Rousse sorts out shorts and running routes

After months of feigned shock, giggles and teasing I finally worked out why TPR’s shorts had become such a hot topic at the gym. The shorts that he had been wearing were not his, but mine! No wonder the blue pair was so tight on him and the black ones that I had been wearing were so loose. A swap was quickly arranged and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Later the running club girls planned to set out in the dark to scope out a new route. I rushed to the gym from after-work drinks, where I left VW at the bar and PC discussing folk music with a stranger. With SA I managed to catch up with the others at Inverleith Park, but then we realised that we had left our handbags back at the bar. We now faced the dilemma of letting down our running friends or losing all our worldly goods.

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Basking shark sighted in freshwater pond (Rousse)

The child tugged sharply at my hand, hurrying me along to see the black kite that she had spotted floating in the pond. From the water’s edge I could easily tell that this was not a kite, but the dorsal fin of an enormous basking shark.

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Angelina Jolie spotted by nobody but Rousse, an unplanned pregnancy and Lenten gifts

Angelina Jolie (my new best friend) insisted on coming into town with me. She wouldn’t listen to my pleas that she would be recognised and the pair of us would be mobbed. In the event I was proved wrong. Nobody gave the A list movie star a second glance.

What Angelina did not know was that I was pregnant. Others were concerned, largely due to my advanced age, but it was OK. The medics promised that my son would be born by Caesarian. My friend J was delighted to have company in pregnancy, but DJ had no interest in his new grandson.

For more on Angelina, please see:


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Back at work the membership of the board was unnecessarily large. The makeshift table stretched across two rooms and all those at the far end from the chair had no hope of hearing the discussion. When I picked up that there was the proposal to present the external panellists with gifts of thanks for Lent I made strong objections. First of all it was not Lent – it was almost Pentecost – and secondly I strongly believed that people should not be bribed to attend meetings. I was invited forward to present my case to the Principal. During the discussion that followed I untangled a pile of Mac leads under a chair in the middle of the room.

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Rousse’s shoe crisis

It was already ten past ten and I really did need to leave for the office, but I couldn’t find a suitable pair of shoes to go with my brown trousers. I had packed a pair into my rucksack for indoors, but I could not walk in these ones all the way to Merchiston. I emptied cupboards, drawers and shoe racks in my quest to find a matching left and a right in a brown style for the one hour march across town. My university friend JS helped me. Meanwhile AG-K, barely dressed in a red satin and net ballgown, sat at a computer in the front room, ignoring my plight.

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Rousse hides her haul and swims with seals

I found the canvas bag full of used £10 and £20 notes abandoned next to the post box. When I got home I started to count out the money on my bed, but soon got bored. It could amount to anything between ten and one hundred thousand pounds. I decided that the best way to deal with my haul would be to store most of the notes in the top drawer of the filing cabinet behind the fishing tackle in the upstairs cloakroom of the White House, and keep a smaller float in a goldfish bowl in my bedroom for everyday use. There was no question of handing it in to the police. They would only spend it on trivialities, whereas with careful planning my new fortune would fund my every need until death.

Later I wandered down to the water for a fully-clothed swim with the seals. They didn’t mind the human company at all, and it was lovely to see the new pups enjoy the water.

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A scouse wedding – but not to Paul Merton (Belle)

I was getting married! The groom, a boy from 1978, lived down the ‘rough’ end of the street and his family had been entirely responsible for making the arrangements. I made my way to the church, alone and by foot, staring down at my sequinned slippers. At the church I realised I had probably forgotten to invite any of my friends.

From the pulpit, actress Melanie Hill denounced Neil Morrissey for his failure to participate in a sponsored walk. Her erudition had the congregation in tears although I felt she was upstaging me rather. Those in tears included actors from Brookside, most notably Billy Corkhill and Sheila Grant.

As the time for my ceremony approached, Paul Merton dashed into the church. “It’s alright, Paul”, I said, “I’m still not married if you want to step in”. The entire church fell into an awkward silence.

The wedding went ahead. I couldn’t remember even seeing the groom and began to panic about what had been chosen as our first dance. I slipped away to the newsagents to buy chocolate biscuits and waited while the newsagent gave a small boy a catalogue of local real estate.

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Rousse risks midwifery on the pistes

The last day of the ski-ing season coincided with RG-J’s first day of maternity leave so we took to the slopes. Under sunny skies, and with almost complete snow coverage all the way down to the village, we had a fabulous day, even though I lost a pole on our final run. Our most fun, however, was generated whenever another skier asked when R’s baby was due. “Today” she proudly replied.

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Crime by letters and Vera Wang (Rousse)

The criminals’ mission had been to kidnap a toddler. They were stealing to order. Only a child who shared the famous surname would do. Unfortunately, in their confusion the kidnappers had targeted a child whose surname was Smith. We had been in bed when the she was taken, and I did wonder whether I had dreamt it all. To kidnap children by alphabet all seemed a bit too organised, even to me.

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Because I’d been ill, and my sight was failing, my mother kindly drove me to Corstorphine for the meeting. I was barely out of the car when my boss tapped me on the shoulder and asked for a couple of minutes. She’d checked my calendar and then travelled all the way across town to intercept me just before the meeting started, so I surmised that she must be pretty keen to see me. I worried that there was something serious to tell, but when she led me to a red sofa in full view of everyone, I knew that the conversation would be uncontentious. After our chat, there was still some time to look around the shops, so I took the lift up to the Vera Wang floor to admire the dresses. Across the hall LF was selling hair ribbons with the same enthusiasm that he displayed in the past for computer sales. LF was so entertaining that I only remembered my meeting at 16:30. To my shame, I had missed the 16:00 start.

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Alternative cycling in the Hebrides (Rousse)

Water started pouring through the upper floor of our cottage at Timsgarry on the Isle of Lewis. My partner guessed that the source of the problem was most likely the spring further up the hill. The urgency was such that I chose to drive there. This was a huge mistake. While our house was flooding, I was trapped in a traffic jam caused by the participants in the “Cycling Backwards up the Hebrides accompanied by Horsemen Challenge”.

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Romance and waterworld (Belle)

He was wearing bizarre cuban heels with a platform sole and his face looked as if it had been put on upside down. And yet as soon as he spoke I knew he was The One.

I lived underwater where it was warm and bright, but surfaced every now and then for air.

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