Tag Archives: house

Rousse reviews the retired and retro

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Dreamaticus

“What a coincidence, Struther Arnott was here just yesterday”, I commented to Brian Lang as he took a seat on the big green sofa in our sitting room. “I wonder what it is with retired principals of St Andrews University? … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged appliance, appliances, Belling, Belling Compact Super Four electric cooker, Birmingham, Brian Lang, British Library, coincidence, colleague, colleagues, cooker, father-in-law, furniture, hand, hands, house, kitchen, marker, mural, noise, pen, pens, Principal, retired, retro, sitting room, smile, St Andrews, St Andrews University, Struther Arnott, TPR, unit, units, Vice Chancellor, workmen | Leave a comment

House renovation hints (Rousse)

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dreamaticus

TPR and I moved into our new house. It was just up the road from our flat, so we’d still use the same shops and services. On two floors, it gave us a bit more space. The large bathroom was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged askance, bathroom, bathrooms, carpet, DIY, ensuite, flat, floors, hint, hints, house, noise, renovation, road, services, shops, space, tradesmen | 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

The fish-eating fake vegan (Rousse)

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My office-mate was up to his usual annoying habits, behaving as if he had exclusive use of our shared room. He’d taken my poster off the door and replaced it with a congratulatory banner for his final year class. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged banner, bean, class, congratulations, corridor, eat, fake, fish, habit, habits, house, kidney, kidney bean, lock, mackerel, office, office-mate, peas, poster, rice, room, smoked, stew, students, supper, vegan, white | Leave a comment

Queen and Duke of Edinburgh spend Christmas with commoners in Northumberland (Rousse)

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh decided to break with tradition and spend Christmas away from Sandringham. Instead of surrounding themselves with members of their own family, the royal couple accepted an invitation to celebrate the festivities at my … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christmas, commoners, couple, Duke of Edinburgh, family, festivities, house, invitation, Northumberland, parents, Prince Philip, Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, royal, Sandringham, tradition | Leave a comment

Astragal window repair (Rousse)

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Dreamaticus

One stormy night night we settled down to sleep in our bedroom, with P and S there too, tucked in on the floor by the wardrobe. The next morning we discovered that the majority of the window’s astragal panes had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astragal, bar, barmaid, bed, chain-smoke, fix, floor, hall, hallway, house, night, repair, smoking, storm, stormy, wardrobe, wind, window | Leave a comment

Stockton Sixth Form College students take to the skies and survive the flood (Rousse)

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Very few of the staff who taught me were still now working at the Stockton Sixth Form College. The only teacher that I recognised was Mr X, still sporting his distinctive comb-over. I found ECM queening it over everyone in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged acting, arms, banana, blonde, boyfriend, Christmas, college, comb-over, common room, Cortina, door, driver, flood, Ford, friendship, home, house, infant, ladder, lead, mark 3, mother, nativity, parachute, parachutes, performance, play, plays, pupil, pupils, redhead, reunion, role, rope, school, sixth from, skies, staff, star, Stockton, Stockton-on-Tees, student, students, survive, swim, talent, teacher, teachers, tradition, tree, tree house, upstairs, water, waters, yellow | Leave a comment

An undesirable neighbour (Rousse)

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Dreamaticus

We moved back to Birmingham into a large Victorian house on a busy road. Our new next door neighbour wore a long dark beard and kept his hair tied up in a black turban. He told us that he was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged attack, Birmingham, boat, boats, bread, business, canal, car, car park, cook, crane, cranes, dirt, father, filth, house, inherit, Korea, neighbour, neighbourhood, neighbours, office, parking, physical, potatoes, rental, road, roof, turban, undesirable, Victorian | Leave a comment

When popping out to the shop turns into a hunt for polar bears (Rousse)

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The community shop at Timsgarry was doing a roaring trade, despite its endemic over-pricing. I picked up a pretty pair of purple sheepskin child’s slippers and baulked at the £83 tag. Meanwhile TPR was negotiating on a supply of brown … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airport, anteroom, arctic, £83, bear, bears, black, bowl, bowls, cable, capital, child, children, circle, community, dinner, display, draper, drapers, expensive, ferry, flight, gale, gas, gas mask, good, goods, grey, guest, holiday, house, hunt, ID, identification, international, island, jersey, jumper, knickers, Lewis, mask, over-priced, over-pricing, passenger, passengers, polar, purchase, purchases, purple, Rana, safari, sheepskin, shop, shoppers, slipper, slippers, sofa, sofas, stock, Stornoway, street, sushi, sweater, tag, ticket, Timsgarry, TPR, trade, travel, uniform, winter, woman, wool, yarn | Leave a comment

Flat conversion plans (Rousse)

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Dreamaticus

We inspected the damage the morning after the night before. I thought we’d picked out all the sleeping bodies amongst the debris of my parents’ post-party house, but my mother said that we should also check “the flat”. Until this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 000, £38, bodies, body, car park, conversion, damage, flat, floor, house, income, mother, NCP, parents, party, planning permission, rent, shop, sister, unit, units | Leave a comment