A Fright in the Night

Robbie spent Sunday doing his best to get back into my good books. For some reason he found it necessary to tell me in detail how to make a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel. This is particularly useless information because I don't like smoked salmon and I don't like bagels, but Robbie didn't let a trivial detail like that deter him. He explained the whole process step by step with recommendations on the best place to purchase the ingredients, a unit cost analysis and a comparison to the ready made option from Marks and Spencer. If he could confine his thoughts to things that actually matter he could take over the world!

Last night was yet another disturbed night. Robbie came to bed very late because he had been having a protracted battle with his ipod, apparently it was stubbornly refusing to synchronise. Anyway Robbie is a creature of habit and he woke me up when he came to bed, there was no prospect of of me going back to sleep without a trip to the bathroom so I reluctantly headed along the landing. While in the bathroom I became aware of a commotion at the back of the house. Oreo had obviously squeezed out of a tiny window and was meowing loudly and attempting to get back in through the closed kitchen window. I trudged down to let him in and then shut the tiny hall window to prevent a repeat performance. I met Robbie on his way out of the bedroom to confront a burglar. I ordered him to put some clothes on first! Then I explained what had happened, but Robbie was convinced that a burglar had been attempting to get in the window so (when decently attired) he went down to check. He returned satisfied that everything was safe and secure. He got into bed and fell asleep instantly (how does he do that?) but I lay there wide awake for ages.

This morning Robbie has gone for Fire Warden refresher training. I'm not sure why that conjures up images of Dad's Army in my mind, perhaps it is just the link in my mind with the ARP Warden, but it could be Corporal Jones getting into a flap and telling everyone not to panic, or perhaps it is Frazer's prediction that "we're doomed".

Windows 30.01.08

Robbie managed to have a reasonably uneventful day yesterday, no delayed trains or railway chaos, but he only went to Birmingham yesterday so there was less potential for disaster. It seems that every time Robbie travels north of Derby he puts a jinx on the entire railway network. He is going to Cambridge today (via London). It is one of those occasions when rail travel really doesn't make sense. It is 57 miles from Northampton to Cambridge by road with an estimated journey time of 1hr 20 mins, but on the railway the journey can take over three hours depending on the time that you travel. There is a bus that goes from Northampton to Cambridge and I suggested that Robbie should go by bus. He was horrified and he insisted that he is a railway man so it would be disloyal to travel by coach. He was really excited about his journey - because his train to London will have pull down windows!!

Dave wearing a red and white sock.

I haven't written much about Dave the cat recently. His foot is still not healing and the vet intends to freeze it to remove the bad flesh and hopefully give it a better chance to heal. His foot doesn't seem to bother him, in fact he gets into so much mischief that I dread to think what he will be like when his foot is better. He has obviously been used to fending for himself and despite being very well fed and comfortable now he is still a scavenger. He has an amazing sense of smell and if I leave food out in the kitchen he is there in seconds trying to steal it. The other day he stole a jam doughnut and when I spotted him he growled furiously and ate every bit of it, he got strawberry jam on the hall carpet! His favourite trick is to get into the kitchen bin, the other day I heard a rustling and when I went into the kitchen there was just a ginger tail sticking out of the bin. Robbie does get cross about the Dave ransacking the bin, but he and Dave get on very well because they share a passion for food. Dave's little understudy Oreo is fine, Dave teaches him all sorts of bad habits but he is still really cute.

Oreo doing a spot of French Revision.