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".

Give Him an Inch and He Takes a Mile!

Robbie had to leave early for his railway open day on Saturday because there are no trains to Birmingham after about 9am, and the prospect of making the journey by coach did not fill Robbie with enthusiasm. Sam also had to get up early because he was going out wit Emily's boyfriend Sean. Robbie promised to get Sam organised and to be very quiet so that he didn't wake me up. I guess he fulfilled half of that promise because Sam was ready on time. Not waking me up turned out to be an impossible dream. If the Grand old Duke of York had marched all of his ten thousand men across the bed and back again I couldn't possibly have been more disturbed than I was by Robbie searching for his favourite pair of pants! Apparently he could not possibly go to a railway open day in the wrong pants! He was moaning and sighing with frustration and clattering around the room, once he had found his pants we had the same ordeal with the T shirt and the socks, then he started the whole process again looking for his jacket, I believe it was at this point that I promised he would be a soprano if he didn't leave NOW! He took a different jacket. He had got up on time, but he had fallen asleep downstairs hence the panic.
I enjoyed a lovely peaceful day working on my family tree, Robbie didn't get home until after 7pm. He had only been back for about ten minutes before I had to ask him to shut up! The whole point of him going to the open day and me staying at home was that I wasn't interested, but Robbie never seems to get the message.
It was almost midnight when I went to bed and I was still awake when Robbie emerged from the bathroom and landed on the bed with a thud. He cuddled up to me and promised me his undivided attention, but with minutes he was snoring steadily. I settled down to sleep but Robbie grabbed the duvet and turned over, leaving me with hardly any covers. This was the last straw and I gave him a meaningful prod, after an exchange of words he stood up on the bed, grabbed the duvet, shook it and spread it more equally across the bed. I was furious because he had made the bed cold, so I turned my back on him. He seemed to be crawling around the bed and the next thing I knew a DVD began to describe the plight of the railways in Germany after the war and the subsequent reconstruction. By this time it was 12.30am and I was not amused. Next there was something about catering, I think they were celebrating 100 years of railway catering but I must have dozed off because I woke with a start to find Jimmy Savile in my bedroom, talking to me about the convenience of rail travel, I was now ready to harm Robbie, but he was fast asleep and snoring. He woke with a start when I pinched his rear end and he obediently crawled down the bed to exterminate Jimmy Savile. He is still not entirely forgiven!

The Meaning of Life

Robbie gets up at about 5.15am on weekdays and I get up shortly afterwards. I am not that keen on mornings, they always seem to come around far too soon. It takes a cup of tea and a large dose of Radio 4 (I have a radio in the bathroom) before I am ready to face the day. Even then I find the sight of Robbie trotting around the house in his knickers a bit hard to cope with and I am certainly not ready for 'meaning of life' type questions. This morning Robbie asked "Why are lemmings so suicidal?" I have no idea, perhaps it is because people keep asking them impossible questions first thing in the morning! Once again I was left wondering what exactly goes on in Robbie's head, but that is certainly not a question to contemplate early in the morning.

Body Language

Our dog Meg is a great communicator. If she knows that she is in trouble she walks along with her tail tucked under her chin and her body close to the ground, and if she has to walk past me she will do a wide circle, we never hit her so it must be instinctive behaviour. When she wants something she makes absolutely sure you know about it, she becomes very fussy and affectionate and she keeps walking backwards and forwards and looking at the thing she wants (back door, food cupboard, water bowl, lead etc) until her slow but loveable humans finally get the idea! Robbie is much less subtle, when he wants something he 'creeps' shamefully. I am almost sure that the phone rings differently when he wants something because I can tell instantly, even the little silence before he speaks is different.

Yesterday I got one of those phone calls, he was a bit too loving, there were far too many compliments and he found it even more difficult than usual to get to the point, so I cut through the flattery with a simple “What do you want?” This brought on a bout of stuttering from Robbie, then a painfully drawn out explanation that he had been offered a ticket for Tyseley Open Day in Birmingham, and he would very much like to go. I was a bit disappointed because he was out all last weekend and he has other trips planned so I was hoping for a nice ordinary weekend. He obviously wanted to go because he offered to take me with him – no chance! A railway yard open day is not my sort of thing because it will be attended by the 'socks and sandals brigade' and to be brutally honest that many peculiar people in one place is a bit hard to take! The venue also puts me off, I don't like going to Birmingham, it is too chaotic and it makes me feel despondent. When we are heading to Birmingham on the train I give up hope soon after we pass Rugby, everything starts to look grim and unloved and a close encounter with Birmingham New Street Station is enough to ruin anyone's day!

I told Robbie he could go, he would have only talked about it all weekend anyway, so he may as well go. I will find something to keep me busy on Saturday and when he gets back he will find a list of jobs to keep him out of trouble on Sunday!

A Night To Remember!

Robbie is not very good at going to bed on time, he has good intentions but then he either falls asleep over his computer or something on the television catches his attention so he sits down to watch it and falls asleep. On Monday night he was supposed to be on his way to bed, but there was something on television that caught his attention and he sat down again. I settled down to sleep with more than my share of the duvet, Radio 4 for company and just for a change no train noises, railway stories or timetable enquiries. Most people count sheep to make themselves sleepy, but Robbie recites train timetables and routes. When he was watching his DVD the night before there was a clip of Euston Station in the 1970's and it included a brief look at the departures board. Robbie kept rewinding and freezing the picture because he wanted to check the routes and work out the journey times - sad! Perhaps that explains why I treat his occasional absence as a luxury.

I must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing I remember was being woken in the middle of the night by ghostly moaning accompanied by bumping and clattering noises. I was still half asleep and struggling to make sense of what I was hearing when I felt an incredibly heavy weight on my legs that made me want to cry out. Suddenly I was wide awake and the 'haunting' turned out to be Robbie coming to bed. He had fallen asleep downstairs and when he woke up he was in agony and could hardly move. He had half walked and half crawled to bed moaning all the way and when he got there he launched himself onto the bed from my side and landed on my legs. I think I must have expressed my feelings fairly clearly and I must have turned my back on him because I remember one other thing, he tapped me on the shoulder and asked me very politely if he could please have a little bit of the duvet.

Superior Knowledge!

Robbie went to work in a strop this morning because we had managed to disagree about a sending a text message. I am not a gadget person in the way that Robbie is, as far as I am concerned a mobile phone is for making phone calls and sending the odd message. I don't use my phone as a mobile entertainment system in the way that most people seem to these days. It is a bit of a family joke that I don't understand text language, I use proper words and to everyone's amusement I use punctuation as well! It takes me ages to send a text and usually I ask Robbie to do it for me because he is lightening fast. Mad as it sounds I have a sentimental attachment to my phone, it is about 6 years old and to be brutally honest it has seen better days and it is a bit temperamental. This morning there was a text from my friend to say that her baby had arrived, I asked Robbie to text back for me but he complained that the space button wasn't working. I told him to get the space from the symbol menu instead, but he just had a strop and claimed that he couldn't do it. I showed him how, but he stomped off still muttering about me being unreasonable. I was a bit surprised by his reaction but I think he was just cross because for once I could do something with a gadget that Robbie didn't know how to do! He did apologise - eventually.

Robbie Makes Demands

Robbie finally got home from his weekend playing trains. To be more accurate he got as far as Rugby and got stranded, so I had to go and rescue him. He chatted almost non stop about his weekend and as usual the food seemed to interest him almost as much as the trains. We had a busy afternoon and evening but in a quiet moment Robbie demanded an early night - so that we could watch railway DVD's in bed!! A company called MD Rail Productions has produced a DVD of The Spitfire Railtours Cumbrian Coast Explorer and Wey-farer tour, and Robbie was very keen to watch the DVD. Here is a link to the Spitfire Railtours DVD. He also had his latest British Transport Films DVD to watch so it looked as if we were in for a long evening.

Our early night didn't materialise, but when Robbie came to bed at about 12.25am he woke me up and demanded that I stay awake to watch the DVD's. I managed to watch a film called Travelling Intercity, when the next one about the design of the HST came on I couldn't keep my eyes open and I had to settle down to sleep. I don't know how much he watched, but when I woke at half past three he was sleeping soundly, still clutching the DVD case. I think there may be another night of railway videos in store!!

Birthday Boy

It was Oreo's first birthday yesterday, time passes so quickly, it is hard to believe that the timid little kitten has morphed into a great big cat who seems to think that the world revolves around him. The picture shows him sitting in the bathroom sink, he is not about to take a bath (he hates getting wet) he was moth hunting! He didn't have a birthday cake, he likes cake, in fact he likes every kind of food imaginable, but we spoiled him with one of his favourite treats, a crab stick. We don't know when Dave's birthday is so we will have to celebrate his 'finding day' instead. He will not care as long as he has plenty to eat, one day is much like another to him. For a cat with a serious shortage of teeth he does remarkably well and he can eat just as quickly as Oreo!

I thought it was the longest day yesterday, but apparently due complicating factors such as leap year it was actually the previous day. It always makes me feel a little bit sad, I love the long days and light evenings and now it will be a gradual decline towards winter. I think May and June are my favourite months. The Mock Orange (Philadelphus) is in flower in my front garden, it is one of my favourites and it really cheers me up. I love roses too and we have some lovely roses near the front door, they seem to thrive on neglect but as far as I am concerned that makes them even more special.

The Paignton Pudden

Robbie has gone out to play for the weekend. After work yesterday he made his way to Crewe ready for an early start this morning. Robbie has been taking more exercise in the last couple of weeks and he was delighted to find that his black 'train tour' trousers are no longer as tight as they used to be. He celebrated his achievement with pie and chips - I don't think he has quite got the hang of getting fit yet! Having told me in considerable detail about his pie and chips, he held the phone out for me to listen. I couldn't make out what I was supposed to be listening to, but Robbie assured me that I was listening to trains going past. He told me that he could sit in his room naked and watch the trains going past - I was horrified! He assured me that he was adequately attired and that he would not get himself arrested. Imagine all those traumatised passengers reporting a sighting of Homer Simpson naked at hotel room window! I don't really understand Robbie's aversion to clothes, it is just one of the many thing that make me think that he is 'on the spectrum' Anyway he has been on the Paignton Pudden rail tour, he has phoned me with regular updates throughout the day, but I will spare you the detail, I expect Robbie will write about it himself when he gets back.

Sam and I survived our shopping trip yesterday. Sam headed for a pair identical to the ones he bought and refused wear a couple of months ago. I stood my ground and we finally settled on a pair very similar to his old ones (the ones that he actually wore) and we were still on speaking terms when we got home so I guess the trip was a success. The shoes were more expensive than I'd anticipated, but everything seems to be expensive these days. Now that we have dealt with the school shoes Sam has his heart set on a pair of Vans and then a second pair of Converse and then ...... Unless I win the lottery I will not need to remember the rest of the list, it would require a second mortgage to buy that lot! The pictures are of Sam's favourite pair of Converse, he has now grown out of them and has replaced them with a black pair.

Best Foot Forward!

Sam has a teacher training day today. He has been looking forward to it all week! He is a bit like me, he doesn't dislike school but he could always think of something better to do. Today we are going out to buy school shoes and I am feeling rather apprehensive after the disaster last time. It ended with Sam having a major strop because I wouldn't buy him a pair of Sketchers. I bought the school shoes that Sam had selected , but he withdrew his cooperation and he has only worn the shoes once or twice because he claims that they 'rip his feet to bits'. I wouldn't say that Sam exaggerates, he just likes a good headline! Yesterday he claimed that his life was so controlled that it was like living in a communist state! My 'sin' on that occasion was to restrict the amount of pepperoni I was prepared to buy in a week. Sam would eat it every day if he was given the chance.

Anyway back to shoes, after the last fiasco I made him manage with his old shoes if he refused to wear the new ones, but now they are falling off his feet and I think Sam understands that we have to get it right this time. I think to some extent the difficulties are linked to his Aspergers, he has very fixed ideas about things and he doesn't like change unless he decides to change something - come to think of it that sound like Robbie too! For the last two or three years each time Sam has had new school shoes they have been exactly like the ones before, but the last time they were a different style. I think we have to go back to the tried and tested style, at least that will be a safe option. After past experience I think I would rather go to the dentist than shoe shopping with Sam!