Tag Archives: Christmas

Lost in a Birmingham blizzard at Christmas (Rousse)

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Dreamaticus

The server dropped the half-filled ice cream cone when the call came through. It was now snowing very heavily outside, and anyone who wanted to travel any further needed to get back into their vehicles immediately. TPR and I rushed … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birmingham, blizzard, call, car, Christmas, coach, cone, driving, follow, gas, half-filed, ice-cream, lost, motorway, petrol, plan, room, server, service station, snow, snowing, station, TPR, track, travel, vehicles | Leave a comment

Mother-in-law Christmas packing genius (Rousse)

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Dreamaticus

While I sleeping my mother-in-law put up a Christmas tree at the foot of my bed. She then scattered dozens of presents underneath it. When I awoke to this amazing display just one thought popped into my head: how on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged asleep, bed, Christmas, display, foot, genius, head, mother-in-law, packing, present, presents, scatter, sight, tree | Leave a comment

Sharon the fine art vandal and a welcome Christmas gift (Rousse)

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Dreamaticus

As she moved the pictures around our flat, the woman with long dark hair complained to me that she hated her name. I suggested that if she really wanted to do so, she could change it from Sharon to something … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged antibiotics, art, canvas, canvases, Christmas, compensation, dark, drawing, drugs, fine art, fir, flat, frame, frames, gift, hair, hate, headache, house, model, name, picture, pictures, pin, pins, present, red, Sharon, soap bag, tablets, tree, valueless, vandal, wood | Leave a comment

A Christmas cycling trip to Cornwall (Rousse)

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Dreamaticus

This was a big treat for my mother, who had never visited Cornwall before. After a long hunt for a space, we parked our sports car in a side street, almost crushing my old red cycling helmet into the kerb … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bike, bikes, car, Christmas, clcying, Cornwall, crsuh, cycling, descent, helmet, high, kerb, low, mistake, mother, option, options, park, perpendicular, promenade, road, route, seafront, shiny, sports, steep, TPR, track, trap, treat, tree, trip, uphill, visit, white-wash | Leave a comment

Dangerous waves in Ullapool and a miskeyed credit card number (Rousse)

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I pulled into the parking space just on the approach to Ullapool so that I could photograph the interesting wave formation as it hit land. Unfortunately the moment that I placed the camera case on the ground a huge wave … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged approach, aunt, auntie, camera, card, case, Christmas, credit, dangerous, disaster, equipment, evaporate, fluffy, formation, miskey, mother, Online, parking, photograph, pity, purchase, shopping, shoreline, space, towels, Ullapool, wave, waves, white | Leave a comment

Christmas in the Highlands – Goldilocks style (Rousse)

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Dreamaticus

I was fast asleep next to TPR in the main bedroom of our cottage in Perthshire when the noise awoke us at 02:00. Did we see faces at the window, or was the commotion coming from the floor below? We … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accommodation, asleep, £1000, B&B, baby, bacon, bear, bed and breakfast, bedroom, below, book, brave, Christmas, commotion, cook, cottage, downstairs, eat, eggs, episode, faces, family, festive, floor, food, fry-up, Goldilocks, highlands, informant, Jenners, laps, laundry, London, mother, negotiate, owe, Perthshire, pink, rate, room, season, sitting, sleep, son, stay, stocking, stockings, teddy, teddy bear, toy, toys, vacant, village, window | Leave a comment

Fireworks set off at once by grumpy party host (Rousse)

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Dreamaticus

TPR never wanted to host this party and it showed. He put very little effort into the preparations, even though the numbers invited created a lot of extra work. We even promised fireworks. We felt obliged to open up the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged antique, antiques, bang, beige, carpet, Christmas, curtains, dining, fireworks, flower, fruit, Georgian, green, grumpy, guests, hat, host, house, linen, match, party, photo, picture, preparations, room, rooms, sideboard, sideboards, space, table mats, TPR, white, work | Leave a comment

Unwise words and a Christmas tragedy on the Thames (Rousse)

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Dreamaticus

“How awful that your daughter-in-law’s father is a crook, and that her mother is a burnt-to-a-crisp, over-tanned, airhead shopaholic!” said N. More awful was that she uttered these words while (unknowingly) sitting right next to the daughter-in-law in question. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accident, airhead, balcony, bar, Birmingham, blood, boatman, car, catch, celebrate, celebration, celebrations, Christmas, city, colleagues, crook, daughter-in-law, death, die, drink, drive, drown, fall, family, faux pas, invitation, jelly beans, jetty, ladder, London, motorboat, motorboats, neck, party, pub, red, shopaholic, skyline, slip, students, tan, Thames, toilets, tragedy, water, wine bar | Leave a comment

Cooking up some Christmas crackers (Rousse)

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My sisters and I were cooking gallons of soup, alongside hundreds of breakfast items, on the Aga at my parents’ house. The heat from the oven was almost unbearable: my Crocs offered little protection and I really needed to find … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aga, apron, bacon, breakfast, Christmas, crackers, Crocs, eggs, heat, oven, paper, protection, roll, silver, sisters, soup, toilet | Leave a comment

Antiquarian book collecting for beginners (Rousse)

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Each morning we swam with seals. RI would join us, provided that he had not stayed out too late the night before on “tom cat” excursions. In the afternoons we liked to vary our activities. Today OC took us to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged a catalogue, activities, afternoon, antiquarian, beginners, binding, book, books, British Library, cartoon, charity, Christmas, church, collect, collecting, collection, donation, drawing room, family, highlands, holiday, house, janitor, morning, nineteenth century, parents, photographs, pile, presents, rare, retire, seals. Late, stockings, swim, tarpaulin, theological, theology, Tom cat, treasure, venture, White House | Leave a comment