To the Beach

Monday 31st May

We spent the day without Robbie because he was still in a strop and spent most of the day curled up on the bed wallowing in his bad mood. His loss, I had a lovely day. After a walk up to the shop I sat at the table outside to eat my breakfast and`then to write some postcards. It was so peaceful, I could look out at the beautiful view and watch the antics of the blackbirds who were singing loudly to mark out their own territory. We spent a lovely time on the beach, I wandered down to the rock pools and even dipped a toe into the sea, the water was cold but beautifully clear.

Later in the day we drove to Constantine to post the postcards and have a look at the shop. Sam has worked his way through his box of cereal already so he needed more and we bought some scones to enjoy with a nice cup of tea, I am not usually keen on Cornish cream but a little bit with jam on a scone is rather nice.

It took most of the day, but Robbie eventually got out of his strop and was forgiven

Not Exactly Music To My Ears

Robbie usually spends some time in the evening sitting in front of his laptop with his headphones clamped to his ears. If I want to speak to him I have to wave my arms in the air to get his attention, it is so frustrating. Even worse is his inability to be quiet, I am glad that he uses headphones because what he calls music doesn't sound very melodious to me. The problem is that Robbie is not the most tuneful person at the best of times and the headphones make his 'singing' completely tuneless. Unfortunately he gets rather carried away with his music and he sits there rocking backwards and forwards and tapping his fingers, I try to ignore it but it is so difficult. The rocking motion makes the low moaning sound (Robbie calls it singing) fade and increase in volume. His singing is not unlike the sound a cow makes, so with the fading in and out it is more like a cow on a swing! Robbie has many endearing qualities, but his 'singing' is more than flesh and blood can stand!

Moved By Music

The children had Guitar Hero (for the Wii) for Christmas. They love it, but it is not exactly designed for spectators, so why can't they take the Wii upstairs and play it in one of their bedrooms? The root of the problem is Robbie! The songs on Guitar Hero have reminded him of all the 'wonderful' music that he has not listened to for a while and he encourages them to try out new tunes (I use the word 'tune' in the loosest sense). So for what seems like hours on end we have someone strumming away, then when they finally lose interest and peace is restored, Robbie starts. He clamps on his headphones and listens to 'music' on his laptop, it wouldn't be a problem if he didn't feel the need to sing along! Robbie has many attributes but his singing voice is not one of them and wearing headphones enables him to achieve new extremes of tunelessness. He sounds like a warthog in distress, then he wonders why I take myself off to the bedroom for some peace and quiet with my radio!

Beyond Endurance

Robbie and I are spending new year apart, I am upstairs listening to Radio 4 and Robbie is downstairs as he prefers to see in the new year with Jools Holland. He is a man by the way way, from his name I had assumed he was a woman. Robbie said he was in a band or something but I had never heard of him or his band. I did my best to endure this thing on television, one woman sang and it sounded like a cat being slowly strangled, I don't know who she was, apparently she was just called Adelle - with a voice like that I am not surprised that she wouldn't give her last name. Then there was a group of geriatrics who sang Jimmy Mac, they looked and sounded as if they had just been dug up, so I thought things could only get better. I was wrong Duffy came on next and that was truly more than flesh and blood could stand, so I voted with my feet and came up to listen to the radio. I am much happier up here on my own.

Birthday Boy

It was Sam's 14th Birthday on Saturday. Having a birthday so close to Christmas is a bit hard on him so we always try hard to make it special for him. Of course if he had been born on time his birthday would not have been in Christmas week, he was due on 8th December – but I admit that a December birthday was a bit of bad planning on my part!
Robbie had been to a gig in London on Friday evening and it was close to 12.30am when I picked him up from the station and he was off again on a rail tour at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. Sam was fine about Robbie going out on his birthday, in fact it suited him because Sam and I were going clothes shopping and Robbie has very fixed ideas about clothes. Sam had most of the things he had asked for, dvd's, books, converse boots, a phone and other bits and bobs. I was still feely pretty diabolical because of the combined effects of my asthma and my flu bug but Sam and I went to town and had a good time. He bought the clothes he wanted including a ridiculously expensive pair of pants, a hat that looks quite good on him and a smart coat. We also went to see Grandma and Grandad and Sam had another lovely present, a pair of Vann's trainers.
Robbie was quite late home, but we saved Sam's birthday cake until he got back, Robbie's rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You' was memorable to say the least, but the main thing was that we were all together for Sam to blow out the candles. I think Sam had a good day and Robbie certainly enjoyed his rail tour, he hasn't stopped talking about it since he got back.

The Waiting Game

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!!

National Fig Roll Crisis!

Robbie and Laura went to a gig at last night. The group was Blood Red Shoes, they have seen them before so they knew they would enjoy the music. Laura loves going to gigs with Robbie, but she said his singing was a bit on the loud side last night, the observations about his singing led on to observations about his dancing which Emily described as like a child's impression of an aeroplane, I presume it involves a lot of arm flapping. Never mind, at least he enjoys himself! The gig was tinged with a certain amount of sadness because it was announced recently that the venue The Soundhaus is to close because of nearby redevelopment, the result of a potty planning decision. There is a very active campaign to save The Soundhaus and hopefully common sense will prevail in the end.
Save the Soundhaus

When they got home I'd hoped Robbie had a sudden rush of energy and set about extending my general knowledge. Did I know that that there is a national fig roll crisis? No, I didn't and more to the point I am not bothered in the slightest. When that failed to get the desired reaction he changed direction, did I know that the first teasmaid (also spelled teasmade) was gas powered. No strangely enough I have never wondered about that, but thanks to Robbie I now know that Samuel Rowbottom patented it in 1892. As if that wasn't excitement enough Robbie shared yet more tantalising details about teasmaids, the first electric teasmaid was patented by George Absolom in 1933. There is one thing to be grateful for - I will never need sleeping tablets!

Fig Roll crisis
Fig Rolls in detail

Teasmaid facts
teasmade.com