie's treats are not good for him, which is why they are only very occasional purchases. 


I don't want to make it sound as if our whole day revolved around food, but later that afternoon we went out for a meal. Just something very ordinary, but it was special because we were together and for once we had a couple of hours without any other demands on our time.

Spiral Archive

Robbie was very excited about Saturday, he had looked forward to it all week, but if I'm honest I wasn't keen. We were going to the Spiral Archive, record shop which is also a bookshop. I love books and the idea of spending ages checking out all the books in this shop was very attractive. However the shop contained two of the things that I really don't like, music and coffee, so I was apprehensive. I am not good with the smell of coffee, I really can't cope with loud Robbie type music and I knew that Robbie would be in there for ages. 

As it turned out I coped better with the smell of coffee and the music than I expected. I really enjoyed sorting through the books and I found a few treasures that I absolutely had to have. I have to admit to getting bored long before Robbie was ready to go, but that is not surprising because he was there for almost 3 hours!! I think he could have easily spent our whole annual budget, but in the end he came away with a bag full of treasures and a huge grin on his face. His purchases included Hatful of Hollow, Veruca Salt (7"), Altern 8 Activ-8 (7") and Altern 8 various remix's (12") as well as a couple of 1970s Hornby catalogues. It really was Robbie's idea of heaven, a shop that sells railway books as well as a huge selection of vinyl records. 

How to Transport a Banana?

Yesterday Robbie and I went shopping to buy birthday presents for my daughter who will be 20 very soon. It gets harder to choose presents as they get older, I have fond memories of the days when the whole thing could be sorted in one trip to Toys R Us. We went to Home Sense to look for a couple of items that I can't name here for obvious reasons. I thought I was fairly safe taking Robbie to a shop that sells household goods but as so often when it comes to Robbie I was wrong!


The first thing that he spotted was a large and truly hideous clock that he thought would look perfect in our lounge - believe me it wouldn't! He was just on the cusp of a strop, the bottom lip started to jut out and he gave me the look so I thought it would be best to distract him by heading up to the cookware department. As we got to the top of the stairs I realised that I had to keep him away from the bed linen section because they had Kath Kidston designs and he would want to buy a new duvet set if he saw it, he loves Kath Kidston designs. Amazingly I managed to avoid that section, but that didn't keep him out of trouble.


I was looking at the baking section when in his usual loud voice he called to me to say that he needed a banana carrier. I tried to ignore it but that just made him louder, he informed anyone listening that he has been having a lot of trouble with his bananas getting bruised! It was a pointless conversation because they didn't sell banana cases, but once he got going he wouldn't shut up. Thankfully his attention was taken up with a two book set about the history of Lego and Lego Mini Figures. He was so excited that it was embarrassing, I agreed to buy him the book in the hope that it would keep him quiet.


When we got home he started researching banana carriers. He informed me that you can buy blow up ones that look really good. I informed him that there was no way that he was having a blow up banana carrier because he would probably get himself arrested. Just in case he was in any doubt I made it absolutely clear that if he bought a banana carrier I had no intention of taking a tape measure to Morrisons with me to find bananas of the correct shape and size!!

Pants

A recent shopper survey by Debenhams revealed that there are only a few years of independence when young men take responsibility for choosing their own underwear. According to the survey teenagers rely on their mothers to buy their pants until around the age of 19 and by the time men reach age 36 they have delegated the task of buying their underwear to their wife or partner.

Robbie is 37 and he still buys his own pants, if I bought them he certainly wouldn't wear those dreadful striped ones that remind me of an old fashioned swimming outfit. I have to admit that I have influenced his choice. When we first met he wore boxers, but they looked horrible and they bunched up under his suit to make it look as if he was wearing a nappy. He got the message after I started calling him Gandhi, now he wears trunks, they look much nicer and he says they are far more comfortable. Sam is almost 15, he would like to be able to select his own underwear, but since the kind he likes are £10 per pair I am unwilling to pay for that. We have reached a compromise on price, but he chooses the style.

Sam is left handed, he is just like Robbie when it comes sharing random snippets of information. The other day he informed me that they now produce left handed underwear for men! He is right, they stock it at Debenhams. Boxer shorts have a centre opening but trunks and Y fronts usually have a right handed opening. The pants made by Horn do not have a vertical opening, instead they have a horizontal opening just below the waistband. The company claims that this could save a left handed man three seconds each time he visits the bathroom. It doesn’t sound much to me, but I guess it would add up over a lifetime!

To Go Or Not To Go.

When I was writing my list of annoying things that Robbie had done yesterday, I forgot to write about the most annoying thing of all. We were driving back from North Walsham along a narrow winding road and my attention was focussed on the road when suddenly Robbie exclaimed “Eh eh eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh!” at the top of his voice (the noise made by Anne in Little Britain). I hate him making that noise and shouting out like that when I was driving made me call him some unfortunate names!

To continue the car theme, this morning we went to Wroxham and I asked Robbie to set the sat nav for me, he refused because he knew a better route!! I shouted at him so he grudgingly set the sat nav and it gave me instructions in a foreign language while Robbie whooped with laughter in the passenger seat. I told him off for resetting it to Polish and he insisted that he hadn't set it to speak Polish, then as an afterthought he said that it wasn't Polish it was Czech!

When we got to Wroxham I went to look at a big shop called Roys because I wanted to buy a new cd player because my old one is not working very well. I decided on the one I wanted, it was the kind that had a radio and could play tapes and cd's, but Robbie got really upset because he wanted me to have a different one, very similar in price, but not what I wanted. He just wouldn't give up on it, he kept going on and on about why I should like his choice better. I bought the one I liked, but he is still isn't happy!
Despite Robbie's peculiarities we had quite a nice day.

We had to take a walk to the shop this evening because the 'fridge police' had a tantrum in Tesco the other day when I wanted to buy more bacon and he wouldn't let me buy it, but as I predicted we had none left and Robbie wanted bacon. He doesn't like to be wrong, but he had more important things on his mind, he said that we should spend more time together. He then offered to take me to York first class, from Kings Cross on a Grand Central HST. I told him I wasn't fussed and I would rather have the money – he must think I am stupid, I know what is at York. He just wants an excuse to go to the NRM! He then gave me a long speech about us needing to do things together, I agreed but said that I would like to do non train type things and when he asked for an example I said brass rubbing (the first boring thing that came into my head). I have to give him credit for quick thinking because he said fine, he would look into it and find somewhere that we could travel to by train to to brass rubbing – no way! In the end I took pity on him and told him that I would quite like to have a day out on a train, but not on an HST, I want to go on a Virgin Train – he is not impressed.

Unmissable!

We spent the morning in Padstow today, Laura wanted to shop for jewellery and Robbie wanted to indulge his passion for pasties. I didn't really want to buy anything, so while they shopped I wandered around taking photos of all my favourite places. We spent the afternoon on the beach, it was lovely, totally still and warm, but just a little bit misty, it was the sort of day wish would last for ever. When we came back up from the beach, I was so lucky to have my camera because a butterfly settled right in front of me and I was able to get some very close shots. I have never seen so many butterflies as I have in the last couple of days.

On the subject of photos, I waited until it was almost dark to photograph Robbie's shorts and amazingly my camera survived! As you can see with shorts that loud there is no chance of losing him on the beach.