I love Robbie very much, but if a friendly genie came along and offered me three wishes I would probably change him just a little bit. It is not the big things that bother me it is those little things that really niggle me - and probably Robbie would say the same thing about me!
Every day he takes his trousers off (when he changes into his lounge wear) and then he will lay them neatly across my side of the bed, often with sundry items set out neatly around his trousers. It makes me mad because I always go to bed before him and I have to move all his junk. I keep threatening to throw the whole lot out of the window and he keeps promising faithfully that he will not do it again, but he keeps on doing it! Even worse is his inability to follow instructions concerning the toilet lid. Oddly he is quite good at remembering not to leave the seat up, the problem is that he puts the lid down as well - and that can lead to catastrophe in the dark at night. Then there is his excessive interest in the potato peeler and the potato knife. He is happy to leave all sorts of other things in the cutlery holder but he finds those two items and stashes them away so safely that I can never find them. They are among the most important items in the kitchen so why can't he leave them alone. They are all little things but they are so annoying.
We have had lots of changes in our lives over the last year, not all good but in the end we have come out on top, stronger, more confident and certainly happier. Change is always hard to accept especially when it involves things that we have assumed would always be there. Robbie was very upset to hear about the impending demise of HMV because he will have nowhere left to buy vinyl records. I feel very sorry for the staff who face losing their jobs, but I have to confess that I haven't been in that shop for years. It is a bad time on the high street, Jessops and Blockbuster have gone in the last few days too.
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.
I stayed in bed too long this morning and ended up with backache. To make matters worse I had to lay the new floor covering in the bathroom, it isn't difficult just awkward. Robbie, as I have mentioned before is not the most practical man, but he is very enthusiastic!
Against my better judgement I ended up trapped in a confined space armed with a wayward roll of vinyl and a stanley knife. Robbie dressed only in PJ bottoms was there to 'talk' me through the process! All went well for ten minutes or so, then I made the mistake of asking for a bit of practical help in manoeuvring the vinyl around the lavatory. Robbie just doesn't have the gentle touch, and before I could say anything to stop him, he had pulled the base of the loo away from the soil pipe. I acted quickly to avoid a full scale flood, and we managed to fix the problem. I don't swear but I must admit to raising my voice and indulging in some rather unpleasant thoughts! Following the maxim 'when in a hole stop digging' Robbie beat a hasty retreat to make me a nice (much needed) cup of tea, while I got on with the floor.
Despite the mishap the floor is now laid and Robbie has worked hard to get the bathroom organised again. I couldn't wish for a better husband, I may get frustrated with him for five minutes but I can never stay cross for long.
When I first heard Robbie talking about his 'seven inches' I thought he was deluding himself. However I soon realised that he was talking about his 7in vinyl record collection - what in my day were called singles. By collection I don't mean a handful of records, he has several hundred of these little devils and he still keeps buying more. They are not to be played, he likes them to be perfect so he buys the corresponding CD as well! This creates huge storage issues and the records are particularly fragile. What do you do with a man whose hoarding gene is out of control? Maybe I should buy him a shed!
I wouldn't mind so much if I actually enjoyed some of the music, but with one or two notable exceptions I can't stand it. It is either loud bangy stuff or downright weird! My particular pet hates are Bjork and Radiohead (which sounds like strangled Bjork). If Robbie ever gets into a strop he shuts himself in the kitchen with something horribly loud blaring out from the cd player, it never bothers me, I just leave him shut in there with the washing up. My own methods when irritated are more subtle, if we go out in the car I play the Bee Gees, I like them but Robbie finds all those high notes a bit scary! We do have a couple of Cliff Richard CD's - but that would be cruel and unusual punishment!
I love Robbie very much, but if a friendly genie came along and offered me three wishes I would probably change him just a little bit. It is not the big things that bother me it is those little things that really niggle me - and probably Robbie would say the same thing about me! 
