Author Archives: Dreamaticus

House train a puppy in 12 weeks (Rousse)

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Dreamaticus

This was the kind of puppy I liked: small, soft, furry and friendly – and house-trained at 12 weeks.

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Couple transform modest semi into feline zoo with big cat pet collection (Rousse)

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Dreamaticus

P and S sold their place in the country as they moved nearly all their investments out of property. They were now living in a modest 1970s semi on a small housing estate. P invited a bunch of school friends … Continue reading →

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Assignment deadline mix-up (Rousse)

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I was proud of my student who advised the stranger on the street of impending assignment submission deadlines. However, I felt that I had to butt in and say that this sort of enquiry should really be routed to the … Continue reading →

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Advice for a NQT? Don’t go into teaching! (Rousse)

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I bumped into my school friend KC (wearing a hideous pale blue fake satin 1980s style ballgown) and her daughter K at a service station on the M5. The daughter explained that she had just finished teacher training. She asked … Continue reading →

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Karaoke in vest and pants (Rousse)

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I joined TPR at the bar as he was paying for a round of drinks. £38 seemed an extortionate amount, and I hadn’t yet added my own order. At the other side of the bar a screen came to life, … Continue reading →

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Ineffective Italian lessons (Rousse)

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Dreamaticus

JC and I sat at the dinner table desperate to join in the conversation across the room. An Italian mother was making a hopeless attempt to teach her native language to her English-speaking children. Both JC and I could do … Continue reading →

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Monster tuna fish washed up in massive Hebridean tidal wave (Rousse)

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Dreamaticus

My sister JMH and I shared a small double bed in a tiny hotel room positioned high above an Outer Hebridean bay. Others, including my old school friend HP, used our room as a thoroughfare. One morning when we looked … Continue reading →

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Back to black and white (Rousse)

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Dreamaticus

Curiously Darlington Road was in monochrome. Even the yob outside the wine shop who tried to accost me was a figure in black and white. “This neighbourhood has definitely gone downhill since we all left”, I concluded.

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Fine in Houston, Texas (Rousse)

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I was fined by a hotel in Houston for missing my check-out time. This was because I’d spent the morning travelling 200 miles by train to San Antonio to visit a potential conference venue.

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Novelist’s life work loss blamed on clumsy husband (Rousse)

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I’d been complaining of TPR’s clumsiness for some time. Now he had managed to let a desktop PC, all the back-up disks for my novel-in-progress, and an old fashioned brick mobile telephone, fall from a third floor window and through … Continue reading →

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