A purple lacy fluffy cardigan (Rousse)

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Dreamaticus

EM was struggling to finish knitting a purple fluffy cardigan. She was concerned that she was dropping stitches all over the place.

‘Don’t worry’, I said, with hope in my voice. ‘Nobody will notice. You’ve just created an original lacy design’.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Belle the drag queen

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I was the first UK contestant on Ru Paul’s Drag Race – and the first woman.  My character – Bobby Saint-George – was going to bring a slice of Carry-On style saucy humour to proceedings.  I was being coached by millionaire matchmaker Patti Stanger who couldn’t stop being kind to me.

Before that, I was attending a musical premiere and the photographers were out in force to snap me in my flowery outfit. I arrived on the arm of Dan Walker, the fine face of BBC Football Focus. He led me to my seat and disappeared, only to re-appear at curtain-up playing the cello.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A good deed turned bad (Rousse)

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I stepped out of my seat to help the old lady left standing in the middle of the bus.

My intention was to prop her up. Instead I accidentally pushed her over. All the contents of her shopping trolley went flying down the aisle.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Friends amongst French antiques (Rousse)

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Dreamaticus

My school friend KC and her husband D excitedly showed us a brochure for a French antique shop. Amongst the photographs of ancient furniture I spotted the proprietors P and SG.

KC couldn’t believe the coincidence. I admitted that this happened to me all the time.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A 1980s GTi love match (Rousse)

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Dreamaticus

AH confessed that he almost proposed to me in the late 1980s. This was with the encouragement of my mother, keen to recruit him as a son-in-law.

This was nothing to do with love for me. Rather, AH and my mother had a shared interest in GTi-branded cars. She drove a silver Golf, and he a black Peugeot 205.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hello to Jason Isaacs- twice (Belle)

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Dreamaticus

While scrambling across the Victorian rooftops alongside the train line into London Bridge, Jason Isaacs and I began to exchange witticisms in a very strong Birmingham accent.  Strangely we both found the experience romantic – and erotic. Days later, we were farm labourers in Birmingham.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

An ‘executive home’ in Birmingham (Rousse)

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Dreamaticus

On a complete whim we bought a modern ‘executive home’ on a main road in a northern suburb of Birmingham. Since we couldn’t afford to run two houses in two different countries, we cut our ties with the beautiful city of Edinburgh and all our friends there.

The only real attraction of our new base was the wild countryside immediately behind the house. However, this was never going to make up for living right next to a busy main road that was permanently jammed.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Signs of an affair (Rousse)

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Dreamaticus

A new pair of shoes, a sharp suit, contact lenses, and a mooted move back to Birmingham? What was TPR up to?

It was only when I found myself semi-naked on George Street, Edinburgh – wearing just a pair of knickers and a short navy blue jacket – that I understood that TPR was having an office affair.

When I confronted him a dark shadow of guilt fell across his face.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Exploding trains in London add to landfill problems (Rousse)

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Dreamaticus

London was one huge rubbish tip. When TPR and I stepped off the train the only way out of the station was up a mountain of landfill.

The next day we heard that a train had exploded on arrival at the same station. We stepped out onto the balcony of our highrise apartment to check for evidence of the explosion. At that very moment another train exploded before our eyes, sending debris and random body parts everywhere.

Surviving passengers climbed up the landfill as we had done the day before. It was all such a crush that some even ended up on the balcony right next to us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Anti-social noisy office neighbours (Rousse)

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Dreamaticus

Back on campus, the C corridor was swarming with builders – again.

All my belongings had been moved into a massive room at the far end of the corridor while my ‘old’ room and two others were being knocked into one to create a specialist lab.

I complained that I would never get any work done on campus now that I was placed with multimedia specialists who refused to wear headphones at their desks.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment