Tag Archives: performance

The farmer PhD supervisor and Motown hopefuls (Rousse)

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Dreamaticus

This was the strangest of PhD tutorials. The chair of the session sat at the front of a room and a full class of students, most of whom looked like undergraduates listening in on the discussions. What surprised me most … Continue reading →

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Miniscule, muscular, olive-skinned actors (Rousse)

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Dreamaticus

TPR and I were the only audience members at this bizarre performance. Apparently it had been playing to a packed house every night, and the only reason that it was so quiet today was that we had chosen to come … Continue reading →

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IBM presentation fails to win over academics (Rousse)

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Dreamaticus

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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Guy Masterson and the Turkish conference groper (Rousse)

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Guy Masterson’s voice boomed from the red-curtained television screen. Normally I would be keen to watch his performance, but this was a long-anticipated work event in Turkey and I had something else to deal with: the wandering hands of regular … Continue reading →

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Tenement opera at the Leith Festival (Rousse)

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Dreamaticus

After the snows melted we gathered with the other commune members to follow the crowd to East Claremont Street. From the windows of two different third floor flats a man and a woman sang a series of opera duets. We … Continue reading →

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Running-on-the-spot marathon success saves awkward moment (Rousse)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Dreamaticus

AG showed me, fellow school friend HH, and KL around the house that he rented on Bishopton Road West in Stockton-on-Tees. He explained that ST used it from time to time too as a work base when travelling away from … Continue reading →

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JK Rowling bakes a mean meringue (Rousse)

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Dreamaticus

This is the tale of the day that JK Rowling and I finally secured our friendship. It didn’t start well… BR scolded me. He couldn’t understand why I thought it acceptable to walk the length of the railway line completely … Continue reading →

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Cannibalism and communicating by corn (Rousse)

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Dreamaticus

All this food looked amazing. It was only when you inspected it at close range did you discover its drawbacks: the multitude of dishes stretching across the banquet tables were inedible plastic models; the (real) corn on the cob was … Continue reading →

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Kenneth Branagh pays homage to Sir Laurence Olivier, Shakespeare and Henry V (Rousse)

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Dreamaticus

On our way home by car CI and I stopped off at the latest literary monument. We found it in a small car park, just off the main road. Inside a glass pyramid not much bigger than a telephone box, … Continue reading →

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Rousse’s killer presentation

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Dreamaticus

CO gave me a last friendly pat on the back for good luck as we negotiated the final set of stairs to the lecture hall. This was it then. It was finally time for me to deliver the closing keynote … Continue reading →

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