Category Archives: Uncategorized

Early autumn encourages Stockton vandals into the trees (Rousse)

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The spell of good summer weather came to an abrupt end when the trees turned brown overnight and the media announced that it was now autumn. If further proof were needed, a riot of unruly boys from Ian Ramsey School … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged autumn, branch, branches, brown, chase, collapse, conkers, crawl, Darlington Road, doorbells, elderly, good, horse chestnut, houses, Ian Ramsey, job, naughty schoolboys, path, residents, school, Stockton, summer media, tackle, teenagers, traffic, trees, vandal, vandals, weather | Leave a comment

A fishy tale of fighter jets and a missed meeting (Rousse)

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Dreamaticus

From the coach window in Ireland EH, NU and I watched fighter jets sketch vapour trails into the blue summer sky. “How do they do that?” I asked as the planes created a small shoal of vapour trail salmon for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blue, breakfast, coach, colleagues, fighter, fish, fishy, Ireland, jet, jets, meeting, message, missed, morning, salmon, shoal, sketch, sky, summer, tale, trouble | Leave a comment

Whitby for work and pleasure (Rousse)

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Dreamaticus

It was difficult to tell whether we were in Whitby for work or pleasure. It was also unclear how the beautiful beaches of Uig in the Outer Hebrides had relocated to the coast of north east England. However, what was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged breakout, camera, chair, coast, competition, conference, cousin, delegates, discussion, dog, England, facilitator, Fiat Stilo, film, fitness, guest, guests, holiday, hotel, identity, keynote speaker, litter, north east, Online, online identity, organiser, Outer Hebrides, park, parks, platform, platforms, pleasure, press-up, public, research, safety, sands, sea, seminar, sink, speed, swim, town, Uig, vehicle, walk, Whitby, winner, work, wreckage | Leave a comment

University measures of excellence: showers, smoked haddock and guest speakers (Rousse)

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Dreamaticus

If my life wasn’t complicated enough, I accepted another part-time post at the University of Aberdeen, and was also considering a return to Canada. An advantage of Aberdeen was that CM worked in the university gym. He offered to sneak … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen University, animations, campus, Canada, car park, career, centre, changing room, changing rooms, class, classes, classroom, complain, computing, embarrassment, exam, excellence, fish, guest, gym, haddock, images, impatient, industry, lecture, lecturer, lost, measure, measures, money, pay, performance, pictures, presentation, professor, question, questions, resit, rush, shower, showers, slides, slideshow, smoked, spa, sports, staircase, staircases, stairs, TPR, university, University of Aberdeen, Virgin Active, warren, words, work | Leave a comment

Sir Paul McCartney sings for information scientists (Rousse)

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Dreamaticus

BC organised an evening reception for all the summer information science interns based in the US. I was delighted to be invited: I’d been getting very lonely living in a shed in my hosts’ garden. I was beginning to feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged America, boast, community, dog, entertainer, garden, hosts, information science, information scientist, information scientists, interns, invitation, kennel, members, minders, network, Paul McCartney, power, reception, serenade, shed, sing, Sir Paul McCartney, sister, summer, US | Leave a comment

Friday night in the caravan (Rousse)

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Dreamaticus

This was the most depressing of Friday nights. We were packed into a static caravan the size of a railway carriage, not far from Quartermile. I’d been here before when it had been used as emergency accommodation for undergraduates at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1990s, accommodation, bid, bunk, caravan, carriage, coffin, contact lenses, duvet, e-leaning, emergency, enjoy, Friday, glasses, grant, home, night, office, party, platform, proposal, Quartermile, Queen Margaret College, railway, screen, spectacles, static, undergraduate, undergraduates, weekend, wood | Leave a comment

North Sea tsunami hits land north of Aberdeen (Rousse)

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Dreamaticus

TPR, His mother, his sister S, CM and I watched in amazement as the huge tsunami rushed in from the North Sea. It hit the coast just north of Aberdeen. When the first wave crashed into the town house garden … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, amazement, barbecue, calm, camera, coast, flat, fling, furniture, garden, hit, house, kitchen, land, loungers, magical, mother, mountains, north, North Sea, sea, sister, town house, tsunami, Uig sands, vantage, view, washing line, water, wave, west, window | Leave a comment

A late breakfast (Rousse)

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Dreamaticus

A dozen pretty coloured bags filled to the brim with bedding plants lined the hall. “Great”, I thought, “He’s going to smarten up the garden”. The kitchen table, however, was a more puzzling sight. What were all these mounds of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bags, bedding, breakfast, burn, eggs, flames, fry, garden, hall, handle, kitchen, late, morning, pan, pink, plants, plastic, pretty, raisins, scissors, slot, smarten, sultanas, table, toast, toaster | Leave a comment

A rummage through an atheist’s wardrobe (Rousse)

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I’d had enough of this religious twaddle. “Listen”, I said “You may be American, but someone has to tell you all that (a) there is no God, and (b) we don’t go to heaven when we die”. As soon as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American, atheist, Boden, chairs, clothes, collection, death, die, excuse, eyes, God, heaven, Hobbs, nightdress, nightie, Phase Eight, religion, religious, rummage, sad, sadness, silk, twaddle, Victorian, wardrobe, white | Leave a comment

News for the Broughton Spurtle (Rousse)

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Encouraged by the crowd gathered in the street below, a naked man leapt to his death from a top floor window in Melgund Terrace. Later the same day I noticed that Crombies’ butcher’s shop was still open at 8pm at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Broughton, butcher, Crombies, crowd, Edinburgh, incident, jump, man death, Melgund Terrace, naked, night, shop, Spurtle, street, suicide window | Leave a comment