Monthly Archives: December 2012

Rob Brydon and Sarah Millican top Rousse’s bill

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Our timing was perfect. The family that had bought our little house in Birmingham was away for Christmas, so we could just move straight back in. At first the neighbours were suspicious, but one by one we won them over. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birmingham, Cheshire, Christmas, Edinburgh, family, friend, Friends, gig, gigs, house, neighbour, neighbours, Rob Brydon, Sarah Millican, Sunderland, suspicious, tea, timing, woman | Leave a comment

Enemy of the Principal loses her mind (Rousse)

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My class started at 14:00 and it was already 14:05. I still needed to collect the materials from my office. More pressing was the requirement to dress. I couldn’t really turn up to teach wearing just a navy blue towel. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accusation, backlog, blue, campus, class, clothes, dinner suit, disguise, e-mail, escalator, escalators, head of school, innocence, late, lose, materials, merger, mind, mobile, navy, office, phone, Principal, QMU, Queen Margaret University, secret, secrets, staircase, staircases, students, text, towel, town | Leave a comment

A massive Manchester mansion (Rousse)

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Dreamaticus

TPR urged me to get out of bed. We had lots to do to prepare before the arrival of our guests. This was no time for a lie-in. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 05:30am. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, chapel, decorate, eau de nil, Friends, house, lie-in, Manchester, mansion, move, navy blue, park, regret, space, wallpaper, walls | Leave a comment

Rousse sees off a rival

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Dreamaticus

PC and I were finally reunited after thirty-one years apart, and I was delighted. We had known one another since aged 7 at primary school right up to the point that we took our A levels in 1981. Now PC … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A level, A levels, academic, artist, artists, arts, charity, college, common room, conversation, design, disaster, Edinburgh, interaction design, London, panic, primary, project, rival, school, suitor, wink | Leave a comment

Viking farm challenge and a spot of sewing (Rousse)

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My moustached Moldovan lover and I followed the route to the next stage of the challenge. All the other competitors were queuing up to test their skills at reversing the enormous red tractor on the farm just outside Aberdeen. When … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, ancestors, batch, bounce, brand, cab, challenge, competition, competitor, evacuate, farm, hammer, label, labels, log, métier, Moldova, Moldovan, moustache, nail, nails, New Zealand, sewing, sick, Sjörn, tractor, travel, vikings | Leave a comment

Another PhD and the police (Rousse)

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I successfully defended my second doctoral thesis so it was now entirely legitimate for me to call myself Dr Dr. However, the celebrations would have to wait because everyone had rushed outside to watch the extraordinary activities of the police … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged celebrations, doctor, doctoral, Dr, PhD, police, thesis | Leave a comment

A morning movie, confectionary choices, and a strange site for seaweed (Rousse)

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I watched BC’s latest movie in the campus cinema at the bottom of the tower block. As usual, I didn’t quite understand the whole thing, but very much enjoyed the experience, as did BC’s other fans. At the film’s conclusion … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged affliction, bar, block, breakfast, cereal, confectionary, fans. shop, film, Hebridean, Hebrides, Isle of Lewis, Marine, mouth, movie, office, PhD, plant, pop-up, seaweed, site, sport, student, tower, Twix, water, water sports | Leave a comment

William Morris book design determines undergraduate reading habits (Rousse)

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Now that the degree results had been published it was time to prepare for the graduation ceremony on campus at the University of Birmingham. Of course, TPR would be in the audience as usual, and I invited my nephew P … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged arts and crafts, audience, bedroom, Birmingham, book, Borås, campus, ceremony, certificate, certificates, clothes, cover, degree, design, display, exemption, exemptions, fighter, graduands, graduation, Great Hall, guest, guests, hair, librarian, librarians, library, library school, library schools, neighbour, neighbours, nephew, niece, page, parents, primary, pub, publication, publications, random, Reading, results, school, stage, study, Swedish School of Library and Information Science, T shirt, TPR, undergraduate, University of Birmingham, unshaven, William Morris | Leave a comment

Children and the dangers of thin ice (Rousse)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The children boasted that the ice was so thick that they could walk across the frozen river. I asked them to demonstrate, my camera at the ready. The first girl placed her booted foot onto the supposedly solid ice, fell … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blue, boast, body, boot, breath, breathing, Bubbles, camera, children, danger, dangerous, frozen, girl, ice, icy, limp, man, river, surface, thick, thin, water | Leave a comment

Unappreciative Christmas guests (Rousse)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The flat was bursting with visitors, the majority of whom were students with nowhere to stay over Christmas. There were two shy Chinese girls and one Chinese boy, a Korean boy sporting a huge mop of jet black hair, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American, bed, boot, boots, Chinese, Christmas, cold, colleague, crumbs, dog, flat, food, French, futon, guest, guests, hair, hall, host, jacket, Korean, paint, plates, porch, property, purple, room, shirt, sitting, squirrel, students, suede, tie, TPR, trap, University of Birmingham, vanadalise, visitors, voice, wall, wallpaper, white, white-wash | Leave a comment