Tag Archives: French

World’s stinkiest cheese (Rousse)

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The world’s stinkiest cheese is Andate. From a safe distance I watched as a gleeful TPR unwrapped a wheel of the famous French delicacy.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged andate, cheese, delicacy, French, smelliest, stinkiest, TPR, wheel, world | Leave a comment

Perspectives from a plinth (Rousse)

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My elderly neighbour Mrs Frazier was dying of a deadly disease, and for this reason I was helping her with her walled garden. I half expected that she would leave it to me, along with her tiny mews house. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bird, birds, blue, Canadian, crane, dear, death, die, disease, elderly, fishing, French, Fringe, garden, grandpa, green, heart, house, inherit, line, magic, mews, model, models, neighbour, pedestrians, performers, plastic, plinth, rescue, rule, scarf, show, tall, troupe, tweed, visitors, wall, walled, weeding | Leave a comment

Luxury yellow bathroom is no substitute for missing wife (Rousse)

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Now that it was the fashion to return to university to repeat your first degree, I found myself back at the University of Birmingham reading French. However, by the end of first year I was struggling to study and hold … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged absence, bathroom, Birmingham University, clutter, degree, Edinburgh, French, home, house, job, lonely, luxury, missing, student, study, substitute, TPR, university, University of Birmingham, wife, yellow | Leave a comment

Top notch facilities at Isle of Lewis guest house (Rousse)

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The guest house on the Isle of Lewis offered upgraded facilities, including a beautiful marble block of changing rooms and toilets close to the beach, and giant butterfly-shaped kites to play with on the shore. Downstairs in the main house … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged access, beach, British Library, butterfly, card, changing rooms, dinner, facilities, French, friend, Friends, guest, guesthouse, holiday, house, Isle of Lewis, kite shore, library, makeover, marble, membership, soak, toilers, venue, wave, waves | Leave a comment

Disco dancing and dalliances at the University of Birmingham (Rousse)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My birthday disco lights came in useful at a party hosted in a student flat with all my undergraduate pals from Birmingham University’s French department. While the rest of us danced the night away, X was up to her usual … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birmingham University, dalliance, dalliances, dancing, department, disco, entertain, flat, French, gentlemen, guest, guests, lights, party, student, students, University of Birmingham | Leave a comment

Condensed milk cures homesickness amongst British ex-pats (Rousse)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Whoever thought that I was qualified to examine a PhD in Latin on the French Enlightenment needed their head examining. Four of us gathered for the viva around a table in an over-heated room at the end of a long … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abroad, autumn, box, British, C18th, card, chair, condensed milk, controls, convener, convenor, cupboard, doctorate, eighteenth century, embassies, embassy, enlightenment, ex-pat, ex-pats, exam, examining, foreign, French, heat, heating, homesickness, Latin, milk, news, PhD, present, room, station, student, study, table, thesis, train, viva, work | Leave a comment

A kayaking holiday in France (Rousse)

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Dreamaticus

It was the third week of May and the weather was finally cheering up with the approach of the French summer. My sister J and I jumped into kayaks with our pair of Jack Russell companions and floated downstream. Each … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bank, canoe, canoeing, dog, dogs, downstream, embrace, float, France, French, heatwave, holiday, Jack Russell, kayak, kayaking, May, nephew, photograph, river, rope, ropes, sister, summer, sun, sunblock, sunny, tow, weather | Leave a comment

Unappreciative Christmas guests (Rousse)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The flat was bursting with visitors, the majority of whom were students with nowhere to stay over Christmas. There were two shy Chinese girls and one Chinese boy, a Korean boy sporting a huge mop of jet black hair, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American, bed, boot, boots, Chinese, Christmas, cold, colleague, crumbs, dog, flat, food, French, futon, guest, guests, hair, hall, host, jacket, Korean, paint, plates, porch, property, purple, room, shirt, sitting, squirrel, students, suede, tie, TPR, trap, University of Birmingham, vanadalise, visitors, voice, wall, wallpaper, white, white-wash | Leave a comment

Levitation and French poetry (Rousse)

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I tried so hard to resist, but I just couldn’t help myself levitate at the reunion. GG tried to talk me down as I floated up to the ceiling, but the pull upwards was too great, and I soon disappeared … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bestseller, book, ceiling, float, French, hatch. attic, levitate, levitation, life, poem, poet, poetry, project, reunion, work, writing | 1 Comment

How to get (another) PhD (Rousse)

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The Birmingham University reunion switched venue to Aberystwyth. There I caught up with SC, HW and CP and others – supposedly to reminisce about our undergraduate days, but in practice to moan about the deficiencies of the modern-day husband. Also … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged assessment, Birmingham, Birmingham University, films, French, husband, husbands, language, literature, novels, pact, panic, PhD, strategy, undergraduate, University of Birmingham | Leave a comment