Mia Farrow generously shares Nicolas Cage and Jack Nicholson with Rousse

I was having an affair with Nicolas Cage. The drawback was that I was sharing him with Mia Farrow. Then she swapped him for someone else and – lo and behold – I was now expected join her and fall in love with Jack Nicholson.

I decided that enough was enough and set off to find a boyfriend of my own. I walked into a room of American strangers and announced that applications were open for the role. I was inundated with submissions, including a couple from women who misunderstood the specification. Having considered all the paperwork, I decided that I would rather go back in time and select a boyfriend from my primary school. The prime candidates would be NC and ST.

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Mention of Elton John and exotic work trips sets off swoon (Rousse)

When the policeman searched my Birmingham hotel room for weapons he found the bicycle chain slotted down the side of the bed. Surprisingly my claim of possible self-defence was accepted.

The next day I set off for my meeting at the other side of the city. I was about to catch the train to Perry Barr when I remembered that I had left my small suitcase in room 220 (or was it 330?) and would not have time to come back and collect it before I headed home. I rang housekeeping and they kindly arranged for me to pick up my belongings later. Next to me was a young conference delegate full of enthusiasm for his work trip to Birmingham and a “luxurious” stay in a chain hotel. I looked on him kindly. If only he could imagine the work-related trips to places such as Boca Raton, Hawaii, Rome, Sydney, Singapore, Paris, Hong Kong and Vienna that we had experienced in the dot.com boom years. I mentioned Elton John’s participation and the woman standing next to me swooned.

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Beware iPhone e-mail reconnection charges and approaching traffic (Rousse)

Although I was on holiday I couldn’t resist checking in on campus. Here I found a few close colleagues (DB, EH) taking a group of foreign staff and students out for lunch. Some walked to the restaurant, and others cycled. All those on bikes were from countries that drive on the right hand side. They were oblivious to the fact that in the UK we drive on the left. As I chased up the road screaming that their lives were in danger two trandems passed me in the opposite direction. It was really quite difficult to know where to focus my attention.

After my holiday I reactivated the e-mail function on my iPhone. A bell sounded as each new item dropped into my in-box – as did a mounting charge for reconnection. Now I appreciated how telecom companies fleece their pay-as-you-go customers.

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Rousse runs and battles nepotism at the BBC

I ran past the Scottish Parliament with old-timers EJ and LG even though neither was a current member of the running club. One no longer lived in Edinburgh and the other was heavily pregnant. ‘Why are you here?” I asked. Neither could answer my question.

Meanwhile another Edinburgh friend SJ talked of her career ambitions. As she led me down the huge secret staircase from her flat to the ground floor she described the fantastic opportunity about to open at the BBC. All that lay between SJ and the job was the nepotism endemic across the corporation. SJ would be in competition with the current incumbent’s sister. Together we came up with a plan whereby SJ would certainly win the position. Every morning SJ would corner the current post-holder and force-feed her coffee until she handed over the job.

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Diet Coke special delivery and explanations of evidence based practice (Rousse)

I took a last minute decision to call into Tesco to stock up on supplies for my office. By the time I reached the till I had bought far more than I could carry, largely due to the purchase of an enormous multipack of Diet Coke (on special offer). I asked the check-out girl if I could arrange for my goods to be delivered. “Yes”, she replied, “just as soon as you leave my seat and get back to the customer side of the till.”

Later I was speaking to the dimmest of conference audiences. I made a final attempt to explain the concept of evidence based practice and how it spread from medicine to other domains. My analogy centred on the dress code of (1) female corporate lawyers and that of paralegal staff and (2) women tutors within schools of computing and their admin support.

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Postcards to Prince William, a rat in the office, and in-flight washing facilities (Rousse)

When I said that I would join them just as soon as I finished addressing my postcards to the Palace most of the party shot me dirty looks. I didn’t care. They were just jealous that they – unlike me – could not claim Prince William as their brother-in-law.

Back at work and the state of my office had really deteriorated. When the rat popped its head out of the cupboard to survey the filth with me I knew it was time to demand a move.

The next day I was flying from Edinburgh to London for a meeting. I forgot to wash my hair before I set off for the airport, so as we boarded I asked the stewardess if there would be time to do so on the short flight. “Of course”, she replied, “If you’re quick”.

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Monkey on drugs (Belle)

Now that the monkey had moved into my childhood home, I realised just how easily I had been tricked. Far from liking me, it became obvious that it was simply looking for somewhere comfortable to take heroin.

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Jonathan Ross’ theatre date and a threat of war in Edinburgh (Rousse)

Every time that we stopped to take a photo on our walk along the headland the gap between us and Jonathan Ross narrowed. Eventually he was so close behind us that we could hear every word he shared with his companions, including some critical remark about the way that we were framing our photographs. I held back to defend our approach and in the course of conversation discovered that we were all heading for the same theatre performance. Jonathan Ross seemed to assume that I would be his date for the evening, taking my arm as we reached the theatre door. There the doorman recognised him and suggested that he join the back of the queue while VIP seats were set up for him and “his partner”. I panicked. I would love to experience an evening as a VIP, but what about my poor husband? I sneaked away from Jonathan to find TPR in the front stalls of the theatre all by himself, seated just in front of DB and LD. He was clearly not happy with my new plans for the evening, but reluctantly let me follow them through. Meanwhile at the forefront of my mind was how to introduce Jonathan to Kev F Sutherland and his amazing Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

On another day our gym friends met at the Omni Centre not for a run, but for drinks. Amongst them was my school friend AH (now AR) explaining her theory entitled “The fifths of university life” along with ambitions for her young daughter. Meanwhile I started rooting through the bins in the foyer. I was proved right: people had been throwing away all sorts of things that could easily be used by others. There was even a whole loaf of brown-sliced bread still in its wrapper although, admittedly, its sell-by date was 23rd January 1995. It wasn’t mouldy, so perhaps it had been kept in a freezer all this time? When the party broke up we set off by car to make some deliveries to a housing estate on the south side of Edinburgh. Two bombers flew over as we turned into London Road. LW, sitting in the back, said that if the threatened war became a reality, it would go dark each day at 1:30pm and everyone would be forced to shelter at home. “Great”, I thought, “Finally a cure for my workaholism!”

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The forgotten poet (Belle)

Rousse had set the pub quiz question feeling confident that I would know the answer. It was true, I did remember the poet’s brief musical career, his reworking of Gawain and the Green Knight and his northerness. But I just couldn’t remember his name. Nor would I cheat by referring to the reference books I had at my feet.

[When I woke I knew the answer immediately – Simon Armitage]

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The first Apple iPad3 hits Britain as an unexpected pregnancy is revealed (Rousse)

I was so impressed with myself as the owner of an iPad3. Nobody else had one: only me. TPR, however, was throughly sick of my obsession with Apple products. As far as he was concerned, the iPad3 looked very much the same as my iPod. The only difference was that the former was simply shaped more like a dinghy, whereas the latter was more rigid, like a Sinclair C5. Nevertheless, he still built a shed in which I could garage them, although its location outside the British Library on Euston Road in London was not very convenient for an inhabitant of Edinburgh. Still, I enjoyed whizzing around town on my choice of Apple transport.

Meanwhile my university friend HW (now HJ) and I were incredulous that SC (now SL) was pregnant again at the advanced age of 47. We were not sure that her husband would be terribly impressed with this news either.

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