Smoked salmon salad cocktails and stormy seas in the Outer Hebrides (Rousse)

Posted on October 26, 2026 by Dreamaticus

It was the end of the final season for my favourite guest house on the Isle of Lewis. As a favour to innkeeper RG, I helped him with the catering in his attempt to use up all the food that remained in the house.

For lunch we made a small tray of meatballs. I feared that these would not stretch to feed the twenty guests seated across three tables. I offered to make smoked salmon salad cocktails for dinner, provided that there were avocados for sale in the village shop.

I couldn’t quite understand why my university friend QL and my old office mate SM were present. However, even if they had wanted to leave, they could not. All ferries were cancelled due to the storms.

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Citizen’s arrest of banned driver caught ‘drunk’ at the wheel in the Scottish Highlands (Rousse)

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Dreamaticus

TPR had had enough of his driving ban. He took the car keys, jumped into the driver’s seat, instructed me to sleep in the back, and hit the road north. When I woke, I could tell that we had passed Ullapool.

‘Where are we heading? I asked.

‘To the bone caves’, he replied ‘For a 10k mountain walk’.

Normally I would have been happy to do this. However, setting off at 7pm on a chilly autumn evening was simply not sensible. TPR pulled into a passing place for the ensuing argument.

Our argument was only broken when an American wrenched open the driver’s door and snatched the car keys. She was convinced that we were both drunk. It was her role as a responsible citizen to keep the pair of us off the road.

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Sting and spousal abuse at the university reunion (Rousse)

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Dreamaticus

What a coup! Sting came to sing for us at our university reunion.

Now all I had to deal with was the last-minute booking from a fellow undergraduate who had brought her wife-beating boyfriend along with her.

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A return to hall of residence life – in Manchester (Rousse)

Posted on October 22, 2026 by Dreamaticus

Our new home was a small study bedroom in a derelict hall of residence at the University of Manchester.

We reached the building by way of the A702. The last part of this road was still under development. It petered out into a dirt track for the last couple of miles.

Amongst the others in the hall was my former colleague JB (very slim). J and GC were also visiting. They paddled with me and TPR in the nearby flooded shopping mall. We were there hunting for porridge oats to make our breakfasts in the coming weeks.

When we returned to our room, we spotted the size of the (only) bed. How could two people possibly even fit in there, let alone attempt sleep?

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National award for mirror software (Rousse)

Posted on October 21, 2026 by Dreamaticus

While I had been attending exercise classes then collecting left-over scraps of Christmas wrapping paper and traybakes, LM programmed with her grandson A.

Not long afterwards we learnt that LM had won a national award for app. Everyone was super-excited to download it for their own toddlers to use as a ‘front and back’ mirror. At first LM was delighted with the news. Then she feared the press interest that was bound to follow the announcement of her invention.

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Appointing a reunion organiser (Rousse)

Posted on October 20, 2026 by Dreamaticus

My fellow graduate JG and his friend RA came to the meeting to discuss the next reunion. We had identified a young man suitable for the role of organiser, and he seemed interested.

TPR nearly derailed the plans by detailing the burden of the job that the rest of us had simply described as ‘Book a room, tell everyone about the date, and pay the bill’.

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A junk shop, guest lecture, and ruined trip to the cinema in Aberystwyth (Rousse)

Posted on October 18, 2026 by Dreamaticus

The real reason why NP couldn’t join social events at weekends was that she ran a junk shop in Aberystwyth. I only discovered this when a man called Chris invited me to the town to deliver a guest lecture at Aberystwyth University. (I wondered if I might also see DM there, but I was mixing up my Welsh place names. DM lived in Rhyl.)

TPR, his sister SS and a family dog joined me on my trip to Wales. This included an unsuccessful visit to the cinema. Tiny children allowed out after 9pm by their irresponsible parents ruined the film for us.

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Chinese to blame for Victorian train carriage catastrophe (Rousse)

Posted on October 14, 2026 by Dreamaticus

We travelled in a tiny single red open Victorian train carriage. It was obvious that the modern station was not designed to welcome such an old-fashioned form of transport: there was a huge gap between the open carriage door and the platform. Nevertheless, I leapt out with my luggage all intact, hoping that the others would follow.

My sudden movement thrust the carriage forward with the rest of the passengers still on board, including TPR. It careered along the track at high speed straight into, then through, three stationary modern carriages.

‘Nobody could survive that impact’ I thought as all the passengers – TPR included – walked free of the wreckage.

Later, in the huge station lift, witnesses to the accident discussed its cause.

‘China is to blame’ claimed one. This was a bold move given that half the people in the lift at the time were Chinese.

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A bad day at the office (Rousse)

Posted on October 12, 2026 by Dreamaticus

It was a great disappointment that my Auntie A failed to turn up as a guest speaker. I was sure that she would have had much say to my work colleagues in the city of London.

I had made such an effort with my look for the day too. Not only had I put on make-up (a rare occurrence), but I had also dressed in the latest retro fashion of a royal blue full length pleated Laura Ashley cotton skirt. I actually looked quite slim in it.

Later, on my way home, I struggled with the signage in the sparkling upgraded London Underground. I spent hours going up and down escalators and along endless passageways in my hopeless attempts to return home.

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Aunties identify adoptees (Rousse)

Posted on October 12, 2026 by Dreamaticus

One sister led me away a short distance from the other. She was desperate to tell me her latest gossipy findings from the past.

From her rushed whispers, I learnt of a teenage pregnancy.  The baby put out for adoption all those years ago had now tracked us all down.

Could the child in question be the woman standing next to the fence, not far from our other sister?

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