Tag Archives: death

Deadly and expensive, but ever so cool: Rousse debates smoking with an addict

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I didn’t believe JG when he said that he would give up smoking for our Caribbean holiday. A victim of peer pressure in Strasbourg (so it appeared to me, at least), he’d been addicted to the deadly habit since 1984. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1984, Caribbean, cigarette, cigarettes, cool, cost, dead, deadly, death, expense, expensive, health, holiday, kill, peer, peer pressure, pressure, smoking, Strasbourg | Leave a comment

Rousse bakes mini lemon meringue pies while her husband holds court in the bath

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My first problem was that I had to choose between three competing commitments all taking place on the same night. My second was that I had promised my boss that I would attend one of them. However, I now had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bath, boss, colleague, colleagues, commitment, commitments, computing, dead, death, dinner, Edinburgh, elite, flat, fridge, industry, kill, lemon, meringue, network, pie, pies, priority, Scotland, Scottish, TPR, visitors, work | Leave a comment

Man falls to death from medieval tower: “lost” handbag takes the blame (Rousse)

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I found my new Joey D handbag again where I’d left it: sitting in the corner of the lift. It must have been travelling up and down the floors for hours, yet it appeared untouched. I pulled the zip to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged apron, art, babies, baby, bank, batter, birth control, Blackberry, busker, candle, candles, card, cards, cash, cashpoint, children, church, city, contraception, cooking, Corstorphine, council, death, die, drop, dying, Edinburgh, fiver, fivers, friend, gym, handbag, Indian, installation, iPhone, Joey D, kids, kitchen, lift, lost, mat., mats, medieval, money, Murrayfield, Newcastle, niece, Omni Centre, phone, prawn, prawns, purse, recipe, riot, sling, staircase, step, steps, stranger, tenner, tenners, tower, train, trains, Virgin Active, visit, wasteland, wax, weekend, wick, wicks, wife, window, wreckage, zip | Leave a comment

News of Michael Jackson’s death takes time to register back in the 1970s (Rousse)

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I met my new young man back in 1975. He squeezed into the seat next to me on one of the first 125 trains released into the fleet. We agreed to meet the next day beside the cave. He didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 125, boyfriend, cave, child, death, divorce, e-mail, kid, memo, memos, Michael Jackson, pop, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Rockin' Robin, secretaries, secretary, time travel, time-traveller, train, trains, wife | Leave a comment

Rousse’s perilous journey

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Dreamaticus

This was highly embarrassing. My gym membership had run out several weeks earlier and somehow I had ended up in the changing rooms with everyone encouraging me to pretend that I was still a member. This was not right and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged African, Africans, death, drown, gym, journey, kayak, kayaking, member, membership, mudflat, paddle, paddling, partner, peril, perilous, river, spiral, stair, staircase, stairs, step, steps, stream, tributary | Leave a comment

Suicide bombers target ocean liner university campus in Leith – with bonus baby monkey (Rousse)

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Dreamaticus

A huge media campaign grew up around the campus move to an ocean liner moored in Leith Docks. Thousands of visitors were expected to gather for the firework display that followed our open afternoon. I was looking forward to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aeroplane, aircraft, arms, babies, baby, banner, blaze, bomber, bombers, campus, celebrations, classroom, corridor, corridors, crash, death, display, dock, docks, exit, fire, fireball, fireworks, flame, flames, fly-over, flyover, gym, hairy, heat, Leith, liner, military, monkey, ocean, plane, pram, question, son, staircase, staircases, suicide, swim, swimming, visitors, water, window | Leave a comment

How to get to Paris by car (Rousse)

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I dyed my hair dark grey for KM’s parents’ golden wedding anniversary party. From a distance it looked like my head was armoured in a heavy steel helmet. Regretting my mistake, I couldn’t decide whether I should wait for this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anniversary, border, car, charm, death, documents, driving, dye, father, France, French, golden, haor, helmet, immigration, lane, lanes, officer, Paris, party, shipping, skinhead, tanker, tankers, TPR, wedding | Leave a comment

A misguided love affair, a talking ape, a fairground murder, and three clear advantages of a prison sentence (Rousse)

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Dreamaticus

We spent the day at Belle’s London office counselling a friend desperate to escape a loveless marriage. When X refused to reveal to me the identity of his mistress, yet hinted that Belle was in the know, I feared the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accomplice, accomplices, ape, arsonist, arsonists, attack, bags, blaze, blog, blonde, body, book, brother, brothers, camera, CCTV, cell, cells, children, city, cloth, clothes, clothing, compensation, conference, corpse, death, deceased, doorway, Dreamaticus, elope, face, fairground, fingerprints, fire, fun fair, hairdresser, heat, hiding, history, illegal, immigrant, immigrants, injuries, jacket, Junior, kids, laughing, lease, library, Liverpool, London, love, marriage, mistress, monkey, motive, murder, mystery, office, orangutan, packing, pension, peroxide, photo, photograph, picture, pictures, police, prison, revenge, Russian, sentence, South Bank, stab, stall, street, turban, victim, wall, watch, woman, wounded, wounds | 1 Comment

Gangsta rap death threat (Rousse)

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Dreamaticus

As the process of erosion slipped into fast forward, we witnessed the course of the river shift before our very eyes. The sandy banks were crumbling so quickly that all hands were called to fetch shovels and spades to dig … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bank, court, death, door, erosion, gangsta, gangster, head, lawyer, Leith Walk, lift, murder, office, paternoster, pedestrians, price, rap, river, sand, threat, TPR | Leave a comment

Walking in Glencoe bereft of map and boots, but with Take That (Rousse)

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I was the reluctant leader of a small running club expedition to Glencoe. Unqualified for the role, I was making a complete mess of it. First, we arrived far too late in the afternoon to tackle any of the interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Amazon, atlas, boots, boyfriend, chip, climb, climbs, date, death, die, Edinburgh, Glencoe, hill, hills, leader, legend, legends, map, mountain, mountains, music, myth, myths, niece, Ordnance Survey, route, routes, running, shoe, shoes, stood up, Take That, taste, tastes, TPR, trainer, trainers, walk, walking, world | Leave a comment