Prosthetic limbs, a party, and a professor (Rousse)

TPR was mobile again now that he had been kitted out with the same type of blades favoured by Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius. He wore them in public for the first time at ED’s party in West Lothian.

The party was notable for another reason. N and SY were there.

“I had no idea that you knew N and S”, I commented to ED.

“I know everyone”, she replied. “I think that N is amazing. Who would have thought that you could hold down a successful career as an American university professor and bring up four kids?”

This was yet another surprise. I had always been under the impression that N worked in the UK hospitality industry.

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An audience with Paul Weller (Rousse)

Paul Weller was just visible through the sitting room window. He seemed to be singing to himself while all the others at the party were listening to old vinyl records. I signalled to him from the street to join me.

Paul obediently took off his headphones to come outside. Here on the pavement in the middle of a cold winter’s night I explained to him how much his music meant to me.

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Police raid Edinburgh basement cocaine factory (Rousse)

I had housed GP as an act of charity. In truth I didn’t know much about him other than he and I attended the same school for a short while in the 1970s.

I learnt that my generosity was a huge mistake the day that the police arrived to close down what they described as my “Edinburgh basement cocaine factory”. I pleaded that it wasn’t mine, but the work of my miscreant lodger GP.

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A friendship renewed (Rousse)

When we passed on Bonnington Road I was sure I saw a flicker of recognition flash across his face. Was this acknowledgement of our shared history? Of course I was far too shy to stop and ask so would never know whether or not he had recognised me. I carried on walking towards town as he continued in the direction of his (new) house.

Then something made me look back. He was staring at me from behind a telegraph pole. I smiled broadly, as did he. We rushed back to the point where we had passed and we fell into one another’s arms.

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Find My iPhone catches cheating spouse (Rousse)

I needed a back-up plan since my husband appeared to be no longer interested in me. R would do. He fitted the bill well as a tall, skinny engineer.

There were, however, a few of drawbacks of my pursuit of R. First, he was French. Second, he was also a redhead, so we could never have children together. More importantly, perhaps, was that he had no interest in me at all (or at least initially). It took much effort on my part to persuade him of my charms.

When R eventually succumbed we went for a long walk in the hills. All was going well until we encountered a swarm of bees that chased us all the way back down to town.

As we ran along the street to R’s hall of residence bedroom I could hear my mother-in-law on the phone to TPR.

“I have no idea where she is”, she said. “Don’t you usually monitor her movements her using Find My iPhone?”

This was a good point. It was all very well for me to start an affair with R, but I really should have first considered how I would cover my tracks.

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An unlikely pupil of Wellington College (Rousse)

A steady stream of teenage boys in bottle green aertex shirts passed me in the narrow corridor. I could tell that they were pupils of Wellington College from the words stitched in yellow embroidery just below their left collars. One boy stopped in his tracks to deliver a message to me.

“S’s brother Daniel is with us” he whispered. “Come to the canteen later to meet him.”

This was very strange. Since when was was S’s brother called Daniel, and how could he possibly be a pupil of Wellington College?

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Movie star wolf travels the Outer Hebrides by CalMac ferry (Rousse)

TPR and I were adrift on an unstaffed Calmac ferry somewhere between the islands of Barra and Tiree. The only other passenger was a wolf. He tried to persuade us that he was a movie star by claiming that he played the lead creature role in The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. He was obviously lying: he looked nothing like a lion.

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Couple split over dog (Rousse)

At last we understood why our long-married friends had separated. When it became obvious that the husband loved the dog more than his wife, she threw the pair of them out.

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A Lake District escape (Rousse)

One minute I was lying next to my gorgeous cousin N. The next I was a kidnap victim, crushed into the back of a car heading for the Lake District. A strangely-shaped man, who had obviously raided my rucksack, squashed up against me. First he brandished my hairbrush, and then he set about combing my hair. His next misdemeanour was to steal my packed lunch.

I prayed that TPR would find our car, rescue me, and then drive us home as fast as possible.

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John Fisher, his mistress, football, and cake (Rousse)

My lover was John Fisher, a tiny teenage Hearts supporter. I met him on London Road, where we intended to catch the bus to the Hearts ground at Tynecastle. Unfortunately John’s pocket money would not stretch to the bus fare and match tickets, so instead we went back to my flat. Here we had to take care to hide our relationship from TPR.

The football forgotten, my young amour baked a cake for the three of us and his adopted brother.

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