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!

A New Pastime 30.12.07

Well, I've had Robbie at home now for a full week and it's been great, but perhaps it's a good thing that his return to work is in sight. He says I wear him out, and there are a few tell tale clues that he is missing work. On Friday he couldn't resist ringing work from the fruit and veg section of the supermarket, and every hour or so he gives me an update on the state of the railways. Yesterday he went on and on about some charter or other having to be cancelled at short notice.

Robbie had some railway dvd's for Christmas and it has been nice to have the time to cuddle up together and watch them. I found the one about Brunel really interesting, I have already watched it twice. Robbie likes the British Transport Films series, I got him the most recent volume for Christmas but we still enjoy watching the old ones again. Robbie's favourite is a film about the Blue Pullman, but I like one called Farmer Moving South. It is amazing, it was made in 1952 and it records the complicated process of moving an entire farm from Yorkshire to the home counties - by train! Even then it must have been a huge undertaking to transport all the livestock, farm machinery and even the hen houses by train. I could watch that film over and over again. We haven't just been watching dvd's we have found a new pastime and we are finding muscles that we didn't know we had! I am referring to bowling on the Wii! I love it, I cant cope with the noise of real life bowling, but on the Wii you get all the fun without the noise and without the annoying people. We were still playing at 2am the other day!

I almost lost Robbie again on Friday, he was supposed to be outside sorting out the rubbish ready for a trip to the tip, but I glanced out of the window and noticed that he was chatting to the neighbours and was gradually straying across the drive towards their house. Much to his disappointment I went out to 'rescue' him. I think I will have to have him fitted with a homing device!