Bubble ring valuation (Rousse)

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Dreamaticus

Incorrectly identified as a jewellery expert, I was asked to value a bubble ring.

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French at the University of Birmingham (Rousse)

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Dreamaticus

The Birmingham University campus was unrecognisable. It was so hi tech – and the main library had been flattened.

SH was still top of the class, and I a complete dunce. I wondered whether there would be time for me to find a private tutor and (re)learn enough French to pass my finals.

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1970s emerald ear-rings worth a house (Rousse)

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Dreamaticus

When DTJ flashed her engagement ring at us I told the story of LF’s emerald ear-rings – once the value of a whole 1970s house.

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An athletic library user (Rousse)

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I burst through the main door almost taking out RR (who had just returned from a trip by train) and offered to carry his newspaper upstairs for him. While he took the lift, I charged up the the wide sweeping staircase to the first floor – and won the race. I left his papers on the polished mahogany table for him to collect.

Then I continued into the packed reading room of the public library. I was lucky that the barriers had been left open and that I was able to wander in without showing my ID. There I greeted the Edinburgh University linguistics lecturer who I pass on my walk to work each day, then hunted for the notes inside a book that had been put aside for me by the library staff many months earlier.

Everything was intact exactly as I left it on my last visit. I wondered if I had deprived anyone else of access to this text during my long absence.

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What not to say and/or do at a school reunion (Rousse)

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I was completely unaware that I was standing next to LC and KF when I said that the first couple of school reunions were very poorly organised. I quickly corrected myself by saying that the events themselves were fabulous. Rather it was establishing the guest list on Facebook that was the problem.

This reunion, however, was very special. Not only was the venue our school, but we had also travelled back in time to 1978 on the night of a school play. This meant that our parents, many of them younger than our age now, were also wandering the corridors with our younger selves.

I could see 15 year-old A through the window of a classroom. I declared that I was going in to warn her not to ruin her life by marrying S. The others held me back. It would be extremely dangerous to interfere in the time-space continuum.

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Sarong underwear (Rousse)

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I pulled my former colleague AT up the muddy bank to the gap in the wall that led to the open countryside. At first I thought that it was too small to accommodate us, but GB demonstrated that the space expanded to allow cyclists to pass their bikes through, so there was plenty of room.

Even so AT was a bit nervous, and concerned that he would rip his clothes.

‘Do you think anyone would object if I take my trousers off?’ he asked.

As he undressed I discovered that – rather than conventional underwear – beneath his trousers AT wore a loose two-legged green sarong.

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Wear fur and wool to beat the winter office blues (Rousse)

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Dreamaticus

LJ was so cold that she had turned invisible. The only reason we knew that she in the office and curled around the radiator was the direction from which we could hear her voice.

Back in my own room I warmed up quickly by donning a black fur and woollen jumper passed onto me by a former colleague.

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The secret beaches of East Lothian (Rousse)

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Dreamaticus

ET-S showed us the secret beaches of East Lothian from the turreted wall of a medieval castle. We learnt that the kayak school used the beach below for training and was recruiting new members. TPR responded immediately by jumping down the chute to the shoreline.

Then ET-S, DM and I all left for separate journeys by train: to Wrexham, Milton Keynes, and Bristol.

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A romantic, faraway wedding venue with beautiful vegan bed and breakfast (Rousse)

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Dreamaticus

DTJ transported all her friends and family to a romantic faraway venue for her wedding. (It was a pity that her groom KJ was obliged to pop back to Edinburgh from time to time for work.)

She (in her wedding dress) and I swung together on a make-shift swing beside some allotments. Then I left her, and wandered up the hill to a poppy field. There a scruffy man started to take photographs of me, with TPR looking on in the distance.

When the three of us eventually joined one another, the scruffy man explained that he would take me and TPR to meet his wife at their vegan bed and breakfast. Their stone cottage turned out to be beautiful, and the food that they served was delicious.

While we were there RG called in to pass a message on to our hosts. He explained to them (but not to us, out of view) that he was heading off to Australia for the rest of the season.

‘That ruins the rest of our holiday plans then’, complained TPR.

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Hyacinth birthday cake (Rousse)

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I was allergic to hyacinths so why would anyone think that I would like a hyacinth cake to celebrate my birthday?

By the time I had extracted the plant from the plate, all that remained were a few dry crumbs and some unappetising chocolate shavings.

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