Category Archives: Uncategorized

Barack Obama’s winning smile and a bottle of whisky (Rousse)

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Dreamaticus

Barack Obama could not wait any longer for the couple who were late to reach Ullapool. He therefore asked me – with a winning smile – whether I would take the bottle of whisky. I was unsure as to whether … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Barack Obama, couple, late, room, smile, tent, Ullapool, whisky | Leave a comment

A delicious recipe for roast pumpkin soup in shells (Rousse)

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Dreamaticus

Now I understood why the soup at lunchtime tasted so good: the school office staff had taken to spending their mornings making fresh batches on campus. Today the office fridges were crammed with pumpkins to be roasted with garlic and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged batch, bowl, campus, delicious, fridge, garlic, Hebridean, innovation, lunch, machair, office, oven, pepper, pumpkin, recipe, research, roast, room, school, sea, shell, soup, sunset | Leave a comment

A tidy break-in (Rousse)

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Dreamaticus

While I wheeled the abandoned black bicycle along the path, SC expressed her concern that she would not find a hairdresser open in St Andrews on a Sunday. She was wrong. A couple of hours later her silver locks were … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, bedroom, belonings, bicycle, bike, boy, boys, break-in, hair, hairdresser, house, kind, locks, London, Scotland, silver, St Andrews, stranger, Sunday, sussex, tidy, toys, train, uninvited, weekend | Leave a comment

Race to rescue earthquake victim in northern Russia (Rousse)

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Dreamaticus

When the earthquake struck in the Russian far north TPR was standing directly on the fault line above a seam of white marble. He fell several thousand feet into the enormous crevice. I was sure that I would never see … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged crevice, earth, earthquake, fat, fault, find, line, marble, north, race, rescue, reserve, Russia, seam, survive, survivor, text, TPR, white | Leave a comment

A birthday weekend of scent, satin, a speech, kisses and sick (Rousse)

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Dreamaticus

Our flat was packed with visitors for the weekend of my birthday, many of whom had travelled a long distances to be with me. AW and JS had come all the way from Farnham, Surry – together, on friendly terms. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alcoholic, beer, birthday, body, Chinese, clean, dress, drink, Farnham, father, flat, garment, gold, kiss, neutralise, peel, potato, present, red, rug, satin speech, scent, shift, sick, slim, smell, Surrey, tumble sryer, visitor, vomit, waist, weekend, wine | Leave a comment

A Canadian in the UK (Rousse)

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Dreamaticus

My extremely tall, dark, handsome Canadian cousin was living in the UK with his Italian girlfriend and her two children. One day I had a go at being as tall as my cousin. I discovered all the inconveniences that extra … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Canadian, children, cousin, dark, girlfriend, handsome, inconvenience, Italian, tall, UK | Leave a comment

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the strange shoe switch (Rousse)

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Dreamaticus

TPR and I were staying temporarily in a small rented apartment along with DTJ and her toddler son JJ, who slept in a curtained off area at the far end of the sitting room. On a day when I should … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged appartment, bell, bewitched, bicycle, bike, blue, breakfast, Burnell, Christmas, Dame, exercise, fare, fares, Jocelyn, mountain, pass, recognise, remember, ride, shoe, sitting room, sleep, snow, strange, suit, switch, taxi, TPR, trip, village, wander, wave | Leave a comment

Just another divorce day casualty (Rousse)

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Dreamaticus

TPR spent Christmas in the far north of the Shetland Islands, miles away from me and the rest of the family. The evidence was there a parish magazine: a photograph of TPR seated next to a vicar at Christmas dinner … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abandon, admit, Christmas, cloth, day, divorce, divorce day, family, gossip, holiday, husband, magazine, man, marriage, over, parish, photo, photograph, picture, Shetland, Shetland Islands, shun, TPR, vicar, wife | Leave a comment

Distracted by next season’s fashion must-haves and Harry Potter in French (Rousse)

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Dreamaticus

At the height of summer I was living in North Berwick and working in Edinburgh, desperate to finish the data analysis and write-up of my second PhD. On the days that I couldn’t cadge a lift along the by-pass with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged by-pass, commuting, concentrate, data analysis, distract, Edinburgh, fare, fashion, fortune, French, Harry Potter, lift, mother, must-have, North Berwick, novel, PhD, season, summer, train, wardrobe, work, write-up | Leave a comment

Apple interface problems (Rousse)

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Dreamaticus

My new iPhone infuriated me. I was trying to contact JM and BR in London to check the venue of the conference dinner that evening, but the device’s interface was so poor that I couldn’t operate its telephone function. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged advertising, apple, apps, call, device, find, folder, interface, iPad, iPhone, London, Online, problem, sister, telephone, web | Leave a comment