Monthly Archives: July 2011

The assassin’s wife (Rousse)

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I wept on the number 11 bus as it worked its way through the Leith traffic. When the stranger came over to comfort me I listed all my woes: I was always getting lost on public transport (especially trains to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged assassin, bodies, bus, colleagues, corpses, crying, Edinburgh, family, Friends, husband, Leith, rice, stranger, train, trains, weeping | Leave a comment

Scandinavian packing essentials (Rousse)

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I made it to Finland with only one packing mistake: no gloves. My hosts assumed that we knew that gloves were essential all year round in Scandinavia. For this reason they had not warned us that they were a necessity, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airport, bike, cardboard, cycle, English, exam, Finland, gloves, lessons, packing, passenger, Scandinavia, summer, trunk | Leave a comment

The FBI get their man (Belle)

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Dreamaticus

After carrying out an elaborate armed robbery, the man in grey army fatigues (how trendy he looked!) went on the run in America and I floated along beside him for the ride. Was I his conscience? The narrator of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged FBI, helicopter, hill, outlaw, pantomime, robber, USA, valley | Leave a comment

Campus horror (Rousse)

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Dreamaticus

We were excited to learn that our new colleague held a degree in hospitality management. As well as returning financial order in our group, she offered to bring salads to all our Friday meetings. Just as I was thinking what … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blood, building, degree, gas, ghosts, hospitality management, meeting, office, papers, placement, plumbing, REF 2014, REF2014, salad, sick, staircase, student, surgery, valve, vomit | Leave a comment

Do you wear underwear with leather trousers? Is a tandem a useful weapon? How do you converse with the dead? Rousse investigates…

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I sat with the Spanish holiday-makers in the leaky summer house looking out at the torrential rain. It had been pouring for weeks. Would the sun ever make an appearance this “summer”? Bored with the weather, I made a dash … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bike, car, cycle, dead, death, drinkers, drinking, flat, job, leather, litter, murder, park, picnic, pub, rain, Spaniards, summer, summer house, tandem, TPR, trousers, underwear, victim, weapon, weather | Leave a comment

Promoting public libraries and chaos at work (Rousse)

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I was super keen to show BR the publicity material that I had developed to promote public libraries. She picked up my MacBook, adjusted the settings (I had no idea that the screen was detachable), and clicked “play”. The video … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accent, Birmingham, Brummie, Calibri, card, face, font, forest, hair, leaving, libraries, library, meeting, notice, notices, presentation, project, projects, promotion, public libraries, publicity, research, room, seminar, sign, signs, summer, video, warning | Leave a comment

Haunts old and new, and party dresses (Rousse)

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Dreamaticus

The small Birmingham back garden was crowded with people clamouring to climb trees, the shed and the summer house. Even I managed to scale the trunk of a bare apple tree. From the top I looked back up the garden … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accommodation, bed, Birmingham, bridge, counterpane, cushions, dress, dresses, house, Laura Ashley, Monsoon, office, painted, room dividers, satin, shed, silk, Somerfield, summer house, trees, white | Leave a comment

A literary cousin and vandalising grandmother from the dead (Rousse)

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I opened the parcel from Canada. Inside was a beautiful travelogue presented as a book by author “Ann Jones”. My colleague Ann Jones, seated opposite me, said that this wasn’t her. From a quick inspection of the contents page we … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Ann Jones, Canada, collage, finals, grandmother, photos, revising, Somerset, travelogue, vandal | Leave a comment

Rousse defends her position, welcomes a friend, and attempts to teach

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I travelled up the building squeezed into a lift with two colleagues. Over months one of them had developed a dangerous patter in snide remarks about my leadership. When yet another oblique and insulting comment escaped from his dirty little … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Canada, chairs, class, clock, colleagues, conference, corridor, desk, insults, Italy, lift, mobile, office, phone, students, vacation | Leave a comment

Rousse pays homage to shark-wrestling Finnish immigrant

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Dreamaticus

It was a bad day: I lost my shoes (black patent leather Mary Janes), mislaid my headphones, and couldn’t face a bare-footed music-less walk home. To my rescue came Professor JM. She offered me a lift down the A1 with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A1, car, driving, Finnish, fishing, fossil, fossilised, headphones, immigrant, mother, shark, shoes, village | Leave a comment