Category Archives: Uncategorized

Stationery heaven and an unpaid debt (Rousse)

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Normally we would have flown down to London to catch the onward flight from Heathrow. However, because we were keen to go to MS’s party on Saturday evening, we were obliged to drive down afterwards overnight. It was such a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged card, charity, compensation, debt, driving, fortune, girls, Heathrow, heaven, journey, London, motorway, origami, paper, party, pens, rucksack, rucksacks, school girls, sculpture, sculptures, shop, shopping, staff, stationer, stationer's, stationery, study, studying, uniform, uniforms, unpaid | Leave a comment

Giving up gossip for Lent: Rousse debates the Archers rules

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Dreamaticus

TPR and I poured all our savings into a property purchase. Our new flat was on the first floor of a Georgian square in London that actually looked like it belonged in Edinburgh. Its size and layout very much resembled … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alan Franks, Archers, bed, bedroom, bedrooms, beds, bedstead, bedsteads, bounce, bouncy, cobbles, conversation, Drummond Place, Easter, Edinburgh, flat, floor, floors, friend, Friends, Georgian, gossip, holiday, Lent, Lenten, London, noise, phone, pollution, property, purchase, quarters, room, rooms, rot, rotting, rust, rusting, servant, servants, sets, source, telephone, TPR, traffic, vicar, Victorian, vow | Leave a comment

Gay marriage shocker eclipsed by enemy bomb attack on UK airports (Rousse)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I met my gay friend at Edinburgh airport. After he showed me his scars he introduced me to a tall, slim and beautiful African woman, her mother and two children. These were his “wife”, “mother-in-law”, and his own son and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged African, airport, allied, allies, attack, bomb, bombing, children, civil, daughter, Delhi, departures, domestic, Edinburgh, family, fire, floor, floors, friend, gay, hockey, husband, husbands, ice hockey, kids, Manchester, mother-in-law, panic, partner, puck, retaliation, scar, scars, shocker, son, tannoy, wife | Leave a comment

Rousse’s killer presentation

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Dreamaticus

CO gave me a last friendly pat on the back for good luck as we negotiated the final set of stairs to the lecture hall. This was it then. It was finally time for me to deliver the closing keynote … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged America, anecdotes, asides, audience, back, career, crowd, dead, disaster, failure, good, hall, jokes, killer, lecture, luck, microphone, pat, performance, presentation, rehearsals, sla, stage, stairs, TPR, US | Leave a comment

A cocktail goes global (Belle)

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I was the inventor of a new, globally famous cocktail. The ‘Angel’s Delight’ was enormously tricky to prepare, as each layer had to remain separate from the others. Crouched by the fax machine, I was busy slicing blood oranges to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blood orange, cocktail, fax machine, Orange, Spain, sunset | Leave a comment

A pony, plastic surgery, and a visit to the mosque (Rousse)

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Dreamaticus

JW looked down on me from her vantage point atop a pretty white pony and launched into a speech on wrinkles and plastic surgery. I wondered if she was trying to tell me something? Perhaps she’d tried botox and was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abaya, abayas, Asian, ban, botox, magazine, magazines, media, monument, mosque, newsagent, plastic, pony, queue, shop, shorts, surgery, women | Leave a comment

Red wine stains no longer a problem with Rousse’s special distillation

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Dreamaticus

We were meant to be discussing PhD studentships, but I could tell that the committee members were far more interested in the four unopened bottles of red wine in my possession. When I eventually suggested serving a few glasses, D … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bottle, bottles, carpet, cork, corking, glass, glasses, glassware, home brew, oriental, parents, PhD, problem, red, rug, silk, stain, stains, student, students, studentships, test tube, test tubes, TPR, uncork, uncorking, wine | Leave a comment

Admiration for the ultimate Huf Haus garden accessory: a neolithic stone circle (Rousse)

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I looked through the vast downstairs window of my friends’ Huf Haus and out across the Borders countryside. Strange in itself was a purple-blue sunset, but of far more interest to me was the neolithic stone circle in the foreground. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accessories, accessory, admiration, admire, bed and breakfast, Borders, circle, countryside, Friends, furniture, garden, guest, guests, mortgage, neolithic, stone, sun, sunset, window, windows | Leave a comment

The battle of the laundry basket (Rousse)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Before TPR had pegged even a single item on the line in the garden of our holiday cottage a local woman appeared at his side, super-keen to take charge of the laundry basket. “Let me do that” she said. TPR … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged £10, basket, cash, door, French, holiday, islander, job, laundry, line, local, poverty, tenner, tourists, TPR, washing | Leave a comment

Babysitting tips: who to avoid (Rousse)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Dreamaticus

E and R worked out quite quickly that we’d be pushovers when it came to babysitting. They insisted that they were responsible enough to be allowed to catch the bus to Darlington on their own. We were pretty sure that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged babysitting, children, Darlington, daughters, kids, pester, pestering, thunderstorm | Leave a comment