I picked the DVD up from reception at Queen Margaret University’s Corstorphine campus and carried it down to the staff room. I needed someone to help me proof the multimedia excerpts that had been added to my most recent publication in the Journal of Information Science.

KC volunteered to help. The job done, we made to leave when one of the professors of nursing approached us. She wanted to congratulate me on the list of achievements that I had recently submitted to the REF panel.

“Nobody realised how hard-working you were until we saw your list of external commitments”, she said.

KC and I then left to board the ghost train back into town. It travelled through dank tunnels that were crammed with wailing bodies. From the trackside random limbs reached out to the open carriages to grope at whatever, and whoever, they could reach.

When we were back in the light again I noticed that one of our fellow passengers was A G-K from university. A terrible mother, she had subjected her two children to the terrifying trip. However, they didn’t seem too bothered. This was probably because they were both made from Lego.