Tag Archives: academics

Expelled for missing the bus (Rousse)

Posted on August 28, 2025 by Dreamaticus

It was a huge honour to have been appointed to this high profile expert panel to work with the most senior UK academics and the country’s top civil servants. After Day 1 of important confidential debate, the chair released us … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academics, bus, civil servants, cousin, debate, driver, expel, late, miss, pane, play, shame, Somerset | Leave a comment

A false accusation of theft and underperforming academics (Rousse)

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Dreamaticus

As soon as I learnt that JC had been sacked, I went straight to SS to find out why. Although it could not be proven, SS was convinced that JC had been stealing the petty cash. I argued that this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, cash, cheat, honest, job, money, petty cash, proof, sack, staff, theft, thief, underperform | Leave a comment

Brilliance and sweeties at a Nordic lecture (Rousse)

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I didn’t recognised the speaker when she took the stage. “Who’s that?” I asked GW. “MH” she replied. “We all used to be terrified of her brilliance, but now we’re quite used to her”. I settled into my seat to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academics, auditorium, brilliance, candy, colleague, lecture, Nordic, seat, speaker, stage, sweeties, sweets | Leave a comment

Magic tables only a partial solution to University accommodation problems (Rousse)

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I was dismayed over the state of my accommodation. I had been allocated a tiny desk squeezed into the corner of a large computer lab populated by PhD students. My computer and printer took up most of the desk’s surface … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, accommodation, chat, computer, conditions, corner, desk, dismay, furniture, lab, leg, legs, magic, opportunity, partial, PhD, printer surface, problem, problems, solution, space, spare, student, students, table, tables, tea, technician, tray, university, Vice Principal, wall, woe, woes, work | Leave a comment

A haul of hopeless academics (Rousse)

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Once again I had disappointed my boss with my lack of financial acumen. Meanwhile I was advising another colleague to be very careful over the content of his e-mail correspondence, and a former colleague was despairing at the cheek of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academics, acumen, boss, colleague, decade, despair, disappoint, e-mail, finance, haul, hopeless, PhD, publish | Leave a comment

Cycling academics, poor publishing standards, diet Coke rations, a farewell disco, and stiletto heels (Rousse)

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I cycled to work to mark the last day of operation of Queen Margaret’s Corstorphine campus. Many other Edinburgh academics did the same, discussing the poor standard of journal submissions as they rode the route. Because it was such a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, bike, childhood, Coke, college, Corstorphine, cream, cycle, cycling, diet, Diet Coke, disco, Edinburgh, farewell, feet, friend, Friends, gnarled, heel, heels, journal, pal, pals, publish, publishing, Queen Margaret, ration, rations, shoes, stiletto, submission, submissions, train, university | Leave a comment

IBM presentation fails to win over academics (Rousse)

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The organisers had made a terrible mistake in bringing together this bunch of rude, disobedient ego-maniacs. They had been locked up for a week at this luxury hotel to work collaboratively on developing innovative research proposals, but since their arrival … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, admissions, audience, boo, catalogue, climax, computing, disobedient, ego-maniac, ego-maniacs, expense, friend, hardware, hiss, history, homesick, hotel, IBM, library, man, mistake, mother, organiser, organisers, performance, pet, presentation, proposal, proposals, records, research, rude, school, server, son, tax, tax payer, tax payers, university | Leave a comment

Rousse’s new job

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I’d never before applied for an academic job where all short-listed candidates were interviewed together. The panel comprised two well-respected academics: the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of an English university, who – quite out of character – had turned bad cop for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academia, academic, academics, art, bacon, bad cop, boss, campus, candidates, Chinese, Christmas, competition, dilemma, dining room, driving, family, father, Friends, Glasgow, Glasgow University, Heriot-Watt, interview, job, kitchen, leadership, Manchester, mother, niece, panel, position, post, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, questions, resignation, romantic, short list, short-listed, Stockton-on-Tees, stuffing, turkey, university, University of Glasgow, Victorian, White House | Leave a comment

Rousse hunts for food after a cold night in the research council committee car

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The venue for the research council meeting was a tiny battered car on Annandale Street. I was squashed in behind the front passenger’s seat listening to academics pontificating about anything but research. For example, one shared his obsession for staging … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academics, Annandale Street, bathroom, bathrooms, boy, car, castle, clothes, cold, colleague, committee, council, dressing gown, drive, driving, esplanade, food, German, grey-haired, hungry, husband, laundered, laundress, laundry, Leith Walk, meeting, pain au chocolat, pantomime, passenger, research, seat, servant, shop, shopping, shops, sleep, toiletries, venue, woman | Leave a comment

Digital media experts flummoxed by musical suitcase (Rousse)

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

What fun: at last KA and I had wangled things so that we were both heading to the same conference! Ahead of us lay two days of academic discussion of digital media. My father-in-law drove us to the venue from … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, bedroom, Broadway Gardens, car, conference, digital, discussion, drive, driving, experts, father-in-law, garden, Hexham, hotel, media, musical, noise, noises, pool, registration, suitcase, swimming | Leave a comment