An encounter with a narcissist robot (Rousse)

I was an unexpected, and unwelcome, guest at the house of a woman who was in my year at school. We barely knew one another. I had simply spoken to EC, a retired accountant, at a couple of reunions in recent years. However, I needed somewhere to stay for the night, and this place was as good as any other.

A second person had landed on EC and her family. She had also been at our school, but I couldn’t remember her at all. I asked if she was Indian or Pakinstani. She explained that her family came to the UK from East Africa in 1972 with only a few shillings to their name, and that she was Jewish.

Although EC was inconvenienced by my visit, she soon put me to work. If I would stay in and look after the children, then she and her husband could pop out to the pub with their friends from university. At first I was happy to do this. I decided to teach the children the game of Empire. However, I soon had second thoughts when I discovered that the baby of the family was a rather uncooperative white narcissist robot who believed that he was superior to everyone else – simply because he had once appeared on Tomorrow’s World.

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Meghan Markle mocks marriage (Belle)

Every seat in the town hall was full as an actor took to the stage in full music hall style.  “Isn’t that Bernard Hepton?” I said to my neighbour, knowing full well it was and simply showing off my knowledge.

There were two screens in the hall. The one to the left of the audience was showing a Wales rugby match and most people were having to turn their necks to watch the action. Meghan Markle sat behind us chatting with her friends about how marriage was a broken institution and … “it wasn’t the only one”. This was said with some much meaning that I worried we were all committing treason by simply being in the same room.

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The bearded lady’s baby (Rousse)

This was quite complicated, and I knew that I would have to get my explanation in quickly before TPR made an inappropriate remark.

His bearded cousin mentioned her wife and child. If you were not paying close attention, you might assume that the child was hers. I could tell that TPR’s cousin was not part of the decision to have the child, but instead took him on when she and her partner became an item.

In fact my own assumption was incorrect. TPR’s cousin corrected me to explain that she entered the relationship when her partner was first pregnant.

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Ronnie Corbett goes to university (Rousse)

Ronnie Corbett placed his right arm over my shoulder and engaged me in conversation about university entry tariffs and the relative merits of ‘old’ and post-92 institutions.

How, for example, does the ‘quality’ of graduates from Northumbria, Durham, and Napier compare? Are (as rumoured) six UCAS points worth more in Scotland than in England?

The dead comedian gave every impression that he harboured ambitions to enter higher education late in life.

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Getting naked in Edinburgh (Rousse)

I shopped naked on Princes Street not because I was an exhibitionist, but because I hated the process of getting dressed.

TPR begged me to break this habit, fearful that one day I would eventually be spotted in the nude by someone who knew me.

As a compromise I wrapped myself up in a single white bed sheet around, Hallowe’en ghost style.

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On the road to Nowhere (Rousse)

I was on the road to Nowhere – literally.

Few people are aware that Nowhere is a small town in South Wales with a very poor train service.

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A missed meeting in Smeaton (Rousse)

I remembered that I had agreed to catch up with LM at 4:30pm, but I had forgotten to check the venue of our meeting.

I was shocked when I saw in her Facebook message that we were to meet in Smeaton. I hadn’t even heard of this place! When I checked the map, I saw that Smeaton was miles away across the other side of the city, and that it would be impossible to reach LM in time.

I tried to call LM to cancel our get-together, but the phone that I was using was absolutely hopeless. It was a landline model from the 1980s, recommissioned as a ‘mobile phone’ having been wrenched out of the soil, clods of which were still attached to the bottom. Out of its top grew a small shrub. There was even a tiny cassette tape inserted into its base to take primitive ‘voicemail’.

Ultimately I was unsuccessful in my attempts to contact LM.  She would be very worried about my health when she eventually realised that I was not going to turn up as arranged.

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Gaydar malfunction (Rousse)

PD misunderstood something I said. In all innocence, he passed this ‘information’ on to WB. Before I had a chance to stop her, WB had shared the news with NP. We had no idea how far it spread after this.

One thing for certain, however, was that JM would be very surprised to return from his travels to a colourful coming out party organised by his friends.

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A sweary surgeon and a croft for sale in the Outer Hebrides (Rousse)

TPR and I parked out tatty car outside the lodge on RB’s massive estate. He’d paid for all this land and the mansion further up the drive with his earnings as an orthopedic surgeon.

As anticipated, RB was not happy to find us littering his land. It was obvious that he did not recognise us when he angrily ordered us to leave in a tirade of right wing expletives. There was no doubt which way he had voted over Brexit.

Later TPR and I sat in the kitchen of a small cottage, the walls of which were papered all over with multiple copies of the same full-page advert for a croft in the Outer Hebrides.

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What to wear to a conference (Rousse)

My missing conference pack had been sent to the wrong address in error. I tore open the envelope so that I could change into my outfit immediately.

LM looked on in horror as I squeezed my feet into the tiny red transparent plastic high-heeled sandals.

LM had to say something because she was duty-bound to stop me making a fool of myself. Only a certain type of man could get away with the Minnie Mouse look at a conference, she explained, and I was not of that type.

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