Tag Archives: city

The chance of a year in France and Marmite tinfoil in a Little Chef (Rousse)

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I sat through the sandy-haired lecturer’s explanation of how to apply for a year abroad in France then took the ‘handout’ at the end. This took the form of three tiny orange cards, rather like rail tickets. There was little … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged car, card, chance, city, cover, duvet, explanation, foil, France, handout, lecturer, Little Chef, Marmite, Orange, park, rail, sandy, sheet, ticket, tin, tinfoil, TPR, year | Leave a comment

A failed family get-together at Newcastle-by-the-sea (Rousse)

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Dreamaticus

Newcastle city centre was packed on the first Saturday after the January pay-day. We should never have agreed to meet my mother and sister S there. As things turned out, we didn’t manage to find one another. This was because … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, biology, cell, city, fail, family, flat, forget, get-together, iPhone, January, Jesmond, mobile, mother, Newcastle, pay-day, Saturday, sister, student, terrace, TPR, walk | Leave a comment

Frank Underwood comments on flood conditions (Rousse)

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Dreamaticus

When I visited Frank Underwood in Washington I had no choice but to drive. As things turned out it was not as difficult as I feared to navigate the roads from the suburbs into the city centre. When I mentioned … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged centre, city, comment, commute, condition, drive, flood, Frank Underwood, House of cards, Kevin Spacey, road, suburbs | Leave a comment

A Paris conference drop-out skincare expert (Rousse)

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I was in Paris for an academic conference. Just a couple of stops along the Metro were my sister-in-law JLR and my niece F, now aged 16. I missed sessions, dressed in a white hotel towel and plastic high heels … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, acne, advice, city, conference, expert, Fawlty Towers, hotel, Lakeland Plastics, metro, niece, Paris, sister-in-law, skin, skincare, street, towel | Leave a comment

Reasons not to move to the country (Rousse)

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Dreamaticus

The front door of our flat was boarded up, and through the windows you could just see that all our belongings had been removed. So it was true. We were moving out of town into an old farm house, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged agricultural, belongings, centre, city, country, decorations, door, drive, farm, field, house, lost hay, move, reasons, regret, remove, smell, TPR, unwise, window | Leave a comment

Snow go in Worcestershire – but all’s OK in Birmingham (Rousse)

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Dreamaticus

The big challenge when driving in Birmingham was the quantity of traffic. TPR skilfully managed to avoid a crash as he weaved in and out of the lanes of the huge highways that passed through the city centre. Then we … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birmingham, boundary, centre, challenge, city, council, crash, go, highway, lane, responsibility, snow, town, traffic, weave, Worcestershire | Leave a comment

Paris holiday con (Rousse)

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Dreamaticus

We thought that we were staying in a luxury hotel in Paris, but it was a complete con. The façade of the building was genuinely in the French capital, but as soon as we exited the glass lifts on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged back, bedroom, bus, capital, city, con, destination, fool, France, glass, guest, holiday, hotel, industrial, label, lift, luxury, Paris, ride, shuttle, tourist, unit | Leave a comment

Free babysitting deal is not all that it seems in Barcelona hotel (Rousse)

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Dreamaticus

I was in Barcelona for work with TPR, although what we were actually doing there was unclear. My main interest was the beach (which I had missed completely on my last visit), and spending time with various friends who were … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby, babysit, Barcelona, beach, brandish, breakfast, children, city, collection, couple, drunk, friend, hotel, Japanese, knife, miss, mother, overnight, parent, residence, sinister, soft, stay, stranger, threaten, toddler, toy, TPR, visit, work | Leave a comment

A prediction, skewered prawns, and rude remarks about Dame Kelly Holmes (Rousse)

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Dreamaticus

The stranger was astonished when I guessed that he was a city worker who had retired early from a career in finance. I was almost right: he’d spent his entire working life at the Treasury. After queuing for my food … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged buffet, career, chair, city, climb, companion, Dame, dining, edge, finance, food, friend, guard, hotel, Kelly Holmes, ladder, life, plate, point, prawn, prediction, proprietor, queue, remark, retire, rude, sea, seal, shoreline, sit, skewer, step, stranger, sunshine, table, tennis, tide, treasury, umpire, vantage, water, work, worker | Leave a comment

A city sacking with knitwear (Rousse)

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Dreamaticus

We’d been enjoying a fun weekend with IS in front of the television replaying videos of our previous visit in 2006 when the door burst open and work security staff arrested our host. When we looked around we saw that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2006, black, blue, city, confiscate, door, host, jumper, knitwear, Norwegian, sack, security, shell, Shetland, suitcase, television, video, weekend | Leave a comment