Category Archives: Uncategorized

A horsewoman turned financier and an injured charity boss (Rousse)

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I heard that my school friend LF (then ED) had taken a job at RA’s charity. “What’s she doing for you?” I asked. When I learnt that that L was in charge of finance I had to admit that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bandage, boss, charity, climbing, Edinburgh, finance, financier, friend, horsewoman, injured, job, mathematician, Omni Centre, school, Virgin Active, visit, wall | Leave a comment

A coiled sausage surprise at the White House (Rousse)

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I found the uncooked dinner on the staircase after KA and I returned from the swamp. I wondered whether the coiled sausage in puff pastry would be enough for us all: me, KA, KS and HT. My mother would know. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brother-in-law, coiled, Cumberland, dining, dinner, food, guest, kitchen, meal, mother, pastry, puff, sausage, sisters, Stockton-on-Tees, swamp, table, uncooked, visit, White House | Leave a comment

Rousse loses it at a meeting

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I was officially hopeless. At a meeting at work: I couldn’t remember PhD student L’s name and mistakenly introduced her to everyone as “Valerie”. My old colleague JB, with whom I had last worked in 1999, took my place in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged chair, colleague, meeting, PhD, student, Valerie | Leave a comment

Hotel thefts in Hawaii (Rousse)

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Very soon I would be heading home from Hawaii. In the few hours before my flight I planned to sunbathe in the hotel grounds. I couldn’t risk lying on the beach. The waves were too unpredictable. That morning they’d already … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged advice, beach, camera, car, dollars, flight, gilet, guest, guests, Hawaii, hotel, lambskin, lamp-post, lamppost, lawn, pocket, pockets, purse, reception, receptionist, report, rules, staff, steal, strangers, sunbathe, theft, thefts, tickets, valuables, wallet, waves | Leave a comment

A puffin child prodigy (Rousse)

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Although I’d given up my gym membership long ago, from time to time I still popped into Virgin Active at Edinburgh’s Omni Centre. This was largely because I liked sitting in the café and pretending that it was my own … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby, cafe, cardboard, chair, child, club, Edinburgh, folder, folders, gym, membership, mother, Omni Centre, placement, private, prodigy, psychic, puffin, rott, rotten, son, students, talents, tomato, tomatoes, toy, toys, undergraduates, Virgin Active | Leave a comment

Lonely Rousse does a runner

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I sat in the crowded pub hoping that someone would notice that I was on my own and strike up a conversation with me. Nobody made a move – not even the couple next to me, despite my attempts to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged £1.65, £8, bar, Coke, conversation, couple, crowd, currency, felt, fool, glass, half, leave, lonely, month, months, pay, pen, pint, pub, runner, steal, tap, tip, tumbler, waitress, water | Leave a comment

Jimmy Savile shocker (Rousse)

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Dreamaticus

We climbed out of the taxi and paid the driver, then looked around for our young friend S. It only took a couple of minutes to spot him in the crowd with his mother. But who was that old bloke … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bachelor, black, bloke, cigar, crowd, dead, disgrace, driver, friend, gold, grandchildren, grandfather, hair, jimmy savile, jimmy saville, mother, old, shell suit, shellsuit, taxi, villain, white, young | Leave a comment

The beach body (Rousse)

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Dreamaticus

When we first arrived at our exotic Caribbean holiday destination I identified the poolside as the spot where we would spend most of the week. However, we were soon drawn to the beach from where everyone watched the huge waves … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bay, beach, beach bodies, beach body, bikini, boats, bodies, body, books, Caribbean, corpse, cycling, dead, destination, drown, exotic, fat, girl, green, helmet, high, holiday, library, middle-age, middle-aged, picnic, pool, poolside, red, sand, slim, spot, sunbathe, swell, T shirt, teenage, teenager, tide, TPR, water, wave, waves, woman | Leave a comment

Who will be Wella’s next model? (Rousse)

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The “campus as building site” experience was really getting to me. From the window of the union bar we watched as yet another structure was pulled down. Today it was the turn of the pier to be demolished. Stray shards … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged application, beauty, black, blonde, building, competition, degree, demolish, disqualify, form, gust, knickers, Marks and Spencer, masonry, model campus, Ms, reluctant, Scottish, sea, sensible, site, skirt, underwear, university, Wella, wind, window, woman, wood | Leave a comment

A drunken trip to the tool factory (Rousse)

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Dreamaticus

We’d always fancied a trip to the tool factory and here we were! There were rows and rows of saws, hammers, lathes and the like, all neatly lined up for us to inspect. K was on the same tour as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bottle, breakfast, cheap, drunk, drunken, factory, flirt, hammer, hammers, lathe, lathes, row, rows, saw, saws, staff, tool, tour, trip, white, wine, workers | Leave a comment