Owl attack at railway station (Rousse)

My companion decided to take the shortest route to the platform opposite, and stepped down onto the railway track. I considered this far too dangerous a move. I instead climbed the iron steps and walked over the bridge.

The savage owls at the other side took me completely by surprise. Their pecking was so ferocious that I had to pull out the beaks lodged into my skin.

The next day I came up in blue boils all over my body. I needed urgent medical help, but all GP surgeries were closed due to the pandemic lockdown.

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From cancer to charity shop purchases (Rousse)

At first the woman seated on the bus in front of me seemed to welcome a discussion about cancer. However, when it became obvious that she was riddled with the disease, it seemed safer to turn our attention to our shared interest in purchasing vintage stationery from charity shops.

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Beanie Feldstein in jacket mix-up at Helsinki airport (Rousse)

I met Beanie Feldstein at Helsinki airport en route for the States. After a little confusion over our jackets – I accidentally picked up her grey one thinking that it was mine (even though mine was purple) – we soon became firm friends, looking forward to filming together.

Many of my Finnish colleagues were also in the airport heading for the same flight. These included GW and IH, who gave me the most enthusiastic welcome. I hoped that the students had witnessed this, and now understood the level of my international standing.

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A flat in Cardiff (Rousse)

TPR found our new flat in Cardiff through the personal ads in a local paper. If I were still a student in the 1980s, I would have been terribly impressed with all the space, but the swirly patterned carpets and an array of broken appliances did not impress me in 2022.

Added to my disappointment at our new home, I was still half-heartedly stringing along JG-T, and worried about my mother-in-law’s visit. I hoped that the latter would be happy eating shop-bought food from the deli – and that TPR wouldn’t consider its purchase a waste of money.

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A hat trick of PhDs (Rousse)

Not to be outdone, two of my three flatmates from my undergraduate final year embarked on doctoral studies.

Soon all three of us would all hold a PhDs: mine in Computing, SL’s in education, and HW’s on obscure French philosophy.

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Indoor snow (Rousse)

TPR urged me not to force the bedroom door. A metre of snow was piled up behind it in the hall. This was an unfortunate result of climate change.

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Jim-jam dinner (Rousse)

When I heard that LE and GE were joining us for dinner in a restaurant with JC and GC, I panicked – because I was still in my red fleece pyjamas.

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A career start in Sunderland (Rousse)

The prize job for top Oxford graduate HH was in artificial intelligence in Sunderland.

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Secret service research promotion from Gill to Judith (Rousse)

I was very proud of the achievements of my colleague EH, just awarded a year-long research secondment with the Secret Service. However, I was also somewhat annoyed that an official was calling her ‘Judith’.

When I later raised this with EH herself she told me not to worry. There are official labels for women at different research career stages. The official was simply acknowledging EH’s step up from a “Gill’.

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Learning to crochet on Portobello beach (Rousse)

I learnt to crochet on Portobello beach, instructed by my online friend BC and her daughters.

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