Tag Archives: French

A winning sausage conference submission, with citation indexes (Rousse)

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Dreamaticus

EH and I felt obliged to attend the University research conference, even though much of the content was of little interest to us. On our arrival we could tell that many of our colleagues had ignored the event. This was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged basement, cafe, citation, colleague, conference, event, French, friend, index, model, National Library of Scotland, PhD, poster, research, sausage, student, submission, university, write-up | Leave a comment

A long soak (Rousse)

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Dreamaticus

The Manor House bathroom overlooked the grounds towards the bay. Here JM and I took a long afternoon soak. Meanwhile TPR was elsewhere (most likely working on code). When it was finally time to get out, a French student brought … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged afternoon, bath, bathroom, bay, Birmingham, blue, code, dryer, fluffy, French, grounds, long, Manor House, Northfield, soak, stripe, student, TPR, tumble, University of Birmingham, warm, white | Leave a comment

Lobbying the Scottish Government: in person, on a Sunday, face-to-face, in French (Rousse)

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Dreamaticus

So impressed were we of RG’s athletic feat that we lobbied the Head of the Scottish Government – in person, on a Sunday, face-to-face, in French – to mark her achievement with a line of text carved in stone at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged achievement, athletic, audience, bid, carve, community, council, Coventry, employment, face-to-face, flaw, forget, French, government, head, hide, i3 conference, ignore, letter, lobby, memory, nomination, official, opportunity, prospect, recite, refuse, research, restaurant, risk, Scottish, stone, Sunday, supper, team, text, treasury | Leave a comment

George Clooney and a Sisters of Mercy lookalike above the snow line (Rousse)

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Dreamaticus

We were going camping with our French friends above the snow line in the north west of Scotland. Access to the site was via Forestry Commission trails, first on the dirt track along the shoreline of the loch, then up … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, BBC, camp, camper, camping, case, corner, crew, crowd, delivery, dining, engineer, Forestry Commission, French, friend, George Clooney, glamorous, glasses, groceries, house, jeep, loch, marital, Mati, merry, mountainside, mud, party, shop, shoreline, sister, Sisters of Mercy, snow, status, summit, TPR, track, treat, wander, warm, widow | Leave a comment

Distracted by next season’s fashion must-haves and Harry Potter in French (Rousse)

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Dreamaticus

At the height of summer I was living in North Berwick and working in Edinburgh, desperate to finish the data analysis and write-up of my second PhD. On the days that I couldn’t cadge a lift along the by-pass with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged by-pass, commuting, concentrate, data analysis, distract, Edinburgh, fare, fashion, fortune, French, Harry Potter, lift, mother, must-have, North Berwick, novel, PhD, season, summer, train, wardrobe, work, write-up | Leave a comment

Belle and Rousse to reunite (Rousse)

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Dreamaticus

Belle plotted to return to her old job and arrange for me to join her. I explained that I would need at least a year to prepare for my return to London. There was the small issue of my degree … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Belle, Birmingham, degree, drop-out, finals, French, job, London, Masters, neuroscience, return, reunite, tutor | Leave a comment

French at the University of Birmingham (Rousse)

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Dreamaticus

The Birmingham University campus was unrecognisable. It was so hi tech – and the main library had been flattened. SH was still top of the class, and I a complete dunce. I wondered whether there would be time for me … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birmimgham, campus, class, dunce, finals, French, library, tutor, university | Leave a comment

A French language refresher course in Paris (Rousse)

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I accepted the offer of a place in Paris to undertake a six-month long refresher course in French. Although downhearted at the prospect of a long time apart, TPR kindly accompanied me to France to help me settle in. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Air Force One, airport, anti-terrorist, camp, car, Chinese, cliff, concrete, confess, course, drug addict, excuse, fire, France, French, hall of residence, immigrant, language, naked, Paris, PhD, prostitute, protect, rain, refresher, squatter, student, tower block, TPR | Leave a comment

Full moon in seaside spectacle (Rousse)

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Dreamaticus

TPR was impatient that we leave as soon as possible so as not to miss the spectacle of the full moon over the sea. I packed my bikini and a spare jumper then jumped into the back of the car … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, bikini, car, cliff, clothes, coat, colleague, French, full, house, jumper, moon, Portuguese, price, restaurant, sea, spectacle, supper, TPR | Leave a comment

Secrets of Sir Ian Brindley’s affair hidden in porridge (Rousse)

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Dreamaticus

My cousin B finally revealed the solemn secret that she had been harbouring for years. During the war my grandfather had been in a relationship with Sir Ian Brindley. ‘There’s further information in there’, she said, pointing to the museum. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged affair, Arab, bowl, Brindley, cousin, exhibit, French, grandfather, hide, Ian, information, museum, porridge, relationship, secret, sir, translate, war | Leave a comment