Gatecrashing the Choral Society concert (Rousse)

I was desperate to the attend the sell-out concert at the drill hall. Without a ticket, I hatched a plan to gatecrash the event.

Just before the concert start time, I walked boldly into the reception area of the hall. I greeted the audience members waiting to go into the auditorium, then peered through the glass door to the right.

In the main hall, I could see that the AGM of the Choral Society was well underway. A smart-looking woman spotted me through the glass. She stood up and quietly left her seat in the hall. Once in the reception area, she greeted me in her capacity as a member of the concert organising committee.

I didn’t admit that I was looking for a free ticket to the concert. Instead, I told the woman that I was a reporter who would generate publicity for the event by blogging about it on my popular web site, provided that she would give me a free ticket.

My plot worked, and she told me to return at 18:30 for the hour of choral singing. She even made me a badge to wear, although she labelled me with my sister S’s name rather than my own. This was because she used the name on my borrowed ruck sack as her reference source.

I popped home for an hour before the start of the concert. Here I found my nephew in the kitchen frying prawns in an enormous wok. Meanwhile TPR was lying on the bedroom floor in his running gear with his mouth taped shut with white Elastoplast. He managed to communicate to me that this was his way of protesting against my family’s invasion of his living space.

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Snob scars sister-in-law (Rousse)

When my sister-in-law S McC burst into tears, I thought that she must have overheard me criticise elements of the party as ‘rather common’.

In fact, when I had been waving my arms around to make my point, my long fingernails had scraped across her face. Blood was now gushing from a deep, three inch long, wound over her forehead.

This was bound to heal into a Harry Potter scar, for which I would be blamed forevermore.

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A Stonehenge secret revealed (Belle)

I was being shown around Stonehenge by an expert and was introduced to ‘the Moss Team’. They were responsible for spray-painting moss onto the rocks.

Later, as I was about to go out to dinner, I spotted my friend RM-H lurking outside the house. He had, without any advance notice, brought Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr, to meet me.

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A disappointing engagement (Belle)

At last, the love of my life had proposed marriage. In an off-handed fashion, he said “Well, we might as well do this, then” and thrust a dolphin-shaped silver ring into my hand. When I looked at it, I realised I already had an identical ring at home and wondered if he had simply taken it off my dressing table. I hoped not, because I immediately lost the ring he had given me by dropping it into the sea.

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Squirrels declare war (Belle)

I received a notice through the letterbox. The squirrels in the back garden had declared war against me and had formed an alliance with foxes.

The next morning I opened the curtains and saw that an elaborate network of trenches had been dug in the back yard. This was serious.

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Aristotle, Shakespeare, Pirandello, Henry IV – and a shop for sale in Stirchley (Rousse)

The university reunion in Birmingham was a very dull affair, attracting only the quietest of my former classmates.

I eventually managed to persuade JG into a conversation. She spoke of her preference for the study of Latin and Greek over French. I challenged her when she mentioned her enthusiasm for Aristotle as the author of Henry IV. Didn’t she mean Shakespeare or Pirandello?

I told her that I was in the process of buying a shop in Stirchley. When she asked the reasons for this, I was at a loss to come up with a single one.

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Royal family advisor also offers careers advice and cares for a new baby (Rousse)

Queen Consort Camilla was easily pleased with packs and packs of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes.

Prince Philip (not dead) was a more tricky customer. He suddenly remembered a family that lived on a remote ranch in the mid-west of the United States of America. Please could I find their house on Google Earth and – if possible – photos of the husband and wife?

Prince Andrew also appeared to be demanding. In fact he was only joking when he complained that the meat pie that I had served him was ‘disgusting’.

As well as helping the royal family, I gave some careers advice to a 12 year-old girl who asked the subject of my first degree. Ultimately she wanted to join the police force. I advised her to go to university first.

At the end of my day of duties serving others, I went home to ‘my’ new baby. She was a present to me from my mother. At a very advanced age she had undergone IVF, the pregnancy, and given birth – just for me.

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Jack Dee in love (Rousse)

Jack Dee was in love – with me!

As a token of his affection, he had already given me a red silk, traditional, Chinese Tang suit jacket. Now he was begging me to meet him on Thursday evening for a romantic rendezvous in a 5 star hotel. This was a difficult invitation to accept because I still loved my partner of 40+ years.

What were the chances that (a) I would enjoy a secret night of passion with one of the UK’s top comedians and (b) I’d never be discovered for the betrayal of my husband?

Perhaps Jack and I would be better advised to take our passion overseas?

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Katie Price and Madonna join Rousse in rollercoaster sci-fi movie (Rousse)

I couldn’t wait for my friends to discover that I had a major part in a new sci-fi movie with co-stars Katie Price and Madonna.

Set in a theme park, the plot revolved around a mysterious invisible killer that lurked in the corners of ride machinery. When I witnessed Katie Price character’s death half way through filming, I wondered whether my own would make it to the end. So long as I avoided the areas where the enemy lurked, it looked like I would survive the nasty fate of full-body petrification.

Then the director called for me to mount the open mechanical lift to travel to the top of the rollercoaster. At the bottom, I had a brief chat with a young lad with bad teeth, who was sitting in the cab with a toddler and a new born. He explained that he combined his driver role with babysitting for the production team. When I climbed into the yellow metal cage as instructed, the lad took charge of the lift controls to jerk me upwards.

This was it then: I was to be flung from the highest point of the rollercoaster to my death. Still, as a mere extra I had done well to last this long into the story.

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Teletubbies on the toilet (Rousse)

How long had our next door neighbours’ two grandchildren been observing us in the bathroom?

I had never before spotted the tiny window high up in our shared wall. It was only because the children were blasting out the Teletubbies theme tune that I looked up.

There was now no point in pretending that I had any privacy on the toilet seat, so I gave the pair of junior spies a weak wave.

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