Tag Archives: back

A feather baby, the Hanoverian succession, and a multi-coloured merganser (Rousse)

Posted on August 27, 2026 by Dreamaticus

Deep in grief following the death of my two-inch long human ‘feather’ baby daughter, I found some solace in explaining the Hanoverian succession to an Indian. Meanwhile a nearby stranger plucked a pink, white and orange-plumed merganser duck out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby, back, daughter, death, duck, feather, grief, Hanoverian, Indian, merganser, river, stranger, succession, water | Leave a comment

Curious rucksack contents (Rousse)

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Dreamaticus

I grabbed my rucksack and followed my Canadian colleague BD out the door. If this was the last time that we were together, I wanted to be with him as long as I could. We walked across the big public … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airport, back, bank, beach, breast, Canadian, consultation, cutlery, dinner, embassy, hospital, ivory, nurse, park, party, rucksack, stone, student | Leave a comment

Snowball tattoo shocker (Rousse)

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Dreamaticus

I wasn’t too shocked when TPR tried on his sister S’s blue Liberty patterned bikini. The real horror was the sight of his tattooed shoulders and back beneath the strappy top. When had he had the time to ruin his … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, bikini, blade, gothic, Liberty, physique, script, shock, shoulder, sister, snowball, tattoo, top, TPR | Leave a comment

Sacrifices for the Secret Service (Rousse)

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Dreamaticus

SC lost all her privacy the day that she was captured by the Secret Service. It was unclear whether they planned to retrain her as a spy, or that she was simply a person of interest to them. However, from … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, bare, birthday, bug, child, follow, lipstick, message, party, privacy, sacrifice, secret, service, spy | Leave a comment

Life in a back-brace (Rousse)

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Dreamaticus

For years we had been shouting at our nephew to get down from the trees, cliffs, bridges, statues, monuments and other structures that he climbed. This time he fell and met his comeuppance. As a consequence he was obliged to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, back-brace, backbrace, brace, bridges, cliffs, climb, consequence, fall, life, months, monuments, nephew, rees, shout, statues, structures | Leave a comment

A tandem racing bike at the Balmoral Hotel (Rousse)

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I saw two athletes with a tandem racing bike on Princes Street, Edinburgh. The wheels of their steed were the same size as those on the front of a penny farthing bicycle. Just outside the Balmoral Hotel, the lycra-clad stoker … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged athlete, back, bicycle, bike, Edinburgh, feat, impossible, lycra, penny farthing, Princes Street, racing, seat, steed, stoker, tandem, wheel | Leave a comment

Danish avant garde drama disappoints Manchester audiences (Rousse)

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Dreamaticus

We’d heard that the play was set in a railway carriage so TPR thought that the best place to sit would be the back of the stage. KA and I soon put him right, arguing that we didn’t want to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged action, actors, audience, avant garde, back, carriage, dance, Danish, daughter, drama, enormous, man, Manchester, move, play, production, railway, refuse, save, seat, set, sit, space, stage, switch, theatre, TPR, vacate | Leave a comment

Nifty Land Rover reverse manoeuvres (Rousse)

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Dreamaticus

KNX impressed me once again. He jumped up into the off-white Land Rover, popped it into reverse, and backed it neatly into a spot closer to the house, thus giving space for the other vehicles to move. He’d also been … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged allotment, back, camera, dig, house, impress, Land Rover, Landrover, mud, nifty, park, reverse, speace. vehicle, toddler | Leave a comment

When you just have to go (Rousse)

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I found GG’s young son naked on the floor outside the bathroom door. ‘I’m desperate’, he said, ‘But JB is in there with medical staff and they won’t let me in’. I scooped him up and carried him out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, bathroom, carry, desperate, door, go, medical, naked, patio, scoop, son, staff | Leave a comment

The gym cheat (Rousse)

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Dreamaticus

The official exit from the dodgy Indian gym was through a hole the size of a brick. I declared a bad back and sneaked out of the main door.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, bad, brick, cheat, door, exit, gym, hole | Leave a comment