Tag Archives: mother

The long walk to London and cartoon china mugs (Rousse)

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My mother could barely manage a few steps around her own garden, yet my husband’s powers of persuasion were such that she had signed up for his long walk to London. Much to his distress, however, I resisted his invitation. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, bed, eBay, garden, husband, London, mother, mug, mugs, paddle, paddling | Leave a comment

A fortune in ‘frothing foam’ (Belle)

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Dreamaticus

This was a truly amazing revelation. Not only did my mother have a boyfriend, but he was a multi-millionaire. He had just sold his music business and was looking forward to a life of leisure with my mother alongside him. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boyfriend, foam, millionaire, mother, music | Leave a comment

Storms and vandals in Seaton Carew (Rousse)

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Three vandals bleached sections of the Fiat’s paintwork for a laugh. I caught one of them at it and dragged him home to confess his crime to his sister FD. FD lived with her sons and ancient mother in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged confess, confession, crime, family, Fiat, mother, North Sea, paintwork, Seaton Carew, sister, sleep, storm, storms, vandal, vandals, Victorian | Leave a comment

Fire alarm evacuation leads to another encounter with ST (Rousse)

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Poor ST (again). When the fire alarm went off I stepped out into the corridor and found him there dressed in a blue tweed jacket. “Oh, hello”, I said, “I’ve been dreaming about you again. In fact, I may be … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alarm, corridor, embarrassment, fire, jacket, mother, tweed | Leave a comment

French flood wipes out village (Rousse)

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My mother and I lived in a log cabin in the upper section of a rural French village. During the day she worked in the cinema further down the valley, quite close to the river and the lake. My daily … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged article, articles, author, authors, cabin, camera, cinema, co-author, co-authors, death, desk, die, Dutch, escape, flood, food, France, French, information, Inverary, iPhone, journal, kill, killed, lake, log, meltwater, mother, river, rural, tsunami, valley, village, vocabulary, wallet, water, write, writing | Leave a comment

A bigamist and a boy (Rousse)

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I checked in to the Novotel St Pancras and geared myself up for a 48-hour marriage marathon, of which I wholeheartedly disapproved. My sister J was still dithering over who to choose as her groom, having conveniently forgotten that she … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aisle, bigamist, bigamy, blonde, body, boy, ceremony, eyes, gap, gap year, grand prix, grandmother, groom, London, marathon, marriage, marry, mother, Novotel, sister, son, St Pancras, stare, transformation, wed, wedding, year | Leave a comment

An unplanned journey to the Hebrides (Rousse)

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My father paid £19 each for all five of us to visit the castle and within minutes I had ruined everyone’s day. How was I to know that the bus was not a shuttle around the estate, but instead a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bathing costume, beach, beaches, bus, castle, coach, Dane, dressing gown, father, foreigners, Harris, Hebrides, house, houses, journey, Kyle of Lochalsh, Lewis, mobile, mother, phone, separation, shuttle, sister, sisters, swimming costume, swimsuit, tartan, tourist, tourists, towelling, worry | Leave a comment

Sunshine in the Highlands, a glug jug and a job offer in New York (Rousse)

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I hoped for good weather to show off the highlands to my sister-in-law SB. She had never travelled so far up the country before and I wanted her first impressions of the north of Scotland to be memorable for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, antique, antiques, blue, glug, gurgle, highlands, hill, hills, holiday, holidays, iPhone, jug, jugs, mobile, mother, mountain, mountains, New York, north, price, professor, shop, shops, sister-in-law, skies, sky, sun, sunny, sunshine, UN, Uniited Nations | Leave a comment

A mother’s secret career and further clues of the Baby Ted graveyard (Rousse)

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Dreamaticus

The party of external examiners included an elderly man from Sheffield University, a woman from Loughborough, and a dark-haired systems librarian called Mike Hirst. They all seemed friendly enough although none were interested enough to acknowledge (or perhaps question) who … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1975, academic, Baby Ted, bear, Blackberry, campus, career, colleague, e-mail, examiner, examiners, game, graveyard, handbag, internal, librarian, line, lines, Loughborough, mentor, mother, Muirhead Tower, mum, office, opera, PhD, phone, premium, professor, replica, roads, secret, Sheffield, sister, soap, soaps, Stockton-on-Tees, systems, teddy, telephone, television, tights, tower block, traffic, trek, TV, university, University of Birmingham, viva, walk, White House | Leave a comment

Lord Alan Sugar’s babysitter and JK Rowling’s secret (Rousse)

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Dreamaticus

“Babysitting” was the answer I gave whenever anyone asked what I did for Lord Alan Sugar. He liked to keep me nearby. This usually meant that I could be found hanging around the main door of the office at street … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alan Sugar, artwork, babysitter, babysitting, coin, coins, cover, design, Egypt, geek, geeky, gold, golden, handbag, handbags, Harry Potter, Harvey Nicks, Harvey Nicols, hunt, JK Rowling, job, key, landing, Lord Alan, Lord Alan Sugar, Lord of the Rings, man, manhole, manhole cover, middle-aged, mother, newspaper, office, paper, pocket, pockets, secret, Sir Alan, Sir Alan Sugar, Tolkein, Tolkien, treasure, treasure hunt, trove | Leave a comment