Love triangle legacy is a wedding and a bed and breakfast (Rousse)

I was bound to have told SL the story of the ill-fated love triangle, yet she had somehow independently befriended the main villain of the piece. There she was, all excited about the forthcoming wedding, begging us to come along as her plus one and two, apparently unaware of how painful this would be for us. Later on I saw the bride-to-be (villain number 2) and she also seemed quite happy to welcome us on her big day, even though we’d been on the other side throughout the whole sorry drama.

The third character in the story had been dead for over a decade. Reminded of him by SL’s new friendship, we decided to pay his old flat a visit. We thought that the poster we had just bought might look good in his sitting room. We half expected his heir to answer the door, but instead his elderly aunt greeted us. She had been very busy in the past ten years. The entire front portion of the flat was set out like a business. The tiny flat was now a popular bed and breakfast destination.

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Stuck in stilettos in Stockton-on-Tees (Rousse)

Belle and I took twenty pairs of stretchy nylon Marks and Spencer knickers in flesh tones to the event, just in case anyone needed a pair. Nobody did.

Afterwards my father paid the bill then we all wandered off to catch the bus home. It was a while since my last journey along Yarm Road in Stockton-on-Tees, but I was pretty sure that last time I looked Cadbury did not have its Victorian headquarters next to the Richard Hind School. My sister J was just as incredulous as I that I had never noticed the building before: the familiar purple branding was hardly subtle.

Just at the point that Hartburn Lane becomes Darlington Road, the bus broke down. We had no choice but to walk the rest of the way home. This would not be easy for Belle in her six-inch purple satin stilettos.

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David Beckham silenced in black and white (Rousse)

I’d made it as a member of the Blipfoto elite. Personally invited by JT, I was a guest at a movie première at the Church Hill Theatre Edinburgh to celebrate Blip’s latest venture.

Unfortunately the sound dropped from the black and white reel just a couple of minutes in. Still, it was at least long enough for me to experience yet another thrill: Mr David Beckham in celluloid.

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Dress designer and academic set off on secret mission by EasyJet (Rousse)

MSB and I set off on our secret mission to Russia by EasyJet. Our challenge was to retrieve the sky blue C90 cassette tape and return it intact to the UK. We ignored our Macedonian intern’s fears that we’d never get out of Russia alive without valid visas. Against her will, we forced her to accompany us as our “local” translator.

In the event the most dangerous part of the journey came as we attempted to cross the ungated railway tracks, dodging commuter trains. The guards at the border barely glanced at us, showing no interest whatsoever in our travel documents. This was all too easy.

Indeed by the time we found the cassette tape I was beginning to wonder if we were in Russia at all. The complex of out of town superstores that I could see from the window looked remarkably like Fort Kinnaird, just off the Edinburgh city bypass.

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Come dine with me – please! (Belle)

When exactly had I booked my place on this ‘Surburbans Go to Europe by Coach’ holiday? And since when had zone 2 in south east London been considered ‘suburban’? I was a fish out of water stuck on a hot coach, with perfectly groomed and attractive middle-aged couples.

When we piled off a coach in Italy, a delicious banquet awaited us. But the venue was unprepared for an unaccompanied adult and there was nowhere for me to sit. I was forced to wander table to table asking people if I could join them. They all refused and I resorted to stealing a potato croquette out of a food warmer and trying to make conversation with the waiters.

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Rousse’s running shame

The young Irish woman standing by the window declared “I know you from somewhere”. A few minutes later a slightly older one said exactly the same.

We eventually worked out that long ago we’d trained together at my old running club. I was ashamed to admit that I barely ran these days.

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Expert programmer devises new research infrastructure (Rousse)

MI caught up with me on Middle Meadow Walk. I called TPR over on his bike and we looked at the print-out of the work that MI had completed.

“It only took one iteration and now it’s ready”, she claimed.

Sure enough, in just a few minutes she really had created a complete new technical infrastructure for the tracking of UK library and information science research.

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Edinburgh house moves (Rousse)

Everyone in Edinburgh was on the move.

Local KL put her tiny two-bedroomed flat overlooking Bruntsfield Links up for sale.

Then G and JG gave up their big family house in Devon for a flat in Marchmont. Their new place really didn’t have much to recommend it other than a huge, beautiful green and blue stained glass panel that hung in the kitchen opposite the fabulous fireplace. However, with both daughters now living away from home – one in Sheffield and the other in Chile – G and J had moved north for a better quality of life, and a higher standard of education for their young son under the superior Scottish school system.

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iPhone 4 bonanza (Rousse)

The bed and breakfast owner was exceptionally generous. When he heard that I didn’t have a camera to photograph the sunset he gave me three brand new iPhones.

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