Tag Archives: friend

Hostage taken at the White House: Rousse to the rescue

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I could hear my iPhone ringing out, but where was I, and what time of night was this? I pulled myself up in bed to peer into the dark. I was back at the White House in my childhood bedroom. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, bedroom, bike, caller, childhood, cycle, cycling, dark, dawn, doors, duvet, friend, gate, hostage, iPhone, lavender, phone, prisoner, rescue, Stockton, Stockton-on-Tees, study, trap, tree, White House | Leave a comment

A cross-Atlantic trip to the Liverpool Museum of Prison Life (Rousse)

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I hadn’t seen my school friend JB for over thirty years so it was quite a surprise to bump into her in Liverpool. Her husband and one of their four children accompanied her. They’d travelled all the way here from … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged California, child, children, daughter, Facebook, friend, husband, kid, kids, Liverpool, museum, prison, school | Leave a comment

Time-travelling Rousse misses several photo opportunities and breaks a promise

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I was in desperate need of a decent picture for my photo journal. I simply couldn’t find anything nearby that was interesting enough to snap. Then I struck upon an idea. If I travelled back in time just a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bald, bookies, bookmaker, capital, China town, Chinese, Chinese new year, Christmas, complain, complaint, Concordia, cruise, dark, dog, English, family, field, flock, friend, Giglio, Isle of Skye, isola, Italy, jump, jumping, lens, light, liner, meal, mountain, mountainside, New Year, opportunities, panic, photo, photograph, Portree, promise, restaurant, secret, sheep, ship, shoe, snap. opportunity, stranger, sun, sunset, takeaway, time travel, time-travelling, train, trains, valley, vegetation, voice, wood | Leave a comment

An intruder, a storm, and the terrible after-effects of tree resin rain (Rousse)

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

There’d been a number of break-ins at our flat over recent weeks, none of which had triggered our burglar alarm. We were sure, however, that it was just matter of time before we would walk in on the culprit(s). When … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged acoustic, after-effects, alarm, alternative, arrest, bell, black, bouquet, box, boxes, break-in, burglar, caramel, celebrate, celebration, chocolate, chocolates, coffee, conversation, culprit, cushion, cushions, damage, door, flat, flower, flowers, fly, flying, friend, friendship, garden, gardens, ground, guitar, gym, hall, headlice, house, houses, identity, intruder, kettle, kitchen, lice, lifestyle, loss, memory, mother-in-law, mystery, neighbour, neighbours, paralysed, paralysis, peanut, peanuts, police, policeman, prison, rescue, resin, Russian, sitting room, sky, sofa, stiff, storm, stranger, tea, TPR, training, tree, weather, wind, windy, woman, work | Leave a comment

How to improve your REF 2014 ranking (Rousse)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Once again, at the airport I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen for ages. This time it was MH. Our last encounter had been over quarter of a century ago on the campus of the University of Birmingham. We spent … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airport, Birmingham, Birmingham University, Blackberry, broken, cell, degree, degrees, documentation, friend, inoperable, iPhone, Isle of Man, Masters, meeting, mobile, phone, ranking, rating, REF, REF 2014, school, student, students, submission, submissions, teacher, teachers, undergraduate, undergraduates, university, University of Birmingham | 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

Teenage bedroom furniture choices (Rousse)

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Dreamaticus

LF and TF both glanced at me sitting on the futon. “No, that’s it. We’re definitely not getting him one of those“, said L. This declaration came at the end of a long debate on bedroom furniture choices for teenage … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, bedroll, beds, boy, boys, bunk, double, floor, friend, furniture, futon, roll, sofa, sofabed, son, teenage, teenagers, woodwork | Leave a comment

Bad behaviour and an F1 fireball kill conversation (Rousse)

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Dreamaticus

The conference launch event was a Victorian-Edwardian music hall concert in the style of BBC’s Good old days show. I thought this a bit OTT for a librarians’ conference, but this was the US, and it did make a change … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alumni, alumnus, America, BBC, Berkeley, Birmingham University, California, car, colleagues, conference, conversation, dead, dinner, Edwardian, F1, fire engine, fire engines, flame, flames, flirt, flirting, formula 1, formula one, friend, gate-crash, gatecrash, Good old days, hall, kill, librarian, librarians, Manor, Manor House, Mountain View, music, music hall, news, Oxford, Oxford University, PhD, reunion, San Francisco, school, siren, sirens, Stanford, table, TPR, University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, US, Victorian | Leave a comment

Rousse’s mistaken hot property purchase

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I was looking forward to moving house. We were going back to the north east of England to be within a one hour drive of my parents. It would be wonderful to be surrounded by friendly northerners again. TPR left … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bar, beating, buckle, children, council, door, fields, flat, floor, floors, friend, friendly, garden, hospital, house, job, kids, lady mad, mistake, neighbour, neighbours, north east, northerner, northerners, parent, parents, patent leather, playing field, property, purchase, real estate, rota, running, school, shoe, smoker, smokers, smoking, student, students, TPR, York | Leave a comment

JK Rowling extends her estate (Rousse)

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Dreamaticus

The best of friends, JK Rowling and I shared a Victorian villa by the seaside. She lived on the top floor, and my flat was below. One morning I looked out of the window and noticed a series of white-painted … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, beach-front, beachfront, best friend, best friends, canister, dune, dunes, estate, film, flat, friend, Friends, JK Rowling, lawn, mobile, relaxing, sand, sand dune, sand dunes, sculpture, sea, seaside, shore, stakes, Victorian, villa, white, wooden | Leave a comment