Category Archives: Uncategorized

Staffing priorities in hard times (Rousse)

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Dreamaticus

As far as I could remember we had never received any presents from the G-J family. So when their servant asked us to return “everything” it was difficult to know what to say. The servant explained that R and S … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged children, costs, family, feed, food, freezer, gifts, kids, presents, servant, staff | Leave a comment

Library rules for tandems (Rousse)

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Dreamaticus

TPR wheeled the tandem into the bookshop. So far, so good – nobody stopped us. However, further into the main body of the shop a member of staff told us that this was, in fact, a library, tandems were banned, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ban, bicycle, bike, bookshop, cycle, cycling, libraries, library, rule, rules, tandem | Leave a comment

Write early for Christmas 2012 (Rousse)

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Dreamaticus

JK was away so DB chaired the meeting in her place. Instead of discussing business, however, we all sat at the table writing our Christmas cards. After a few minutes of addressing envelopes EH mentioned that perhaps this was something … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2012, business, card, cards, chair, chairing, Christmas, dry, drying, envelope, envelopes, fire, fountain, home, ink, meeting, pen | Leave a comment

Selling hosiery – with a difference (Rousse)

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Following a long, happy and successful career at the British Library, SK came out of retirement to mastermind a massive marketing campaign for the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre from a secret base in Edinburgh.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged British Library, career, Edinburgh, hosiery, marketing, Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, selling | Leave a comment

Rousse samples seaweed, cream and orange peel pudding

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Dreamaticus

SS gathered us around her kitchen table and served the Chinese takeaway feast. There was so much to eat, and by the time the pudding was unwrapped at about 3am I really didn’t think I could consume anything more. SS … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bowl, Chinese, cream, hostess, kitchen, Orange, peel, running, seaweed, sick, takeaway, TPR, vomit | Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg vents anger at Harvard in Simpsons episode (Rousse)

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

There was a television at the far end of the room, but this was largely ignored. Most of us preferred to watch The Simpsons on personal devices such as iPads balanced on our knees. This hysterical episode was based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anger, angry, cartoon, drop-out, drop-outs, graduate, graduates, Harvard, iPad, iPads, knees, landscape, Mark Zuckerberg, plot, red button, Simpsons, statue, statues, television, temper, TV | Leave a comment

Unbearable workloads: could cloning be the answer? (Rousse)

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Locked away in a hall of residence room in Nantes, I wasn’t coping very well at all. I had returned to the city to take some extra courses and gain credits for a full French undergraduate degree, even though it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, beret, clone, clones, cloning, degree, Florida, girls, graduate, graduates, hall, holiday, iSchool, load, Nantes, qualification, qualifications, residence, reunion, room, school, skirt, studies, Teesside High School, undergraduate, university, Washington, work, workload | Leave a comment

Quadratic equations fox faculty and first years (Rousse)

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The bed creaked as the enormous dark-haired woman clambered over to my side. “Get off!” I demanded. “When TPR and I bought this big bed it was just for the two of us. You’re not welcome. I want to read … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, cry, crying, equation, equations, exercise, exercises, faculty, first years, Freshers, freshman, freshmen, guilt, job, lecturers, math, mathematics, maths, notepad, papers, peace, pencil, professor, professors, quadratic, staff. lecturer, Sunday, syllabus, TPR, weep, weeping, woman | Leave a comment

“Friend” of royalty responsible for luggage loss (Rousse)

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Although the conference had changed format for 2012, it still attracted the same crowd. AA and I waved greetings to everyone we knew as we crossed the main exhibition hall on our way out to check in at the hotel. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aluminium, bank, banks, bog, border, camera, career, careers, conference, degree, Diana, drown, drowning, exhibition, France, German, Germany, hall, hotel, Kensington Palace, lost, luggage, palace, peat, pink, postgraduate, Princess of Wales, purse, rail, research, revolving door, royal, royalty, skirt, stand, stream, study, suitcase, television, train, vouchers, water, wool | Leave a comment

Elvis Costello and Libby Purves forced to share scant office space at the BBC (Rousse)

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

MR and I got ahead of the others on a Sunday walk across the Pentland Hills with colleagues. Enthusing over Great British walks, MR declared how he would love to follow the Roman Wall trail from the south of England … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BBC, bet, betting, coffin, corridor, corridors, dead, death, door, Elvis Costello, envelope, estate, filing cabinet, filing cabinets, fire, fire doors, Hadrian, Hadrian's Wall, Heathrow, horse, horses, housing, Libby Purves, M25, necklace, Northumberland, office, Pentland Hills, Pentlands, prize, race, racing, Radio 4, Roman, Roman Wall, Romans, space, stationery, stones, Sunday, surprise, theme park, treasure hunt, walk | Leave a comment