Monthly Archives: April 2013

Top notch facilities at Isle of Lewis guest house (Rousse)

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The guest house on the Isle of Lewis offered upgraded facilities, including a beautiful marble block of changing rooms and toilets close to the beach, and giant butterfly-shaped kites to play with on the shore. Downstairs in the main house … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged access, beach, British Library, butterfly, card, changing rooms, dinner, facilities, French, friend, Friends, guest, guesthouse, holiday, house, Isle of Lewis, kite shore, library, makeover, marble, membership, soak, toilers, venue, wave, waves | Leave a comment

Ronnie Corbett and Helen Mirren to star in Four weddings remake (Rousse)

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I pulled myself through the yellow painted railings and dropped to the level below to join the queue for the reception. Our host JT was straight ahead of me, with his colleague and father-in-law GM just behind. The event itself … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abandon, actors, admirer, Anne, Anne Corbett, beard, BMW 320, BMW 328i, bowls, cardboard, condoms, conference, consultant, conversation, Eddy, event, fake, filmset, final salary, Four weddings and a funeral, greeting, hair, hand, Helen Mirren, HR, Hugh Grant, husband, inactivity, island, jib, kiss, man, married, mute, networking, party, pension, pensions, Porsche 911, pretend, private view, public, queue, railings, reception, redundancy, rescue, Richard Curtis, roles, Ronnie Corbett, sector, short, snog, staff, stranger, street, student union, trays, wall, wine, yellow | Leave a comment

Escape from the cult (Rousse)

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I’d accidentally joined a cult. At first I thought that these dozen or so people – including my school friend CC – were just slightly strange. However, the more time I spent with them, the more apparent it became that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged class, classroom, course, cult, departure, desk, duckling, ducklings, escape, excuse, friend, hair, hippy, jazz, late, leader, leave, menial, participants, photograph, Polish, practice, school, strange, tasks, teacher, training, tutor, underhand, view, world | Leave a comment

Long-awaited guest wows the crowd in a gleaming royal blue satin gown (Rousse)

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Sitting outdoors across the long table from me, LP argued the merits of running at least three times a week. I felt terrible because I no longer managed this. However, it was wonderful to see all the faces of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blue, cheer, club, crowd, dress, friend, gown, guest, outdoors, photographs, royal, running, satin, school, table, TPR, train | 1 Comment

Brad Pitt’s summer secrets (Rousse)

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Brad Pitt had managed to remain incognito for much of his visit – many of the students had simply not recognised that we had a Hollywood superstar in our midst – but soon he would be returning home. I’d really … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Brad Pitt, career, company, Hollywood, home, incognito, miss, photograph, Raiders of the Lost Ark, secret, secrets, Star Wars, students, summer, superstar, Thelma and Louise, visit | Leave a comment

Matt Smith speaks at Aberdeen information science conference (Rousse)

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I spied Matt Smith sitting at a table preparing his presentation. Up until this point I didn’t consider it an unusual prospect to be sharing the stage with him. Then it dawned on me that this was Dr Who! I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, autograph, bear, bite, bitten, camera, cheesecloth, conference, Dr Who, dress, e-mail, grizzly, hunt, information science, Leith, lens, loch, lost, MacAir, machine, Matt Smith, outfit, paper, photograph, pine marten, presentation, red, scrapes, T shirt, table, treasure, university, white | Leave a comment

Simon Le Bon leaves Yasmin and takes new lover to Aberdeen caravan hideaway (Rousse)

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Simon Le Bon left his wife Yasmin – for me! Our first trip together was to Aberdeen beach to visit the Le Bon family’s caravan. I had expected it to be a luxurious trailer. Instead I discovered a tiny old-fashioned … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, caravan, family, gloves, Marigold, Marigolds, shower, Simon le Bon, trailer, trip, washing up, Yasmin Le Bon, Yasmin. | Leave a comment

Sympathy and ping pong (Rousse)

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Dreamaticus

When XY broke down in tears in my room I realised that the only way to comfort him would be to invite him into my bed. Between sobs he listed many injustices others waged against his research projects, using this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, blue, boss, British Library, careers, colleague, comfort, dinner, Edinburgh City Council, engineering, fair, formal, injustices, invitation, little, man, math, mathematics, maths, members, old, ping pong, project, projects, research, room, science, senior, silver, skirt, stem, stranger, suit, suits, sympathy, table tennis, tears, technology, travels, violet | Leave a comment

The fish-eating fake vegan (Rousse)

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My office-mate was up to his usual annoying habits, behaving as if he had exclusive use of our shared room. He’d taken my poster off the door and replaced it with a congratulatory banner for his final year class. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged banner, bean, class, congratulations, corridor, eat, fake, fish, habit, habits, house, kidney, kidney bean, lock, mackerel, office, office-mate, peas, poster, rice, room, smoked, stew, students, supper, vegan, white | Leave a comment

Cycling academics, poor publishing standards, diet Coke rations, a farewell disco, and stiletto heels (Rousse)

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I cycled to work to mark the last day of operation of Queen Margaret’s Corstorphine campus. Many other Edinburgh academics did the same, discussing the poor standard of journal submissions as they rode the route. Because it was such a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, bike, childhood, Coke, college, Corstorphine, cream, cycle, cycling, diet, Diet Coke, disco, Edinburgh, farewell, feet, friend, Friends, gnarled, heel, heels, journal, pal, pals, publish, publishing, Queen Margaret, ration, rations, shoes, stiletto, submission, submissions, train, university | Leave a comment