Category Archives: Uncategorized

Woman slave held captive in basement flat (Rousse)

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Someone had thrown a brick through our study window. It must have been with some force: the brick had crashed through the shutters as well as the astragalled panes. We wondered whether this was anything to do with the shouting … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astragal, astragalled, basement, brick, captive, flat, screaming, shouting, shutters, slave, window, woman | Leave a comment

French chef fails to impress (Belle)

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Dreamaticus

In a scene reminiscent of Oliver Twist, the three contestants carried their bowls of French onion soup towards the top table. The famous chef make a pronouncement: “This is the soup any British housewife should be able to make”. Although … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Charles Dickens, chef, competition, French onion soup, Mr Sheen, Oliver Twist | Leave a comment

Farmyard noises trump smoking as acceptable behaviour in public (Rousse)

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Dreamaticus

It was the day of my big performance. It didn’t go quite as anticipated. Granted, my father kept his promise not to heckle me. Instead he did much worse by interrupting the vote of thanks with farmyard noises. The speaker … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged behaviour, farm, farmyard, father, heckle, heckling, inaugural, lecture, noise, noises, performance, professorial, smoking, speaker, university, yard | 1 Comment

Egypt at Easter? Rousse is unimpressed

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I sat on the back seat of the car with my colleagues BB, JK, EH and XL. BB pulled a holiday brochure out of his rucksack. “This is where we should all go together next Easter” he enthused. The page … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brochure, budget, Canada, car, driving, Easter, Egypt, holiday, seat | Leave a comment

Danes are more beautiful than Brits – so says Finnair (Rousse)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I raced through Gatwick Airport, desperate to reach the Finnair flight to Oslo before the gate closed. DC was also at the airport, en route to Greece. Delighted to find company, he asked my advice on where to purchase a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airline, airport, baggage, blond, blonde, boots, Brit, Britain, Brits, confiscation, control, Dane, Danes, Danish, daughter, Denmark, departure, flight, gate, Gatwick, lounge, Oslo, Paris, run, running, Scandinavia, shop, sprint, sprinting, suitcase, ticket, UK, weekend, woman | Leave a comment

Roman latrines, Basil Brush, memorials for loved ones, and a bargain taxi fare (Rousse)

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Dreamaticus

There was just enough time before the service to make a quick dash to the communal toilet block. My sister S and I took our places side-by-side on the wooden bench, more than a little self-conscious in the company of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A cross-Atlantic trip to the Liverpool Museum of Prison Life (Rousse)

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I hadn’t seen my school friend JB for over thirty years so it was quite a surprise to bump into her in Liverpool. Her husband and one of their four children accompanied her. They’d travelled all the way here from … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged California, child, children, daughter, Facebook, friend, husband, kid, kids, Liverpool, museum, prison, school | Leave a comment

A murderer treads the boards (Rousse)

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I’d been so busy that I had missed every rehearsal. Nor had I learnt any of the lines. However, now that I had disposed of the corpse, I had plenty of time to join my theatre group again. It was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged body, confess, confession, corpse, crowd, death, die, husband, murder, murderer, narrator, performance, prison, red, rose, show, stem, theatre | Leave a comment

Charles Dickens’ wife ponders the impracticalities of the Victorian sex scene (Rousse)

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Dreamaticus

By now I had completely lost track of the characters in this Victorian melodrama. I was mixing up the real lives of the actors with those of the people that they portrayed. As Charles Dickens’ wife you’d think that I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged actor, actors, actress, actresses, affair, bodice, bodices, Catherine Hogarth, century, character, characters, Charles Dickens, corset, corsets, cotton, cry, crying, lover, nineteenth, play weep, plot, scene, sex, stay, stays, story, time, Victorian, Victorians, weeping, wife, woman, women | Leave a comment

A new leader for the Labour Party – and a mouthful of ‘worms’ (Belle)

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The debate on the radio was interesting. Would (given the current rules within the Labour Party) Mahatma Ghandi ever have been elevated to Leader of the Party? In a well argued case the academic stated that her research proved not … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged licorice, Mahatma Ghandi, motorway service station, Party Leader, politician, The Labour Party, worms | Leave a comment