Tag Archives: mother

A beautiful pale pink backless cotton-silk top finds a new home (Rousse)

I was sorting through my mother’s knitting and found a lovely unworn pale pink backless cotton-silk top. I knew just the person for this exclusive handmade garment: my friend NP.

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Rousse reveals the secret talents of her mother’s son-in-law

My mother looked really depressed. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “The decorating”, she replied. “Why not pay someone else to do it?” I suggested. “I can’t. The terms of the grant specify that the work must be completed by a family … Continue reading

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Flat conversion plans (Rousse)

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

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Tom Cruise manoeuvres to reach Hexham in a hurry (Rousse)

We had to reach Hexham in a hurry. We left so quickly that there wasn’t even time to try the figs in red wine. They looked so tempting, sitting in the silver platter on the sideboard. TPR and I took … Continue reading

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IBM presentation fails to win over academics (Rousse)

The organisers had made a terrible mistake in bringing together this bunch of rude, disobedient ego-maniacs. They had been locked up for a week at this luxury hotel to work collaboratively on developing innovative research proposals, but since their arrival … Continue reading

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Daring Danish rescue attempt ends with death (Rousse)

I’d only met C in real life once before. Since our brief encounter earlier in the year all our recent contact had been online, where C’s alias was A. He’d agreed to pass on some photography hints to TPR so … Continue reading

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Greedy guts Rousse eats her way round Hartburn

Hartburn had changed. The corner shop at the junction of Darlington Road and Hartburn Village that used to be a newsagent now sold electrical items, as did all the other small businesses located near to the Stockton Arms. Hartburn Village … Continue reading

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Rob Brydon’s second mother (Rousse)

When Rob Brydon’s name cropped up in the conversation yet again HJ commented that it sometimes felt like he was just another of her own children.

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The Neanderthal Newborn of Noss (Rousse)

The French man pushed the shopping trolley with one hand and carried the naked newborn baby in his other. He had walked for miles from the remote island of Noss (Shetland) just to register the baby’s birth. I wondered why … Continue reading

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Rousse’s new job

I’d never before applied for an academic job where all short-listed candidates were interviewed together. The panel comprised two well-respected academics: the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of an English university, who – quite out of character – had turned bad cop for the … Continue reading

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