Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

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