When “bed time” at 50th birthday celebrations means sleeping in the bath (Rousse)

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Dreamaticus

ECM made a surprise visit to Edinburgh to celebrate Baby Ted’s 50th birthday. She slept in the bath because KA had already commandeered the bed in the spare room.

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Stirling is Scotland’s latest skiing destination (Rousse)

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Dreamaticus

In the first week of December TF drove us through the slush to Stirling for our annual skiing holiday. Unfortunately, however, there was no snow on the hills. It was far too early in the season to ski.

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How not to peer review conference submissions (Rousse)

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Dreamaticus

AM reminded me why she would have very little time to herself next academic year: she was organising a conference in Leipzig. Apart from the idiotic behaviour of one of her colleagues, who refereed conference submissions by lining up yellow witch’s hat bollards along the roadside and pinning to them notes of caustic comments hand-written in red crayon, all was going well.

At first I thought this lunatic was one of my colleagues because both men shared the same name. However, I soon found out that the man in question was not the small-framed engineer of my acquaintance, but someone else completely.

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Wild boar hunting in France (Rousse)

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I thought it rather unfair to place the blame for the popularity of French bloodsports on the residents of Marcillat. Indeed I couldn’t recall an active hunt in all the time that I spent there. All I could remember was the boar’s head hanging from the wall in the main hall, and 17 year-old PD’s firearms bluster.

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Pilgrims leave Edinburgh as the Old Town goes up in flames (Rousse)

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Dreamaticus

As we headed out of Edinburgh for the A68 I hoped that there would be something interesting for me to photograph from the car.

My wish was soon granted when I spotted the pilgrims in seventeenth century dress setting off on their long walk to Holy island. The flames of Edinburgh’s Old Town on fire illuminated the scene, with the billows of smoke heading into the night sky adding to the atmosphere.

It was such a pity that none of the controls on my camera worked. This would have made the most marvellous shot.

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A crocodile in Edinburgh (Rousse)

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Dreamaticus

Amongst the redundant Christmas decorations I found a crocodile fashioned from flattened metal on Princes Street.

It didn’t take long for me to find someone to take it off my hands. I came across Captain Hook just up the road in St Andrew Square. He latched the metallic creature on to his hook, bid me farewell, and trundled off in the direction of George Street dragging the crocodile in his wake.

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Rousse gets stuck on the ceiling

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Dreamaticus

We dropped the habit of recent years of spending New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh. Instead we travelled south to celebrate with A, C, N and S.

S told us that we would be having “something called boeuf bourguignon” for dinner. She kindly started to explain to me what this was until I interrupted and reminded her that I had a degree in French.

Later in the evening one of S and N’s babies, who I discovered lying on his back in his cot, raised his little fists, struck out at my chest, and pushed me upwards. Such was the force that I was sent flying towards the ceiling, where I then got stuck. TPR had to stand on his toes to reach up and pull me back down to the floor again.

By the time that I came back down everyone’s hair had reverted to the colour of their youth.

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Millionaires at the school reunion (Rousse)

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Dreamaticus

What was most astonishing about the reunion was the number of people who had come into money since we last met. Everyone was an heiress!

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Time travel to the 1960s, a meeting with Phil Davis, and a stolen bracelet (Rousse)

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I travelled back in time to the 1960s where I found myself outside a concrete football stadium, in the company of actor Phil Davis. Conscious of the sexist attitudes of a half century ago, I steeled myself for inappropriate remarks.

Although I knew that it was possibly against the rules, I decided to tell Mr Davis about the technology treats of the future. First I described text-based e-mail systems. Then I moved on to the emergence of the World Wide Web and twenty-first century habits related to 24-hour Internet access. He was fascinated, if a little incredulous.

Meanwhile my niece AF mugged a man for a diamond bracelet. When I pointed out that her victim was her uncle RH she was very ashamed – especially since he was planning to leave the bracelet to her in his will.

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Kayaking on Scotland’s west coast (Rousse)

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Dreamaticus

From the coach I saw JS up to her waist in the calm blue waters of the west of Scotland teaching a bunch of school children how to kayak. How I wished that I could join her.

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