Boris Johnson hosts house party with the PM in the Canadian Rockies (Rousse)

Before Belle and I set off on our Canadian Rockies adventure, we first had to pick the dog up from the vet. Black was a tiny sweet Affenpincher and very excited to be reunited with us after his (expensive) operation.

I also liked the idea of bringing my former colleague AT along on the trip. We found him in the narrow kitchen of my maternal grandmother’s house. (We also saw my grandmother herself briefly, heading to bed in a bright pink nightie.) AT was keen to join us, hopeful of finding romance along the way.

The others met us in the middle of the wilderness. Nobody had a map. As night fell, I feared that we would be stuck out in the cold overnight without shelter. I also worried that I would miss my appointment the next day to deliver a guest lecture in Brazil.

Then, in the distance, we spotted a castle beside a lake. As we neared it, we heard English voices. Once inside, we discovered Boris Johnson hosting a lively house party. Amongst his guests was the prime minister. He offered a clawed hand for each of us to shake.

Boris provided us with attic accommodation for the night. This was fine for the others, but – due to claustrophobia – I did not have the courage to join them when they climbed the cloth ladder to their beds.

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An unreliable review of ‘An instance of the fingerpost’ (Rousse)

The woman opposite us on the bus was playing a podcast out loud on her phone. Its host gave an enthusiastic review of An instance of the fingerpost by Iain Pears.

‘I hated that book’, I muttered to my sister J, who was seated next to me.

It was our fellow passenger, however, who replied.

‘But it’s great!’ she said.

J then joined the conversation with an apology for my ‘rude remark’.

The woman was stumped when I asked her why she liked the book so much. She eventually admitted that she’d only read the first three pages and the second half of the final chapter.

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Barn conversion love (Rousse)

Two boys from my primary school days – ST and SA (both now grown men) – loved my sister’s barn conversion.

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Bruce Springsteen spends Christmas in Scottish Highland lodge (Rousse)

Bruce Springsteen was amongst the dozen or so guests at the highland lodge over Christmas. Bruce and I exchanged a couple of words as I was gathering some of my belongings from the deck as the first stage of packing to return home.

I had become even closer to another celebrity during our week’s stay. One afternoon, this prominent British comedian threw a dandelion head at me as a token of his affection. He had no idea how much this meant to me. I popped it into my pocket to press later.

The other attraction of this holiday venue was the heated fresh water loch. Here I swam in the open air every day, enjoying the warm water with my other swimmer friends. These included my gym pal AF.

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The ‘credible consort’ (Rousse)

Graduates from all eras had achieved quite a feat in the organisation of a reunion ball at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank stadium. After all these years, I was very excited to see many of my former students.

I returned to the tower block hotel room to change into my evening finery. When I entered the lift, however, I couldn’t remember my floor number, never mind that of my room. The ‘useful’ pieces of card that I carried in my bag as reminders for such occasions all turned out to be defunct shopping lists.

More worrying was the presence in the hotel of both my husband and my ex. They had chosen this evening to tell me that they had never been faithful to me, and that my husband was still engaged in several extra-marital romances. Apparently my main function in my (supposed) partners’ lives had always been ‘credible consort’.

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An eventful conference in a bookshop (Belle)

The conference was being held across multiple floors of the bookshop. On registration I received my delegate badge and was asked to open my handbag. As soon as I did, a woman quickly placed a ribeye steak inside and gave me a wink. This was a completely unexpected, but welcome, conference freebie.

Later, I was chatting to some American delegates when I became distracted by a Victorian round tower outside. I knew that this building was currently being squatted and I felt a wave of envy. What a wonderful place to live, I thought. Then I watched a man arrive and realised that the only access to the tower was via a vaulting pole.

Towards the end of the event, I had a rather passionate make-out session with a gay man. This was not going to develop into a relationship, I realised.

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Toddler up a lamppost (Belle)

This was the opposite of what I expected to see on a quiet Sunday morning on the A20. Across the road, playfully giggling down at his parents, a toddler was sitting at the very top of a towering lamppost. How did he get up there, I wondered. And why were his parents asking him how he got up there rather than taking any steps to get him down? This could be fun, I thought. Maybe firefighters will have to rescue him which would be an exciting spectacle. Unwilling to gawp, I pretended to look for something in my bag, but when I looked up again, the toddler was back on the pavement, laughing at his parents.

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Made up in red, white, and blue (Rousse)

My latest humiliation was to be forced to wear ridiculous make-up.

They plastered my pale face with chalk white foundation. Then, to my lips, they applied movie star red lipstick outlined with electric blue eyeliner.

I looked a complete fright.

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How to avoid the United States (Belle)

Travelling around south America in a decrepit school bus was not my idea of a holiday. In fact I had no memory of how this had happened or how I got here. Everywhere we went puppies and kittens sat in the middle of the road and I had to keep getting off the bus to flag down traffic to avoid incidents.

Then off we went to Canada. The journey was – again – a mystery but now here I was staying in a squat with my friend JB. On the second day, we were setting off on a trip organised by her. I quickly ran back into the house to use the loo. When I returned, there was no sign of my friend. When I rang her she said, “Oh, we’re on the tram to Falconwood”. Angered, I walked back to the house but couldn’t find it. So I went to a café and bought a salad to take to the park. When I opened the salad it was mouldy but when I went to return it I couldn’t find the café. And now I’d forgotten where we were staying.

The only good thing about this holiday, I thought, was that we’d not gone to the United States.

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Gym buddies (Rousse)

I was pleased to be establishing myself as a core member of the gym.

This was evident, for example, in invitations to the houses of long-term members. I enjoyed sitting on R&R’s thick dark brown carpet telling them that the teenage Rousse shared their taste in soft furnishings.

I also scored highly with fitness trainer MM when I introduced him to TPR. MM was impressed to see that my husband was mixed race. He was also astonished to find that the pair of them shared mutual friend Tim Hope (who happened to have a daughter who looked just like me). I was, however, a bit disappointed that TPR looked so skinny when he stood next to MM.

At my next pilates class, I spotted sisters M and D handing money over to M. They were signing up for M’s next fitness retreat day at the end of the month. If only I could attend too, then I’d have an even greater opportunity to integrate further with my fellow gym members.

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