iPhone 3 functionality saved by WhatsApp (Rousse)

I only had my iPhone3 with me in France. I didn’t have a contract for it, but ED said that she would sort something out for me. Soon I would be able to contact everyone again using WhatsApp.

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My husband’s secret family (Rousse)

TPR was a father. His two sons were born to American women in the mid-1990s. I knew nothing about this at the time because TPR was working away from home in California.

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Distracted by a dishwasher, chicken liver pâté, and dusty After Eight mints (Rousse)

I tried to help in the kitchen but I was doing everything wrong. TPR despaired when I added handwash detergent to the dishwasher.

Instead I would try my luck at cooking, starting with homemade chicken liver pâté, assisted by GB as my sous chef. First of all, however, was the question of how the pair of us would share the few dusty After Eight mints that I found on a high shelf in the hall.

Then I remembered that I was booked on to the 11:30 from Edinburgh Waverley to London Kings Cross. It was already 11:15 and I was still in my pyjamas! My bag was all packed, but I could I get dressed in time for TPR to rush me up to the station by car to catch the train?

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Free babysitting deal is not all that it seems in Barcelona hotel (Rousse)

I was in Barcelona for work with TPR, although what we were actually doing there was unclear. My main interest was the beach (which I had missed completely on my last visit), and spending time with various friends who were staying at our hotel. We often took breakfast with RG, BM, IS, and a drunk stranger called Graham. JC and her mother were also in residence. The former was busy adding to her collection of Japanese soft toys.

Things took a sinister turn when I learnt that the hotel was offering a generous babysitting service to young parents. No checks were made on the residents who volunteered to look after the babies and toddlers overnight, and now some of the children had gone missing. I suspected the man who ran around the hotel brandishing a table knife in a threatening manner.

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A pointless trip to Aberdeen (Rousse)

TPR tugged me across the motorway – straight into the path of four lanes of speeding traffic. We managed to avoid death at the wheels of vehicles driven by angry fist-shaking drivers. Then we heard the police sirens. Were they coming to get us?

We then crossed the field and found VE’s accommodation block at the University of Aberdeen. The peeling tangerine walls of the steep staircase that led to VE’s top floor flat were covered in graffiti. I wondered how she could bear to live here.

When TPR admitted that he had forgotten to pack the books that we were due to return to VE I realised that our whole journey – and the danger to which he had subjected us – was completely pointless.

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Gordon Brown and hard toilet paper (Rousse)

Gordon Brown greeted me cheerily as he pushed open the door of the unisex toilets.

‘How does he know my name?’ I asked myself. I also wondered what he would think when he discovered that there was only hard toilet paper in the cubicles.

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A top quality charity shop in Leith (Rousse)

We’d never before noticed this charity shop next to the Leith cycle path. The window display of 1970s ballgowns tempted us in. The clothes for sale were more ‘vintage’ than second-hand, and the knick knacks genuine antiques.

While TPR picked out a skirt for me, my sister S thought that I would like a tiny pink and yellow plastic rabbit puzzle.

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Showstopper stuns audience with juggling tricks (Rousse)

The Showstopper performers took comedy musical theatre to a new high with highly sophisticated improvised juggling in their latest show. From our third row seats KMcL, my sister J and I enjoyed it very much.

J left early. She would have left behind her coat and a bag if I hadn’t called her back to collect these items.

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Snuggling in the long grass and a popular book (Rousse)

In my response to a question about interview arrangements, XY reached up for my hand and gently pulled me down to join him. Much as I loved him, I thought it an unwise move for us to lie snuggled up together side-by-side in the long grass in full view of our colleagues.

I left as soon as I could to adjudicate a row about computing text books. Three individuals had each asked WC to order a copy, but she could only afford to buy one. Who would she favour? I insisted that everyone share the library copy. It was a waste of money to buy duplicates to keep in individual offices.

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Sister spies (Rousse)

My sister decided to get a job. First, however, she’d need some experience for her CV. How would I feel if she volunteered as my assistant over the summer? I agreed to take her on – so long as I could sort out the problems that I was experiencing with travel to work. I had a habit of putting the car into reverse and confusing everyone else on the road by driving backwards against the direction of traffic. This was both dangerous and tricky – especially when it came to identifying a parking space near campus.

Later my sister and I sat at my bedroom window of our childhood home and spied on the old folk now in residence.

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