Feeling Old!

I am feeling especially old this week because it is Emily's birthday on Saturday, she will be 20! I really don't know where all the time has gone. She has asked to be given money for her birthday, bit I have bought her one or two little things to open on the day as well. There is just one problem, I have put one of the things I bought away in a safe place and I can't remember where I put it - possibly another sign of old age! I have to have a serious search today, it is so frustrating.

What Did You Say?

I think there is a conspiracy in our house. The children insist that I am going deaf and they never miss an opportunity to make jokes at my expense. I am not going deaf, I can hear perfectly well if they speak properly, but most of the time they have their music blaring out making it more difficult to hear. It would help if they didn't mumble, sometimes when I hear them talking to their friends I wonder if they speak English at all, it seems like a spoken version of text language and teenage boys seem to converse in a series of monosyllabic grunts. I find Robbie hard to understand partly because he talks constantly about trains and partly because he speaks far too fast and I still find his accent challenging at times because he uses regional words that I have never encountered before.

Our cats are very good communicators, there is just one problem - they lie! This morning they put on an Oscar winning performance to try to convince me that Robbie had not fed them, but I knew that he had and their efforts were wasted.

On the subject of deafness I think it is the children who have trouble hearing – selective deafness. Any instruction, to pick it up, clear it up or switch it off seems to fall on deaf ears.

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!

I Blame Network Rail!

On Friday when Robbie left for work I asked him to promise not to be late home, and he assured me that he would be on time. He was with Network Rail, so before I put the dinner on I phoned him to check when he would he back, he said he would be on a later train, so I agreed to pick him up. I dropped Sam off at his friend's house on my way and then drove to the station just in time to meet his train. I sat there for a minute or two, then my mobile rang and Robbie announced that he was not on the train and would be an hour later!! He still hasn't explained why he didn't tell me as soon as he knew he wouldn't be on the train, it would have saved me a wasted journey. Maybe it is a Network Rail thing - never give anyone any useful information!

I picked him up later and he was full of apologies, he promised me his undivided attention for the rest of the weekend. That promise turned out to be like the countless Network Rail promises about the West Coast main line – all hot air! He went online and got into an argument with some lame brains about train overcrowding. I gave up and went to bed and he promised he would be there in a minute. Over an hour later he was still on his computer arguing about trains with those sad acts, so I gave up and went to sleep. This morning when he finally woke up, he cuddled up to me and told me in great detail about how he used to collect erasers when he was a child, that was a real turn on! Later when I was having a bath he came in and sat down to have a chat, I was pleased, at least he wanted to talk to me, but then he started a long discourse on his plan to partition the hard drive on his computer! He doesn't need a wife, he needs a robot! If this is the result of a couple of days spent with Network Rail I dread to think how bad he would be after a week with them!

Advice From An Old Farmer

I don't mean to offend anyone, but we have had an overload of news and information coming from America in recent months. I am very pleased that Barack Obama is the new president, but I am alread starting to feel that if I hear his name one more time I will scream. So I thought I wouls include something a bit different on the blog. I read a number of websites and among all the drivel about politics I came across this, it made me smile and it contains some good advice.

Advice From An Old Farmer

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
* Keep skunks, bankers and lawyers at a distance.
* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen, anyway.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.
* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
* Always drink upstream from the herd.
* Good judgment comes from experience, And a lotta that experience comes from bad judgment.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around

I hope Robbie takes note of the bit about fences, he still hasn't finished mending our fence!

'Quick, the Germans are coming.....' (by Robbie)

....and they have certainly arrived with a bang now!

As some of you know DB Railways now own what was formerly known as EWS (English, Welsh and Scottish Railways), one of the key railfreight haulier's in the UK, and as of 1st January 2009 it was renamed DB Schenker. It was therefore only a matter of time before the first 're-liveried' loco was unveiled, and on Thursday 23rd January it was displayed to the media for the first time in the form of 59206. This will now be on display at the NRM in York for a short time before being named and then released into general traffic. In my opinion it looks rather DAMN good......!!

An Inspiration

I didn't post on the blog on Sunday because it was a very busy day for me. It was my brother's birthday so we had to pop over to my mum's house to take his presents, then later on I had to work so the day passed in a blur of activity.

In the morning I was sitting on my bed doing some work on my laptop when Emily came into the bedroom looking very sad. She told me that Tony Hart had died, and she went on to say that he was amazing. I'd heard the news of his death on the news earlier in the morning and my reaction had been much the same as Emily's. As a child I had watched Vision On an amazing combination of art and performance, I loved the art part of the show especially the gallery of viewers art work. Tony Hart was original, inspiring and clearly very talented, he made art fun and he made it accessible to everyone, in so many ways he fired our imaginations.

When Emily was a child Tony Hart was there to inspire her too be creative too. He had moved on with series that were entirely based on art and animation such as Take Hart, Hartbeat and Smart Hart. All of my children love art and Tony Hart played a part in inspiring them to try many different aspects of art. Laura was always very good at three dimension work and Sam loved those very large pictures made of household objects that you have to look down on, he used to create them on the lounge floor. They still love art, all can draw and paint well and all have their own style. I wonder how many children have been influenced to enjoy art because of Tony Hart - what an incredible legacy. I can't write about Tony Hart without mentioning his annoying little sidekick Morph, a plasticine stop motion animation who appeared with Tony. Morph lived in an artists pencil box and he appeared in short clips of little more than a minute, he was fun and it was just one more way of introducing children to different aspects of art and creativity.

Tony Hart made a huge contribution to children's television, and he will be sadly missed by the many people who have enjoyed and been inspired by his work.

Forgiven

Robbie is more or less forgiven for being a pain on Monday evening. I say more or less because he has this annoying habit of making a half apology, that sort of cancels out the apology. He will look defeated and say "OK, I'm sorry, but what I was trying to say was...........". It makes me so cross, I already know what he was trying to say, because he will have said it at least 10 times, but repeating nonsense doesn't make it less stupid and it doesn't make me see things his way!

I had loads of work to do last night and I didn't get to bed until 2am, it was so cold last night, but I didn't want to leave the heating on all night because we get too hot, so I put my dressing gown on top of the duvet over my feet. I was almost asleep when 'Bigfoot' came to bed, I was vaguely aware of him clomping around the bedroom. I don't know what he was talking about, but he was talking loudly. I must have dozed off because suddenly Robbie was in bed and my feet were cold - he had taken my dressing gown away and hung it up. A battle followed and eventually he grudgingly got out of bed and replaced my dressing gown. He moaned because it looked untidy. That is a bit rich coming from Mr Messy - he leaves a trail of clutter wherever he goes!

Conflict

Sam is very keen on photography and since he got his posh new camera for Christmas no one is safe, from Sam quest to get the perfect picture. His homework for his school photography class is to take a photograph of conflict. At first Sam thought it would be easy because he intended to take a photo of of the cats play fighting, but they don't perform to order and when they play they will not stop to pose for the camera! So he has had to resort to plan B - staged conflict. This has not been very successful either staged conflict looks staged and despite his best efforts he is still searching for the perfect photo. He took this photo of Laura after a staged fight with her yesterday, I love her expression and the look in her eyes, it isn't clear if she will 'attack' or if she will burst out laughing. One thing is clear she will never forgive me if she finds out that I have put this picture on the blog, she hates it when her hair is all messed up!

It is quite comical to have Sam setting out to create conflict, when we have plenty of the real kind every day, it just doesn't lend itself to being photographed. Yesterday when Robbie got home I began to cook our meal and he began to disapprove. First I'd said I was doing mashed potato and he wanted chips, I intended to have baked beans but he wanted gravy, I was very tolerant. I got a pan out to put the sausages in the oven, he looked, shook his head and said "no, no, not that one". I gave him 'the look' but he blundered on. He offered me a much less suitable pan, then changed his mind and offered a third, then a forth pan. I offered him a stern warning but he pressed on with advice on how to cook his sausages! I looked at my lovely new saucepans on the worktop and felt an overwhelming urge to hit him over the head with one! I decided that love had to win (love for my new saucepans) and I stormed out and told Robbie to get on with it himself!

A Lot of Nonsense

Some things just feel right, but it isn't possible to explain why. I feel like that about Virgin trains, I love travelling on Virgin trains, I feel comfortable and relaxed, but it is hard to explain exactly what it is that makes me feel like that. I was so sad when Virgin lost the Cross Country franchise and like many others I had serious misgivings about the future of Cross Country. Time has proved me wrong, my fears for Cross Country have not been realised, in fact I have been pleasantly surprised. I don't think much of the livery and they lack the Virgin 'flair' but Cross Country is OK, in fact it is better than OK. There is just one thing I can't work out, why does Barry Doe have such a grudge against Cross Country?

In the latest Rail magazine Boring Barry posed the question “Why not avoid Cross Country altogether?” He seems to have taken great exception to Cross Country's attempt to get people to change trains at places more suitable than Birmingham New Street. I have shared my thoughts about Birmingham New Street previously, so I will be brief, I detest the place, I would rather visit the dentist than change trains at New Street! So if the company can suggest ways to avoid New Street, I'm interested. In fact I would be willing to accept a slightly longer journey if I could avoid that god forsaken place. Barry Doe gave an example, apparently the Cross Country leaflet advises passengers from Reading an the South Coast travelling to Scotland and the North East to change at Leamington Spa if a through train is not available. Boring Barry calculates that it would add up to an hour to the journey time and it would involve two changes. It may come as a surprise to him but he is not the only person in the country who can read a timetable and he is not the only person capable of comparing journey options - but I must admit few of us are as anal about it as him! I consider that I am a fairly ordinary passenger, if I needed to make that journey I would check the timetable, consider the options available and plan my journey accordingly. I do not blindly follow advice in leaflets without checking the facts.

He also claims that he can do Bournemouth to Edinburgh via Waterloo and Kings Cross in seven hours, so he can not imagine why anyone would use the Cross Country service. If he was a little more in touch with reality he would know that negotiating London stations and the the underground is challenging for anyone, but for passengers with heavy luggage, disabled travellers and people with children, it is almost impossible! Even the dreaded New Street is preferable to that!

Avoiding the complication and trauma of a journey across London would be one of my top priorities, so the temptation of lower walk on fares, more frequent services, more comfortable trains and and better on board services would not tempt me to travel via London. I am just an ordinary traveller, but I am not stupid, I would plan a trip like that and I would not pay a walk on fare anyway. As for longer more comfortable trains, someone should really explain to Barry that bigger (and longer) does not necessarily mean better!! I find Cross Country services comfortable, and judging by the number of people who use their services, so do many other people. What Barry doesn't seem to understand is that most people travel on trains because they are going somewhere, it is a means to an end, not an end in itself. They want a reasonably comfortable, trouble free journey, but to them it is just a journey and their main aim is to get there more or less on time. There are plenty of obsessives and rail enthusiasts who focus only on the journey, the route or the rolling stock, but the great majority of the travelling public use the railways for the purpose intended, to travel from one place to another. Barry Doe does not seem to understand that his myopic nit picking shows no understanding of the needs and aspirations of ordinary travellers.

Hopefully Barry will follow his own advice, and avoid Cross Country altogether. It should be a great selling point, passengers would flock to Cross Country services to avoid Boring Barry. I don't know what caused his rancour and resentment but I am sick of him having a pop at Cross Country and he would be doing us all a favour if he would stay away He is like a buzzing wasp - an annoying irrelevance!