Top spring fashion trend 2012: the maroon leather jacket (Rousse)

I photographed my niece AF and six or seven of her friends looking fabulous in the latest fashion for Spring 2012: short, maroon, leather jackets worn over dresses and jeans.

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Tom McNair’s coffee morning werewolf competition (Rousse)

When TPR appeared covered in mud and twigs I assumed that he must have travelled to the coffee morning by the underground tunnel. Then I noticed that Tom McNair was sitting next to my sister J at the table. Was this proof at last that my husband was a werewolf?

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Lives saved, but with a fine to pay (Rousse)

It was meant to be a short walk to get some fresh air between sessions at a conference based in a Marriott hotel somewhere in the US, but within minutes disaster struck. One by one we slipped from the footpath into the river.

It was a real struggle to haul ourselves out of the water, but fortunately we all made it. The only problem was that the extremely over-weight delegate (and the last to emerge) pulled with such force on the chain fence that he also uprooted several concrete posts. He would surely face an enormous fine.

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Bedroom design ideas (Rousse)

I stood at the top of the steps that led down to my sister’s master bedroom, astonished that she could possibly accuse me of self-importance. She and her husband had built their bedroom on the scale of a Norman cathedral. They had adorned it with lettering and symbols just as Henry VIII had decorated his many palaces. Their son and daughter were clearly spoilt too. Each child occupied an elevated section of the room where they enjoyed the luxury of their very own massive emperor-sized beds. Clearly there was no better way to pay homage to this family’s magnificence.

By now it was way past 1pm. I was appalled that the children were allowed to sleep in so late. I could see my niece AF all tucked up, dead to the world, hair spread out across the pillow like a medieval princess. I threw a pebble at her to wake her up. I wanted her to see that I had restocked her bathroom, and to enjoy the half bottle of Listerine that I had left out for her.

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Ceremony blunder (Rousse)

When my nephew PF ran back and told us that he had spotted a small man in a loud shirt at the ceremony we all knew who this was. The photographer and I sneaked up to the group. CO was playing a leading role, dressed in a long dark cloak, and reading his script from his iPad.

Then the photographer started blowing raspberries at the celebrants. Disgraced, we were immediately dismissed.

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Dangerous driving in the United States (Rousse)

After a quiet Christmas Day, TPR and I set off to visit KR. It was a long time since we had driven in the US, and the first time that we had taken our own right-hand drive vehicle on the American freeways.

I was quite happy in the passenger seat until we hit a medieval town. TPR panicked as he struggled to negotiate the narrow alleyways and tight bends of the one-way traffic system. The most terrifying moment came in the underpass when a host of beggars crowded round the car demanding hand-outs.

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Hall of residence handicrafts at the University of Birmingham (Rousse)

Nobody needed any persuasion to take to the floor at the Manor House reunion disco. With the first beat of the first record it was filled with enthusiastic dancers. I mentioned to TPR that we should list all these popular tracks for our own party playlist.

In a break between the records I wandered into the library to look through papers and card piled onto a big wooden table. I soon worked out that somebody had been making new Christmas cards from the scraps of old ones. Amongst the source material were several years’ worth of hand-painted cards by my father.

From the way that everything was laid out I guessed that this was all the on-going work of someone whose surname fell towards the end of the alphabet – perhaps HW (now HJ)? It was HP, however, who eventually admitted that the handiwork was all his.

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How to write a winning grant proposal (Rousse)

Was this cheating? I could just about see the competing grant application on the screen across the room. The authors were huddled around the computer, unaware of my presence. I didn’t know any of them personally, even though two of the names were identical to those of other people familiar to me: MS and Kim White. (The third was Karen Something-or-other.)

Their work looked extensive. I asked the woman from the funding body what she thought of this team’s chances of winning the grant. Her reply gave the impression that she thought I shouldn’t even bother making a submission of my own. This was just the incentive I needed to get down to business and prove her wrong.

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Trapped in (seminar) space (Rousse)

The big hand was edging closer to the hour and I just about managed to close the seminar discussion when AD started it up again. It was another 40 minutes before we eventually persuaded him that it was about time time that he released us. We really had to get along to our next set of meetings.

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To Torquay by tram (Rousse)

All around the new housing estate they’d put up old-fashioned sign-posts pointing in different directions to cities, towns and villages all over the UK. I decided to follow the route to Torquay – by tram. I wondered if I’d ever get to go on such a vehicle in Edinburgh.

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