A meeting and a feast at the Institute of Information Scientists (Rousse)

Once super-organised, these days I regularly missed appointments. This was probably because I had stopping using an online calendar to record my forthcoming commitments. Instead, I had started writing them down on the pages of a paper diary.

So now here I was wandering the corridors of the Institute of Information Scientists at 3:20pm, hunting for a meeting that started twenty minutes earlier. Meanwhile my University friends were partying across town without me. JS had told everyone that I would be at the reunion soon, but I was beginning to doubt this.

Just as I decided that I would skip the meeting, the Institute’s fearsome secretary caught me in a dark corridor.

‘Oh there you are!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’re all waiting for you. Please hurry along.’

I followed her into the meeting room. Everyone beamed at me. Now that I was present, they would be permitted to tuck into the feast laid out on the table. I now knew that all hopes of making it to the reunion were dashed forever.

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Party choices (Rousse)

As our taxi pulled away from the kerb, I looked back at our house. Through the sitting room window I could see as far as the open kitchen door. In the foreground, our weekend guests JS, RR, JLR, JS, and J and GC were smartly attired in cocktail dresses and dinner jackets. They were all obviously enjoying one another’s company, Champagne glasses in hand. On show here for anyone passing the house to see were all the ingredients of a splendid party .

It seemed that TPR and I had made the wrong call, agreeing to spend a sedate evening with L and TF at P and SM’s house. However, I was relieved not to suffer JLR’s hangover the following day.

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When ‘going for a run’ means a different form of exercise (Rousse)

I was heart-broken when I discovered that whenever my husband left the house declaring  ‘I’m going for a run’, he was really off to spend the afternoon in one of two love-nests – either with SS or LP.

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A very spoiled dachshund (Rousse)

P and SM’s once immaculate house was now the domain of a very spoiled dachshund – and littered with the fluffy white innards of half-eaten soft toys.

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Kidnap on the Otley Road (Rousse)

It made sense to stay with O and R in Otley the night before my day in Leeds. I was happy to take the bus to my meeting, but they insisted that they drive me into the city centre. They would drop their daughter off at school en route.

We had just joined the dual carriageway when R, who was driving, forced O and the little girl out of the car, while screeching at me to stay in my seat. As soon as the others left the vehicle, he locked all the doors and accelerated hard.

I now understood that I would not be spending my day at a meeting in Leeds, but as a kidnap victim trapped in a car on the Otley Road.

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Parading with fire engines and sourcing reusable nappies from Natalie (Rousse)

Two of my duties as a new Edinburgh community councillor were (1) to join the public services parade from the New Town up to the mound (we followed the fire engines), and (2) to source reusable nappies from a woman called Natalie to give away to local residents.

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Collecting Finlandia porcelain (Rousse)

I returned to my old office on campus to fetch the remnants of my antique Finlandia porcelain collection from the shelves. These were the last of my belongings to take home.

I hoped to see BR while I was there, but he was nowhere to be found.

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Albert Finney ad man (Rousse)

What a coincidence! I came out of an all-night film show to come face-to-face with Albert Finney. While he was not the star of the main movie, he did feature in one of the adverts shown during the intermission.

When we chatted about his performance, Finney admitted that he was not terribly proud of it. He expressed regret that his career had floundered to the point that he was forced to accept work on commercials.

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Crocs and camping (Rousse)

The soles of my Crocs had been wearing thin for some time so I was not surprised that a hole appeared in the right one. Now I needed to confirm the colour of my replacement pair, and work out the best way to place to buy: in the UK, US, or Canada.

I had something else on my mind. I was taking part in a sleep-out and had not yet decided on the tent that I would use. I had an offer from SM’s family, but it was unclear as to whether all five of us would sleep in the same space, or I would have a canvas ‘room’ of  my very own.

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Outdoors investment advice (Rousse)

My mother-in-law stood at the top of the grassy slope, dishing out investment advice in a very loud voice. Meanwhile, in the distance, I could see my former colleagues holding their Wednesday afternoon research meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the participants came towards us – some on foot, some on bicycles. All but one completely ignored me. The single exception was a former PhD student. She explained that the colleagues did not appreciate my mother-in-law’s interruptions to their business.

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