Abusive parental role play (Rousse)

This was not my best idea for a bonding exercise: find a partner; allocate the roles of mother and daughter; perform role play on the basis that the parent hates the child.

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The Stanford murderer (Rousse)

Stanford University research engineer JA was all over the news. He was a murderer!

It would not be long before journalists would be knocking at my door, demanding to know whether or not I had spotted his evil streak when supervising his PhD a decade earlier.

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Katy Perry flies Edinburgh to Des Moines, Iowa with unintentional stowaway (Rousse)

I’d been ‘working at home’ from the National Library of Scotland when I received an offer to meet Katy Perry. I felt that I could spare the time to do so, so followed the instruction to travel to the meeting venue: Edinburgh airport. There I by-passed all the usual checks to cross the tarmac and climb the steps to the star’s private jet. Once on board, I received a very warm welcome from the star. Our first conversation was about her sound system, and the costs of hauling it all around the world.

I understood that Perry was performing in Edinburgh that night, so was surprised when the aircraft engines started up. When an air steward appeared to offer us drinks as part of the standard flight service, I knew that we would soon be waving goodbye to Edinburgh.

‘What’s the flight destination?’ I asked the steward.

‘I don’t know’, she replied, ‘But I can check’.

Katy Perry herself told me that we were on our way to the venue of her next performance: not Edinburgh, but Des Moines, Iowa.

The steward returned and – sure enough – confirmed that our next stop was Des Moines. I confessed that I didn’t have my passport on me. ‘No problem’, she responded. ‘All we need to do is pass the contents of your handbag to the British Embassy on arrival, and hand over your laptop at the airport. Then you will buy a ticket for the first flight back to the UK.’

I was hoping that the millionaire star would offer to pay for my return flight. She did not.

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Triathlon training by canal and canoe (Rousse)

I always fancied myself as a triathlete, but this training was sometimes more difficult than I might have imagined.

The filthy canal was especially challenging. I struggled to avoid the debris that littered the shallow water and cut myself on discarded metal carry-out containers.

The canoeing over a sunny loch was much easier, and I enjoyed taking a rest with TPR in the bothy on the far bank.

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Floods cause havoc on the first day of the new academic year (Rousse)

Although I no longer had any responsibility for the module, I turned up for the first knowledge management class of the new academic year. This was just as well because the module leader was late for the 11:00am start.

At the back of the class of around 30 students sat a row of topless young men. They had taken off their shirts to play football at lunchtime and were still too hot to get dressed again. As well as looking a sight with their emergent beer bellies hanging out, they stank.

I suggested to the students that DH was caught up in assessing student presentations, so while we waited for him I would answer any questions they had about the module. Someone asked if writing press releases might be added to the schedule. I responded that the basics of report writing were a higher priority.

Then there was a knock on the classroom door, and in shuffled my university friend GG, dressed smartly in a black suit and (literally) legless. He took a seat in the front row, keen to learn all that I could tell him about knowledge management.

By now it was 11:30 and it had started to rain heavily. The water came down from the ceiling and up through the floorboards, creating an ankle deep muddy mess. Most of the students evacuated themselves, leaving behind just a couple of kindly souls who helped in my attempts to sort out the deluge.

I lost four good pairs of shoes in the flood, and some of the props for the class had gone missing. When we returned the salvaged goods to the cupboard, I noticed there an art canvas that depicted the first class of the previous academic year. At least this time around we had managed to avoid a fire.

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Tipping taxi drivers in Greece (Rousse)

It was very convenient to live in Scotland when Greece was just a short taxi ride away. The only difficulty was knowing how much to tip the driver.

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New blue and yellow wallpaper brightens office (Rousse)

PC took advantage of his time off work on sick leave to redecorate his office. He hung a bold wallpaper of blue and yellow blobs on all four walls to create a ‘homely’ feel.

I was so impressed that I almost considered doing something similar in my own office – but in the end I couldn’t be bothered.

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How to keep a loving relationship alive (Rousse)

Everyone was raving about a new BBC lifestyle documentary about keeping a loving relationship alive – starring my cousin SA and his wife LA! The quality of the production was superb, and it was no surprise that this show was such a success.

Meanwhile my own life was going down the tubes. I hadn’t seen my PhD supervisor at the University of Birmingham for months (and had no progress to report to him anyway), and I could tell that TPR was desperately seeking a polite way to dump me.

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Jewellery thieves of Pitlochry (Rousse)

SC warned me about the jewellery thieves of Pitlochry. They came from out of town, armed with nothing but a strong grip. Their modus operandi was to force a victim against a wall, reach for their hands, tug off all their rings, and then make their escape with the pilfered booty.

SC advised that I remove my rings straightaway and store them safely during my entire visit.

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David Beckham in disguise (Rousse)

I spent the day cycling with David Beckham, his wife Victoria, and their young son.

At no point were we recognised, even at a busy London railway station. This was thanks to the clever way that David wore wraparound sunglasses, and tucked his distinctive blond hair tightly under a baseball cap. That he was riding a bike with a luggage tag-along along helped with the disguise.

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