A hall of residence for horses (Rousse)

I stabled the grey mare in my new hall of residence bedroom with a degree of reluctance. First I was dubious as to the ‘legality’ of keeping a horse on campus. I also harboured concerns over my skills as a horsewoman.

KP tried to reassure me. She planned to bring her own horse down from Driffield as soon as she was settled in, and was looking forward to leading our rides.

Then the call went out for a group curry outing. Two car-fulls of new students whooped out of the hall of residence drive, straight past the weeping parents (who were now heading home having dropped their children off for their first term at university).

A 13 year-old was at the wheel of the car that carried me.  Someone assured us that this girl was super-bright, hence her early admission as an undergraduate. I argued this did not guarantee well-developed driving skills. Nevertheless, we all arrived in one piece at the rather shabby curry house.

Amongst the other diners were several of my school friends, including one sporting a very late pregnancy. They all took great care to hug me on the right hand side only, conscious of my recent operation.

(Meanwhile I tried to remember exactly what I had been up to the night before with TPR, my parents, and KNX. Whatever the details, I knew that our frolics would not make polite dinner conversation.)

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Nicholas Parsons ruins rave (Belle)

We were invited to participate in – and comment on – the previews of “Rave” – an experiential musical.

I enjoyed arriving at the light industrial estate and feeling the bassline in my stomach. The music was good. Sadly, the rest of the production was a failure.  The casting of Nicholas Parsons as the DJ was eccentric to say the least. The dialogue was made up of badly rhyming couplets.  “Larry rhyming with Harry?” I heckled. “This is awful”. I took my long list of complaints to the producer ‘Gorgeous’ Keith Allen.   His play was a stinker.

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Fashion disaster spots hidden features of ‘new’ British Library (Rousse)

It was time for me to return to work after a long absence due to sick leave. I found some smart clothes to wear: black tights under a long tweed shirt, a back polo neck top, and a tweed jacket.

Just as it was time to leave the house, I noticed in the daylight that the tights and top were navy blue, and that the skirt and jacket clashed horribly. I really should have returned to my room to change and correct these errors, but I didn’t have time. In any case, I didn’t expect to teach that day. I could easily hide my wardrobe malfunction in my office.

En route to campus I passed through the British Library. Now that it had ‘bedded in’ its users were beginning to discover all the hidden features, such as the swipeable sculpted frieze to the right of the main staircase. I also spotted a man using rock climbing techniques to gain access to the second floor reading rooms.

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An accidental auction, with vegetarian snacks (Rousse)

My in-laws were hosting an enormous party to which they invited everyone that they had ever met in their entire lives. All sorts of entertainment was laid on, from tennis practice against the garage wall to an auction of donated goods.

I was rather disappointed that all the food was vegetarian. The hosts were more concerned that many of their own belongings were accidentally being offered, and then sold off, in the auction.

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The toilet roll juggler and an amateur bathroom plumber (Rousse)

While AO juggled toilet rolls for my entertainment at one end of the bathroom, at the other TPR helped KA sort out the bath.

The blockage was caused by a build-up of revolting rotten autumn leaves stuck at the top of the main drain, just beneath the plug hole.

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Wife conducts holiday affair under husband’s nose (Rousse)

It was hard work on holiday having both a boyfriend and a husband. Happily I found a way to accommodate them both.

While TPR slept each morning, I would get up early and meet NI to play on the beaches, then return to our room before TPR woke. My husband had no idea that I had ever left our hotel.

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Accounting for poor American road race safety records (Rousse)

I knew that the safety record for road races in the US was poor, but it was not until I experienced one staged on a busy freeway that really understood the danger to life and limb.

Such was the status of the car in North America that runners were forced to share the main carriageway with the everyday traffic. Should there be an accident – as was the case when TPR and I witnessed a saloon car collide with, and squash, a man in a white vest and shorts – the driver had no obligation to stop.

The accepted risk to runners on race days was simply astonishing, as was the inhumanity of the American driver.

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The botox beauty of the Home Counties (Rousse)

I’d been in my parents’ house some time before my sister J eventually came downstairs to greet me.

When she made her grand entrance she was barely recognisable, dressed in a tiny pair of denim jeans and a pale blue short-sleeved satin top. Her face was no longer one of a woman in her mid-fifties, but that of a young girl just out of her teens.

There was only one explanation for the transformation: crash dieting and Botox. My sister had finally succumbed to Home Counties peer pressure to spend a fortune on ‘treatments’. I hoped that she didn’t expect me to do the same.

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Introducing the London Dockland Golden Pyramid Cinema Complex and Ski Resort – and a skier in a Brian May wig (Rousse)

KPMG had poured millions into the construction of the London Dockland Golden Pyramid Cinema Complex and Ski Resort.

The first time that I visited it I was convinced that I spotted my school friend KC with her husband and two children in the crowds. However, when I approached the group of people that I thought comprised her family, I found that I had mistaken for her a man on skis wearing a curly Brian May wig.

Strangely, however, this man thought that he knew me. He told me that he was a retired school teacher from the north west of England, on holiday at the ski resort with one of his former pupils. He was extremely grateful to his companion for generously agreeing to ski with him on the fake snow in England because this saved him the trouble of travelling to the Alps to enjoy the sport.

When I wondered out loud why the two skiers did not consider taking to the slopes in Scotland, they responded to my suggestion with looks of absolute horror.

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A lizard intruder and Dr Who (Rousse)

There was an intruder in my holiday cottage. I was sure of it. I could sense him on the floor to the left of my bed. To distract him, I held out an oatmeal biscuit. This he readily accepted.

While he munched away in the dark, I carefully stepped out of bed, crossed the room, and pulled out a chest drawer. I managed to pack a pair of grey shorts, a pink White Stuff sweatshirt, and my white sandals into a rucksack before the intruder made his move and pounced.

As he dragged me back to the bed I was convinced that he intended to rape me. Somehow, however, I managed to break free. I ran straight out into the forest daylight to mingle with other holiday-makers. I knew that I would now be safe so long as I did not make a fuss.

I was right: my intruder followed me, but kept his distance. I stole a few glances at him so that I would be able to describe him to the police. His most distinctive feature was the single tattoo that stretched from the top of his head all the way down his tiny frame, giving him the look of a sad, under-nourished, lizard.

I eventually lost the intruder at the Dr Who convention. This was thanks to the deployment of ED’s hard stare. One look from her, and he was off.

(The convention itself was a great disappointment. It was run by Americans who had only recently ‘discovered’ Dr Who so the content of their papers was highly descriptive. Indeed HR’s two-hour workshop was so dull that nearly all the British delegates walked out half way through the first presentation.)

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