Introducing Robbie

Random Ramblings is mainly about my husband Robbie, but the rest of the family will pop up from time to time. Robbie is funny, lovable, obsessive and totally unique. He is interested in all sorts of things but he is obsessed with trains and he has built his career in the railway industry. He worked for a train operating company for many years and now he runs his own consultancy business. We are not exactly a standard family, he likes to tell people that he is a 'toyboy', he hardly qualifies as that but he is a bit younger than me. We have six children between us, so life can be a bit chaotic at times.


When I first started the blog I asked my son to write about Robbie. The boy who wrote this is an adult now, but his description of Robbie is very accurate and it always makes me smile, so this is Robbie through the eyes of a ten year old:

Robbie by Will (age 10) 


Robbie is a bit weird in some ways. He is very interested in clothes but he is really retro like he is stuck in the 80's. His favourite clothes are PJ bottoms, he calls them 'lounge wear' and he wears them all the time at home if he can get away with it. Mum makes him wear a T shirt with it because he is not allowed to eat meals without a top on, she says he is worse than Stan Ogden, but I don't know who he is (I expect he is dead, most people that she talks about are dead). 

Robbie also likes wearing the T shirts that he buys at gigs, but sometimes mum says "you can't go outside wearing that or you will get arrested" he tries to argue but he always has to change. There is a T shirt that he really wants but mum won't him buy it because she says it is blasphemous, that makes Robbie laugh, then we all laugh and mum gets cross. He likes big patterns and bright colours, you should see the shorts that he wears on the beach, they are very loud - just like Robbie really!

Sometimes I borrow Robbie's socks and that makes him really mad, and whatever pair I have nicked he always claims they were his best pair! He used to wear boxers but they bunched up and mum said it made him look like Gandhi (that is someone else who is dead, he used to wear a thing that looked like a big nappy). Now he wears trunks (Robbie not Gandhi) and he likes them better because they are more comfortable. Emily says he has a sort of skater style and Laura calls him a 'geek with chic' but I think weird sums it up best. He has a thing about shoes too, he collects them, he loves Dr Marten's and he likes converse too, they have to be bright colours, in fact the stranger the better as far as he is concerned. 

Robbie eats revolting things like black pudding and dripping, he dips bread in his gravy and sometimes he even eats ostrich burgers - disgusting! Sometimes Emily tells him off for keeping evil things in the fridge, she is a veggie so she gets a bit stressy sometimes.

Robbie is always moaning at me because I am untidy. I am a bit disorganised, but he is untidy too and he never admits it. He puts everything in piles all over the place and he hates throwing things away. He has piles of magazines everywhere and there are trains taking over the house. Just because I don't put my stuff in piles like he does he moans at me for being untidy. Mum moans at him about his magazines sometimes and if she is really cross she calls him 'haemorrhoid man' because of all the piles. That makes me laugh. 


Robbie helps me with my computer and he talks mum into letting me do things when she says no. Sometimes we watch films together, he knows quite a lot about films and so do I. When we argue mum gives Robbie that sort of look that tells you are in big trouble and she asks him "Who's the adult?" He isn't always good at being an adult because he says he is a toyboy. I am not sure what one is really. Action man is a toy and male but Robbie isn't like him, I don't think Robbie likes action stuff and I don't think Action Man knows about trains. The other boy toy is Barbie's boyfriend Ken and he looks a bit gay, mum says that Robbie has a gay walk sometimes but he is not like Ken. Mum told me that Robbie says he is a toyboy to make her feel old, he doesn't need to bother because I make her feel old anyway, she is always telling me that. 

Robbie takes me on train journeys, I like that, but I don't see the point in writing down numbers and things like he does. I just like being comfortable on the train with my laptop. We do have lots of things in common. I have to learn not to make people bored by going on and on about Superman and films and stuff. Sometimes mum pretends to go to sleep when I am talking to her. If we ask Robbie about trains we get information overload and mum has to tell Robbie to stop talking because she is losing the will to live. Sometimes when she asks him a question she says she only wants the brief version, but he is not very good at being brief.

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